Thought we'd thrown that away. Jordan and Stoke awesome at the death. As Tutt Tutt says we need a long hard think about the two spinners for the semis as they nearly cost us that. Maybe Root bowls a bit of part-time to support five seamers?
A couple of key moments for me in the match - Stokes six off last ball - without that SL might have only had 6 to chase in last over and played it differently....and Joe Roots catch - would have gone for 4 - think we would have lost without that.
Horses for courses, if we got to the final the pitch could well suit Ali & Rashid, we'd be silly to leave them both out. But today they got targeted by a man who needed to target them
Great match, brilliant from the England pace bowlers. I think it's easy to be too harsh on the England spinners, for the majority of their bowling spells England were comfortably ahead, so was an obvious temptation to go for wickets rather than just keep it tight. However, they can't afford to let it happen again, especially up against NZ/Aus/WI etc. Great batting performance from Buttler and Roy, hopefully England can give it a real crack in the semis.
The thing about the Ali over, he knew he would get caned but just did his normal game. He should have extended his run up and trundled down a few medium pacers.
Stokes is literally incredible. Faces one ball and hits it for six, athleticism for the run out and then the nerve to bowl that last over like he did. All of the pacers did a good job today, yes even Chris Jordan. I've been a critic of his but when he gets it right, he is probably one of the top 10 death bowlers in this format. I genuinely wouldn't worry too much about the spinners. In this format there will be matches when they are targeted and the majority of the time, they will go for big runs. Dropping them for the semi final isn't a solution in my opinion.
I'm quietly confident about facing the Kiwi's. We proved last year we can give them a game and that was before BMac's retirement. Did anyone else hear on 5live that no team that has won the tournament has gone through it unbeaten? Good omen if we play NZ then WI!
The amount of top quality matches in this tournament has been astounding. Purists are not going to like this, but T20 is cricket. it will only get bigger when the product is that good.
Comments
Never a doubt.
Think I need a lie down
Can we afford two spinners next time?
That said catches were dropped.
Genuinely interested as to why the poor crowd turnout? Has it been like that throughout the tournament?
I'm quietly confident about facing the Kiwi's. We proved last year we can give them a game and that was before BMac's retirement. Did anyone else hear on 5live that no team that has won the tournament has gone through it unbeaten? Good omen if we play NZ then WI!
In this format anything can happen. Only needs a special innings from someone and that can win you the match.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/35793813