Pakistan v England - 2nd ODI

[Notts Exile]

Originally Posted by Trescothick

Geriant Jones hasn't ade any real istake this tour with the gloves infact I'd say hes done brilliantly... Whos too say that Prior would even do very well?? I don't believe in dropping a player who hasn't done anything wrong, and Jones hasn't... His batting does need improving though

Sorry all. Chris Read was dropped because Jones would score more runs, not because he could keep any better. Jones should now suffer Read's fate because we've found someone who will score more runs than him! If Fletcher wants to improve this ODI team then that's his next step.

[sanizam]

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As u all might know that KP is injured he has hairline fracture in his ribs which he got this summer... Botham and co. r amazed that he is on the field for that matter he is even playing.. cuz he is really struggling... he was struggling while batting and more so while field... i feel he shuld be resting..... i dont know what England camp is thinking... there is a long season ahead.... they shuldnt b risking him...
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[Richie Benauds Love Child]

Cracked ribs are very painful and its bound to limit him batting and fielding, so if all this legit, WHY THE HELL IS HE PLAYING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sanizam]

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First wicket is down for Pakistan... 86/1 in 15.1 overs... Salman Bowled Freddie for 43
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[Irish Left Armer]

135-2 after 25.

Looking very comfortable for Pakistan at the moment.

England's unpredictable batting strikes again!

[greg]

Originally Posted by Richie Benauds Love Child

Cracked ribs are very painful and its bound to limit him batting and fielding, so if all this legit, WHY THE HELL IS HE PLAYING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am a big advocate of not playing players who are struggling through injury.My football team's former manager continually played one of the youngsters despite the physio telling him he needed an operation on his ankle.That manager left and Gary Peters came in and one of the first things that happened was the player had his operation.This season he has been the best player and aged 22 is now the captain despite there being more experienced candidates.
If this England team continue to play injured players then we will not only not see the best of each player but we will shorten the careers of certain players when there is no need.Giles,Vaughan and now Pietersen have all taken part at times in Pakistan when under an injury cloud.Yes winning at the time is important but what is the point if winning causes these players to miss future matches or tours?

[Vrock]

RBLC. Read just can't bat, well you could say the same for Jones most of the time! Kamran Akmal gets to his 100 off 108 balls. Then he got out pulling Steve Harmison. Pakistan are 188-3! I can't see anything but a Pakistan win.

[Vrock]

I totally agree with you Greg. Pietersen is only making it worse for himself. He's been on and off the field but he should just go an get it seen to, take some pain killers and get it rested!

[Victor Frankenstein]

I've been offline all weekend so couldn't comment on the first game, but just to catch up, I thought it was a great performance and helped that we didn't have the lame duck of vaughan in the side. However, I felt it was a fluke result, we put in our very best possible result and pakistan still almost won and it was just the asking rate that made them then have to fling the bat rather than struggling against our bowling.

So, and i know this looks like the benefit of hindsight, it comes as no surprise to see that our actual standard performance is what's happening today, a batting collapse by players unsure whether to hang on or attack, we just have no concept of odi batting tactics and fletcher has no clue how to implement them, we're still living 5 years ago when 210-250 was a good score, wheres now it's a poor score and you need around 280-320 to have a good score.

We could still improve though, we just need to start selecting a constant team and keep them playing together until the world cup. Replace Jones with Bell, Joyce or Shah (Bell on this tour obviously) as Prior can keep just aswell as him and has been scoring more with the bat, gets us off to a good quick start so replace jones with a proper batsman and we might be more likely to get a 280+ score regularly rather than as a fluke.

I said before the series started that we had to take a 2-0 lead whilst afridi was banned to stand any chance but i predicted a 4-1 series win to Pakistan as they're a more experienced side and have a good balance to the team and batting order which we lack. That's not to say we can't win though, on paper we should be able to compete, it's down to the players to start thinking about what they're doing, and fletcher to suddenly get a clue about odi's.

[Vrock]

VF, England's best result came against Bangladesh, which was 394, So it wasn't our best result. Also, If KP hadn't have been so stupid to go dancing down the pitch he could have easily made a hundred and England could have got to 350+.