Buzzin Cricket

The England team finally found themselves in a winning position in the final One Day International against Australia, but still tried their hardest to throw away a good position after Andrew Strauss and Joe Denly had put them on 106 for 1, chasing a total of 177 to win.

England proved once again that Strauss and Denly apart, the batsmen in the squad are just not capable of much at all. Once Denly had left the field, following a terrible call from Bopara that resulted in the Kent batsman being run out, the middle order once again collapsed.

Collingwood and Bresnan managed to hang on to weather the Aussie bowling storm that threatened an ODI whitewash but ended instead with a very sound thrashing 6-1.

Thankfully England appear to have a captain with his feet on the ground who accepts that the current crop of players are just not up to the task, whether he has the management skills required to lift his players is, after this series seriously in question.

OK England did win the Ashes, but it was not a comfortable victory and owed more to some bad form in the Australian team than quality in the English side. In fairness the skipper has been scathing with his criticism of the team and said ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy tournament:

“This series has served as a timely reminder that as a side, we are nowhere near where we want to be, either in Test cricket or one-day cricket. It brings your feet back down to earth, that’s for sure. In international cricket, you have always got to keep looking forward, you can’t bask in anything you have done previously anyway.

We are still going to hold on to that Ashes victory because it was very special and if you don’t get excited about those victories, then you are not going to get excited about anything. We can be proud of ourselves the way we played in the Ashes, and as a Test side, we have got a lot of the component parts in place; as a one-day side, it’s clear we have got some work to do still.”