Another Thriller

There may well have been little quality on show, but no one can argument with the entertainment value again. As I stated after the Ireland game, at least England are entertaining to watch, with the dullness of the other group, I would imagine that ICC are delighted to have England at the moment.

On one of the numerous occasions that I thought we had blown it today, I had planned to come on here tonight and write about just how crap England have been. Just because we won doesn’t change the fact that we have been absolute garbage in this tournament so far.

And the main reason we won was because of West Indies’ inability to get over the finishing line.

With the exception of the odd individual performance, we just haven’t been good enough. Collectively the batting hasn’t been consistent, the seem bowling has been all over the place, the fielding has been average and certain members of the squad have become almost unpickable.

Today was no different. At 121/1 we looked good, at 151/6 we looked on our way out and a part of me wanted a quick cu de gras and end to the misery. We then recovered to 192/6 and looked set to post a competitve total, hope was reignited, before a club cricket style run out put us back in trouble at 192/7.

Then on 216/7 Luke Wright decides to play the worst shot of his career. Just what was he thinking? To get caught on the boundary with the power play imminent shows a distinct lack of a cricketing brain. That shot should send a clear message to Andy Flower about Wright’s capabilities for the future.

We then get gifted some wides and all of a sudden 255 – 265 looks back on the cards until Graeme Swann decided that he wanted to try and defend a lower total. Another ridiculous shot.

The bowling wasn’t much better. Ok, so Gayle went on a mad scoring spree that would have troubled most bowlers, but I’m sure Tremlett and Bresnan could have made life harder for him.

I find it amazing that we are capable of finding two seemers who managed to perform worse than Jimmy Anderson.

On a positive note, thank God for Graeme Swann. Bopara also did ok with the ball (apart from when asked to catch it) and it was a remarkable comeback for James Tredwell. I also thought for West Indies that Devendra Bishoo looked good and Andre Russell had an impressive all round game.

But West Indies were poor as well, at 222/6, England were on the way home. How can a side capitulate to 225 all out from that position?

England are now starting to remind me off Gordon Brown’s last days as Prime Minister, where someone needs to come along and put them out of their misery. They resemble a lame race horse in need of shooting. How much longer can this punishment go on for?

Depending on results, we now have to decide who to replace Ajmal Shahzad with. Will it be a spinner or a seemer, or maybe a batsman or a wicketkeeper, as at the moment we could do with half a new squad.

I have an off-the-wall suggestion, how about William Hague? He is currently going through a similiar calamitous time to the cricketers, the country could currently do with losing him, and his clangers would be less damaging to us if made in a cricketing capacity.

The way their tournament has gone so far, with the stupid nature of it, England will probably get knocked out by both West Indies and Bangladesh winning at the weekend, nothing would surprise me at the moment.

England are now a best price of 10/1 with Bet365 to win the world cup.