England vs Bangladesh: 33rd match, Pool A, ICC World Cup 2015 held at Adelaide Oval, Australia

No doubt England is going to receive bashing and criticism for their ousting from the World Cup, but it didn't look like they played terrible cricket. Bangladesh played well. For once, they looked like a proper International side. We didn't even see the wild celebrations they usually have after each victory. Regardless of the outcome of their Quarter-final clash, I would appreciate them for today instead of blaming England.

In addition, England has never been among the top teams in One-day. They might have played well in the tri-series before the tournament, but that's what England does, playing well for a series or two as far as one-days are concerned. Often, they play one-day because they have to and sometimes they get fired up against teams like Pakistan, India and Australia.

It must not be forgotten that Alastair Cook led the side until the end of 2014 and it's only been a couple months since Eoin Morgan has been appointed captain. I've liked his captaincy so far, but a lot goes into making a team a winning one than just good players or good captaincy. English cricket has always been chaotic, with the board acting like a dictator, having players from all around the world and many other factors.

What we see again and again, the English team disappointing us, is the result of poor management and nothing else. It no longer remains surprising for me. Only a few players in the team such as Morgan, Broad and Anderson are settled. What Kevin Pietersen's autobiography pointed makes a lot of sense. A lot of the players, especially the batsmen feel uncomfortable in the team. No wonder the bowlers perform more, whether with the bat or with the bowl. I doubt if anyone except for a select few feel secure about their place in the side. If the best players can be dropped, they know anyone can.

England made everyone happy today. They made Indian team and fans happy by preferring to lose, the Test squad by sending them home, the youngsters by giving them a chance. I doubt if anyone watching the match ever felt England would win or even try to win. This isn't anything new. I remember the one-day series during Sri Lanka tour of England 2006, in which England lost gladly. They simply don't care about winning sometimes. Tests have always been the pinnacle. The series which was just concluded was said to be right up there with the Ashes by England captain Alastair Cook, but I doubt if that would be said when England wins the one-day World Cup.

Am I against them on this? Well, not really. I'm myself a fan of Tests and got annoyed by the Twenty20 today. I didn't like that a Twenty20 was held 2 days after the final Test in a 4 Test series. It takes time to get out of the Test mode. The England players didn't really have to switch their mindset though. The only player who played both the Tests and the Twenty20 is Tim Bresnan. Steven Finn and Stuart Broad are still recovering from injuries and the rest and rested. Even Andy Flower is rested. I'm not against their rotation policy but the war between BCCI and the ECB is doing cricket much damage.

The ECB clearly prefers Tests and the BCCI prefers Twenty20s. Where does this leave one-day though? ICC needs to intervene and try to reduce the number of meaningless matches.

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I'm personally with Tests. India focuses far less on Tests than England. One or two years ago, India were playing much were Tests than other teams and the comments from players, both current and former forced the BCCI to increase them. The great players that India speaks of, they aren't going to have more of them. You don't hear of great players smashing boundaries, you hear of great players who bat all day. Even their captain, M S Dhoni captains in Tests just like he does in the shorter formats. He gave all-rounders a chance in Tests, the result of which we have all seen. Tests are a game of pure batsmen and bowlers rather than handy bowlers and batsmen.

Let me talk a little about today's clash before I go. Eoin Morgan looked like a better captain than Stuart Broad. Debutant Meaker was impressive. I don't want to see Dernbach ever playing again for England. Dernbach's behaviour is as disgraceful as his bowling.

India have made a joke of themselves by losing the 'revenge' Test series by 2-1 and celebrating a Twenty20 win against England 2nd XI wildly. For more mockery, tune in on 22 December, Saturday at 19:00 local (13:30 GMT).

England continue to dominate a depleted India squad. A 4-0 whitewash in the Tests, victory in the one-off Twenty20 and now the hosts lead 2-0 in the one-day series, with one to play.

It doesn’t get much better than that. The fact England are using the limited-overs matches to blood emerging youngsters into the side, says a lot about the current regime and how they want to build a strong squad capable of world domination in all formats.

They are at the top in the longest format of the game but in the shorter aspects of cricket, England need to be a lot more consistent. Resting Kevin Pietersen, who has been rumoured to be considering retiring from one-day cricket, for a crucial series that can see England continue their rise up the rankings in the one-day arena, is testament to the players coming through the ranks.

That together with Eoin Morgan’s injury leaves a huge hole in England’s middle order. However, someone’s loss is another player’s gain. Step forward Ravi Bopara and Ben Stokes. The pair now have three more one-day matches to stamp their authority on the team.

Although Stokes is yet to bat, the experience he is attaining is vital and a reward for all his hard work on the county circuit with Durham. A fine start to the season saw him catch the eye of Andy Flower, with only a nasty finger injury stopping him entering the England setup earlier than now.

Those looking at free bets  note how rain and England’s convincing victory in the first two Tests has seen the all-rounder’s progress halted but Stokes is seen as England’s next finisher. He could be the new Flintoff, the guy who comes in, clears the ropes and wins games of cricket for England. Even if his chances in this series are limited, he is sure to be used again in the future.

As for Bopara, many people have questioned his continued selection. The fact he has been given the chance to perform in the past and failed has seen him receive some criticism. Now the Essex batsman has the opportunity to come out from Morgan and Pietersen’s shadow and show the English faithful he has what it takes to be a success in international one-day cricket.

Bopara clearly has talent but he has to step up and perform sooner or later or he will end up on the scrapheap like previous players such as Owais Shah, who has slipped out of the pecking order. Bopara is clearly under pressure from Leicestershire’s James Taylor, who is inches away from another call up. Taylor, who was included in Flower’s youthful looking squad for the ODI with Ireland, has to be in the England management’s thoughts following his form for the England Lions, where he scored a 90 and two centuries in recent weeks.

The fact he was named Lions captain suggests England have faith in the 21-year-old and he has been unlucky to miss out on a call up for this series. There still maybe time if Flower decides to add another player to fill the void left by Irishman Morgan, who is to undergo surgery. Although the loss of Pietersen and Morgan weakens England’s team, younger players have the opportunity to take their chance and capitalise to prove there is plenty to look forward to in the future.

Placing a free bet on England to win the 2015 World Cup, might be a decent idea!

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My dream World Cup 2011

Click on the image for the 1024x768 size view. Ah, I'm knackered, never spent so much time on a wallpaper!

Currently, I'm reading Coming Back To Me: The Autobiography of Marcus Trescothick. The best thing is that he has been totally frank and honest while writing the book. Unlike Gibbs, he has not tried to make it dramatic. It's just dramatic because of how his life has been. He has mentioned a lot of cricketers but Jimmy Anderson has been mentioned the most!

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A good way to know a bit about English cricketers would be through chinese zodiac. Most of you must be thinking that this kind of stuff is fun but inaccurate. Well, this is not like western zodiac and I've found it to be mostly true. It probably isn't 100% accurate, one reason being that people change. And you don't know where the original theory is written because it's somewhat different on websites, books, newspapers.

Rat
Forthright, tenacious, intense, meticulous, charismatic, sensitive, intellectual, industrious, charming, eloquent, sociable, artistic, shrewd. Can be manipulative, vindictive, self-destructive, envious, mendacious, venal, obstinate, critical, over-ambitious, ruthless, intolerant, scheming.

• Alastair Cook
  

Ox
Dependable, ambitious, calm, methodical, born leader, patient, hardworking, conventional, steady, modest, logical, resolute, tenacious. Can be stubborn, dogmatic, hot-tempered, narrow-minded, materialistic, rigid, demanding.

• Luke Wright
• Tim Bresnan
• Ravi Bopara
• Ajmal Shahzad
• Liam Plunkett

Tiger
Unpredictable, rebellious, colorful, powerful, passionate, daring, impulsive, vigorous, stimulating, sincere, affectionate, humanitarian, generous. Can be restless, reckless, impatient, quick-tempered, obstinate, selfish, aggressive, moody.

• Steven Davies
• Eoin Morgan
• Stuart Broad
• Joe Denly

Rabbit
Gracious, good friend, kind, sensitive, soft-spoken, amiable, elegant, reserved, cautious, artistic, thorough, tender, self-assured, shy, astute, compassionate, lucky, flexible. Can be moody, detached, superficial, self-indulgent, opportunistic, stubborn.

• Craig Kieswetter

Dragon
Magnanimous, stately, vigorous, strong, self-assured, proud, noble, direct, dignified, eccentric, intellectual, fiery, passionate, decisive, pioneering, artistic, generous, loyal. Can be tactless, arrogant, imperious, tyrannical, demanding, intolerant, dogmatic, violent, impetuous, brash.

• Paul Collingwood
• Adil Rashid

Snake
Deep thinker, wise, mystic, graceful, soft-spoken, sensual, creative, prudent, shrewd, elegant, cautious, responsible, calm, strong, constant, purposeful. Can be loner, bad communicator, possessive, hedonistic, self-doubting, distrustful, mendacious, suffocating, cold.

• Steven Finn
• Andrew Flintoff
• Andrew Strauss
• Ryan Sidebottom

Horse
Cheerful, popular, quick-witted, changeable, earthy, perceptive, talkative, agile—mentally and physically, magnetic, intelligent, astute, flexible, open-minded. Can be fickle, arrogant, childish, anxious, rude, gullible, stubborn.

• Owais Shah

Sheep
Righteous, sincere, sympathetic, mild-mannered, shy, artistic, creative, gentle, compassionate, understanding, mothering, peaceful, generous, seeks security. Can be moody, indecisive, over-passive, worrier, pessimistic, over-sensitive, complainer, weak-willed.

• Graeme Swann
• Michael Lumb

Monkey
Inventor, motivator, improviser, quick-witted, inquisitive, flexible, innovative, problem solver, self-assured, sociable, artistic, polite, dignified, competitive, objective, factual, intellectual. Can be egotistical, vain, arrogant, selfish, reckless, snobbish, deceptive, manipulative, cunning, jealous, suspicious.

• Kevin Pietersen
• Michael Yardy
• Michael Carberry
• Mark Davies

Rooster
Acute, neat, meticulous, organized, self-assured, decisive, conservative, critical, perfectionist, alert, zealous, practical, scientific, responsible. Can be over zealous and critical, puritanical, egotistical, abrasive, proud, opinionated, given to empty bravado.

• Jonathan Trott
• Chris Tremlett
• Sajid Mahmood

Dog
Honest, intelligent, straightforward, loyal, sense of justice and fair play, attractive, amicable, unpretentious, sociable, open-minded, idealistic, moralistic, practical, affectionate, sensitive, easy going. Can be cynical, lazy, cold, judgmental, pessimistic, worrier, stubborn, quarrelsome.

• Ian Bell
• Matt Prior
• James Anderson
• Monty Panesar
• James Tredwell
• Graham Onions

Find your and other English cricketers' Chinese Zodiac, see how you match!

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England won the toss and choose to bat first. England lost a few wickets and Collingwood had to go off the field because he was having a migraine. He tried to stay, the physio was called twice but it was just unbearable. I was thinking that he should go. Was struggling to concentrate so it was hard to bat well anyway. Could return when he would feel better. He was batting with Belly and Morgan and Wright were yet to bat. The worst that could happen, is England losing a one-day. It wasn't worth risking his health. Looked all right when I saw him in the balcony shortly after he had gone off. Colly came back as soon as the wicket fell. Belly always plays classy shots and usually gives his wicket away after an impressive start. But he was a bit unlucky to be bowled like that. Morgan was amazing. Loved watching him bat, like his other 80s and centuries.

Pakistan's openers smashed England all around the park in the first 9 overs (except the 4th over by Anderson and 5th by Broad). The first wicket was the most important in the match, the turnaround. Broady took it and Collingwood took a stunning catch, showing us that no matter how old he is, he is still athletic. Collingwood was the world's best fielder but his fielding has dipped down in the past few months or so. All wickets are important but breakthroughs are important because the opposition needs partnerships. Pakistan got off to a flyer and if Akmal and Hafeez would continue to hit in the same fashion for a while, the stage would be set for Pakistan to win. Akmal and Hafeez were quite upset by each other. On one occasion, Hafeez (at the running end) wanted a run but Akmal (the striker) didn't, it wasn't a run, Hafeez was sent back and Akmal was furious. A ball before Hafeez got out (the first wicket), Akmal kept standing, Hafeez was the striker and wanted a run. It's harder for the batsman to make it so I reckon Akmal wasn't right there. When Hafeez got out, he stared at Akmal, as if saying "Wouldn't have happened if we had taken that run, you increased the pressure." We saw a few other confusions while running between the Pakistani players. The 9th wicket (Ajmal) was a run out by Moggy, who was ecstatic, ran onto the field and hugged Broad tightly. Seemed like they couldn't be separated. Lol. Wright played in place of Yardy, who is ill. I wanted Yardy to go out anyway. Wright did pretty well with the ball. No need to play 5 bowlers, Colly bowls too. Not to forget, Pakistan's bowling was magnificent again in the death.

Man Of The Match: Eoin Morgan

Man Of The Series: Andrew Strauss

Hard to chase under lights and England are better at defending anyway. Before Moggy came into the side, England used to try to preserve wickets and lose wickets as soon as they would try to accelerate and usually fall short of 10-20 runs. Old school cricket. But Morgan made a difference, won England games while chasing.

Delighted to see England win. Always great to finish season or tour with a win. Morgan, Broad and Swann were the stars of the match. England couldn't have done it without these. England-Pakistan matches in England are always exciting and this tour too gave us some thrilling clashes. England will have a boot camp before their first practice match against Western Australia on November 5. They will play 2 more practice matches - against South Australia and Australia A before the 1st Ashes Test on November 25. I don't mind this long break. I think it's good for the players. The summer was very long and the Ashes is very important. Hopefully, it will be exciting and they need to be in the best state of mind before it. After a long summer, they will look forward to spending some time with their family, which is good. This tour was tough, given the allegations and other off-field controversies.

Until next time, take care. Cheers!

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England started day 2 on 331/4. Collingwood went for 82 and Morgan 130. England's tail was brilliant. England lost 6 wickets for 23 runs on day 2. Swann was the best who didn't only give his wicket away but he was also guilty when Prior was ran out. England finished at 354 and Asif with figures of 5 for 77. Pakistan dropped lots of catches, as usual. 7 of the 10 wickets were taken as lbw or bowled. So this is why Asif bowls a lot of deliveries at the stumps.
                The crush of my life, birthday boy, James Anderson bowled impressively and took 3 of the first 6 wickets. Finn, making a comeback after his strengthing programme took the other 3. Strauss gave the new ball to Broad instead of Finn, which I reckon as not the right thing to do. And Strauss did not attack after Pakistan were struggling at 47/6. Shoaib Malik and Aamer shared a partnership of 58 till Anderson finally removed Malik. Pakistan lost 2 more wickets before bad light stopped play. They will start day 3 at 147/9.

Andrew Strauss won the toss and elected to bat first in overcast conditions in the 1st Test of the series. Guess who are the hosts? Pakistan. Straussy's decision could prove to be right or wrong depending on a lot of things. Given the conditions, England's awesome bowling attack, Pakistan's fragile batting order, bowling first seemed like the obvious option. The only reason why batting first could prove to be right is if the pitch deteriorates with time. In the last Test played here, England scored 364, with Kevin Pietersen scoring a ton, Ambrose 67, Broad 64 on his home ground. Anderson finished with 7 for 43 as New Zealand were all out for a meagre 123! Ryan Sidebottom grabbed 6 wickets as New Zealand were bowled out for 232 and England won by an innings and 9 runs. What a Test to remember for England's top swing bowlers! I enjoyed those Tests against New Zealand so much, played at home and away. Teams batting first have won 15 Tests and teams batting second have won 17 Tests at this ground, not much difference there. There have been 7 inning defeats, 5 by teams by batting first and 2 by teams batting second.
                                                                             Coming back to the on-going match, Cook went early, his place is in doubt, needs to score big to stay in the team. With Morgan flourishing, Belly may come back to play the Ashes and take Cook's place. And if England decides to go for 5 bowlers in Australia, which they should, then Trott and Cook both will be dropped. England were under pressure when Collingwood came out to bat with 118/4. Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan shared a partnership of 219 runs to get England out of trouble. Aamer got the first 3 batsmen. This Test saw the comeback of the good for nothing referral system, which may not help in good umpiring decisions but surely brings a lot of drama. You'll see lots of times when the fielding side would ponder hard about whether they should refer or not. When it's close, the benefit goes to the umpire. Then what's the point? When it's clearly out or not out, the umpire on the field can tell the right thing anyway. This just means that the referral system may only help in avoiding the obvious errors. "May" because hawk-eye is not always right and snicko is not even used.

Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad and Craig Kieswetter go back to the 60s...

 while Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Eoin Morgan turn into racers...

In the first match, the first 8 batsmen of the Australian team and the first 7 batsmen of the English team got starts. The difference between the two teams were the highest run scorers- Michael Clarke (87* from 97 deliveries) and Eoin Morgan (103* from 85 deliveries). Morgan isn't one of those hitters who had a lucky day, he was 10 from 18 deliveries and later, 27 from 31 deliveries. I doubt Morgan's place in Tests but he can play according to the situation in One dayers. He can do whatever the team needs, without showing any expressions. You can never tell if he is nervous, anxious or panicking. You can't even tell if he has missed the last delivery or struck a boundary on it.
                                                         The 2nd ODI was what it was expected to be. I've always liked Cardiff. Cardiff is where Stuart Broad made his debut. It's where Bangladesh defeated Australia. It's where the 1st Ashes Test was played last year, in which Johnson kept bowling crap to tail-enders and Australia couldn't get Jimmy or Monty out. Oh, by the way, Stuart Broad took his 100th wicket on Thursday and he is the 14th fastest to take 100 wickets in the world.
                                  
                      Fastest to take 100 Wickets
                  Player                Opposition      Ground         Matches                         

							Saqlain Mushtaq (Pak) v Sri Lanka Gwalior 53 SE Bond (NZ) v England Adelaide 54 B Lee (Aus) v England Melbourne 55 Waqar Younis (Pak) v Zimbabwe Sharjah 59 IK Pathan (India) v Pakistan Abu Dhabi 59 DK Lillee (Aus) v Zimbabwe Nottingham 60 SK Warne (Aus) v West Indies Melbourne 60 Shoaib Akhtar (Pak) v New Zealand Karachi 60 NW Bracken (Aus) v South Africa Basseterre 60 CEL Ambrose (WI) v India Melbourne 61 IR Bishop (WI) v Sri Lanka Adelaide 61 C Pringle (NZ) v Sri Lanka Christchurch 62 D Gough (Eng) v Kenya Canterbury 62 SCJ Broad (Eng) v Australia Cardiff 62 AA Donald (SA) v Kenya Nairobi (Gym) 64
							This is the best time for English cricket. I've never seen them
							winning so much. Given Australia's attitude in this series,
							England may go on to win this series 5-0. Australia's approach

      is similar to England's approach in the 6-1 series last year.
       Coming back to the 2nd ODI, among the England bowlers,
    everyone ended up with good figures, except James Anderson. Bresnan hasn't taken any wicket in this series yet. Looks like
     Luke is developing into an all-rounder for the England team. He has done well with the ball for Sussex already. Broady bagged
  4 wickets and got the Man Of The Match award. Morgan scored
  52 and he is at the top for the Man Of The Series award.
  Don't miss the live action on Sunday at Old Trafford, Manchester, Jimmy's home ground, at 9:45 GMT. Until then, goodbye. Cheers!

Australia won the toss and decided to bat first at Rose Bowl in the 1st One Day International against rivals England. The memories of ICC World T20 2010 final must be fresh. Their decision was obvious as batting under lights is never easy. Anderson, who had commentated that he probably would not play unless England plays only one spinner, played despite England opting for 2 spinners. Sidebottom is injured, yet again. Given how much he gets injured, people should not be notified when he gets injured, the real news is when he is not injured. Anderson and Bresnan started things off. They did bowl well in the start but could not produce any wicket. There were two expensive overs in the first 8 overs, one each by Anderson and Bresnan. In both of those overs, Watson struck two boundaries. Broad bowled the 9th over and after being smacked for two boundaries, he got the man. Watson was gone, which brought Ponting in. After Ponting's longest break in his career (10 weeks), he hit 17 against Middlesex and 33 against Ireland. On the last bowl of the 13th over, Anderson missed the chance of taking a spectacular catch. It wasn't that easy but we've seen JJimmy taking catches like those. Paine was relieved while Broady sighed.

So, England have won an ICC event finally. Now, no one can say that my team have never won an ICC event during banters. Sorry for the late post, didn't have internet. And I could only watch a bit of the semi-final and final live. Watched the earlier games though. I really enjoyed watching them this time, Morgan, Wright, KP and Kieswetter were awesome. Others played well too and Lumb and Kieswetter scored almost the same in some matches but I really enjoyed Kieswetter's reactions while stumping. The victory is rather unbelievable and pleasant. I got to know about it through a news channel the next morning. I've seen England play superbly and lost many times. Referring to the post, "England vs Bangladesh 2nd ODI" I would like to say that Bangladesh wasn't the better side in that match, Morgan proved that England is the better side. No one wants their team to lose but the truth is that the love for your team increases when your team plays well and loses. Now I know why I love England so much. Bangladesh has moments of awesome play in many matches but they fail to win, except against Zimbabwe off course. Bangladesh had the highest percentage of winning ODIs last year. They played mostly against Zimbabwe. Looking forward to the game against Scotland. Cheers for the World Twenty20 win. Until next time, take care.

In my last post, I mentioned the Twenty20s played against Pakistan to talk about Broad's haircut but forgot my purpose. Broad doesn't look feminine or baby-faced anymore but he doesn't look that great either. There have been times when I didn't like his haircut, like when he got it coloured honey blonde (darker than his natural hair colour).
To cricket now, yesterday's match was thrilling. England won it in the records but Bangladesh was the better side. The commentators said that they have defeated all other Test playing nations, I don't remember when they defeated New Zealand though. When Tredwell came out to bat, I thought, either he'll save England from an embarrassment in his debut or everyone will remember his debut. He was calm and Morgan was awesome once again. The English know how to play well and lose and perhaps the English players with origin of other countries know how to win. Alastair became the 2nd English captain after Trescothick to score a half-century in his first two ODIs as captain. And Eoin Morgan became the first player to score centuries for two countries. Lovely.This time Cook brought Wright in the 16th over. Where did that come from? Petals perhaps. Or did he consider history? Like he did while choosing to field in the 1st one-dayer.