ICC ODI World Cup 2011

Oh dear England.

I'm not sure whether I said it in this thread, but I said it in real life. During the quarter finals, pretty much all the top teams bring their A game. New Zealand, Pakistan, Australia and India all did. Sri Lanka has done now too.

I think that this sums it up :p

England were never in the game, losing early wickets and struggling for momentum throughout the innings. This time there was no inspiration with the ball and, frankly, the team looked spent long before the finish. It's been a long winter for them but, the bottom line is, they remain an average one-day team especially away from home
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Also, after being beaten by Ireland and Bangladesh, you need a way to bounce back as a team. Last year, New Zealand got beaten 5-0 by Bangladesh :eek: Then they were whitewashed by India, despite a much improved performance. They then ironed out their mistakes and look where they are now. England need to somehow do the same. Their test team might be good, but losing 6-1 to Aus and then losing to Bangladesh and Ireland and getting dismantled by Sri Lanka doesn't make for good running.
 
Why does every news report give the excuses for the England loss of being mentally and physically tired?

Seriously, all the major teams have had long winters, I think Sri Lanka have just shown how bad England really are when it comes to the important matches. I feel sorry for them losing by such a huge margin, but it was bound to happen soon going by their recent ODI performances (dating back to last year).

Anyways, well played Sri Lanka, it will be interesting to see how they bowl against New Zealand and then subsequently India/Pakistan. Since they don't exactly need to improve their batting when the openers bat like that.
 
Locke said:
Why does every news report give the excuses for the England loss of being mentally and physically tired?
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I've found that the no1 thing that a lot of England fans love complaining about is the conditions. If it's not the conditions that are perfect to their team, then the conditions are apparently crap and the reason that they lost. Because the media can't blame conditions, they've looked for the next best thing. Like Cricinfo said, they're an average ODI team, especially away from home.

I'm quite happy that the people on this forum aren't like that, they're in fact quite gracious in defeat. Being realistic when their team has done well and accepting when they've done poorly.
 
TheCenturion said:
I've found that the no1 thing that a lot of England fans love complaining about is the conditions. If it's not the conditions that are perfect to their team, then the conditions are apparently crap and the reason that they lost. Because the media can't blame conditions, they've looked for the next best thing. Like Cricinfo said, they're an average ODI team, especially away from home.

I'm quite happy that the people on this forum aren't like that, they're in fact quite gracious in defeat. Being realistic when their team has done well and accepting when they've done poorly.
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You can say its not the conditions as much as you want, but the fact is you'r going to be severely hindered in those conditions if the only decent spinner your country has produced in 8 years is Swann.

-edit-

Which in the end results in being an 'average' ODI team away from home, but there's not really anything we can do about it.
 
England's performance throughout the WC:

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Locke said:
Why does every news report give the excuses for the England loss of being mentally and physically tired?
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Err, because they've been away since November, had about 3 days home since then and have played 5 tests, 2 T20, 7 ODI games plus warm up games as well. The only other team who has been through so much is Australia but then they were at home and then only half of their ODI team played in the test matches anyway. Thinking about it, the only bowler who played in a test was Mitchell.

But of course, blaming England's failures on mental & physical exhaustion is hiding the failures of a team that is lacking balance and any kind of stability. The loss of form of Collingwood has left a gap in the team with no certainty of a long term replacement, and Strauss having about 423,958 different opening partners in ODIs is just bonkers - they should have gone with Bell since Australia. They also seemed set on using Yardy as a second spinner throughout the tournament, but he was never the right bowler for the subcontinent. I also thought the loss of Broad was huge - he's by far England's best ODI bowler and one of the few who could offer control. Oh and then there's the batting technique against spin. If someone is bowling stump to stump, use your feet and hit the ball back straight over his head Strauss, don't try hoicking the ball to midwicket!

England should stick to this opening partnership, bring in Rashid (or Dockrell.. ;)) and look at a 4 year plan for the next world cup!
 
Alpherah said:
You can say its not the conditions as much as you want, but the fact is you'r going to be severely hindered in those conditions if the only decent spinner your country has produced in 8 years is Swann.
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But then that's not the fault of the conditions is it? Swann hasn't exactly had a great tournament has he? It's the system in England of producing players that is at fault if only one good spinner is produced. Especially when the pitches in England don't exactly rape the spinners. In fact, I don't think that there's anywhere in the world where spinners wouldn't be useful at all.

Look at South Africa, before the tournament, it would have been inconceivable for them to play more than one spinner in their team. At some points in the tournament, they played with 2 or 3 and Duminy bowled too!

EDIT: Oh I forget to mention that it was also unlucky for England that a lot of key players had to get injured throughout the tournament. That certainly hurt their chances.
 
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TheCenturion said:
EDIT: Oh I forget to mention that it was also unlucky for England that a lot of key players had to get injured throughout the tournament. That certainly hurt their chances.
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Surely you can at least concede that the loss of players was not helped by an overloaded schedule before the start of the tournament?
 
oli collett said:
Surely you can at least concede that the loss of players was not helped by an overloaded schedule before the start of the tournament?
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I can see that England played a lot of cricket in the buildup to the world cup. But they're not the only team. Let's take India for example. I choose India simply because I know most about them.

Let's take an arbitrary date, let's say about 6-7 months before the start of the tournament. So around July/Augsust 2010.

Pakistan was the team touring England. They played 4 tests, 2 T20s and 5 ODIs. Then came the Ashes, 5 tests, 2 T20s and 7 ODIs. That means that in the few months leading up to the tournament, England played 9 Tests, 12 ODIs, and 4 T20s.

India had a 3 test series against Sri Lanka, follwed by 5 ODIs in the tri lateral series with New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Then came a 2 test series against Australia, followed by a single ODI. Then there was a 3 test series against New Zealand, followed by 5 ODIs. Then the big one. A 3 match Test series against South Africa, followed by a T20 and a 5 match ODI series. That gives 11 tests, 16 ODIs and 1 T20.

About 8 of India's Test players also feature in their ODI team. It's about the same for England (I think, feel free to correct me?)

The point that I'm trying to make is that both teams would have been as drained as each other. Yes India played more cricket, but I think that it's balanced out by the fact that they're playing at home in the tournament.

Directly before the world cup, a 7 match ODI series against Australia is more draining than a 5 match series against South Africa. However, I think that England's energy was drained most by losing 6-1. If they had won the ODI series, I think that they would have been MUCH more energised for the World Cup. Getting thumped by Australia certainly wasn't the best preparation for the world cup.
 
You can look for excuses everywhere but the simple fact is that the current England ODI team is not good enough and never was after losing so many of their key players. Most of us (apart from Evangelion :p) had SL as strong favourites going into the game, we knew Eng would be up against it but I don't think any of us expected such a one sided thrashing. It's back to the drawing board but changes definately need to be made.
 
e36Adz said:
Most of us (apart from Evangelion :p) had SL as strong favourites going into the game
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I thought the Poms would pull off one of their ridiculous last-minute lucky breaks. Happy to be wrong about that! :D

we knew Eng would be up against it but I don't think any of us expected such a one sided thrashing.
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You're right, it was highly satisfying. :)
 
The fact that SL got 6 wickets and England got none speaks volumes about the way they struggled to get to grips with the pitch.

I thought the Paks gave WI a proper thrashing but in honesty making 112 runs and trying to defend that was near impossible whereas Eng made 230 runs and still couldnt get a single wicket where the SL's got 6 of their wickets and England won the toss and elected to bat...which is what usually happens 90% of the time where a team wins the toss....i honestly didnt think that SL would have won by 10 wickets...i was expecting them to lose a few before actually winning the game....had SL as the favourites. But there definitely needs to be changes made i think within the Eng ODI setup....having a few major players out with injury definitely did not help Englands cause.

On another note, looks like Smith of SA has resigned...shame really as i think he was a decent captain for SA...things just didnt go his way the other night against NZ and he looked completely and utterly shell shocked at the way SA just crumbled.

Also will be interesting to see if Ponting sticks around or decides to resign as ODI captain...he had a brilliant knock against India but for me i felt it was little too late as throughout the WC hes been a flop with the bat and his captaincy hasnt been all that great especially in their defeat at the hands of Pak.
 
I hope the finals are not disappointing :(

This is my biggest concern is a team will underperform and fail in under 30 overs.
 
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