England v New Zealand, 5th ODI, Lord's, 28th June

So, Collingwood out. I think Strauss will replace him and bat up the top of the order, with Wright being moved down to 7. So, an opening partnership of Bell and Strauss. Way to take advantage of those powerplays......

Doubt I'll be able to contain my excitement! Do you not think they'll keep Wright up top and move Bell down to 6? I know moveing Wright down is your personal preference, but do you not think they've been backing him and will continue to do?

I think that Ian Bell should be shot and put at 6 feet under, but that's another story.

I think that Wright has proved me wrong and is actually a bottom handed hacker. He's at least finished innings off well in the past.

They will probably bring in Cook for wobbles, leaving the side to be and its painful:

Cook
Bell
KP
Bops
Shah
Wright
Ambrose

Fark me, thats got 50-2 of 20 written all over it!!! That opening partnership is enough to give me nightmares!

Or they could put Ambrose up the top. May as well. The guy's done f*ck all down the order.

Henry wrote:Or they could put Ambrose up the top. May as well. The guy's done f*ck all down the order.

That just gave me shudders!

Well why not? If he fails, so be it. But at least we wont have to put up with his crabbing in the slog overs. If he's ever going to get the ball away, it will be when the field is up.

Henry wrote:Well why not? If he fails, so be it. But at least we wont have to put up with his crabbing in the slog overs. If he's ever going to get the ball away, it will be when the field is up.

Aye. But can you imagine an opening partnership of Bell and Ambrose?

The opposition would be overcome with fright at the explosiveness and forthrightness of our opening pair!

*shudders*

Two physically imposing lads, as well......

I agree with Trev, I'd see that happen. He's been worse as a batsman than the likes of Anderson and Sidebotttom in these ODIs... a total mug.

Match odds -

Eng 1.57
NZ 2.4

Every farkin time!

I honestly can't see how on earth England can be favourites. Having said that, if NZ were installed as official favourites, England would win in a canter......

Gawd, remember when we had Tres and Knight opening in JAMODIs? Now look at us.

Yeah, Rob, yeah.... remember... we had Amiss in the middle order. Mental.

Rob I wrote:Gawd, remember when we had Tres and Knight opening in JAMODIs? Now look at us.

Even Tres and Solanki wasn't bad. At least you knew the run rate would be up there.

I think we should gamble on Scott Newman or Joe Denly. Newman- He doesn't make enough hundreds blah blah blah, he's lazy blah blah blah.....Fact is, he's talented, he's aggressive, and he's an opener. Denly is young and probably a bit naive. But he's a natural opening batsman who also happens to play his shots.

Enough of this makeshift slogger stuff up the top of the order. It doesn't work in international cricket. We need a an aggressive player who is also a proper opener, and the only candidates I can think of are Newman and Denly.