Well the breaking news is that England have named two different captains for two limited overs format of the game with Stuart Broad having to lead the side for T20 games while Alistair Cook will henceforth take care of England's one day games. Though this news hardly sparks of any sort of debate, people keeping their fingers crossed are just countable. At least as a cricket blogger, I have no other option but to shed some words regarding the selection or appointment. The tag "No Police State Girls blog" just doesn't seem to go too well with me whatsoever at this moment.
The result of the latest development in England cricket was due to the fact that their then captain Andrew Strauss wants to focus completely on his test career while Paul Collingwood has nothing to say about his T20 career. And, Paul Collingwood has every reason to justify himself when he bought home the country's first glory since decades of cricket that included failures, just misses and chokes. Collingwood's feat was achieved after England had three workld cup finals without a win along with an ICC champion's trophy that too ending up as runners-up. If South Africans would be reading this, they'd just breathe free.
The chokers tag is not totally restricted to South Africa alone and England also have an equal share in it. Coming to the point, one has to rather concentrate on the entire team of England which are in doldrums at present with their latest such thing evident in the world cup. England failed to win matches against Bangladesh and Ireland despite posting a stiff target of 327 on the board against the latter and having the opposition reeling at 111/5 at one stage. Of course, England were able to rarely regain and defend the Ashes on the previous two occasions but that is regarding their test cricket.
Right now, it has to be the entire England team and not just the captain alone whom the ECB needs to focus on. If not for their T20 win last year, England have gone back to their old ways of leaving things half way when they had just one T20 tournament against Pakistan and test series' against the same though which England won convincingly, their body language didn't speak for them. They beat both Pakistan and Australia with destiny favoring them by not having matches against other teams like Sri Lanka and India against whom their real myth is evaluated.
Showing posts with label Paul Collingwood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Collingwood. Show all posts
Friday, May 6, 2011
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Scores settled for England
A couple of days back, England would have left the field cursing whatever came their way, with the rains, the Duckworth Lewis method taking a greater share of that. That was the match which should have seen the England team jumping in joy after first putting up a mammoth total of 191 on the board which was till date the highest team total as far as this edition of the world T20 is concerned. But, their joy never seemed to last long enough with rain taking away the game away from them when they deserved to win no matter what the odds had to say.
However, if that was the match which England lost and should have won, yesterday a major upset was averted for England when they were on the verge of creating history for the bad and wrong reasons. The match would have seen the England captain being invited first before the Irish captain to the presentation ceremony. England would have become the first team in the world to have lost two games to non test playing nations. England had earlier in the previous edition of the world T20 lost to Netherlands in the initial phase of the tournament in 2009. Luckily they survived with a win against Pakistan later.
So far England are the only team in the world who have lost a game in the T20 world cup against a team which doesn't have a history of playing test matches. Of course, Australia had lost a match to Zimbabwe in the inaugural edition of the world T20 and the West Indies to Bangladesh. But, Zimbabwe has a history of playing test cricket and Bangladesh has been doing the same since almost a decade or so. It would not have been wrong to bet on Ireland in yesterday's match. A total of 120 stands nowhere in T20 cricket and Ireland have entered the super eight stage after beating a test playing nation in 2009.
Had the match not been affected by rain, I bet Ireland would have ended up victorious. As mentioned earlier a target of 120 and that too in a T20 game can land a team nowhere. There could have been a freak chance of West Indies overcoming the huge target of 191 imposed by England, given the home team advantage and a decent batting line up. But there was not even that freak chance for England to win against Ireland in yesterday's game. The bad fortune that was bought by rain in the earlier game against West Indies happened to be a boon in disguise for England in yesterday's game.
England may probably be forgiven for losing against the West Indies but not to Ireland which would have been their 2nd such callous approach to the game.
However, if that was the match which England lost and should have won, yesterday a major upset was averted for England when they were on the verge of creating history for the bad and wrong reasons. The match would have seen the England captain being invited first before the Irish captain to the presentation ceremony. England would have become the first team in the world to have lost two games to non test playing nations. England had earlier in the previous edition of the world T20 lost to Netherlands in the initial phase of the tournament in 2009. Luckily they survived with a win against Pakistan later.
So far England are the only team in the world who have lost a game in the T20 world cup against a team which doesn't have a history of playing test matches. Of course, Australia had lost a match to Zimbabwe in the inaugural edition of the world T20 and the West Indies to Bangladesh. But, Zimbabwe has a history of playing test cricket and Bangladesh has been doing the same since almost a decade or so. It would not have been wrong to bet on Ireland in yesterday's match. A total of 120 stands nowhere in T20 cricket and Ireland have entered the super eight stage after beating a test playing nation in 2009.
Had the match not been affected by rain, I bet Ireland would have ended up victorious. As mentioned earlier a target of 120 and that too in a T20 game can land a team nowhere. There could have been a freak chance of West Indies overcoming the huge target of 191 imposed by England, given the home team advantage and a decent batting line up. But there was not even that freak chance for England to win against Ireland in yesterday's game. The bad fortune that was bought by rain in the earlier game against West Indies happened to be a boon in disguise for England in yesterday's game.
England may probably be forgiven for losing against the West Indies but not to Ireland which would have been their 2nd such callous approach to the game.
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