The final along with the whole tournament showed again that 20/20 is great entertainment, I had friends who think/thought cricket is the most boring sport going who loved yesterday's final.
For me as a huge cricket fan nothing beats the first morning of a test match, but I do love the excitement and innovation of 20/20.
Also how good is Joe Root? Does it in all 3 formats of the game, think he has every chance of going on to be England's most complete batsmen ever if he isn't already very close to that already. I am a Yorkshireman so my view on Joe might be slightly biased.
Think he's probably the best British sportsmen right now, just insanely good at batting and fielding. I really hope he doesn't become captain and is allowed to instead, inevitably become England's highest run scorer.
First ball was very bad, second ball was bad and I was in too much pain to watch the rest. Would have thought bowling outside off yorkers would be better than a middle to leg line with the way he was setting himself up.
Yeah this, Braithwaite well known to ove the on side, shoulda been wide on the off, tactic that was used well in previous games.
Reckon that Root over had a lot to do with whatever got said on the field after he was out when batting. Certainly looked pissed off at WI when walking off
I think we should have gone wide yorkers, especially to Samuels are he backs away. Braithwaite showed he can hit inside-out so it would have been a risk but it's still far more difficult to hit sixes over cover than long on.
Credit to braithwaite, his scoop shot changed the dynamic of the game and we got a bit muddled up with our thinking. Mid-off up to Samuels a particularly strange choice.
One thing I was saying to my mates after the New Zealand game was that I didn't think we didn't bowl that well at the death. Those last 4 overs went for 20 and took wickets, everyone's saying it was amazing but it was very results-orientated. Ronchi's hit a full toss down long-off's throat. Anderson's hit a half volley down long-off's throat. If they both go for 6 no-one says they bowled great.
Yesterday in the last 10 balls they hit their mark once (Jordan's last ball to Samuels was perfect). rest of Jordan's over was hittablle, first one went for 4 to vacant long-off region, the rest were mis-hit for ones but I keep thinking we'd got away with them. Stokes then missed his length and also his line, the 1st one is a free hit basically and the others are still too straight. Still no idea how the 3rd six has gone 20 rows back, nowhere near the middle of the bat!
It's obviously super-tough bowling at the death in these pressure situations, and they'll learn from this. Be nice to see them work on some variations, like a slower ball. Would be a lot more difficult to set yourself as a batsman if you knew it would be either a yorker or a slowie, like when Bravo bowls at the back end. Both Jordan and Stokes seem to want to bowl at the death and enjoy the challenge (Stokes maybe not so much now!) so with a bit more practice they'll get better.
All in all England definitely exceeded my expectations. Going to India with only 1 player with IPL experience (Morgan) and he only contributes 66 runs all tournament. Main spinners only bowl 33 overs all tournament for 10 wickets and go at 8.82 an over. To still make the final and be in with a great shout of winning it took some doing and they'll be together as a group for a good few years, so promising signs for sure.
Agree, can't remember but wasn't mid off back then rashid went back and mid off came up and then they just stayed like that when the strike switched. This is normally the fielders fault not the captains and I have to say Rashid is definitely from the Monty Panesar fielding academy, they hide him at fine leg and yet he still manages to do at least one cock up a game. And yeah a few wickets off full tosses and now they are great death bowlers, not sure it works like that. I'm sure once stokes is done with the locker, the wall, the door he will be back better for it though.
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