Tactical errors by England...
Yes, we didn't bat well in the second half of the innings. And Stuart Broad seemed to use all his brain up when bowling each ball of the final over, meaning that when the ball came back to him he lost any sense of intelligence and missed the various chances to take a wicket (and therefore save a vital run). As an England supporter I can't help looking back on the "wide" given against Broad earlier which seemed incredibly harsh....on such harsh calls to close games hinge.
But the biggest tactical error by England was not using Foster as an attacking weapon behind the stumps. He's good enough to stand up to any of the bowlers, and the fact that he didn't must have been discussed and agreed. But, apart from the very early overs, it's wrong for 3 reasons - 1) we lose the option of stumpings, 2) he's not at the stumps for run out chances, and 3) as in the last over there is the chance to run a bye off what should be a dot ball.
When Foster decided not to stand up for the final ball of the innings (he seemed to want to but appeared to be told not to, implying that England were happy to go to the super over if the scores ended level as they were happy to accept one bye) it again cost England. Had he been up at the stumps Broad could have flicked the ball to him risk free and worst case for England, the game would have gone to the super over. Best case, they would have won by one run. I hope the idiot in the England camp (Collingwood as he's captain?) who came up with the bright idea of taking away one of our key fielding "attackers" recognises what an error they made and that it's put right against Pakistan on Sunday.
2 comments:
They made the point on the highlights that Broad's round-the-wicket ploy was probably preventing Foster from standing up, as he'd be totally unsighted by the batsman until the last minute.
Even if he had stood up for the last ball, there was nothing Broad could have done about the non-striker getting home, so the tie was inevitable unless he hit at the bowler's end. Going for that run-out probably wasn't the 'percentage' decision at that stage, though, given how many he'd missed already!
Also, with Foster standing up, any flick of the pads or bat would inevitably have beaten the keeper - so it's not an obvious one to me either way.
Appreciate that it's tough to stand up when Broad's coming from round the wicket, but I'd like to see England back Foster - even when we won yesterday he wasn't standing up enough and it should be a crucial element of England's tactics - if he's going to stand back the whole time you have to ask why they didn't pick Prior.
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