We win our first ever ODI series in Sri Lanka and no one cares?!

As English fans do we like defeat too much and are scared of rare successes in the One day game?

Or was everyone just too busy yesterday?

__________________
Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi

And this was also England's first ODI series win in the whole sub-continent (excl. Bangla) in 20 years...so well done.

__________________
A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes
Mark Twain

I'm more concerned that so little attention is being paid to the SA-Pak Test "series" (not that it deserves the title "series": a 2 Test contest between such major Test nations is a joke).

Getting back to the subject though... I missed the first innings but listened to a fair bit of the second: sounded like an interesting game, with Anderson and Sidebottom bowling excellently and presenting the Sri Lanka batsmen with a genuine contest between bat and ball.

Well done England on the series win,who would have thought after the World Cup that we would win successive one day series against India and Sri Lanka and even manage to win away into the bargain.We have a long way to go to challenge Australia but we are obviously heading in the right direction now which is pleasing.

We've moved up the ODI rankings too, lying 5th.

__________________
Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi

I'm afraid you have to put me in the "too busy" bracket - but I was glad to see the result this morning.

__________________
Money won't buy you friends. But it gets you a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan

Good to see us move up the table,need to carry it on in NZ and next summer though.

The side is coming together quite well but there is still room for improvement,the keeper position still hasn't been resolved as Mustard while showing promise hasn't made a decent score yet,at least his glovework is better than Prior though and i do worry about the other 10 overs without a Flintoff in the side but i guess it won't all click just yet.

Swann,Sidebottom and Broad have been major successes since being introduced and Shah looks to have cemented a place now too.All in all i am happy with the progression and with Collingwoods captaincy.He took a few unfair knocks by the press during the 20Twenty but he is still learning and the good thing is it appears he learns quickly.

I agree about our bowlers - good finds. Sidebottom and Swann would never have had a look in under Fletcher.
Mustard keeps better than Prior, but is batting too high up. At number 8 he could be useful, not number 2!

The sooner Trescothick is mentally fit again, the better. We need him back as no one has come close since.

__________________
Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi

Great result (particularly given we lost 3 out of 4 important tosses) and the encouraging thing is that this side is still playing nowhere near to its potential and can only improve as they gain more experience. The bowling thoughout the series has been outstanding and in Sidebottom we potentially have a Nathan Bracken in the making providing cutting edge first up with the new ball and crucially discipline at the death. Broad's response after the 20/20 nightmare speaks volumes for his character and whilst still a tad expensive he does slowly seem to be adding some much needed variation into his game. Swann proved a revelation and now he just has to show he can produce the goods in less helpful conditions and Monty can be left to focus purely on the tests learning how to play the one day game with Northants. The batting's still a concern but the talent is unquestionably there (as Cook amply demonstrated yesterday) and all they need is the time to develop to the one day format.

In terms of Sri Lanka they really need to make some big decisions about the senior players Vaas and Jayasuria. They are not going to be around in 4 years time and rather than mess about for 18 months with increasingly diminishing returns it's time for them to move onto the next generation.

Mustard IMO should be given a run in the side.


You could put me in the "at work" category for pretty much all of the match.

__________________
Frank Skinner: "You know when Glenn McGrath trod on that cricket ball? Don't you wish it would've been a landmine?"