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Do England have a problem with finishing games off?

Boofra

Cricket Spectator
England's recent return to power has been great, but have some bad habits from the Atherton/Hussain era carried over? And by that i reckon that despite all of England's recent success, especially in tests, they have a problem with finishing games off. Here's a recent list that reflects this:

*Edgbaston vs Australia when we nearly lost the unloseable

*Old Trafford vs Aus - 30 overs left and 3 wickets to get but somehow couldnt reach the finishing line

*Trent Bridge vs Aus- nearly choked chasing 130 odd

*The Oval vs Aus - one day to go with a lead and nine wickets in hand, and had it not been for KP we probably would have lost that test. We should have closed that test out.

*1st Test vs Pakistan - chasing 197 odd and were cruising but somehow managed to blow it.

*3rd Test vs Pakistan - 2 down after tea on the last day and lose 8 wickets in no time to lose the unloseable

*2nd test vs India - skittled for 170 odd in the 2nd dig when a draw should have been very achievable.

*1st ODI vs India - cruising with less than 100 to get and with 7 wickets in hand but end up losing by 30-40 runs.

*2nd ODI vs India - had India 5 down with 130 to get but India get home with 4 wickets to spare.

Is this a concern? I reckon it is because a really good team such as England should be finishing most of these games off in more impressive fashion.

6 of those 9 above matches involved batting collapses which is an area i still have concerns for England. Bell (or whoever) and Pietersen are abit wobbly at 4 & 5. And i dont reckon Jones is good enough to be a no.7. Could be a problem during the Ashes if England lose early wickets, something they didnt really do with Tresco/Strauss putting on a few good opening partnerships.
 

adharcric

International Coach
Jones is nowhere close to being good enough to bat #7 in a world-class team, which England certainly is. I haven't seen anything impressive from him at all lately. Even rate Harbhajan Singh above him as a batsman.
 

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
I think they definitely do. It was clearly visible during the Ashes, where England got into a strong position in each of the middle three tests and let it slip to where one was a draw and the others nearly lost. Then they've been in strong positions in Pakistan and in India in the tests on several occasions and let them get away.
 

aussie

Hall of Fame Member
i think its a problem yea by those stats shown here we can see that, but i dont think its major since England still have a great test record over the past 2 years.
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
adharcric said:
Jones is nowhere close to being good enough to bat #7 in a world-class team, which England certainly is. I haven't seen anything impressive from him at all lately. Even rate Harbhajan Singh above him as a batsman.
Rubbish and you know it!
 

FaaipDeOiad

Hall of Fame Member
Jones is a fairly average batsman, it must be said. He's certainly worse with the bat than the keepers in any of the other top 8 test sides. Gilchrist, Sangakkara, Dhoni, Akmal, Boucher, McCullum and Ramdin are all better batsmen generally, though Ramdin is probably pretty close.

He's still better than Harbhajan though.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
NZTailender said:
They seem to vs NZ in ODI's?

India's ODI resurgence started with SL at home.

Since then, its been:

6-1 against SL
2-2 against SA
4-1 against PAK
2-0 against ENG so far


They havent played NZ for a while.
 

NZTailender

I can't believe I ate the whole thing
silentstriker said:
India's ODI resurgence started with SL at home.

Since then, its been:

6-1 against SL
2-2 against SA
4-1 against PAK
2-0 against ENG so far


They havent played NZ for a while.

Haven't all of those been at home, though?


Genuine question because I can't remember where the SL and Pak series were played.
 

silentstriker

The Wheel is Forever
NZTailender said:
Haven't all of those been at home, though?


Genuine question because I can't remember where the SL and Pak series were played.

SL, SA and ENG have been at home, PAK was away.
 

adharcric

International Coach
FaaipDeOiad said:
Jones is a fairly average batsman, it must be said. He's certainly worse with the bat than the keepers in any of the other top 8 test sides. Gilchrist, Sangakkara, Dhoni, Akmal, Boucher, McCullum and Ramdin are all better batsmen generally, though Ramdin is probably pretty close.

He's still better than Harbhajan though.
I'm not talking about potential or ability here; quite frankly, I haven't followed Geraint Jones as long as you England fans have. But based on what I've seen over the past few months, Harbhajan Singh has posed much more of a threat with the bat than Jones. Not only has he scored more runs, he's actually been able to stay at the crease.

This season: Jones has 58 runs @ 9.66, Bhajji has 74 runs @ 37.
Even going back to last season, Jones made 70 against Australia but apart from that, the same rubbish. Now I'm not legitimately saying that Jones is tailender material, but that's what he's been playing like of late. I couldn't care less how Jones and Bhajji compare, the point here is that the former is seriously hurting this England team at #7 while other teams have guys like Dhoni/Pathan, Boucher/Pollock and Hussey/Clarke coming in at that point.
 
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Jono

Virat Kohli (c)
NZTailender said:
They seem to vs NZ in ODI's?
India have been in positions to finish the game off against NZ recently? If my memory serves me correct, bar that game where Vettori and Bond didn't play, NZ have always had the upper hand pretty much in recent times. Even in that final they played in the triangular series in Zimbabwe, India were never in a position to finish NZ off.

So no they don't :p

Only time India managed to finish NZ off in recent times was in the World Cup ;)
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
NZTailender said:
Haven't all of those been at home, though?


Genuine question because I can't remember where the SL and Pak series were played.
But India had only beaten Zim in a home ODI series before this season in the past 3 or 4 years.
 

Pothas

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
In ODI's England certainly have problems finishing games off as the first two games against India have shown, i think they have the potential to be a very good side in one day cricket they just havnt got the mental capacity that they now have in tests.

In test matches in the last couple of years England have actualy been very good at finishing teams of. They way the won all 3 tests against New Zeland in 2004 from very tight positions and they anialated West Indies home and away. They also showed a similar killer instinct in South Africa in a close series. In the Ashes England clearly should have won by more comfortbably than they did but I think that was more to do with the brilliance of an Australian side not at there best but still almost managing to win. There hav been some horrible batting collapses in the Sub-Continent and Englands batting line up is an unsecure one but i dont think this is evidence that England cant covert good positions into test match wins.
 

Barney Rubble

International Coach
Regarding Geraint Jones, I personally think he has a lot talent as a batsman, and will be a very useful Test batsman as soon as he straightens out his defensive technique a little and starts playing with a little more confidence. He does need to learn how to bat in ODIs, though - he's in danger of losing his place.
 

luckyeddie

Cricket Web Staff Member
When the pressure's on, our bowlers flap,
and when batting, we give it some tap
but then throw it away.
At the end of the day,
to summarise, I think we're crap.
 

Pothas

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Barney Rubble said:
Regarding Geraint Jones, I personally think he has a lot talent as a batsman, and will be a very useful Test batsman as soon as he straightens out his defensive technique a little and starts playing with a little more confidence. He does need to learn how to bat in ODIs, though - he's in danger of losing his place.
Cant say i agree with that. He only has about 3 shots that he can play with any competance. He is not good mentaly and he isnt even that young.
 

adharcric

International Coach
Pothas said:
Cant say i agree with that. He only has about 3 shots that he can play with any competance. He is not good mentaly and he isnt even that young.
Exactly, I was surprised to discover yesterday that he's nearly 30. Not at all young. If he was playing for India, he would've been dismissed as an impotent batsman without any future and his effigies would've been burnt by now. Good thing he doesn't.

Seriously though, shouldn't there be better wicketkeeping prospects in England? Just like India and Australia, England has plenty of cricketers and a pretty huge development system as well. Surely Geraint can't be tops.
 

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