England v India, ICCCT Final, Edgbaston, 23 June, 2013

Girlish hitting brings another 2. Need six off the last ball. Good luck.

FFS 6 from the last ball needed.

Don't hit a 6 FFS!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

Oh dear. That was a huge choke. And a quite godawful performance.

Sweet. Top match in the end.

Should've been England's.

Yeah, a very good match. The best side of the tournament won.

Morgan threw it away when in control, and the rest simply capitulated.

Well done India, played better through out.

And only England as the host team would prepare a pitch that spins more than Chennai on the 5th day and have a crowd that's 90% Indian.

I think that, really, Bops was the one that threw it away. Yeah we needed quick runs, but to slap that one to square leg, next ball, was the killer.

I know people think England's lower order bottled it, but the top 4 gave them a hell of a lot to do. The rrr went up and up and rarely left double figures toward the end. I believe the runs they didn't score at the top, when conditions for scoring were best, left them constantly chasing the ball. Morgan and Buttler played dreadful shots but they're out of form.

Cook was one of the main reasons.


ETA- Too slow like Cook myself

Gary 111 wrote:Doh. Just as the engraver was about to put our (joint) name on the trophy they're actually going to make us play a game.

So, how are England going to blow this one? The fifth in a series after Boycs and Brears go slow, Gatting's reverse sweep, Miandad's shin and Bradshaw and Browne in the dark. My money's in a Dhoni hat-trick in the final over.

I blame the rain. It was doing so well until 4pm then it suddenly choked off. We were within a mm of joint glory.

Turns out it wasn't Dhoni, it was an even worse bowler, Instant Llama and his balls of doom.

Don't get me wrong, we lost it because our top three are pretty limited unless they can face a shedload of balls and we pick an absolute unequivocal passenger in Timothy Thomas Bresnan who is held in such incredibly high regard that it defies all belief. This England side could be a good one, were it not for this. Possibly two, maybe three changes and we'll be pretty decent.

Pietersen for Bell and Stokes/Napier for Bresnan and we'd be decent.

Henry wrote:And only England as the host team would prepare a pitch that spins more than Chennai on the 5th day and have a crowd that's 90% Indian.

To be fair India prepared result wickets after taking a 1-0 lead and none of their fans bothered to turn up for the Test series so maybe we were just repaying the favour?

Henry wrote:Pietersen for Bell and Stokes/Napier for Bresnan and we'd be decent.

Pietersen for anyone. Finn for Bresnan. Anyone for Buttler the hack.

Dhoni - asshole! Who the ****** else bowls Ishant Sharma out? ******! And the lucky qunt is rewarded with 2 wickets!

Henry wrote:Pietersen for Bell and Stokes/Napier for Bresnan and we'd be decent.

I think we need to stop the ODI Wicketkeeping Fun Train and push young Jos off. Like, toodlesville. Some poor keeping in amongst literally no runs.

Davies is in all kinds of form.

Cook
Pietersen
Trott
Root
Morgan
Bopara
Davies
Swann
Broad
Finn
Anderson.

Chivalry Augustus wrote:

Henry wrote:Pietersen for Bell and Stokes/Napier for Bresnan and we'd be decent.

Pietersen for anyone. Finn for Bresnan. Anyone for Buttler the hack.

I'd give Prior one more go in all formats if he's up for it, otherwise give Bairstow a chance with the gloves.

Chivalry Augustus wrote:

Henry wrote:Pietersen for Bell and Stokes/Napier for Bresnan and we'd be decent.

Pietersen for anyone. Finn for Bresnan. Anyone for Buttler the hack.

Oooh, great minds. Not really. It's f*cking obvious, isn't it. Picking our best batsman, one of our three best bowlers and a non iron-gloved swisher in your elite XI

Well battled India - the best team in the tournament won through in the end.

But England batting, ffs. First rushing it like pop tarts at a poptart party, then mental disintegration, as a certain Aussie captain was fond of saying. Hara-kiri with bats.


Looking on the bright side, it might help to shorten Giles' credibility and contract, as Generalissimo Catastrophic. So even this cloudburst may have a silver lining.

PeterCS wrote:Looking on the bright side, it might help to shorten Giles' credibility and contract, as Generalissimo Catastrophic. So even this cloudburst may have a silver lining.

All reports are that they couldn't be happier with Mr. Gashley Piles.

Lordy, the only score I heard was on the way to work. England needed 48 off 30 with 4 wickets in hand. They got close. Bad luck.

Well played, India. The form team of the tournament.

The King of Spain's got a contract for life, including the Test side when Flower moves on. He will have to get whitewashed twice in the Ashes and go out of the World Cup to Afghanistan and Bermuda before they will consider handing him so much as a written warning.