England Cricket Betting: Cramps, runouts and an England team running out of ideas

England Cricket / Frank Gregan / 17 November 2008 / 1 Comments

Frank Gregan talks us through England's errors, embarassing moments and need for change after another heavy defeat to India in the 2nd ODI.

There was a spell during England's innings during the second ODI when both the batsmen at the crease were suffering from cramp. Owais Shah and Matt Prior should have been able to empathise with the English supporters; we have been enduring cramp without the letter 'm' since this squad left our shores!

India were in trouble at 29-3 but instead of being aggressive with the ball and forcing home the advantage the English bowlers lost their direction, motivation, aggression and accuracy. The bowling strategy changed from decimation to containment and the Indians recovered in style leaving England 293 to win.

England's reply got off to a shocking start with Ian Bell languishing yards out of his ground after taking on a suicidal single and being run out. A short while later Bell finds himself back at the crease as a runner for the muscle-fatigued Owais Shah. I realise that he was the only wicket to have fallen and therefore had to do the job but given the standard of his previous attempt to get to the other end, Shah would have been wiser to call for a couple of crutches and a mechanised wheelchair!

There was a wonderful moment when Shah was leaning against Bell trying to stretch out in order to relieve the cramp, it was amazing, two English batsmen supporting one another without a collapse!

Hope was briefly restored when the two class acts of English cricket, Pietersen and Flintoff were in the middle and rekindling false hope to the watching English public. They had a go, during the third power play they chanced their arm and tried to get England back in the game. It was too little too late and to put it into perspective between them they amassed only 76 runs. This was England's two most feared batsmen supposedly performing yet their 76 represented about 26% of the required total. You have to be highly optimistic to find the other 74% of the target from the remainder of the English batting line up.

The Indians had a star performer, Yuvraj single-handedly contributed over 40% of his team's runs, which is a batting performance! If England are going to get back into this series they are going to need one of their top order to hit three figures, it is going to take something very special to turn the tide.

One man who could well be the answer is Ravi Bopara. There has been a lot of comment about his inclusion at number eight, a position that doesn't allow him to contribute fully as a dedicated batsman. Indeed during both games thus far he has entered the fray at a time when the scoreboard operator had his finger poised over the "game over" button.

He did himself no favours in the first ODI when he ran out his skipper, calling KP through for a single that Usain Bolt driving Lewis Hamilton's McLaren couldn't have completed. That aside, Bopara is an excellent prospect and given the opportunity to bat closer to the number three spot he occupies for Essex he may well fulfil his potential. It is not going to happen if he continues at number eight coming in to chase yet another lost cause.
It's time to shake it up, get Bopara higher up the order and give an opportunity to those members of the squad who have yet to play.

Sadly, the explosive options that could really change the make up of the team aren't in India. Be honest, who would you rather see coming in for the third ODI, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Graham Napier or Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss? It's an absolute no brainer - which is sometimes what the English selectors display - no brains!

Comments (1)

1. Pablo Luna | 18 November 2008

   We have three cricketers playing ODI Cricket for England in India who should not even be considered for selection let alone make the final eleven.
   Ian Bell has played 76 ODI's for England. He has scored just one century and even worse he has only scored fifteen fifties. His average of 36 is pitiful when you consider he does not hurt the oppostion and creates his own pressure on the guy at the other end.
   I cannot find a similar playing profile in another international team in living memory. How has he gotten away with it. No one has ever been able to explain this to me...
   Collingwood in front of Bopara is not even a joke! In 150 ODI's he has scored just four centuries and 20 fifties. He cannot be called an allrounder. One wicket in every two games does not class him as that. He is neither batsman or bowler and is a fully paid up member of the 'Cosy Club'.
   Harmison is like Alistair Cook in that he is simply not and never has been an ODI player. He bowls with reckless abandon and this theory of him being a strike bowler is a nonsense! He has taken five wickets in an innings just once in 52 matches. His top score of 13 not out does not even make a tail waggle.
   It was a disgrace that he, Bell and Cook were considered for the Stanford fiasco and prove that nepotism is alive and well within this England set-up.
   With the above in mind how can England be competitive against India? I find this situation appalling and find it hard to raise my enthusiasm, surely I am not alone in this?