Posted by That Kumar Sangakkara, eh? He can bat. There’s a decent chance he’s set things up for the perfect England home tournament exit as well where they are ejected after one loss and a bit of rain without having done too much wrong. It’s the way it should be: incomplete and entirely unsatisfactory.
When England reverse-swung their way to victory against Australia, the decision to leave out Steven Finn looked like something of a masterstroke. However, with reverse swing conspicuous by its absence, continuing to leave him out looks more like a novicestroke. His form may have been patchy recently, but Finn has been England’s best one-day bowler for a year or more. It does feel a bit like memories have become spectacularly short.
In rather more cheering news, today we learnt that Cricket Australia employs a ‘Code of Behaviour commissioner’. We’d love to see a complete list of job titles within that organisation.
Can I mention that Cook likes to waste reviews on himself. Is it just because he is captain he has the rights. In the end Irish Eoin was then out to a stinker which is what DRS is meant to be used for.
Other then that I have a soft spot for Sri Lanka. So don’t mind losing to them.
That is entirely true. Cook seems to be getting in first before Broad has a chance of late.
The DRS is a good thing, but the way it is implemented is gloriously nonsensical. It reminds me of playing your joker on It’s A Knockout (can we still mention It’s A Knockout these days?). For those too young to know this reference, a team playing their joker would get double points and some special attention from Stuart Hall.
In fact, international cricket should have Jokers. If a player is out, he can decide either to use the DRS or choose to play the team’s Joker. In this case the batsman can be reprieved if he is able to complete one of five tasks drawn at random from a set of gold envelopes held by the umpire. These will have been agreed by the captains the previous evening in the pub, and will be along the lines of downing a pint of lager without using his hands, or limbo dancing under the height of the stumps with a glass of water balanced on his stomach. If successful, the umpire will signal Joker Won to the scorer by doing the Time Warp, and the batsman shall be given Not Out.
It seemed to me that Kulasekara was Sri Lanka’s joker yesterday
Adopting Bert’s proposals would be a victory for common sense.
The ICC Cricket Committee has dicked around with the ODI playing conditions often enough. It is time for Bert’s method.
Paul Nixon’s take on England is that the top order should be:
KP
Hales/Wright
Bell
Root
Morgan
Buttler
No mention of who’s meant to be captain.
England’s strategy of keeping wickets in hand will come unstuck in good batting conditions. In contrast, Sri Lanka gambled with a pinch-hitter. That made all the difference. More on this on my blog – http://cricketkeeper.blogspot.in/2013/06/lankan-rabbit-outruns-english-trottoise.html