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Showing posts with label Barmy Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barmy Army. Show all posts

Tuesday 24 February 2015

CWC 2015 - Englands Easy Win Against Scotland

#England v #Scotland, #HagleyOval, #Christchurch
23rd Feb 2015

England finally opened their account with 2 points against minnows and neighbors Scotland at the Hagley Oval, Christchurch today.

After two demoralizing and devastating losses to Australia (by 100+ runs) and NewZealand (by 8 wickets and 25 overs to spare) in their opening two games, England did themselves and their confidence some good by winning their game today.

Looking at their form, it was expected that Scotland would put up a fight and look to upset the Englishmen. But, the England team looked like they were on a mission to shrug off those two defeats and start afresh.

Riding on wonderful #allround performance by #MoeenAli (century and two wickets), England won the match by 119 runs and lot of respect kept intact. If they had allowed Scotland to get any closer, they would have been badly hurt further.

To be fait to them, they ran into two dominant sides in their first two games. Both Aus and NZ and clear favorites to win the world cup and England came a cropper against them. They needed a minnow like Scotland to register their first win, but this should give them some confidence going into another crucial match against #SriLanka on 1st Mar 2015 at #Wellington. Very important game in that group.

The abandoned tie between #Ban v #Aus at the #GABBA has already thrown this group split wide open. 

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Friday 23 January 2015

Will England Be Fourth Time Lucky?

#England teams have been enigmatic over the years.

They reached 3 Finals in the first 5 editions of the Cricket World Cup, losing on all three occasions
(to West Indies in 1979, to Australia in 1987 and to Pakistan in 1992). Until then, they were a very powerful force to reckon with in one dayers.

The advent of modern day cricket (pinch hitting, powerplays, etc) seemed to derail them completely from the format. Add to that key retirements including Ian Botham, Graham Gooch. Mike Gatting, Robin Smith, etc and their downfall happened pretty sharply over the years.

1996 saw them blown away by a rampaging Jayasuriya in the quarter finals
In 1999, they couldnt reach the #SuperSixes stage (in their home World Cup)
Repeat poor performances in 2003 (South Africa), 2007 (West Indies) and 2011 (India) indicated a big down-slide of this side.

However, with fresh new talent coming in, they have slowly crept up the ladder to top of the tree by 2012. Excellent combination of batting. bowling and all round ability led them to dominate both test and one day cricket for a while.

So, how does it look for them at the 2015 Cricket World Cup?
The team looks settled but low on pure skills. 

Batting:
Morgan, Bell will need to lead talented youngsters in tough situations and crunch moments in tight matches. 

Bowling:
Definitely their biggest strength especially with Anderson and Finn leading that attack. Spin is a worry since retirement of Graeme Swann.

All Round Ability:
Broad, Ali, Bopara should do well to contribute with either bat or ball.

All in all, they need to play well above their potential and ability to win this world cup.
All the best #Poms!

Team England for the Cricket World Cup 2015 

Eoin Morgan
Moeen Ali
Garry Ballance
Ian Bell
Ravi Bopara
Jos Butler
Stuart Broad
Alex Hales
Joe Root
Chris Jordan
James Tredwell
James Taylor
Chris Woakes
James Anderson
Steven Finn