The International Cricket Thread

[Villan For Life]

I don’t know why, but I’ve got barely any confidence in us winning the World Cup.

I am concerned that we have peaked too soon. We played some wonderful cricket in the Pakistan series but looked ordinary against the Aussies.

Our first choice XI is a match for anyone so I think we can reach the semis but after that it’s anyone’s call.

[UK Redsox]

England Roy, Bairstow, Root, Morgan (c), Stokes, Buttler (wk), Ali, Woakes, Rashid, Archer, Plunkett.

South Africa Amla, de Kock (c), Markram, du Plessis, van der Dussen, Duminy, Phehlukwayo, Pretorius, Rabada, Ngidi, Tahir.

[UK Redsox]

Uh-oh..........

[taylorsworkrate]

Hmmmm.

Not the best start.

[manic-road]

1-1 Bairstow goes second ball of the innings.

[UK Redsox]

Roy and Root have settled things down

[paul_e]

This is apparently the 4th best opening 10 ever for England in a world cup, and it feels a bit meh, we've been spoilt in the last couple of years.

[taylorsworkrate]

Pretty poor that from Root.

[UK Redsox]

Nelsoned

[paul_e]

Hard to say what a decent total would be here, not watched much but there seems to be a bit there for the bowlers. At a guess I'd say 320+ would be a tough chase with anything over about 290 being competitive.

[UK Redsox]

Buttler time

[PaulWinch again]

Is there anything in the pitch that says c.310 is an acceptable score here? On the face of it we’re not rocketing along.

[paul_e]

Is there anything in the pitch that says c.310 is an acceptable score here? On the face of it we’re not rocketing along.

I watched about 5-6 overs (when Roy and Root were there) and at the time I'd say that looked about par. No great pace in the outfield and a bit of nip in the square. Looked like a good pitch to me.

[UK Redsox]

Bugger - Buttler gone

[taylorsworkrate]

Keep losing wickets at the wrong time. Think 320-330 is about a par score