Friday 12 June 2009

Oh Lanka, Lanka. Lanka, Lanka, Lanka, Lanka, Sri Lanka

After getting marmalised by South Africa yesterday, England now have a fair idea how far behind the very best we are at Twenty20. I doubt anyone was surprised that we lost, but so soon after the humiliation against the Netherlands it was pretty demoralising. We’ll know more after the game against India this weekend, but at the moment I’d suggest the thrashing we gave Pakistan was probably more of a one off than the clogging we got from the Dutch.

As usual in (2020) hindsight of defeat I think we made some pretty basic selection errors, most obviously with the batting. Comparing our line up with any other test playing side in the tournament, we just don’t bat deep enough. As soon as KP was third wicket down in the sixth over the game was up, with Collingwood, Foster and MascarAnus batting at five, six and seven. The problem is we’ve got too many medium pace bowling all rounders, and not enough specialist batsmen that can consistently hit the ropes.

Of the eleven that took the field, only Foster is a complete non-bowler - even Shah has been known the turn his arm over), while I’m not sure of the merits of bowling Colly ahead of Mascarenhas, Bopara or Luke Wright, I do know that we sure as hell don’t need all of them if they’re not contributing with the bat. As Colly is captain, the fall guy should be Dimitri who only seems to get picked because Shane Warne championed his cause about three years ago (and it worked for KP) – although I notice he didn’t get too many games for Warney’s Rajastan Royals.

James Foster also looks a bad shout, we’re not getting enough benefit out of him standing up to the stumps to compensate for his batting. Haddin, Sangarakarra, Kamran Akmal, Dhoni, Brendon McCullum and Fletcher are all contributing in a big way at the top of the order for their teams, Foster well, isn’t. Steve Davies gave us a bit of a flier in his only Twenty20 game against the Windies so I’m not sure why he got jettisoned. Hell, even Colly looked ok when he took over from Prior in the recent test match. Why not?

With the current squad all we can probably do is bring Morgan – we identified him as a specialist, so let’s back the judgement - in for Warney’s mate and keep our fingers crossed Bopara and Wright get us a good start. Can’t see it worrying India too much though.

England aside, South Africa were very impressive yesterday, especially their fast bowling and fielding – and to be fair their batting wasn’t given much of a challenge. It’s clear to see why they’re most people’s favourite, but having seen Sri Lanka twice I’m backing them to win the trophy.

Two factors in particular swing it their way, they’ve got by far the best spin bowling attack with Mendis and Murali backed up by Jayasuriya. And with games being played on used pitches expect spin to come into play even more as the tournament progresses. Secondly they’ve got the best opening partnership to launch the innings. Dilshan has been the tournament’s leading batsman to date, and we all know what Jayasuriya can do when the mood takes him.

With the supporting cast including class acts like Malinga the Slinga, Jayawardene and Sangarakkara, and a few big hitters down the order they make a pretty compelling case.

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