Only half way through.

Oram adds alot to NZ.

England were pathetic with the bat today.

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" You don't want the truth,you can't handle the truth."

Well done New Zealand.

England were pathetic.By far the worst performance of a disastrous tour.Freddie still awaits a victory as captain on this tour but he can't be blamed for the way the side batted today.He tried his all with the ball only to see the top order waste a chance to win.

Nixon - must go.

Another inspired selection by that wonderful committee. They must be really proud of themselves the way they pluck these players from County cricket and throw them onto the International stage!

Wonder what the purpose of having Read in this squad was? Maybe we'll find out!

Trying to stabilise the innings, perhaps? 10 is not good enough but we've seen from Fred that you can;t just come in when a stack of wickets has fallen and bludgeon your way out of trouble - notwitbstanding his excellent bowling (finally) today. He needs scores but to take one of our most experienced and all-round consistent performers over a number of years out of the side would do nothing. Besides, if the keeper can't take the catches then Monty can bowl to Colly at slip all day, like Murali does with Jayawardene! Read would do a job at 8, I've always felt that was the best option since Jones was hounded out.

For once this wasn't really Flintoff's fault largely, though his batting has to fire at 6, however it's another loss to the tally - how many until it's enough Ern? He's a cracking player and I'd love to see him get on with just doing that.

Finally, it was nice to see Joyce making a fist of it. I think that attempt at rescuing us merits some more chances to prove himself. However, another couple of failures and Bopara will no doubt be brought in.

Really, I don't see Joyce as predominately a ODI player. He is a good county 4 or 5, and in time I think he could be a very good test bat for us at no5, in the mould of Thorpe. I fear that he will be discarded from the ODI team, and we won't see the best of him in an England shirt.

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I'll have the Mouseburger please, with a side of Goldfish.

Hey Colly! I wasn't suggesting he be dropped. However, 10 from 37 balls doesn't really hit the mark. That's a very slow scoring rate for someone who is capable of putting the ball into the gaps. He really has lost form since the earlier Tests.

What else are they to do? I reckon playing for an "A" side for a while would help, but how strong is the competition there generally?

The step-up from country/provincial/franchise to an international/test side, seems to be a bit harder for some than others though...

But, from one thing to another. How IS the bench-strength of English sport anyway? Not only cricket, but rugby and football seem to have all of a sudden, all suffered the same fate. Injuries, and no-one to replace these?

His captaincy record in ODI's is 8 losses, 1 win.
In tests, 7 losses, 2 draws, 2 wins.

I don't know why he is so keen to take Vaughan's bullets. Someone need to tell Vaughan to stop being a wimp, and hiding behind injury to preserve his captaincy reputation, and come out and take his lumps like a man.

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Well.. Thorpe was an excellent ODI batsman.... and would be an automatc inclusion an England Xi of recent vintage (along with Knight, Tresco, Hick and Fairbrother)... so if Joyce is genuinely the next Thorpe... surely the ODI arena will suit?Collingwood and Joyce came together in the 11th over and clearly needed to focus on batting through to the 40th without losing a wicket: 10 off 37 balls was hardly a problem... except in Collingwood's mind. Joyce was going along nicely by the time Collingwood got himself out in the 25th over, with 33 off 49 balls. All Collingwood had to do was stick around in support and watch Joyce eat into the target.

I've no problem with the 10 off 37 balls... but I'm unimpressed at Collingwood's decision to try and up the pace by sweeping Vettori: that sort of shot might make sense in the final few overs when the run rate HAS to be high... but in the middle overs of the match it's a ridiculous risk. I'd respond by switching around Collingwood and Dalrymple in the batting order: Dalrymple seems to have the head on his shoulders to deal with the middle overs... and Collingwood's always been at his best in the last 10 overs.

Oh.. and if Nixon plays... he surely plays at 8 in this side: I've nothing against his batting... but why up the order?

Why wait until then? Bopara should play the very next ODI, alongside Joyce! england need the extra batsman, and Colly needs to bowl some more. England need to develop some batsmen who can bowl, like Gayle and Samuels in the Windies side.

Also, it does seem pointless having Strauss and Bell in the same ODI side. Cook should come in for one of them.

Having Loye and Nixon in the team is not an investment in the future. Surely, someone like James Foster should be considered, as well as Owais Shah....

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Nobody has a batting stance quite like the mighty Shivnarine....