Perfect warm up for Finals day, imploding while chasing a modest total.against the dangerous attack of Tredwell and Stevens.

Hopefully having Bairstow and Miller back will make a difference.

WTF are the ECB on?

They won't decide until after the ODI on Friday whether Bresnan can play at T20 finals day on the Saturday. Absolute bat- lunacy.

Daft innit, undermining their own competition. But they're his primary employer and as leading carrier of drinks and blamehound for failings of others *cough* STUART BROAD *cough* they get to dictate terms.

Saffers won toss and are having a bowl first. No Dale Steyn. Broad dropped (hurrah!) for Woakes. Kieswetter continues in place of the grossly over-qualified Matt Prior. WHY???? Also, no Bairstow.

Lancs cruised (eventually) to securing a home semi final in the CB40 at Chelmsford last night. Lord's.

Rain? In Cardiff??

Why do we keep giving big games to Sophia Gardens?

Over qualified Matt Prior? He's played nearly 70 ODIs and only averages 20 odd. Can't really argue he's not had a chance.

As for Bresnan and Broad, Broad played well enough last summer and over the winter to be regarded as ahead of Bresnan in the pecking order. Though I think that could easily change if Finn establishes himself in the team, as Broad could be seen as just a slower version of Finn, while Bresnan offers something different.

He's in the form of his life and scoring bucketloads of runs in one-day cricket. He's also a far, far, far, far, far, far better keeper than Irongloves Kieswetter.
Now that England have removed themselves from the theory that the keeper has to open, Prior is the obvious man for the job.

You make a good point on Broad. I would have dropped Broad for the last couple of Tests in order to get Finn in. Broad looks down on pace and has stopped swinging it, but he's the golden child innit.



Start delayed again. The cricket gods seem to have determined that international cricket has no place in Wales and it's difficult to argue the point.

It's a bit like the RFL's expansion policy, ain't it?

I was thinking more like Essex CCCs current team !



Barnacle Bailey will be turning in his grave.....

Oh dear. They started, Morkel bowled a leg-side wide and they're back off again... England 1/0 off no deliveries.
Crowd not happy. Time for a good old-fashioned cricket riot.

Got back out. Five overs and three balls later, back off again - for good this time.

Does five and a half overs constitute enough for the ECB not to give a full refund?

Nope, despite their best efforts to get on and bowl the 10/20 overs required in a ridiculous situation where it was clear they'd never get a game in, they are quite rightly going to have to refund all money.

Got back from the rugby today to see Yorkshire in a hole only for Miller and Bres to get us into a winning position.

What followed was pretty impressive from Briggs and Wood. Rubbish sporting day

Miller was brilliant, again. Just couldn't give him enough support. Bugger it anyway, stupid competition.

....and now back to proper cricket,

With Glamorgan, Gloucestershire and Essex to come in the Championship promotion should be secured surely!!??? And hopefully remain the only undefeated team in the country to boot

shouldn't have to get out of 1st gear to beat poor old Essex CCC.......

Cap'n Strauss gone, from all international cricket as well as the captaincy. Cook takes over the Test side.

Sad, can't help but feel it's a decision that's been accelerated due to the KP fiasco. English cricket owes AS a hell of a lot of respect and gratitude.

South Africa seem to be bad news for our captains.

I'm sure it was 2003 after Graham Smith hit two consecutive double hundreds that Nasser Hussain quit.

Then in 2008 Michael Vaughan quit when the South Africans were beating us.

Now Andrew Strauss.

Lets just hope this doesn't "open the door" for Pietersen to come back and be a tool again.

Probably the right time for Strauss to retire. Good chance he would've been a walking wicket in India, which would've just led to huge amounts of speculation about him.

Will be interesting to see who they bring in to replace him in the batting line up, and, who'll field at first slip?

Cricket wasn't this much of a circus before Sky got hold of it

It was....Has been worse, just you didn't have 24 hour news channels back then.

The Ray Illingworth "supremo" era was far more of a circus.

Yes, and the Ted Dexter period before that too - 30 odd players used in one Ashes series!!....



The present set-up has actually been the most professional and polished in English history - Just a shame that a rogue South African has infested the operation with his egotistical poison.

I don't think it will happen, but I really hope Pieterson is exiled from the squad permanantly....If he is to return after Strauss' departure, it will just further inflate his ego, as he will inevitably view himself as the winner in the dispute and, even worse, see himself as irreplaceable in the side - One man cannot be allowed to hold such power in a team sport.

It might be harsh to say that Cook is inheriting a team in decline, but he'll have a tough job in India. Particularly if Swann dosen't recover full fitness and form. Not sure who will replace Strauss as opener. Gillespie has been talking up Root's chances but, talented though he is, its seems a tad soon.

I think Flower would blow a gasket if Pieterson is allowed straight back. It really would appear that he had forced out strauss.