I can’t get England vs WI on the BBC but I’m listening to Australia vs Pakistan ODI on the radio right now. Good game to be fair.
Yes they made the Aussies work for it. How good is Pat Cummins.
Well that ODI went well!!
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The approach of playing ODIs as an extended T20 (e.g. not allowing any ‘play yourself in time’) has unravelled for England. 24-4 is a horrendous start. Arguably, England did very well to get to 263. As a top-order batsmen, you should be hanging your head in shame IMHO. Of course, we should have just listed ‘rested’ on the teamsheet 
…couldn’t have done worse.
For some solace, perhaps watch some of the WBBL, where the umpiring at times has meant ‘a bowl of water for the ump’s dog please’, and the batting defies any form of analysis. Justin Langer probably engaged to provide some gravitas.
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I am not enjoying the WBBL this year as much as other years, it seems better when they play on grounds like the North Sydney Oval .
The other thing I notice is that on The Hundred the umpiring is all female and doesn’t seem to get that much wrong .
All true but they did manage 264 in the end. I’d be just as worried with the bowling unit after the ease with which WI knocked that off for 2 wickets.
Cricinfo makes some good points; not least players in this squad hardly ever play 50 over matches. Jordan Cox played just 4 this season*, and none batting at 3 before his three internationals this month.
Bruce
*Edit. Cox had played only 4 50 over matches in his entire career before this Tour.
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In this country it seems T20 and Test bring in the paying crowds
I’m probably wrong, but it seems to me that in ODIs nowadays, there’s really no attempt at penetrating bowling upfront with attacking fields so as to get wickets – probably as the white ball becomes so benign after only a handful of overs. After PP1, it becomes a case of damage limitation (following the T20 mindset), hence why so many bowlers are used to try and upset the rhythm of the batsmen. This isn’t how the 50-over game started out, what with the red ball etc,.
As I posted above, this wasn’t an ‘England’ side, it was far more an ‘England XI’ (even MCC XI for those of a certain age), and it showed. It was a list of inconsistent & inexperienced batsmen at this level, the scoring held together by the odd special performance.
I see the BBC HYS board has comments about Archer wanting to play in the IPL now…and many aren’t amused by this given the support he’s had from the ECB over the years. Well, c’est la vie? The ECB bet big on him, when it was known he is injury prone – and he may have been over-worked by Root and others, something which I’m sure many ‘older cricketers’ would disagree with.
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The possible silver lining in the Archer situation is the emergence of some other decent options as Test bowlers. Archer hasn’t looked too threatening in this ODI series, and it is far from clear if he will ever have red ball levels of durability again anyway.
Bruce
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North Sydney Oval is a gorgeous ground. Spent a lot of my youth up in the Morton Bay Fig trees on the eastern side of the grounds. It was home to the North Sydney Bears Rugby League side.
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Well done to Alice Casey on 5/25 in WBBL for Melbourne Renegades .
Definitely an iffy first over , but what a recovery …
Pakistan having a good first half in the 2nd ODI v Australia.
Bruce
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…and second half too.
Pak won by 9 wickets in 26.3 overs.
Bruce
Chirpy Aussies seem to have gone quiet….
This is why I never feel the need for “chirp or banter” , “what goes around, comes around”
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‘Bad day at the office’ time for the Aussies…but, at least, unlike England of late in ODIs, they’ve made it to the office
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Looked like their First Team though.
Bruce
Very close to a 1st XI AFAIK, noting the Aussies are mixing things up in the top order nowadays, and Smith’s powers have subsided. But only batting 35 overs is a ‘crime’ in an ODI, and was surprised to see the Haris Rauf and Rizwan combo captured 5 wickets, yet the Aussie seamers didn’t ‘fire’ at all. Strange game this cricket…!
The above said, when you know you’re only chasing a very modest target, you can relax and let the runs come.
Paging Warner… 
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See we don’t carry grudges. 
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