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Not the case. It was perhaps true that they’d solved modern one-day cricket… but then they came up against Pakistan.
As we said the other day, Pakistan don’t care what year it is. They don’t care how other people are approaching one-day cricket these days, they just do their own thing. Pakistan’s thing is ‘bowling sides out for just over 200’.
England’s thing, by contrast, is buying wickets. They like inflation. With both bat and ball, they splash runs about with abandon and never really worry about the cost.
In the semi-final of the Champions Trophy, the purse strings tightened and England discovered that they had lost the ability to sniff out bargains.
The home team dropped 118 runs on Pakistan’s first wicket alone. Regardless of the opposition’s reputation for providing easily affordable wickets, from that point on they were only ever heading for bankruptcy.
Looking at the Fantasy Cricket league table, I am pleased to see I wasn’t the only one expecting Amir to play and/or Stokes to play better.
However, it seems a lot of the top teams belong to non-commenting readers, or perhaps regular commenters using pseudonyms. Does this mean there is an inverse correlation between cricket knowledge and commenting on this blog? By leaving this comment, am I in fact reducing my cricket knowledge?
If that’s the case, where does it leave the writer of this site?
Correlation does not equal causation.
One possibility is that regular readers and commenters have come to similar views about certain players – eg Shakib is Ace, the Saffers are less choke-prone than ‘people’ think, Kohli is good but maybe just a teency bit overrated by some people- and have selected their teams accordingly, therefore all falling foul of the same cruel winds of fate.
Having said that, I appear to still be in the top 10 or so as I type this, so I may be an anomaly (not for the first time in my life).
Think everyone who entered is going to be a regular reader. We didn’t exactly run a TV ad.
Yeah, I don’t really mean ‘regular reader’, but I don’t know the right phrase.
The Royal Court?
Never thought of you all as courtiers before now. Who’s the jester?
Hello everybody. I am your court jester. At least, I was once a jester in the court of Keele:
http://ianlouisharris.com/1984/08/18/my-first-ringroad-performance-and-related-memories-keele-18-august-1984/
Strangely, the above linked piece, which I wrote up only a couple of weeks’ ago, has a direct bearing on Part Three of the Southport saga, when I get round to writing that.
I’m not at all sure that England has “cracked it” generally.
On those 320+ par score flat tracks that used to consistently prove too racey for England, perhaps. For sure England is one of the best teams in the world on those now.
But on a grubby pitch such as the Lord’s dead rubber against the Saffers or that used-up-and-worn-out thing in Cardiff yesterday…I think not.
Meanwhile, it has been a week for shock results of one kind or another. Here is part one of the story of our shocking long weekend in Southport:
http://ianlouisharris.com/2017/06/09/election-day-plus-the-start-of-our-long-weekend-in-southport-8-9-june-2017/
WARNING: contains the occasional mention of professional cricket.
Did you just paraphrase the article using the same number of words?
No
That’s a heinous accusation. Ged didn’t just paraphrase the article using the same number of words, he paraphrased the article using the same number of words in order to crowbar in a link to his rival cricket blog! Treason!
A trifle unfair to describe Ogblog as a rival site…or a cricket site.
Only 18% of Ogblog pieces to date are categorised “cricket” and many of those are categorised to one or more other categories as well.
So 82% of Ogblog pieces to date have nothing whatever to do with cricket.
Here is a recent example of Ogblog activity entirely unrelated to cricket:
http://ianlouisharris.com/2017/05/30/i-did-want-to-go-to-chelsea-gresham-society-visit-to-chelsea-physic-garden-then-the-other-side-of-hope-curzon-chelsea-30-may-2017/
I do accept the phrase “crowbar in a link”, Mike. Well chosen. Absolutely no-one is obliged to click.
Slightly disappointed in the lack of info on the meals so far, all I really learned is that there was a surfeit of raspberries. I’m hoping Daisy managed to finish the mixed grill at the Bold and claimed a free tee shirt for her efforts.
MIXED GRILL
8oz. Rump Steak, 8oz. Breast of Chicken, 10oz Gammon
Steak, Pork Steak, 2 Pork Sausages, Black pudding, Grilled
Tomatoes, Fried Egg, Onion Rings, Chips and Salad Garnish
£29.95
I just checked the fantasy thing for the first time after I had created the team. My MDP is -5. I haven’t the slightest clue what MDP means, but I am quite proud of my effort.
MatchDay Points.