Pakistan vs. England - 3rd ODI

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

I have had a MASSIVE feeling of de ja vous (spelling anyone ?) with flanflinger saying what he said and Vic saying what he said, almost word for word after the second or third test ! Anyone else feel it ?

[Occasional Fan]

Leaving aside my own general feeling that England are better target chasers than target setters in this game, what do we think here? Trescothick won the toss and elected to field. Was that the right decision? The commentators on Cricinfo have been saying for the past several hours that this was where England lost the game. What do those of you who can see the game think?

Dang: yet another wicket goes while the Cricinfo audio feed is buffering! This was a poor investment of ten bucks!

[Occasional Fan]

That'll be "deja vu", RBLC, with an acute accent on the e and a grave on the a, neither of which I can find on my keyboard at the moment, but it's upwards and downwards respectively. But it's French, and we don't do that here, do we? Non, non, non, mon ami!

[greg]

So the press gave the excuse of getting up in the middle of the night for the defeat in game two.What excuse will they come up with for this debacle?

[Crunchy]

Jones and Collingwood the only softish dismissals under the circumstances, excellent yorkers to get rid of Strauss and especially Flintoff because he was starting to look real good. Yet again the only ones who bowled pretty well was Flintoff and probably Blackwell all the rest i dont think even had 1 good over getting absolutely smashed all over the park over after over. I think we'v got to ask is Harmison a odi bowler. I must say wheres Gough when you need him.

[Maranello]

Originally Posted by greg

So the press gave the excuse of getting up in the middle of the night for the defeat in game two.What excuse will they come up with for this debacle?

Wrong decision after the toss!

[greg]

Originally Posted by Maranello

Wrong decision after the toss!

Yes,but being outplayed by so much doesn't make that a viable excuse.

[Occasional Fan]

In which connection, see my post 83091 above. What say you, Maranello? Did Tresco get it wrong?

[Maranello]

Originally Posted by Occasional Fan

In which connection, see my post 83091 above. What say you, Maranello? Did Tresco get it wrong?

I was surprised to see that call OF, mainly because England in ODIs are a very timid bunch, and are in damage limitation most of the time; putting the opposition in seemed like a bold move, and one which was riskier than the alternative. The only explanation could be that England wanted to make full use of their super-sub, and have Bell anchor the innings batting second - coming in at 9, I am unsure how Bell is supposed to do that. Hence the decision seems bizarre in hindsight.

Let's put it this way - Pakistan would have been happy to bat first, but the way Shoaib is bowling these days, they would have enjoyed bowling first too. In the end, this just was not England's day, whatever decision Tresco would have made.

[Occasional Fan]

Well, there is a good chance of England setting a record here - their heaviest defeat in ODIs is still well on the cards. Still, at least we don't have to follow on.