Life is a Rollercoaster - England Story

[Chasjs]

Group Stage and Quarter Final Draw

Here's the final group standings for the 2011 World Cup and the Quarter-final draw.


Obviously the big surprise was Bangladesh qualifying instead of one of their co-host India. I'm suprised as we beat India with a good performance while we beat Bangladesh pureply because they were poor. England have been drawn against Sri Lanka in the quarter final but I'm confident we can give it a good go and hopefully progress past this round and to the Semi-finals and beyond. However, if we do make the Semi's it's probable we'll play Australia. We've lost 5 on the bounce vs them now but on any given day you never know, we'll beat them again some day, why not then?

But first it's Sri Lanka, the side that effectively knocked us out of the World T20 on home soil. Now we have the oppertity to repay the favour and the side are eager for revenge.

[Chasjs]

Sri Lanka Game (Quarter Final)

England opt for no changes going into the quarter-final tie vs Sri Lanka

England win the toss and choose to bat.
Vaughan is England's first wicket to fall. Pietersen looks in good form, that is unless he becomes Murilis first victim. Bopara is again run out by Strauss. Strauss hits 35 but never really gets going. Flintoff looks in better touch but is trap lbw by Mendis. Mendis then gets Wright and England are in serious trouble. Davies and Swann try to get England going again but their attepmts are in vain as England are bowled out for what looks to be a below par score of 159.

Englands pace bowlers gets of to a good start. Sangakkara runs out his openining partner Tharanga exposing Matthew's who edges Broad to the keeper the very next over. Jayawardene hits Anderson for consecutive 4s but edges him to the slips next ball. Anderson then gets the other opener Sangakkara for 15 in his next over. Flintoff joins in the wicket taking, Samaraweera edging to Davies. Dilshan smashes the ball straight to short fine leg in Broads next over. Anderson makes no mistake, taking the catch leaving Sri Lanka 45/6 after 15 overs.

Swann and Yardy continue the pressure keeping both ends tight. The pressure eventually gets to Paranavitana and Swann traps him lbw. Yardy picks up the wicket of Saman net over putting England firmly in the driving seat. Broad strikes next removing Kulasekara leaving England 1 wicket from the semi-finals and Sri Lanka still 41 runs away. Broad only takes two balls, sealing the win for England and their place in the next round, bowling Sri Lanka out for 120 and dumping the co-hosts out of the competition.

England win by 39 runs
Man of the Match - Broad
England Man of the Match - Broad, fantastic bowling perfomance of 4-23.
Other Notable Mentions - Anderson, Flintoff, Swann, Yardy
Poor Game - Vaughan, Wright, Davies

World Cup Knock-out Round-up
I really thought we were out of the tornament after making such a poor score. The only thing that gave me a little hope was that the wicket looked a little bowler friendly and our bowlers have been in pretty good form in the tornament. Also the day before Australia batted first (on what I presume must be the same ground) and hit 185 all out, then they bowled out Paksitan for 81. Our victory has set up a semi-final tie with them.
On the other side of the knockout New Zealand delt with the only remaining co-host, knocking out Bangladesh while South Africa sent the West Indies on the long journey back home.

[Chasjs]

Australia Game (Semi-Final)

With no reason to change the team we go into the game hopeful of ending our losing steak vs Austrlia and reaching the final of the World Cup.

Australia win the toss and choose to bat.
Anderson bowls Rogers second over. Even so Hughes goes along strongly and with support from Ponting Ausralia reach 86/1 after the 15 powerplay overs. Swann and Yardy get to work and after a few decent overs Swann traps Hughes lbw for 60. Yardy takes the wicket of Ponting for 63. Swann and Yardy complete their overs after going for a combined 75/2. Watson and Clarke stabalise the innings for the Aussies and then accerlerate the run rate and scoring 63 in the batting powerplay.

They carry on by smashing Flintoff and Anderson for 4s all around the pitch. Anderson traps Watson lbw and Flintoff deals with Jaques. But the pair can't prevent Austrlia racing from 161/3 after 35 overs to 311/5 after 50.

England start their chase by sending Davies to the top of the order. He promptly hits 28 runs off 19 balls but fails to go on and make anything substantial when Johnson traps him lbw. Strauss takes the attack to the Aussies now pushing England up to 57/1 after 10 overs. Then wickets tumble, first Vaughan, then Pietersen, then Strauss as England fall to 78/4 after 15 overs. England lose Flintoff, Wright and Yardy but Bopara looks in fine form at the other end. He finds a partner in Swann but only until he himself is out for 62 and it looks like Australia's unbeaten streak in the competition will carry on. Swann makes 30 as England but England are bowled out for 221, 91 runs short of their target.

Australia win by 90 runs
Man of the Match - Watson
England Man of the Match - Bopara
Other Notable Mentions - Yardy, Swann
Poor Game - Flintoff, Broad, Anderson, Vaughan, Pietersen, Wight

World Cup Knock-out Round-up
South Africa set New Zealand a target of 236 in the other game. New Zealand fail to chase it and are bowled out for 156. South Africa winning to set up a repeat of the 2003 World Cup final. The final sees South Africa chase down Australias score and win by 5 wickets to end Australia's domination of the of the tournament and put to bed their tag of always choking near the end of tournaments by winning their second World Cup in two years.

[Imager36]

Shame. Bloomin' Aussies, shattering all your hopes and dreams You get a vote of confidence from this forum, the ECB can't sack you now for your bad ashes and ODI vs Australia results

[Chasjs]

World Cup Reaction

It's a real disappointment to go out one game from a final and to lose to Australia yet again. Still it was a good showing in the tournament after a pretty disappointing year, only winning one series, the Tests vs Bangladesh. Still their were plenty of bright spots and it was the same with this tournament. But before that lets deal with the batting. There wasn't much of a team performance, if the team scored lots of runs it was largely due to just one or two of the players. It also had the tendancy to just collapse which is something that needs to be worked on. Most of the batsmen got a couple of big scores but their was only one century, which isn't good enough. Those batsmen who make big scores shwould be looking to turn them into centuires.
The bowling, on the other hand, was good for the most part, aside from the pace bowlers getting whacked by Clarke and Watson in the Semi-final. Before then they had bowled pretty tightly at the at the start of innings picking up wickets while in most matches they managed to stay on top of the batsmen at the death. They were only on top in the first place, though, thanks to the spinners. Yardy has proved himself to be a great pick and despite not getting too many runs his partnership with Swann in those middle overs really stop opposing teams in their tracks. Which brings me neatly onto my Man of the Series.

Man of the Series - Swann, bowled almost as economically as Yardy and also picked up a fair few wickets.

[Chasjs]

World Cup Highlights

Pietersen's 120 vs Canada, it was only Canada but still, a really big score.



Swann and Yardy's bowling vs Australia in the semi-final. Had Clarke and Watson not exploded vs the quicker bowlers Australia would've had a sub-par score.



Wright's 84 vs Bangladesh, played well when England needed him too.



Defending 159 vs Sri Lanka, I thought it was impossible.

[Chasjs]

2010/11 Season Review - Test Team

Results:
Home Bangladesh - 2-0
Home West Indies - 2-3
Away Australia - 0-4

Batting:


Bowling:


Player of the Year - Pietersen

[Chasjs]

2010/11 Season Review - ODI Team

Results:
Home Bangladesh - 1-2
Home West Indies - 1-4
Away Australia - 1-4
World Cup - Semi-finals

Batting:


Bowling:


Player of the Year - Wright

[Chasjs]

2010/11 Test Rankings

Championship


Batting

25 - Flintoff
26 - Ambrose
55 - Bell
64 - Broad
66 - Bresnan
70 - Cobb
80 - Collingwood
84 - Rashid
85 - Davies
88 - Swann
94 - Vaughan
100 - Trott
110 - Anderson
120 - Woakes
125 - Wright
127 - Denly
134 - Morgan
141 - Moore

Bowling

21 - Anderson
25 - Swann
33 - Broad
47 - Bresnan
55 - Pietersen

[Chasjs]

2010/11 ODI Rankings

Championship


Batting

21 - Vaughan
23 - Bopara
30 - Wright
43 - Collingwood
55 - Flintoff
57 - Broad
78 - Davies
98 - Swann
107 - Yardy
110 - Anderson

Bowling

21 - Flintoff
55 - Rashid
70 - Wright

[Chasjs]

First Test

First up this summer India visit for 3 Tests. But England start the summer with injuries to key players. Both batting and bowling is weakened with the losses of Bopara, Bell, Broad and Prior. These injuries, however, give oppertuinites to other players and while Cobb, Wright and Woakes were expected to feature at some stage in the series there is also room for young fast bowler Finn and his Middlesex team-mate Morgan, both of whom have been in good form so far this season. Collingwood also makes the squad and after a disappointing year in the Test match arena last term the injuries have given him an oppertuinity to show what he can do.
The England management refused to answer questions on the capaincy of the one day side for the series that follows and whether Strauss, after a disappointing year in ODIs will keep his place in the squad. Even so, in the lead up to the game Cook stated he had been working on his game in recent months. He also stated that he was keen to show the selectors he is ready to play in the shorter formats and that he is ready to start playing more expansive shots.
The final 11 picked for the first Test leaves out Morgan. In the end it came down to either Morgan or Wright with Wright winning based on his ability to add to the bowling attack.

India's openers start well until Finn comes on first change. He takes 2 wickets in his first spell. Most of Indias batsmen get starts but none can really push on to a big score as England bowl them out for 275.
England's openers make a good but steady start to the innings, surviving the final few overs of the first day, batting well into the second session of the next. They put on 148 runs together until Cook is bowled for 54. Strauss reaches his century just after tea.

Cobb starts well but chips the ball straight back to the bowler and is out for 35. England lose 3 quick wickets before the close, Pietersen(1), Collingwood(8) and Wright(21), but end the day 2 runs ahead. Strauss is out early next morning but only after amassing 167 runs. Ambrose goes on to hit a century after partnerships of 33, 89 and 81 with Swann(13), Woakes(41) and Anderson(33) respectively. Ambrose eventually runs out of partners and is left not out on 139 giving England a commanding lead of 266 with over 2 days of play left.
Anderson and Finn take the new ball, Finn striking in his first over. Tendulkar runs out Gambhir and Finn claims his second wicket of the innings, Tiwary for a duck, before the close of play with India 73/3 and in all sorts of trouble.

Tendulkar makes just 33 before Woakes traps him lbw on the morning of day 4 for 33. Swann and Anderson finish India off with Swann taking 4 wickets as England in convincingly by an innings and 72 runs.

England Man of the Match - Strauss
Other Notable Mentions - Ambrose, Finn, Swann, Woakes, Anderson
Poor Game - Pietersen, Collingwood

[Chasjs]

Shame. Bloomin' Aussies, shattering all your hopes and dreams You get a vote of confidence from this forum, the ECB can't sack you now for your bad ashes and ODI vs Australia results

No danger of me being sacked. World Cup Semi isn't too bad.

And Luke Wright's getting a chance in the Test side.

[Imager36]

No danger of me being sacked. World Cup Semi isn't too bad.

True, it was more the ashes that I was worrying about, but they'll keep you on after that win over India. Top notch.

[Chasjs]

Second Test

Bopara recovers from injury and comes into the side in place of Collingwood. Otherwise England are unchanged for a game which looks to be a complete wash-out.

England win the toss and bat first.
England lose both openers early but Bopara and Pietersen combine with the latter racing to a century. Pietersen make few more runs though and is out for 107 after a 194 run partnershop with Bopara who is still going strongly. He also reaches his century and keeps on going till the end of play but loses Cobb(20) and Wright(0) in the final half an hour.

England lose the wickets of Bopara(136) and Ambrose(39) quickly the next morning and are bowled out before lunch for 368.
India are left with 3 overs of the morning session left but England take the wicket of Badrinath for a duck. The the next 2 sessions are rain affected and in what little play their is Woakes traps Tendulkar lbw. But Gambhir and Tiwary both hit centuries on the third day as India close in on England's first innings total. Tiwary is out for 126 and Sehwag and Rahane make little impact. Swann comes into the attack and takes the wickets of Patel and Ifran Pathan.

He then gets the better of Gambhir removing him for 213. Swann then finishes the job before the end of day 3 after taking the last 5 Indian wickets.
With a deficit of 61 Englands openers survive the one over before the close of play. There are only 2 overs possible before lunch on day 4 and 5 overs in the afternoon. The final session is better with 12 overs played and England lose Strauss for 13. The next day is similar, Bopara and Cook bat out the 4 overs played in the morning and the final 2 sessions are a complete washout. The match is drawn after losing 12 hours and 39 minutes.

England Man of the Match - Swann, good bowling figures, didn't do too much damage in his first spell but destroyed India's lower order with his second.
Other Notable Mentions - Bopara, Pietersen
Poor Game - Cook, Strauss, Wright

[Chasjs]

Third Test

With Bell recovering from injury he is drafted back into the squad ahead of Collingwood. Picking the 11 players to play the game is a difficult decision but in the end Wright, with a draw needed for an important series victory, Wright was the man to miss out.

England win the toss and bat first.
Englands batsmen mostly disappoint on the first day. Most of them gets starts but none of them can go on, Strauss(41), Bopara(45) and Pietersen(37) top-scoring.

The second day starts much better with both Ambrose and Woakes reaching 50. Woakes gets to 61 and Ambrose makes 73. Englands final pair put on 54 runs together, Finn with 33 and Anderson 30 not out to push England to a first innings total of 413.
India earn themselves a lead of 111 with some impressive batting from Vijay(88), Tendulkar(230) and Sehwag(93) with Swann taking 7 wickets.

England bat out the last over of day 3. Day 4 is rain affected and only 32 overs are possible. England enter the final day with a 30 run deficit and 8 wickets still intact. India wake 6 wickets in the morning session as England move to a lead of 24. Most of the afternoon session is rained off and only 1 over possible. India take the two wickets required early in the evening giving them 21 overs to score 44 runs.
England manage to take a few wickets but India complete their task with several overs to spare an level the series 1-1.

England Man of the Match - Swann
Other Notable Mentions - Ambrose
Poor Game - Cook, Bell, Cobb, Finn, Anderson