England v New Zealand, Old Trafford, T20, 13 June 2007


England: Wright, Bell, Pietersen, Bopara, Collingwood, Shah, Mascarenhas, Ambrose, Swann, Broad, Anderson
New Zealand: McCullum, How, Marshall, Taylor, Styris, Flynn, Fulton, Vettori, Mills, Gillespie, Mason

Umpires: I J Gould, P J Hartley

England won the toss and chose to field first.

England are all over New Zealand in this game, every bowling change has worked with a wicket.

They kept McCullum quiet, by keeping him off strike, then fed him a couple of bouncers which he creamed, and then came the fuller yorker, which bowled him.

England have bowled fairly well, but I'm still not convinced by Anderson, as soon as players get after him he has no answer. He bowled a maiden to McCullum, only the 25th maiden in T20's then got clobbered for 14 runs the next over, 2 x 4's and a 6, because he bowled length, when he should have started to mix it up.

Luke Wright has better figures than Anderson and he's not even a recognised bowler, but he does know how to bowl in T20.

England should win this unless they do something very stupid.

Good point Scott - I believe in horses for courses and Anderson is not economical enough in one day cricket.
Mind you on reflection there are only two runs in it.

I despair when I look at the England side and see a future Test star in Bopara, flung into this cricket.

Broad just bowled Styris just swiping at the bal.

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Ern

Well Anderson 'got away' with it, he took a wicket in his last over with a full toss, bowled a wide and generally didn't go for as many runs as he should have done. He only went for 6 runs in the final over, including a wicket.

Wright on the other hand was bowling yorkers getting hit for six and inside edges going for 4, which really messed up his figures, some of which were not his fault.

I'm just not convinced by Anderson in T20.

I agree 100%, also with Bell not in the best of Test form should not play 20/20, if he gets out it will sap his confidence even more.

He may get 50, but with 20/20 it's a gamble.

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Ern

Ern, he's on 36* and batting beautifully, T20 is a different game to Test Cricket. You cannot criticise Bell's batting so far in this innings.

This is why I laughed at people calling for Bell and Collingwood to be dropped from the Test side, they're both a couple of boundaries from being back in form.

And Bell has just hit Vettori right down the ground to Long on for 6!