Good win tonight. Think England might think there was another 1/15 runs left to get but that shows the class of this team. Stokes and Ali give them something different. Both proper all-rounders. We can get 2 spin options into the team plus Root because of the batting ability of Stokes and Moeen. Hearing the commentators talking about bench strength and with Willey and Bairstow sat in the stand then we must have the best players sat in the stands of any teams. Also think the IPL experience of some of our players will be massive. Big game players and Stokes will want to show the world that he's the main man.
Pressure cooker environment Best players with top coaches and unbelievable crowds, Tough Indian crowds. Prove you are good enough. Also they learn from the best. Butler, Stokes and Woakes have talked about it today along wth Rabada
Buttler flopped again. Been ages since he's had a run of good scores for England. Would have Bairstow in before him any day. Getting AB out was when the game was truely won, even though he had a terrible IPL for RCB. Still don't care our Irish captain who didn't go to Bangladesh getting his century.
You can't blame him for not gong. He It's a massive juggle. You don't want the players to get scars but the ipl's different from anything else in other sports imo.
Yes I can he's the captain to lead by example. He didn't go to Bangladesh because of one terrorist attack. You know what would have happened if South Africa felt the same way? You wouldn't have had any cricket to watch today. Show must go on Hemsy. Ali was brilliant. It was an omen that our quality british muslim got the man of the match award. Should have had money on it.
I'd say there is a big difference between England and Bangladesh. Without sounding complacent this is the first of these attacks since 2007. In Bangladesh this happens weekly. Also Eoin Morgans been attacked before. If he felt at risk in anyway he can't play. Most of the players from England if not most of the International players backed out of the final which was played in Pakistan. KP been one of them. Of course, it's good that both teams have Muslims in the team. England had 2 and SA had 3/4. Tahir Amla Parnell and maybe one more.
Good a player as Jos Buttler is I thought leaving Jonny Bairstow out on his home ground was a big mistake. For one thing it puts a lot of pressure on Buttler, knowing that a good proportion of the crowd don't want to see you playing ahead of the local boy. He failed with the bat (again) so maybe he let that pressure get to him. He took a decent catch but the Channel Five highlights didn't show him doing anything else to warrant his selection. In the end it didn't matter because others got the runs. I wish I could have been there but it wasn't possible. Definitely the makings of a good one day side there.
You can't go picking the team based on the crowd in the stadium. The pitch maybe but not the crowd. Jos is a top top limited overs player. Bairstows not always done it for Yorkshire never mind England in odi cricket. Back to Jos. He got caught leg slip. Oh well it might happen again in another 50 matches. A lot of the England players will have walked off the pitch yesterday not happy. Roy, Root Stokes and Butler yet we got 330 plus. We are fortunate to have a fabulous team.
I'm not suggesting that you can pick the team based on which ground it is played at. All I meant was that sports men often play with their heads rather than hands or feet and Buttler will have felt the pressure going out at Headingley instead of Bairstow. He didn't rise to it. At Old Trafford he might have got a hundred. Either way it doesn't really matter. This team has the benefit of run makers all through the team so if 3 or 4 get low scores the rest will make up for it (usually).
