Yesterday’s ODI was obviously overshadowed by broader political events. So much so, in fact, that I must admit I missed most of the game. Sorry! Therefore I can’t really offer too much insight. Perhaps those who actually watched the action live might share their thoughts in the comments.
What’s pretty obvious though, just looking at the scorecard, is that England played very well. The bowlers did their bit again – and Adil Rashid bowled beautifully for the second game in a row – and the batsmen, all two of them, were superb.
It was really good to see Jason Roy get some runs and finally put in the dominant performance we know he’s capable of. I asked him to ‘pull his finger out’ in my review of the first ODI, so it’s good to know that he’s an avid TFT reader. I’m sure he did it just for me. Ahem.
As for Alex Hales, his excellent run just gets more, erm, excellent. He looks full of confidence and the Sri Lankans must be sick of the sight of him. Confidence goes a long way, and he currently looks a completely different cricketer to the forlorn and dejected test opener who was schooled by South Africa’s seamers during the winter.
One hopes Hales can continue to prosper against Pakistan during the second half of the summer. I’m going to reserve judgement, as Sri Lanka are clearly no great shakes, but his new found confidence will stand him in good stead. He played some awesome shots yesterday (judging by the highlights).
On a side note, England have now taken an unassailable lead in the Super Series. Did you even notice?
James Morgan
I was there and what it showed me is how even a relatively poor batting display can yield what used to be a respectable total. Also England openers batted the situation, pulled their necks in and cruised to a 10 wicket victory. I suspect much to the disappointment of some pundits, they didn’t just throw the bat from ball one, but rather had a look, built a platform then launched. That won’t always be what’s needed but when it is, it’s an intelligent reply.
Absolutely. I only caught the end when they were throwing the bat a bit. It’s promising that Roy got his head down to begin with. He’s got all the shots. Just needs to practice when to use them.
500 plus people in our work cricket chat room usually, very little interest from the room in this SL series as its been so poor and one sided predominantly. today there was no chat on the women’s game as that’s also an utterly pointless series and today’s game looks the same one sided game.
Sad for the game, sad to see