Styris blunder leads to England recovery
The was a magnificent game which, throughout their run chase, seemed destined to be won by the home side.
They needed 145 from the last 20 overs with eight wickets in hand, and 72 off the last 10 with seven - they paced their innings to perfection.
But mistakes are there to be made, and the man who must feel culpable in New Zealand's failure to secure their win is Scott Styris - one of the most experienced players in the match - who inexplicably planted a catch down long-on's throat with 40 needed from six overs.
It was an extraordinary blunder which enabled England to tighten the noose.
Have a listen to Aggers and Geoff Boycott on today's dramatic match (6m 26s).
Peter Fulton is in no form at all, and was quickly run out for 0, and Jacob Oram hit a catch to cover. Suddenly it was seven needed from the final over and instead of turning to Dimitri Mascarenhas, Paul Collingwood threw the ball to Luke Wright, who produced the over of his life.
Collingwood might have won the game for England when, with two needed from the final ball, his attempt to hit to hit the stumps from about four yards narrowly missed.
But , while New Zealand looked devastated – and rightly so.
By playing an unchanged team, England took the same risk as at Auckland, namely leaving themselves dangerously low on bowling resources.
In the previous game, New Zealand lost early wickets, so Paul Collingwood, Luke Wright and Dimitri Mascarenhas could scramble through their 20 without much of a problem. But in this match, James Anderson and Stuart Broad - two of only three frontline bowlers - both had dreadfully poor games.
It can happen sometimes, but it left Collingwood so short of options that he had to turn to Owais Shah to bowl seven overs.
This change of team balance was the result of England’s derisory batting performances in the first two games, and that, to an extent, appears to have righted itself. Phil Mustard batted really well for his 83 - his first one-day international half century - and Ian Bell now looks to be in great nick.
But to play Mascarenhas and Luke Wright in the same team seems a luxury to me: Mascarenhas didn't bat here, and between them they bowled just three overs.
Mascarenhas is the senior bowler of the two, but it does seem that Collingwood has lost confidence in him. I will be surprised if the same 11 takes the field in the decider on Saturday.
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1) Whatever happened to winning by virtue of losing fewer wickets?
2) Vettori was run out as he lifted his bat when the stumps were broken. The NZ commentators here couldn't believe the decision. Vettori then duly knocked the next ball to the boundary.
Terrible 3rd umpiring at such a crucial moment.
3) Why did Masca only bowl 2 overs?
4) Whatever happened to good old fashioned 'line and length"? Only Sidebottom seems to have grasped this concept.
5) Mustard batted well but his keeping errors were extremely costly.
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Whatever happened to winning by virtue of losing fewer wickets?
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England made more mistakes than nz and stillmanaged the tie, they will win the fifth match as they have the better players and have all the momentum
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Full credit to England for showing the nerve and fight that they have been accused of not having in the past.
Mistakes were made and England still have work to do in the ODI game, but they're getting there.
Well done both teams on a fantastic game
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Bowler Luke Wright did the right thing. The top order English batters produced one of their best batting displays in recent times. Congrats to the two sides for the thriller. As bowler, batsman, fielder and team leader Paul Collingwood was superb.
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What a superb game of cricket it was, but some of Collingwood's bowling decisions were clearly suspect. After the game, he said that Luke Wright bowled the last and his only over as he was good at yorkers. If that is the case why on Earth was he not brought on earlier. Anderson had a terrible game and bowled far too many overs, Mascarenhas too few. To the England bowlers credit it was them at the end that saved the match but it could have been a victory if the Kiwis had been restricted earlier on. Will remember this game for a long while, edge of the seat stuff at its best.
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Full credit to England for showing the nerve and fight that they have been accused of not having in the past.
Mistakes were made and England still have work to do in the ODI game, but they're getting there.
Well done both teams on a fantastic game
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totally agree on the point that there is only one place in the team for a masca or wright and they definitely need another front line bowler in there. having both masca and wright seems like provisioning for top order failure.
amazing what can happen when the openers lay a foundation though. On that point i still feel a bit for mustard, with the way Cook starts you always get the impression that mustard feels he has to play a big shot if Cook plays out a maiden, puts alot of pressure on him
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Following the above comments:
1)It seems in every article you write that James Anderson has had a bad game, so why is he continually picked? Every writes about Englands inability to get off to a start but we are gifting teams starts by bowling Anderson. He has regressed and is undeserving of a spot
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WELL I FEEL THE TEAM WHO SCORES 340 RUNS SHOULD WIN THE GAME.HOW CAN YOU NOT WIN BY HAVING 340 ON BOARD.I DONT CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS,ENGLAND SHOULD BLAME THEM SELVES FOR LETTING KIWIS GET THAT CLOSE TO 340.IS IT A REALLY FIGHT BACK BY ENGLAND??AFTER SCORING 340 AND NOT WIN THE GAME.KIWIS CHASED 340 UNDER PRESSURE.SO I FEEL KIWIS DONE WELL NOT TO LOSE THE GAME.
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Can we afford to bowl 15 wides?
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My wife, who knows less about cricket than, oh who can I think of....Scott Styris, asks "how do you cook a mustard bell? it sounds delicious. presumably it is done "A la Collingwood" with sauce by Shah and mascarenhas cheese, with Wright's coal tar soap and broad beans. Sit on your sidebottom in the Anderson shelter to eat it and you'll be ok."
Do you think she needs treatment? OR selection?
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i agree with Mike Wood. England shouldn't have let it get that exciting! and again, Collingwood left wanting in the field. Wonderful innings tho!
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Tough luck for the Kiwis, who as noted did extremely well to pace the chase and should have had the win ... but all credit to the English batsmen, who I thought batted better than NZ to set it up - the difference being, they picked the gaps, whereas NZ picked fielders but ran the runs. In the end it came down to the English bowlers doing well enough in the last 5 overs to bring it back to such a nail-biting end. Truly a great match, and our squad of 12-yr-old would-be cricketers in attendance had a great lesson in how its done.
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you can't criticise Collingwood too much.
He probably did turn to the front line bowlers too often, but showed great captaincy in handing Wright the ball in the final over
I don't think a game like this needs over-assessment, it was a great game - I'd rather talk about the positives
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Although a draw, this feels like a loss. A lot like when my mate Damo gets the beers in, even though it was his round hours ago.
I absolutely agree with you aggers regarding Wright and Mascarenhas, especially when you consider that our frontline bowlers include Broad (young and inexperienced) and Anderson (who despite a number of false dawns, remains fragile).
All on for the third though!
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At international level, the concept of winning by "fewer wickets lost" is obsolete - the rules were changed several years ago to stipulate that, where the scores are level, a tie stands.
It makes sense in that the number of wickets lost has always been a secondary concept in ODI cricket - is there anything wrong with not going down the American route of "we must have a winner at all costs"??
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i do not understand the policy of a wicket keeper being picked who cannot do the basics, making a mess of the retunr from Sidebottom, easy leg side stumping, nearly cost us the game.
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You can look at this in two ways
1) The pitch was that good
2) The bowling from both teams was that bad
As an England fan I was praying for a win but a draw pretty much sums it up. Both teams were poor with the ball and both teams were amazing with the bat, neither deserved to win.
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Hasn't everyone forgotten that last year Australia lost 3-0 here in the Chappell-Hadlee series before going on to win the World Cup, and they lost having got 340 TWICE. England HAVE'NT lost having scored 340 and CAN square a series they should've lost
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Grenville,
First mistakes hes made in nearly 10 ODI's and you want to hang the kid, what planet are you on.
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About 10 overs before the end of the England innings I predicted that we would get 330 and that we would win, but that it would be close. In the end it was closer than I imagined! England really needed to post 350 to feel confident with conditions so favourable for batting, but the mini-collapse in mid-innings and a poor last over saw them fall short.
I share the worries about Jimmy Anderson. He seems to mix good games with dreadful ones and was lucky in the last game to get away with bowling too short. This time the batsmen tucked-in merrily and he produced some pretty embarrassing figures despite finishing well.
One nice thing is to see the tactical improvement in Paul Collingwood. Last summer against India England won despite a series of tactical blunders. Today he did rescue a match that had seemed lost. The one slightly debatable move was to bring in Owais Shah near the end and waste some valuable time when he had Wright and Mascarenhas waiting to bat. Wright came in and played another innings of tremendous bombardment in the closing overs (why was he ever pushed up the order?), but you do wonder what Mascarenhas is doing in the side if he isn't going to bat and doesn't bowl 10 overs. Poor Dimitri! After the T20 there were people pushing his claims to play as an all-rounder in the Test side, now he looks to be in real danger of losing his place even in the ODI side.
Shah has also added further weight to the arguments of the critics who see his returns as rather modest from a now quite large number of ODIs.
A big positive for me was to see how well Cook and Mustard batted together. Cook was scratchy at first, but gained in confidence. The two pushed the singles, rotated the strike well and kept the bowlers off balance, inflicting terrible damage on O'Brian's morale. In the end, Cook was scoring more or less as he pleased at close to a run a ball, using classical strokes to the more improved slogging of Mustard. It really was a quite superb support innings that freed Mustard to hit out and the planning was quite obviously deliberate between the two to play it that way.
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There seems to be a pattern emerging. England go abroad, struggle in their first two serious games or as last year get hammered in the Ashes Test Series and then recover to play reasonably well when its all too late. Surely we need to play more games to acclimatise to the conditions before getting involved in serious games. It seems that international cricketers lose their inhibitions about stress and being away from home too frequently when large sums of money are made available as shown by the scramble for places in the Indian T20 tournaments.
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Interesting article on an obviously exciting game Jonathan
Its a shame most people in Britain are unable to watch even highlights of it. I love my cricket, but ever since the ridiculous decision was made to sell out to Sky, have found myself losing interest.....
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good stuff england, maybe there is fight in the old dog. its a cliche but i think this tour may be a good learning experience and if we can win in the fifth game then the odi part of the winter must be considered good work.
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Tremlett in for Anderson - Otherwise stick with a team that is doing ok
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I don't think that it should be glossed over that we managed to score our 3rd highest ODI total against a team ranked number 3 in the world !
(Referring to comment 16) then it should also not be glossed over that despite his reluctance to go to the bar, then your mate Damo does have a 'talent' when it comes to the reef challenge......
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...and what is more, Grenville, the lad batted fantastically well. I doubt your views will hold much weight with the selectors!
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And the award for most pointless post goes to....
12. At 09:35 AM on 20 Feb 2008, Nigel Bourne for his tall tale about his wife!
Seriously thought why are we thinking this was an ok performance from England when it clearly wasn't? Any team who can't defend a score of 340 needs to have serious words.
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...and what is more, Grenville, the lad batted fantastically well. I doubt your views will hold much weight with the selectors!
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Funny, Pie n Gravy. I don't remember the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú or Channel 4 ever showing highlights of overseas tours, except the odd ashes trip. And then it would have been a half-hour at a different time each night.
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Really enjoyed 'Nigel Bournes' comment!!
Aggers- get the cricket back on the tv, all this sky malarky is pants! We can't even watch highlights.
For a quintessentially english sport how as a country are we going to drum up support from the younger generations if they can't even watch it without their parents paying an over priced subscription to sky? My little brother fully got into cricket during our marvellous Ashes win when he could just wake up and watch it on terestrial...
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Having not watched a full ODI for a couple of years (now live in the US and cricket is hard to come by) I certainly had a great game to welcome me back. But, I was totally disheartened to see that England persist in playing James Anderson - he was as clueless as the last time I watched a ODI. I've no doubt that he can bowl decently (he did so in the closing overs), but he is now the leading strike bowler and he shows no maturity or control - in the opening overs it was obvious that his job was to restrict the run rate and he just went crazy, banging it in and making far too many simple errors. Broad was similar in some respects (the two bouncers in an over and a shouting match with Billy Bowden) but he's the kid now and Anderson doesn't have that excuse. England need another experienced county strike bowler just like Sidebottom, not a pre-Madonna who's never grown up.
I was generally impressed with Collingwood captaincy which is getting plaudits here, but I think his leadership came in fits and starts - he turned it on at the end, but when How and Taylor were going at in the 30-40 over period he was not showing any inclination to take control of the game, he kept bowling himself and Shah and bring back the seamers occasionally with all the fielders on the boundary, it just felt futile and it was almost like he'd bowed to the inevitable.
England obviously have bowling talent, but they need to think about how they're using it on good batting track like Napier.
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I sat up until midnight to see the start of the match last night and only wish I could have seen it all.
However surely England and Paul Collingwood should not be celebrating. After posting 340 we should have enough know-how to win a game.
You have to question the selection - no spinner so Shah has to bowl 7 overs and a bowler (mascher-whatsit) only bowls 2. Masher is presumably picked because he can clout the ball late in the innings and he does not get in?
You also have to question the captain - Anderson and Broad both bowl 10 overs when, from their figures, they must have been rubbish. AND putting on anybody to bowl the last over when they had not bowled could be considered suicidal.
Sorry England, not good enough !!!!
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For those slagging of sky, when on terrestrial would we ever have been able to watch live uninterrupted coverage of an away ODI anyway? Skys coverage is first class and well worth the money!
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@kevin gordon, you must have been watching a different game. The kiwis bowled poorly, were down on intensity in the field (McCullum's drop being a good example), were involved in some terrible run outs, and their most experienced middle order player made the biggest and most crucial blunder of the whole game starting the mini collapse. As the players reactions suggested, NZ LOST THIS GAME. They made more mistakes. Do people remember that the Kiwis chased down 2 330+ scores against the world champions this time last year. They are not ranked 3rd for nothing. (Stats and rankings suggest they are the better team and they aren't that more experienced than this English tea either).
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I know I should add to the moans about England being unable to defend 340, but it was such a cracking game I don't have the heart. Or energy. I stayed up to see us get to 150-odd for none. Awoke instinctively at 5.30am to catch up and found to my joy we had posted 340 and to my horror that NZ were clearly gonna get 341. But they didn't (quite). Relieved I wasn't tempted to sit through all that intervened, which must have been agony once NZ got going. A dream ODI though - let's savour that. Agree that no highlights on terrestrial is a crime (I just happened to be staying somewhere with Sky last night - how do people with it at home ever get any sleep?).
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A very short boundary and a friendly batting track --> a bad day for bowlers.
Daniel Vettori is a pretty useful bowler and even he was getting hammered. If you say that not defending 340 was just not good enough what would you have said when Australia failed to defend over 400 at the Wanderers a couple of years back?
That does not defend Anderson who was flattered by his figures in the 3rd match, tried to bowl the same way last night and was hammered for it, but there were not too many bowlers who did enjoy yesterday's game. What was worrying was that Jimmy Anderson, with all his experience, did not realise that he needed to adjust his length until his final spell, which really rescued his bowling figures.
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I stayed up listening to this game on TMS till 6 15 when it finished! I almost gave up several times thinking we were doomed, very glad i didnt now!
Was a great game and all credit to both sides batting performances maybe not so the bowling but it was obviously a flat flat pitch!
We need another bowler (though hard to drop either Wright or Masch seeing as neither have done anything wrong) and Anderson either needs to sort himself out or be replaced!
We are ranked 7th(?) NZ 3rd(?) in the ODI rankings, so to not be out of the series by now is a good show i think, well done England and good luck for the last game!
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Exciting though the game was, and even though the pitch was a belt, England need to seriously strengthen the bowling. Anderson bowling a couple of bad overs, only to be brought back again and again for small spells each as bad as the previous is unacceptable. Credit to Luke Wright who was overlooked during this farce until the 50th over when he did the job brilliantly. England captains must have confidence in the whole team, otherwise there is no point in some of these guys being picked!!!!!!
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What a fantastic game of cricket. The play towards the end was absolutely exhilarating.
What worries me is the 3rd umpire decision. People are calling for greater involvment of video technology to make decisions to avoid wrong decisions. Last night proved that you can still get it wrong even if you have the video evidence. Although Vettori's bat had crossed the line it was in the air. The stumps were broken. That is out. Vettori was then there to the end.
Still an excellent advert for one day cricket all the same.
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I stayed up listening to this game on TMS till 6 15 when it finished! I almost gave up several times thinking we were doomed, very glad i didnt now!
Was a great game and all credit to both sides batting performances maybe not so the bowling but it was obviously a flat flat pitch!
We need another bowler (though hard to drop either Wright or Masch seeing as neither have done anything wrong) and Anderson either needs to sort himself out or be replaced!
We are ranked 7th(?) NZ 3rd(?) in the ODI rankings, so to not be out of the series by now is a good show i think, well done England and good luck for the last game!
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A very short boundary and a friendly batting track --> a bad day for bowlers.
Daniel Vettori is a pretty useful bowler and even he was getting hammered. If you say that not defending 340 was just not good enough what would you have said when Australia failed to defend over 400 at the Wanderers a couple of years back?
That does not defend Anderson who was flattered by his figures in the 3rd match, tried to bowl the same way last night and was hammered for it, but there were not too many bowlers who did enjoy yesterday's game. What was worrying was that Jimmy Anderson, with all his experience, did not realise that he needed to adjust his length until his final spell, which really rescued his bowling figures.
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@kevin gordon, you must have been watching a different game. The kiwis bowled poorly, were down on intensity in the field (McCullum's drop being a good example), were involved in some terrible run outs, and their most experienced middle order player made the biggest and most crucial blunder of the whole game starting the mini collapse. As the players reactions suggested, NZ LOST THIS GAME. They made more mistakes. Do people remember that the Kiwis chased down 2 330+ scores against the world champions this time last year. They are not ranked 3rd for nothing. (Stats and rankings suggest they are the better team and they aren't that more experienced than this English tea either).
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James Anderson - an eternal plonker - even my granny know's how to bowl in a one day game. It might help if he looked where he was going. Why does anyone play sport with a watch on by the way?
Mustard batted great but he cost us the game when he should have stayed behind the stumps for Colly's shy/run-out :(
Was it the 3rd umpire that fined the Pommies - if so what fine should he get ?
Styris - wot an ignorant toss pot. He barely clapped Jamie How as he came off the pitch after a great knock.
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for those of you complaining of the lack of coverage - get on a computer and go to acricket.com which streams all cricket matches live over the internet. enjoy
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for those of you complaining of the lack of coverage - get on a computer and go to acricket.com which streams all cricket matches live over the internet. enjoy
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for those of you complaining of the lack of coverage - get on a computer and go to acricket.com which streams all cricket matches live over the internet. enjoy
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For you to single out Scott Styris is unbelievable. You always find a way of criticising something Aggers, well done.
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I have noticed that the Colonel has missed a couple of standard catches in this series plus a stumping and run out in this game. I'm pleased that he has finally got going with some runs this time, however have noticed that nobody is pointing out wicketkeeping shortcomings.
I'm not suggesting that we change keeper again, but just observing that everybody was saying that Matt Prior had to be dropped because he made mistakes behind the stumps. He certainly made lots of runs (and not just when the pitch was as flat as a pancake and everybody else is scoring plenty as well)
Apparently as long as you look like you have a good technique then everybody will agree you're a good keeper and will not notice any mistakes, whereas if your ability as a keeper is questioned before you even start, every one you make is a reason for you to be dropped. Even "God's gift to wicketkeepers" Chris Read was prone to dropping catches at times (but who would dare mention this), and he can't bat at all (at international level).
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England should have defended 340.
A tie was a bad result for them and once again James Anderson's inability to bowl in business areas cost us dear.
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That Styris. Brains of a chocolate mouse...
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I,ve only just read your emails but
could not resist a comment about
david f,s comments about chris read.
he obviously has limited cricket
knowledge as everybody with a brain
knows there is not a better keeper
in the country than Read.Also Read only failed to score runs in one of his last four tests.I would leave
mustard to settle in as 50 over keeper
Read back for tests though.......
eventually
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I know I should add to the moans about England being unable to defend 340, but it was such a cracking game I don't have the heart. Or energy. I stayed up to see us get to 150-odd for none. Awoke instinctively at 5.30am to catch up and found to my joy we had posted 340 and to my horror that NZ were clearly gonna get 341. But they didn't (quite). Relieved I wasn't tempted to sit through all that intervened, which must have been agony once NZ got going. A dream ODI though - let's savour that. Agree that no highlights on terrestrial is a crime (I just happened to be staying somewhere with Sky last night - how do people with it at home ever get any sleep?).
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"What worries me is the 3rd umpire's decision..."
I dont think its worth pointing out the 3rd umpire was a Kiwi so I wont.
I have thought over recent years that Anderson has the potential to be a very good international bowler. Indications were last year that he was finally coming good. Now Im not sure so. He has all the ingredients. He swings it like Hoggers, is quicker and taller but he just cant seem to get his control right. The England selectors will probably start looking elsewhere shortly.
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A lot of people seem to be mentioning the kiwis 3-0 win over aus but half the aus team was being rested before the WC.
A wc they went onto win without dropping a single match.
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First, well done and thanks to Luke Wright for saving the game for England. New Zealand are a great chasing side but Englands bowling style was rabbit in the headlights again.
James Anderson inspires no confidence whatsoever. When he's good he's very good but (more frequently) when he's bad he's terrible - a mixture of half-trackers, full tosses and wide hal-volleys.
My other concern is long-term for Stuart Broad. A bit of a similar story to that of a young Ryan Sidebottom who played very early in his career and then had to go away and think about it for a bit (and has looked ever-dependable since he came back). Yes Broad is still very young, a good-looking lad who seems to enjoy the game and is obviously a wholehearted trier. My concern is that at international level on good pitches you need to have something about you to trouble top-order batsmen. Steaming in and bowling around 80 mph with no lateral movement in the air or off the pitch will only bowl people in rather than out. It's OK if you have great accuracy and an relaxed action like Mohammed Asif or Stuart Clarke but Stuart Broad always seems to give 110% yet rarely seems to trouble or hurry batsmen. I may be wrong but it seems to me that he collects most of his wickets as catches in front of the wicket in the covers, point and long off/on. He rarely LBW/bowls anyone, beats the bat or induces an edge from a defensive shot. Luckily for him there are still many misty mornings and green tops in England that he will fluorish on and he is that rarest of things; an English bowler who can also bat and this will probably keep him in the mind of the selectors for some time.
IMHO England should be brave enough to play Monty Panesar in the ODI side. If they are not that brave then Graeme Swann instead - 7 overs for Owais Shahs very occasional part-time slow bowling?! Even more strange was that he kind of got away with it and took a wicket!!!
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This match once again proved, We dont know how to win a match. I felt realy bad about our commmentators and experts comments ' ENGLAND FIGHT BACK' God what are they saying?? after scoring 340 what england done in the field???? once they scored 340, they thought they won the match and there wasnt any plans for restrict NZ scoring below 300. So IMO i think NZ done really well to not loosing this match. Whatever the press say, England can blame only themselves for not winning another match.
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Will people stop complaining about Sky having the cricket coverage. Everyone on this message board seems to have very short memories on how the cricket was messed about when Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú had it, either leaving the cricket to "just popping over to the horse racing/tennis and any other sport they fancy and this was despite the fact that there is both a Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú1 & Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú2 and Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú never showed highlights of the overseas tours, and even on Channel 4 on a Saturday that was taken up with horse racing and the only way to watch the cricket was on Film4 which guess what??? you can only see on cable/satellite.
Secondly, what about all the money that's being put back into cricket, central contracts, floodlights in most of the ground - don't think this would have happened without the money from Sky.
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With regards to the incident of Vettoris "run out" if my understanding of the rules are correct then once you have grounded either your bat or your body you are in run ..irrespective thereafter if your not grounded when the ball strikes the stumps.
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Sharaz:
Only if you have grounded the bat in the crease. If it was grounded outside and then bounced up over the line that is out
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i dont know why everyone is getting on andersons back - his odi record is very good over 85 games. his economy rate is comfortably under 5 and this is someone who bowls with the fielding restrictions at the start of the innings and also bowls at the death. to have a go at mustard already, is a typically english attitude. i believe he ws lucky to be picked, as steven davies at worcestershire is the obvious choice, but his keeping has previously been near perfect and his batting has shown glimpses of being pretty brutal, which is obviously what the england team is after at the top of the order. give the guy a chance!!!!!
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John (#62)
Jimmy Anderson ranges from superb to dreadful according to the day. Over the last 8 months he has mixed some brilliant performances (4-23, 3-32, 3-38 v India, 3-33 v Sri Lanka) with some desperate ones (1-78 v West Indies, 0-79 v India (from 8 overs), 1-86 v New Zealand). Anyone can have an off day, but conceding close to 80 runs in a ODI three times in 8 months is not a record many international bowlers would be proud of.
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So the England team should take heart from a game where:
a) their total should easily have been a winning one
b) despite this advantage they allowed NZ to dominate their frontline bowling, and get within a whisker of victory
c) they luckily managed to scratch out a tie
On the contrary, the coach should come down on them like a ton of bricks for throwing away what should have been an emphatic victory.
With an attitude like this to playing the game, no wonder the Aussies aren't exactly quaking in their boots about the next Ashes series...
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Wednesday's game was a treat. I don't think everyone should be saying that New Zealand should be devastated, or that England have the momentum. New Zealand are an excellent chasing team. I would like to see Australia chase down (or at least get close to) scores in excess of 330 5 or 6 times in a two year period like NZ have. Both sides were lucky and unlucky to get a tie. . Brendon McCullum dropped Cook on 2, so New Zealand could have won easily. If Fulton did not catch Wright on the last ball of England's innings, New Zealand would have lost by one or two runs. In saying that, Styris' poor judgement and Fulton's selection to bat ahead of Oram in the situation probably lost NZ the chance to win. On a positive note, Kevin Pietersen's fielding has improved so much. His run out was awesome, and he actually caught the ball. Jamie How was brilliant. All in all, let's hope the next game in Christchurch is just as good and let's just enjoy good cricket.
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I really do not get some of these criticisms. #64 is one of the worst: has he even looked at the scorecard?
(i) The bat was totally dominant all match. Of specialist batsmen, only Owais Shah and the hapless Peter Fulton failed to cash in.
A flat pitch with nothing in it for the bowlers.
(ii) 17 sixes were scored and 58 fours.
Short boundaries, especially on the leg side.
(iii) The normally metronomic Daniel Vettori who had given England the holy terrors in the first four matches, took 2-66 off nive overs, both his wickets coming in the final slog. These were his 3rd worst figures in New Zealand.
Even the best bowlers were struggling to keep the scoring down.
(iv) Alistair Cook scored at a rapid 78 runs/100 balls. He was by some distance the slowest scorer of the match.
Conditions were ideal for fast scoring.
340 was not a guaranteed winning score by any stretch of the imagination, especially when faced with an batsman who played the innings of his life in the chase. Even at the innings break it was obvious that we had fallen perhaps 20 short of the total that we should have got and that if New Zealand made a decent start it would be close.
If you want to criticise something, criticise the 15 wides that England sent down against 6 by New Zealand. That difference nearly cost England the match. But to say that England's attitude was bad and that we threw the game away is simply absurd.
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Why does everyone have to put England down?
Yes Dimi should have played more a role with the ball but why are people complain about him not batting? Surely it is a good thing that we didn't need to use him?!
How many times have England had awful decisions go against them? Vettori's being a prime example. Lets get behind the team. Like others have said already, the world champions twice posted similar targets against this New Zealand side and failed to hold on so lets look at the positives!!
Final point, why not look for a wicket keeper who can keep properly and bring in a genuine bigger hitter at the top instead of a number 6 or 7 like Shah, step up James Benning at Surrey!!!!
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Why don't we give James Tredwell a chance in our last game of the series?
...Or was he another player pointlessly picked to come out to new Zealand, and not even carry the drinks?
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