Yesterday witnessed the first ever TFT live blog. Thanks to Cam and Leo for their entertaining coverage of the game. Here’s Luke Wolstenholme, another new contributor, with his match report. England won by 5-wickets with that man Jonny Bairstow making 86 not out. Even if T20 is not your format of choice, we can all agree that it was great to have England back on our screens after a few months without international cricket. They brought out the big guns, and the game sure didn’t...
England again leaving themselves a lot to do in the closing stages, and maybe there won’t be a South Africa bowler come to the rescue this time.
The fact remains that the good sides find a way to win even when the going gets tough. Winning in the face of adversity helps build great team spirit, not just blowing sides away.
With this present set up someone always seems to come to the party and it varies, which is great.
Slow wickets make for closer matches. I wish the authorities would cater more for this. There’s too many high scoring white ball games that are effectively over well before the end. Good finishes are more involving for the spectator than an endless series of boundaries. Keep the bowlers interested.
White ball can be just as involving as red if you get a better balance in playing conditions.
It should be clear by now that you can make a lot of runs (Malan) in a fashion that will not win for the team unless other people score materially faster than you, inevitably taking more risk. It is the old-fashioned theory of the sheet-anchor resurfacing in a new context. Over time, this doesn’t really work in shorter formats, unless the sheet-anchor not only scores very fast in the later stages of most innings, but also uses up relatively few dot balls. Malan is not Kohli. The success of the England 50 Over side came from realising that players had to contribute optimally in a series of micro-phases of the game. So it was that Jason Roy was given the licence to blast freely at the off, in the knowledge that even if he got out, his scoring rate would be high enough, over a short innings, for the side to be better off at the end of his innings than at the start. Malan is currently #1 in the ratings, and he is a good player, but his approach is not going to win more games than it loses, in the long run.
I hate white ball but agree. Malan sadly is a modern version of the plodder. He isn’t going to last long in white balls as he’s just in a purple patch (Bairstow had this in what 2016??).. sadly, he will have altered his mentality and technique too much that he will compromise any red ball hopes too.
White ball win lose formats are sadly purely for biffers
Sad times
Every side needs a player to stick, even in 20-20, as long as he keeps the scoreboard ticking. These pitches have been pretty slow and timing the ball certainly wasn’t easy today. Taking wickets is important in slowing momentum and preventing this allows players to build innings.
A lot of 20-20’s have comparatively few wickets falling considering the potential risks. Malan is playing a role just like Buutler, Bairstow and Stokes, only his is complimentary.