If we’re setting the bar at “qualified for the 1980s Republic of Ireland football team”, then, having drunk the odd Guinness, I’d be Irish! I dare say you’d be Irish too.
This is a little bit off topic but Tony Cascarino wasn’t Irish - he qualified through a maternal grandparent, only to discover that his mother was adopted and thus he was not a blood relation to anyone Irish:
If you go back far enough, he also has ancestors who were fish.
Deja-vu, with Cook making 100 and Bopara 50 again. No wickets for Finn yet though, but his first 5 overs have only gone for 6 runs, looks like the openers are treating him with caution.
100 to get of 15. 6 wickets. Nice and evely balanced. A partnership or a couple of wickets will decide it.
Advantage England with Afridi gone for 18 and over 7 an over required. Misbah only has the tail for company now. Wicket maiden for Anderson, Rehman’s ODI average and strike rate don’t inspire confidence.
And to complete the symmetry, that’s another 4 wickets for Finn.
How about a series whitewash for England?
I think I am finished trying to understand what goes on in cricket. England complete a series whitewash in the ODIs after being blanked themselves in the Tests.
I appreciate that the game is different (powerplays, different fields being permissible, different time pressures, etc) but why the fuck didn’t some of the English bats actually attack the bowling in the Tests as they did in the ODIs? Retards.
On to Sri Lanka - maybe they’ll learn something from this and try and be more positive against their spinners.
I think it goes to show that a lot of cricket gets played in the head. A rare overseas ODI series win for us, that has to restore some confidence.
Finn seems to be bowling a lot more consistently now, I’d like to see him in the team for the summer tests. Prior is good enough to bat 6, with support from Bresnan, Broad and Swann at 7, 8 and 9.
There is all the difference in the world between ODI and Tests.
One key issues, just as a for instance, is that in Tests when spin bowler is on top he can stay and bowl on and on, increasing the pressure. Batsmen hitting out to break free of the pressure is generally what they want to happen!
Meanwhile in ODI, ten overs and they are history.
There are many other differences of course, enough to say there is no cross over between the way one should play in one format versus the other.
To an extent, I agree. To an extent, I also disagree.
England got tied up by the spinners in the Tests because they failed to play positively. Pietersen himself has said that he has had to change his mindset because he previously played with the pad too much, which opened him up to DRS LBW decisions. It seems irrefutable that sitting and defending the spinners in the Tests was part of their downfall, as they let pressure build up on themselves. England’s batsmen needed to play more positively against the spinners, in my opinion.
However, I do agree that the lack of fielding restrictions in the Test game make this a more difficult proposition than in the ODI game. Simply hitting willy nilly in the Tests would likely have led to the same result - a whitewash - but doing nothing to move the fielders or keep the scoreboard ticking over is also suicide.
Somewhere in amongst all of this, the English Test batsmen need to come to a happy medium between attempting to not get out to the spinners and scoring off them at ODI rates. I agree with Alka Seltzer that much of this is likely to be a mental challenge.
Maybe we’re going to take turns whitewashing each other. Was the series organised by Huckleberry Finn?
I wonder what kind of odds the bookies were offering for a combined 3-0, 0-4 bet? Any large wagers on it?