England v Australia, 4th ODI, Chester-Le-Street, 7 July, 2012

Sweet Jesus, England play dour ODI cricket.

Yeah, they get the job done. Joylessly so.

Been out all day but just caught the highlights. Looks like Aus started their innings in a misty swamp!

Dello wrote:Sweet Jesus, England play dour ODI cricket.

Yeah, they get the job done. Joylessly so.

You play to win.. End of.

If you want to see smash and bash stick to T20.

taipan wrote:

Dello wrote:Sweet Jesus, England play dour ODI cricket.

Yeah, they get the job done. Joylessly so.

You play to win.. End of.

If you want to see smash and bash stick to T20.

I'll take joyless wins over losing and playing like shoite any day of the week.

Indeed Bas.

I actually love watching Trott grinding the opposition down, lovely stuff. Bell couldn't have really done anymore since replacing KP at the top of the order either.

JKLever wrote:Looks like Aus started their innings in a misty swamp!

Or Durham, as the locals call it.

I tend to agree with the people who are finding this new, invincible England boring. Least interesting opening partnership in ODI cricket + Jonathan Trott. Watching Steven Finn bowl is the best part of these matches.

Well, I'll take winning boring for the time being, but I think we'll need something a bit different on 300+ pitches.

There's a lack of half decent ODI sides right now, but as usual I guess the others will peak in World Cup year while England go into it without any form or a decent plan as usual!

That effort was so embarrasing i switched over to the cycling halfway through Australia's innings. It was just too painful to watch.

bunch of good time charlies...

Ohhh, no. Like, properly well done England, good for you. But, for me(and I must stress that this is only my little opinion), this is the perfect opportunity to push themselves. Try and finish off the match in 30-odd overs... we're 2-0 up in a pointless series anyway - help push your own boundaries.. no?? What, crab it into over 48? Heck, why not. Let's all strike at 70. Nowt pathetic about that or owt.

I suppose if the two white balls system has made ODI cricket Test-lite rather than T20-max, we might have it right. Still, Chris Gayle was seemingly showing that "old-fashioned" one-day cricket isn't finished.

have we gained anything positive out of this tour?

Nath wrote:have we gained anything positive out of this tour?

Learned a few players are useless? Gained experience of English rain for next summer?

Congrats to England on locking up the series.

Wow, this doesn't bode well for Aus for the 2013 Ashes.

beamer wrote:Gained experience of English rain for next summer?

Yes.

skully wrote:Congrats to England on locking up the series.

Wow, this doesn't bode well for Aus for the 2013 Ashes.

It's JAMODI cricket, I wouldn't read too much into it... how many of this Aussie side will be in the line-up for the first Test next summer?

Aus's total inability (Hussey aside) to deal with the moving ball was disturbing. It's year away so there has to be doubts about old men like Ponting and Mike Hussey but the top 7 might be:

Warner
Watson
Clarke
Ponting
M Hussey
D Hussey/Forrest
Wade

Jimmeh, Sturat and Brezzy will be licking their lips.

skully wrote:Aus's total inability (Hussey aside) to deal with the moving ball was disturbing. It's year away so there has to be doubts about old men like Ponting and Mike Hussey but the top 7 might be:

Warner
Watson
Clarke
Ponting
M Hussey
D Hussey/Forrest
Wade

Jimmeh, Sturat and Brezzy will be licking their lips.

That's scary. Michael Vaughan was on radio last night predicting English domination because their attack is so superior so with nobody being able to play them it puts less pressure on their batsmen. Also pointed out that it's an advantage that most teams who go there are out of season. Agnew thinks in ODIs though they will have to find another gear if the other team finds a way to put up a big total. It was hard to believe that they crawled to our pathetic total with only a few overs to spare. Surely Trott has to find out sooner or later if he can acclerate to an adequate extent if he's chasing 300+. The other giraffe in the room surely is our injury rate. How come the quicks keep falling like flies?

Was that Brett Lee's final game for Australia?

Any chance of Bell retiring before next season?

and cook
and Trott
and Jimmy
and Finn

Strauss can stay

Henry wrote:Was that Brett Lee's final game for Australia?

Since 2005 I've walked out of the room any time he has bowled. It will save me having to arrange something to read in the next room.

G.Wood wrote:

Strauss can stay

Chances are he won't survive a poor SA series or winter.

But who would replace him - Root? Saffies might want to kid themselves that Strauss is our weakest link, but in reality he delivers when most needed.

Yeah, we're not blessed with batting replacements. Carberry? Root?

He's getting to that age where international retirement seems to beckon though, Goochie was the exception rather than the rule. Still think a couple of poor series tacked on the back of some average ones (before the WI series) will see him out of cricket before next years Ashes.

If SA beat us, we'll no longer have the no.1 rank. The powers that be might want to go in another direction under Cookie.