Cricket World Cup

[BWFC_Insane]

With you on Mott, I just understated it a bit, but I'd be a bit surprised if anyone actually had a "bat less aggressively" template. I know the difference between a team I played in one year that won nowt, and the year later won League and Cup, was 2 regular players, a bit of luck and some fine margins. The other 9, me included, were pretty much "as you were" - maybe we just competed 5% harder from the season before, dunno...they weren't two signings as you sometimes see in League cricket, that won the batting and bowling averages, they were just a bit more versatile than the 2 who dropped out. So I think sometimes smaller changes can have a pretty big impact...If you look at someone like Roy for example, he's not 117 SR, but no slouch either at 102 and I think an average over 40. That's a bit of a hole to fill.

I'd also say, if you look at big totals, we have 2 that are outliers Netherlands and Aus, in all the games we played "at the top" the next one is one run ahead of a block that other countries were achieving.

The CWC we won was certainly a "could've gone either way" in the final. It wasn't a hugely decisive victory, albeit a well welcomed one.

Yeah but you have to look at that 4 years from 2015-2019 as a whole from absolute no hopers we became number one in the world and backed that up by winning a World Cup. Yes it was the barest of margins in the end but over that period even if we’d lost that match we were still super and a great side.

We were the team that sort of made 300 the baseline and it had an impact in that period and tournament. We probably found the WC harder than we might have expected due to the weather and pitches that we ended up playing on maybe not favouring us as much as we planned. In addition the pressure. We definitely struggled with it.

One thing I’m not too sure on is why we have a test coach who was one of the best ODI players and of course is all about promoting that aggressive cricket brand yet he’s not also ODI coach. I get why we split it but if you were drawing up ODI coach shortlists Brendan would surely be near the top.

[Worthy4England]

Bit of a canter for the Aussies, in the end...

[BWFC_Insane]

Disappointing world cup overall. A tournament that did not live up to expectations - few close matches. Teams did not generally perform that well. Conditions were not that even within matches. Format of the tournament also questionable sometimes - I think when matches are closer though that is less an issue!

But the final was fairly poor I thought. Australia bowled relatively well but the pitch did a fair amount for them and India batted uncharacteristically poorly. Then India who have had a superb bowling record did not bowl well. Making it one sided and a bit flat.

[Worthy4England]

I don't think we should be trying too hard to "manufacture" excitement. But that's from the perspective of having played the game for 25 years. An uneven game where we've done the job and beaten whoever, shouldn't have to be a "close one," just because that's where excitement is. As you say, the Final was one-sided and a professional job by the Aussies. Sometimes teams are entitled to that.

It's always going to be difficult, when the conditions shift dramatically over the course of 100 overs, as we saw with the "dew" etc. but short of saying "we're going to play in AC stadia that are absolutely going to be the same for both sides, I'm not sure there's much you could do to solve it, other than have 4, 25 over innings maybe...dunno...

[BWFC_Insane]

I don't think we should be trying too hard to "manufacture" excitement. But that's from the perspective of having played the game for 25 years. An uneven game where we've done the job and beaten whoever, shouldn't have to be a "close one," just because that's where excitement is. As you say, the Final was one-sided and a professional job by the Aussies. Sometimes teams are entitled to that.

It's always going to be difficult, when the conditions shift dramatically over the course of 100 overs, as we saw with the "dew" etc. but short of saying "we're going to play in AC stadia that are absolutely going to be the same for both sides, I'm not sure there's much you could do to solve it, other than have 4, 25 over innings maybe...dunno...

Maybe play the games during the day…but I know…TV.

The WC overall seems to be regarded as a disappointment and I’d say that’s fair. It isn’t a tournament to remember.

[Worthy4England]

I reckon the Aussie fans will remember it pretty fondly.

[Worthy4England]

Decent win, even though WI didn't actually qualify for ICC WC. Probably a decent set of fixtures to introduce new blud.

[TANGODANCER]

Decent win, even though WI didn't actually qualify for ICC WC. Probably a decent set of fixtures to introduce new blud.

Aye, no such thing as a bad win. Sign of things to come?

[TANGODANCER]

A rea ding-donger going on in Us v West-Indies T20 affair. We posted 267 for 3, W.I are currently 74-4.

[Worthy4England]

A rea ding-donger going on in Us v West-Indies T20 affair. We posted 267 for 3, W.I are currently 74-4.

Yeah, big score. You can see why they didn't make CWC...