England v West Indies, Super Eights, Barbados

I’m hoping for a 224-0 after 30 overs, a brilliant start by openers Bell and Vaughan with a century apiece (chalk and chalk – take THAT, Mark Nicholas!) . It’ll be 22-4 after 10 overs, rather, and Brian Lara will exit international cricket with the biggest ODI win ever!

As a neutral Australian, I don’t know what to hope for here. Imagine what it’ll be like if a flogging is the last thing the poor old locals take away from an event that’s given their economies such a coronary. That’ll give them a warm inner glow when they wake up at 4am wondering how to pay for it all. But an English loss will be bad too. There is something pretty sickening about the way the English press get to work on their sides when they are down; not so much knitting at the foot of the guillotine as enthusiastically using the knitting needles to help the execution along. The poor buggers in the English team have had a miserable last few months. The whole Freddy debacle alone feels career-maiming.

On balance, though, I’ve got to go for the Windies, because without Lara England are going to chew them to bits in a few weeks anyway in the Tests. So Lara to get a 150, Gayle to get a fifty (so he has some reason to live), a target in the 300s, and then everyone in the England team except Figjam getting a score of some kind in a dynamic but narrow loss. Oh, and Vaughan to get a hundred, while I’m playing Santa Claus.

somebody shoot Marlon Samuels!!….he just got Lara run-out. Obviously thats not how Lara intended to finish his career, nevertheless, one of the greatest players in the history of cricket (i’d say better than sachin!)…call it a day!!

It sucks but its a fitting way to end Lara’s career. His frustrating team mates mess it all up – again.

I think we’re witnessing that Liam Plunkett was NOT an answer all along… This is terrible bowling.

Go Vaughany – bowl ‘em out now!

Hello, newbie here. Just curious- why is that Scott? The Saffer distaste seems pretty common amoung Aussies. From my English eyes they approach the game in a similar way to Aus.

Is it just their abrasive attitude, or that they try to play like Oz but don’t have the talent to back it up?

You betcha, buddy!!! This may never happen again. I have kick-off in less than ten hours, and I’ll be rooted / buggered / insert whichever description is not obscene, but I’m not missing a potential century from the boy!

Vaughn played really well, especially up to the 50, but just got himself out to a brilliant piece of fielding. What I don’t get is he raised his bat to the crowd as he walked off.

WRONG ATTITUDE.

He should be walking off with his head down. The hundred was only 21 runs away this time…

Boo hoo I really wanted Vaughen to do some damage. At least some minimal pride for England. Oh dear. Bites nails …

Some good news though, gals and guys, my VccB team won by 77 runs in Bonn today

Hi Kathy! You’re catching me up on the blogging score, I note VccB means Veterans Cricket Club Bonn. We played against Deutsche Welle – a Radio and TV corporation today. We are a happy groups of Poms, Sri Lankans, Pakistanis, Saffers, Canadians, a Kiwi, an Aussie and of course, the Huns, age range 17 to 66. Brilliant sunshine. Atif top scored for the Wellies with 63 off 68 balls, Ruwan for VccB took 7.2-1-18-5. Great fun.

Now, we have all heard that Fred and KP are “supposed” to be a great batting unit, are they going to pull it off today? … hope I haven’t jinxed things now

OK Wraye, you’re selecting the side for the first test. Given Fred’s form with the bat, do you bat him at six in the next test match?

Michael, I agree with you re the bat raising thing. Half the problem with England is that they think nearly is good enough.

Jinx – oh balls

Glad you said that, Wraye.

I’d be going for something like

Strauss
Vaughan
Cook
Pietersen
Collingwood
Bell
Flintoff
Read (or maybe the time is right for Davies)
Harmison
Hoggard
Panesar (or maybe Broad)

But d’you know what, I might even rest Fred altogether which would give me a huge dilemma about which keeper.

Hang on, Michael, I have no quarrel with what you wrote except for one little thing …

selfish? – Kallis! He beats KP hands-down every time. Lara too, now I think of it. Boycott, even Bradmann.

right, so we are 8 down now and it is going to be close. Nixon might, but Broad … err

Best thing is to keep my fat mouth shut here, methinks.

Actually I think that Pietersen has a huge negative effect on the England one day side. But I don’t actually think it is his selfishness. I think his team mates are too in awe of him, I also think they rely on him too much and, whisper it, I think there is an argument that England are a better team without him. Remember where Pietersen was when England won the CB trophy. Would I leave him out….. absolutely not. But it might be one hell of a challenge for Moores.

I see he made another hundred today, if Englasnd win this game it will be the first time they have when won when he has made a ton.

Wraye – good call. Am keeping schtum in Whitstable also.

These stats don’t lie Kathy.

Though Nixon is going to give KP his first hundred-win. Wishing this guy wasn’t 36… what a revelation he has been. A little punch to show the older blokes can have what it takes.

Wraye, I have to say Bradman hit me from right field. How so?

And oh yeah it was bitchy. KP brings out my full arsenal. No coincidence that arse is in the word.

Oh f*** .. er golly, Nixon goes

whee – a leg bye! This is close as close can be. Great stuff.

It’s not sad. This game is important for many reasons.

Why oh why did England wait until the last, meaningless game to put in a decent performance?

Why?

Phew! well played – a good one to say bye-bye to Fletcher.

Michael, if you check your history, you will find that Bradman had the best stats etc etc but on a personal level, he was not much liked. Like Boycott in England. Honoured and respected by all for ever, but by their own fellow players, not on their Christmas-card lists.

Fantastic game. That’s what one-day cricket is all about. I’ll take my battling struggling flawed England over the world-bashing Australia any day.

Best matches of the tournament:
Eng vs Sri Lanka
Eng vs Windies

Nuff said.

And Sean, I completely agree with your analysis of Pietersen. For reasons beyond his control but related to his brilliance, he distorts the England team. They are in awe of him and rely too much on him. I hate hate the way people keep saying that a match will depend on him and Flintoff doing the biz. Well, Flintoff won’t be doing it anyway these days. But the message that should go out is that EVERYONE has to do their bit. That’s how they win. That’s why big scores from Pietersen alone aren’t going to be matchwinners. They win when everyone contributes. Moores needs to tell them that. And that will take the pressure off Pietersen and he might play even better.

Kathy, excellent point about Pietersen. They sort of echoed this point on the radio also. Because Vaughan and Bopara had batted well, the pressure was off him.

The interesting thing now is: what on earth is England going to do with Nixon? Would they use him in tests or is he strictly a one-day specialist? One nice thing about the year so far is that Nixon has silenced the wicketkeeper wars, for the very short term anyway.

But does he play the longer game well?

a fantastic game between two supremely average sides.

my twopennorth on the figjam debate: when michael vaughan was at his peak, the saffers gave him a nickname which was afrikaans for guess which part of the female anatomy – translation: ‘you play as hard and unpleasant as us and we fucking hate it because you’ve got the talent to back it up’; the aussies have recently dignified kp with a nickname that translates: ‘you’re as arrogant as us and we fucking hate it, because you’ve got the talent to back it up’. fantastic! give me more. (and for cricket nicknames figjam is rather a bright one!)

simplewondered,

about arrogant Saffers and Aussies, it takes one to know one! Psychologist s say that you deride and hate most in others that which you can’t recognise as your own biggest flaw!

you should join Kathy’s kick-Aussie-heads club and have therapy together.

I have no desire to kick your head, Michael, Aussie or no. I just take issue with some of your interpretations of the game and its players.

And Steve, I’ve been in therapy for ages, but the shrink still can’t convince me to give up on England! So, I’m incurable.

Nice to see a win for a change. Still bemused that Bell was dropped – haven’t quite worked out the logic other than ‘play more bowlers’. Don’t get me wrong, I think Bopara is a good player for the future, but his strike rate was hardly one to write home about.

Well Kathy, as you claim to be a journo I’m not entirely sure that you can write. You may not be happy, but you’re far too willing to accept it. Teflon Vaughan has never scored a ton in one-dayers, yet you seem to think that yesterday was a good performance. I guess he almost made it… Maybe if the ECB carpeted him for his procession of piss-poor performances, and demanded he lead by example, the Poms’d do a little better in all forms of the game. The Brearley defence has worn far too thin – it’s long past its use by date. When Vaughan manages to play well against a decent side when they are at the top of their game – us, SL, SA or NZ – and does so consistently, only then should his efforts be considered up to par. Frankly, he should have followed Fletcher’s lead and given it all away – but as an Australian, I like that he’s still around, because while the Poms continue to refuse to clean house we don’t have to fear them. England just managed to beat a Windian rabble. It was pathetic. I suppose any wins in the upcoming series against them will also be a sign that the Poms are turning the corner? Considering they are in even more distress than the Poms, it should be an absolutely stultifying series – a real Battle of the Titans.
I’m assuming you have your Pom hat on today, after all, we shellacked the Kiwis the other day – but you’ll change sides again when next they beat us, which they may well do.

Gee, 13th Man, will you come the to “Kick Aussie Heads” therapy group as a special guest? My shooting skills could do with some honing.

Kathy, I didn’t know you were a journo! Or are they just surmising wildly? Good comments, and you pick whichever bloody hat you like, as long as it’s not got corks ’round it.

Steve, whilst your theory on projection is quite accurate, it’s comments like 13th Man’s last, that perpetuate the Aussie arrogance issue, and give the decent folk a bad rep.

And I have just one thing to say to you Wraye – buggrit, buggrit, buggrit – I can’t be having with all of this! (hooray, another Discworld fan!)

You’re joking, surely? No cork hats? Not even one? You have upset and wounded me deeply, Marcus. All my ideas about Oz blown out of the water. So now I’ll hurt you – I have seen Gower and my Dad saw Miller.

Marcus: consider Vaughan’s innings in context. He has done nothing in ODI over the course of his entire career, yet one decent innings against woeful opposition in a meaningless game is cause for jubilation? What absolute nonsense. If he can only perform under those circumstances, the fact is that he doesn’t desrve the opportunty to perform – he needs to make way for someone who can perform under all conditions.
I find your – and Wraye’s – observations that it is only a game amusing. On this blog the ‘game’ is a vehicle for constant anti-Australian racism of the most overt nature, but apparently that is acceptable. A response to this, however, engenders the refrain ‘it’s only a game’.

Consider the outcome had he managed to score that 80 in a game that counted. Hard to imagine, I know – because he’s never done it! He should be ashamed of himself – the national captain who can’t deliver when it matters.
Low level racism is absolutely pervasive here – clearly you weren’t around in 2005.

i definately think Nixon should at least be given a shot at the test matches this summer…. age is no problem for me as long as someone performs and personally i think Nixon performed better than the youngsters in the team recently. It would also give moores the time to get a young replacement in the sidelines

i read somewhere that Nixon was bouncing around like a school kid and the journalist got a quote and Nixon said , ‘ ive waited all my life to be here” i think he dam well proved how much it meant to him by the attitude he played with.

one of the upside of being almost deaf is that i lip read very well. and nixon has made me chuckle a lot during his stints. One thing that came across is just how encouraging he his, one particular point was when he was at the crease with collingwood . who looked considerably ill at ease in one match and he said, we can do, this be patient.(when all the others had fallen through panic) and how patient they and we were for those winning runs.

>I definately think Nixon should at least be given a shot at the test matches this summer…. age is no problem for me as long as someone performs and personally i think Nixon performed better than the youngsters in the team recently. It would also give moores the time to get a young replacement in the sidelines

How old was Stewart when he retired? 40?

And we have seen the result of him and Stuart Broad playing or England – Leicestershire were stuffed on Sunday like an over-ripe marrow.

Matt