The first innings has just finished, and England got to 408 after superb innings from Root and Buttler. Buttler now has 2 ODI hundreds, and they are the first and second fastest by an English batsman. Root’s ton was the 3rd fastest on that list when he hit it, now it’s 4th. Rashid and Morgan also deserve mentions for quick 50s.
New Zealand will go for it, though. I still remember watching the SA vs Aus game where Aus got 400 and plenty and SA chased it down.
409 to win!
Hang on, are we sure that was England? Is this not just an elaborate antipodean prank where they dress their second XI up in England gear only to whip their masks off at the end.
And they followed it up by completing a damn good hiding. Might as well enjoy while I can, I’m sure it will be business as usual soon enough.
April Fool’s day was ages ago, son. I’m not even going to bother looking this up for verification, obvious lie.
This is kind of my attitude towards it. Some of my friends seem to have an attitude of “It won’t last! There’s no point celebrating!”, but I think I’ll celebrate my team winning by such a huge margin regardless, precisely because it’s not common.
They’re live at the Oval now. NZ in first so we’ll have to wait to see if England can repeat the same positive attitude. Of course, if they come out swinging and get all out for 200 chasing over 370, then we will of course congratulate them on showing the proper spirit, and not complain about giving away wickets rashly.
Right?
Honestly, I’d rather they got out for 200 swinging in 25 overs than get out for 250 in 40 overs trying to “build a platform”.
Chasing high scores is hard, as NZ showed at the start of the week. England are chasing nigh on 400, they are unlikely to get there no matter how they play. BUT they will have to keep the run rate up in the early stages in a way that, in the past, they haven’t been to do.
We might not win this, but we can at least show we’re playing the same game.
1 wicket down and 13 overs in England are going along at 7 an over, that’s where we need to be and a big thumbs up actually having a crack at it.
Regardless of the result here you can imagine the rest of the one-day tickets getting snapped up sharpish, there is superb entertainment to be had from both teams here.
Rain stops play with England 345/7. Below the DL, so if they don’t come back on NZ will win… but England still alive if the chase can carry on!
It is a heck of a chase, if they do it it’ll be the second highest chase ever, it is already the 3rd highest number of runs ever scored in a one day international anywhere.
Back after a rain break. England need 34 off 13 balls.
That’s a shame, can’t understand why they wasted 20 minutes getting back when they could have been playing all the overs.
Great game though
24 needed off the last over. Hell of a catch on the boundary to get rid of Rashid.
NZ win by 13 runs, but down to the wire!
I don’t think they’d have got there without the rain break either, though, it was a lot to ask of Plunkett and Rashid.
Great attitude by the English batsmen, this and the previous game have been a real breath of fresh air. I think we’re finally playing the same game as everyone else now.
That was a great catch. Nice to see Ross Taylor get a big score as well.
Third game today, England win toss and will bat.
Can’t remember ever being so excited over a ODI. And that includes ones I’ve been to see live.
Couple of early wickets for NZ but England are quite clearly sticking with plan A.
What a difference a change of attitude can make. I’m sure they are all capable of putting bat to ball but in previous incarnations they seemed frightened to do so. I think the freedom that NZ show has given them the “OK” to play their natural game. It is* very *good for the game.
Can I mention that the commentary is crap. Beefy is entertaining as always, but everybody else (like Matt Prior) are shit.
Get Gary Neville in there, he is entertaining, the soccer season is over andhe knows a bit about cricket.
So, who in blue hells are the Overtons?
Neither of them actually get regular first team play in the Somerset side, and there’s a bit of surprise around the club that Jamie got the call up alongside his brother.