Thetownend.com

England v West Indies today.

Put everything you have got on Ben Stokes getting out to Marlon Samuels.

I wouldn't recommend that, Samuels is banned from bowling.

Ahh yes, good point.

Although, Stokes does have a knack for getting out in increasingly unconventional ways...

Stokes has had Samuels caught off a no ball, that might fit your criteria...

Chris Gayle is Chris Gayle. What can you do about him?

Bowl properly and with a plan

that was absolutely abysmal today. we didn't have a clue how to cope with gayle and didn't really try anything new to frustrate him.

thought our bowling was typified by Ali's final over, whom after 2 consecutive sixes, decided to bowl a ball in Gayle's arc again, only for it to get pumped over his head.

our bowling is weak, we need to score 20/30 above par to have any chance in beating the competitions best..

He's a freak batter and very difficult to bowl at im sure, a guy today suggested, why dont we just accept that he will stick a few in the stand and instead of having blokes on the fence watching it sail over their heads, stick in three slips and a gully and just bowl outside off.  :hmmm:
not the worst idea iv ever heard actually. but would never happen

Jeez.

4 overs gone and Saffers 50-0

Never seen such incompetent bowling.

5 overs now - 72-0 and Topley, who got thrashed in his first over has dropped a dolly

Actually, we're improving.  The last match against SA, they got 88-0 off the first 6!

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Whoop de fucking do - a wicket!

Yay!  A wicket.  The plan is working.   :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Folding like a pack of cards now, we've got them on the run

If we win this, it'll be good for morale.

Yep. A good game to win.  I wonder how it's going to go...

33 off the first nine balls. Good start.

History in the making?

Root out with 11 to win. Dearie dearie me this game is something else.

Wow!!!

 :wotjump:

Phew. Bloody hell.

Nails are bitten down to the knuckle!! 

What a win, batting performance masks how bad our bowling is. Need to change that attack for the next match.

Go to learn to get the Yorker in...but all the bowlers got thrashed around.

For all the criticism of our bowlers, the most expensive bowler today, economy wise, was Dale Steyn!!

Incredible win.

England need to get a seamer out and Liam Dawson in....NZ showed fairly quickly that you might as well play 5 spinners in India.  I like Reece Topley, but he should go as his fieldling and batting aren't up to much, David Willey can swing it first over or so, and Chris Jordan can catch and hit a few late on

completely agree. spin was always going to be the way to go, nz defended low scores beating India and Australia - their bowling (and team selection) has been terrific

England 59/6 in our bi-annual humiliating loss to the associates (Afghanistan, this time)

Rallied somewhat and finished for 142-7. Should be enough.

I wouldn't bank on that, it's well short of par and our bowling is not world class. 70:30 Afghan for me.

A candidate for understatement of the week.   :)

England get out of jail thanks to Moeen.

Looks like the game against the Sri Lankans will decide who goes through to the semis.

After the Kiwis result yesterday in the other group, one of the two favourites (India, Australia) will not make the semis. The winner of that match will probably go through.

Yep, thanks to Moeen and a fairly dodgy umpiring call on his lbw. And Willey.

If India go out of a home WC in the group stages there will be some serious recriminations.

Lucky, lucky India. Bangladesh choke needing only 2 from 3 balls....and lose 3 wickets !!

Is anyone suggesting a financial arrangement might have been involved?

You can unfortunately never discount it. I believe something smells with Pakistan's record against India in ICC tournaments...Played 12, Lost 12. It's not like Pakistan players have never been caught accepting payments from bookies and their associates...

If you were paid to lose to India that would be a dumb way of doing it. And on the India v Pakistan, there might be a history of corruption there but deliberately losing to India would be effectively treason in Pakistan.

I agree with you, but also the bigger the game...the bigger the payout, and despite all the ICC bluster about catching players that take bungs, it says something that a national newspaper sting has caught more people than the ICC has even done.

I still say the 1999 WC game between Pakistan and Bangladesh was/is bent. After that Bangladesh win, the Asian countries persuaded the ICC to accept Bangladesh as a Test playing nation.

Anyway, back to the cricket, the Saffers will have to have one hell of a bowling stint to stay in the competition.

Saffers got beat by the Windies, so tomorrow it's simple for England. Beat Sri Lanka, and they go through to the semis...lose, and they are going home.

See them monday then ;)

Well this is going rather well...

You spoke too soon...

Oh dear, 21 off the over & its looking dodgy again

Well, this is England.

Exactly...why win by 100 runs when you can win by 1 !!!

Just so long as you win! On to the semis.

Never in doubt

'Well done' to the Afghans!  Now it's India versus the Convicts.  Should be another close one.

Always nice to see the Convicts go home early...

England need 154 to beat the Kiwi's after restricting them to 153-8 after being 89-1 off 10 overs

England WIN !!

Well that was a bit tidy, against a team that have looked proper decent until today.

England have got a good record over the Kiwi's. They beat then also in a warm-up match just before the tournament chasing 170.

Once the openers scored 80 off 8 they knew that they didn't have to do anything stupid. And before today our bowling was the weak link, but they bowled superbly to a plan. To only concede 64 in the last 10 was top notch.

In 2010, we lost our opening game to the Windies, and won the tournament.

In 2016, we lost our opening game to the Windies, and.....

Tighter than a gnat's crotch, to misquote the humourist.

Most complete England performance I've seen in years, we were terrific.

So it's the Windies on Sunday...

West Indies it is then.

 Bit of a surprise ....I'd rather have had India.

Be nice symmetry to beat them after losing to them in the group stages.

If we have to lose to anyone, then the Windies are the best option.

I thought after India got out of jail v the Bangla boys, they'd go on and win, but in T20 it's very difficult to predict, all it takes is for one batter to have a good session, like when Mathews nearly got Sri Lanka home, after being 15-4

Anyone watching the final?

Or are we all glued to the JPT cheering on Barnsley?

I've got it on. Good start.

Morgan 10 dots in 12 deliveries FFS!

Might have to switch off. Seen enough humiliations in last 10 days.

what a shit-show this is

Well we've got a score on the board...

I'ts only Oxford losing that's keeping the knife from my wrists

5-2 Gale gone... :clap:

Ha ha!  Fuck you, Gayle!

Game On !!  11-3...

Simmons' luck finally ran out!

It's been passed onto Samuels' with the longest delay for a third umpire call I've ever seen...

111-6....45 needed off 4

tense 22 from 10

oh ffs, Stokes you knob.

All that hard work thrown away in 3 deliveries!  :badmood:

Bugger..But fair play to the guy hitting 4 sixes in a row...

yet again Stokes proves to be the match-winner

Gutted to lose that. Terrific bowling performance right up until 19 overs. Got to feel for Stokes, who took 3 good catches to keep us in it only to bowl 4 balls in the slot to be spanked for 6. We are only going to get stronger and the brand of cricket that we are playing is what has been dying out for, for years.

This...Stokes will be disappointed with the first as it was down the leg side...the other 3 were probably inches from being perfect. You just have to give credit to the batsman, and Samuels for keeping the chase together. That's now 2 finals he's guided them home in.

Completely agree.
It was a great final with it swinging backwards and forwards in each team's favour, and a neutral must have loved the end.

Brilliant final, shame to come out on the wrong side of it but these things happen. The improvement from how we approach one day cricket now to 12-24 months ago is incredible.

Quite how Marlon Samuels scored that many with that technique is a mystery though, he backs away to leg so much that it genuinely looks like he's scared of the ball. The Buttler catch was clean though, those things always look dubious on the slow motion replay.

Congratulations Windies mind, Brathwaite looks quite a find and whilst there's a fair few old guys in that team, their U19s won the equivalent tournament early this year.

I'm surprised you didn't mention their ladies also won, a good boost for Caribbean cricket.

Cricket is a delicate flower presently being battered by some strong winds.

First County Championship matches in about a fortnight, in the meantime a trip to the Parks for Toffs v Norhants could be in order.  Should be safe enough....I'm assuming the Scum aren't doing the open bus tour, although having said that, they did have one for finishing 3rd in the Conference.

Indeed they did, and I watched that game - but as talented as she is I don't expect Hayley Matthews to replace Chris Gayle at the top of the order.

Will be nice to have the cricket season back. My personal goal is to improve on last season, which given I averaged 0.8 with the bat and 100 with the ball shouldn't be too tricky.