Cricket: England's achievement

[cinelli]

That was a remarkable series win for England in Sri Lanka. Over recent years we have grown accustomed to winning at home and losing away. Recent away series losses have been 4-0 to India, 4-0 to Australia and 1-0 to New Zealand. Many congratulations to Ben Foakes for grasping his opportunity and ending up man of the series. Also to Ben Stokes for taking more wickets than Anderson, Broad and Curran combined.

England Players v Sri Lanka 2018/19

Batting
                 M'ch Inn NO  H'est  Runs  Av'ge 100s 50s Ct  St

B.T. Foakes        3   6   2   107    277  69.25   1   1   8   2
K.K. Jennings      3   6   1   146*   233  46.60   1       8
J.C. Buttler       3   6   0    64    250  41.67       2   3
J.E. Root          3   6   0   124    229  38.17   1       2
S.M. Curran        2   4   1    64    112  37.33       1
B.A. Stokes        3   6   0    62    187  31.17       2   9
A.U. Rashid        3   5   1    35    113  28.25
R.J. Burns         3   6   0    59    155  25.83       1   1
Moeen M. Ali       3   6   0    33     78  13.00           3
M.J. Leach         3   5   0    15     25   5.00           1
--also--
J.M. Bairstow      1   2   0   110    125   ----   1
J.M. Anderson      2   3   2    12     19   ----           1
S.C.J. Broad       1   2   0     1      1   ----           1

Bowling
                 Overs  Mdns  Runs  Wkts   Best   Av'ge 5wI 10wM

B.A. Stokes       31      4    102    5   3- 30   20.40
M.J. Leach       142.4   16    385   18   5- 83   21.39   1
Moeen M. Ali     124     14    441   18   4- 66   24.50
A.U. Rashid       99      7    338   12   5- 49   28.17   1
--also--
J.E. Root         16      0     46    1   1- 26    ---
S.M. Curran       15      2     50    1   1- 16    ---
J.M. Anderson     41      6    105    1   1- 26    ---
S.C.J. Broad      14      2     50    0            ---

CRAVE 3.0

Cinelli

[didds]

Indeed - not the greatest SL team ever but you can only play what is in front of you.

Not to belittle the excellent achievement, but it shouldn't paper over the cracks that are still evident in England's makeup.

Mainly that the upper order continually and generally fail - 100/4 is not uncommon. Lets hope that Bairstow's trial at #3 proves to be a future fixture, but overall the upper order is still somewhat fragile and reliant on the latter and lower order to score the runs, backed up by some excellent bowling. Im not sure whether its a testimony or what to the English domestic game that they seem now to be able to field several all rounbders whether that be with ball or gloves, but it generally works... except to say the same system doesn;t appear to be developing out and out very high order batsmen.

didds