I didn’t see much of the India versus England ODI today. It took place while I was at work; I did see the mini-collapse that England went through. They type in yesteryear would have seen them mess things up royally.
Ben Stokes always tends to leave those explosive bits of
batting for when I’m not watching. The World Cup Final being the exception.
When he single-handedly won that Test match at Headingley, I was on a bus back
from a KSL game at Trent Bridge.
What has made England one of the best ODI sides to watch
over recent years is their approach to chasing. When it goes wrong, it looks
horrific, as the first ODI the other day proved, but when you get a group of
batsman like England have at their disposal, then there are few targets they
cannot chase down or are afraid of chasing.
There are days when some of those batsmen look all at sea,
and there can be reactions that say they should be replaced, and when you have
players like Alex Hales on the sidelines can be an easy reaction to make.
Liam Livingstone, of course, did himself a few favours today as he came in at a
time that new players may have been forgiven for losing their nerve.
Given a good tract at a place like Trent Bridge, and you
would imagine, they would not fear chasing down 500.
It would take a massive dip in form for Jason Roy and Jonny
Bairstow not to open the batting a partnership of 110 in 16.3 overs today
showed just why that is.
One of the best decisions today was to have Stokes come in
at three. He had a chance to control the game, scoring his first fifty from a pedestrian
40 balls. He faced just 12 more balls and departed on a frustrating 99.
Being an England fan should never be easy, and there will be
days where England will perform disastrously, but long live the days when it
goes right, and we get to see them smash the world’s best all over.
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