Tuesday 16 June 2009

England's World Twenty20 ratings

Kevin Pietersen 8
England’s over-reliance on their star player was worse than anyone had feared. He was badly missed against the Dutch and made up for lost time with key contributions against Pakistan and India. The tame dismissal against West Indies perhaps cost his team the game, the ultimate proof that England depend too much on him. His strike rate of 152.47 was impressive and you should bet on Kevin Pietersen to make an impact when the Ashes cricket action starts.

Ravi Bopara 7.5
He is yet to solve his problem of getting out when well-set in coloured clothing, but is the only batsman apart from Pietersen who can score naturally quickly without taking risks.

Stuart Broad 7
He bounced back well from his Netherlands run out disaster and enhanced his reputation for quick-learning and aggression, with his round-the-wicket angle of attack an interesting development.

Graeme Swann 7
Mystifyingly left out against Netherlands, he was relatively economical and threatening thereafter. He used all his guile to cope well with any opposition batting onslaughts.

James Foster 6.5
The selectors’ inclusion of the country’s premier gloveman was fully justified, as his lightning-quick stumping of Yuvraj Singh proved crucial in the India showdown. He struggled to find the boundary with the bat, but was hardly alone in that failing.

Dimitri Mascarenhas 6.5
It must be hoped that this tournament has reduced expectations fof the Hampshire skipper. He is a canny medium pacer who bats a bit, not a power hitter who can bat in the top order – his economy rate of 6.42, combined with the fact he hit three boundaries from his 42 balls faced, prove as much.

Adil Rashid 6
An impressive debut series by England’s great leg spin hope. He bowled well under pressure and did his chances of involvement on other formats no harm at all.

Ryan Sidebottom 6
An encouraging return for Sidebottom, who still has some bite to go with his bark. He roughed up the Indians but was otherwise expensive.

Owais Shah 5
106 runs from 98 balls spread across five innings is not a good enough return for a player in the top order. He struggled to rotate the strike but proved he could clear the ropes, so needs to learn that Twenty20 is more than just block and slog.

Luke Wright 5.5
England’s pinch hitter was exposed after starting well against the Dutch and needs to increase his scoring areas. His bowling showed only glimpses of promise.

James Anderson 5.5
England’s in-form paceman was generally disappointing, as he lacked accuracy and a new ball threat.

Paul Collingwood 5
The skipper was dreadfully out of touch with the bat – he didn’t time a ball all week. He must also take some blame for the complacency against the Dutch and strange team selection, although credit is also due for rallying the team against Pakistan and India.

Rob Key, Eoin Morgan and Graham Napier were barely called upon, bringing their selection into question. The total exclusion of Napier by a team which struggled for boundaries was particularly strange.

9 comments:

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Anonymous said...

Anderson gets 5 wickets and is known as generally disappointing and Broad gets 6 wickets and he is praised! interesting.

For some Anderson can do nothing right.

Rob said...

Mascarenhas 6.5? Collingwood 5? Does your scoring system start at 5?

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Chrispy said...

I struggle to understand why people would be critical of Mascarenhas.

An economy rate of 6.42, England's best btw, is very good in Twenty20 cricket.

As for the batting, it's not his fault he came in at 4, that was yet another strange selection. And who did get the ball away in that innings? Nobody after the first 6 overs. India bowled some very good yorkers, they were the holders and you'd expect them to know what to do to restrict teams. There batting got them knocked out.

Collingwood was attrocious. When though does he score really fast in T20? It is not a good game plan to have so many fiddlers down the order; Collingwood, Foster, Morgan, Rashid. They would have been better off having Wright down there and Swann opening to balance the hitters!

England need to realised that in both T20 and ODI's you need hitters up top and hitters down the order. They have no hitters at top in ODI's and no hitters down the order in T20. Balance is key.

Napier should have had a game - either warm up or against Netherlands, but it is foolish to think he is the answer to everyone's prayers. He has one special innings of over 100 from 52 T20 matches, no fifties. Does a one time occurance qualify him for International honours, you can see why they wouldn't throw him into a decider, they should though have given him his chance earlier.

Finally Foster is batting too high at 6/7.

Richard Lake said...

Agree a lot with Chrispy

Why bring Napier along and not play him? What England missed was a hitter. We had far too many nurdlers in the middle to lower order.

If we don't have hitters, why not stick Stuart Broad in higher. He hits a long ball and gave the WI game some impetus in just the two balls he faced.

I was impressed with Rashid's bowling given that he doesn't play a lot of 2020 for Yorkshire. His batting will be more of an asset in the longer forms of the game.

Colly was only in the team at the end as he was captain. And why does he no longer bowl in 2020? Bowlers such as himself and Bopara should be highly effective in this type of game. It seemed to me he was captaining by numbers.

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