England out of the World 20/20 Tournament

So it's that time again, the day after the night before. Yesterday evening saw England crash out of the World 20/20 championships at the hands of the West Indies, a team which over the last few months England have beaten repeatedly.

It all started in early May where England proceeded to beat the West Indies in 2 test matches, 2 One Day Internationals and even a 20/20 World Cup warm up match. So little then did we know that they would eventually be the team that saw us exit the World 20/20 tournament just one win short of a place in the semi finals.

So in my blog today i'm going to look at and try to explain just why England looked so out of their depth at times during this tournament. The opening partnership of Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright was a breath of fresh air and when it clicked we looked very good, unfortunately (especially in 20/20) this doesn't happen all the time and we are thankful that we have Kevin Pietersen coming in at number 3 to steady the ship when we do lose an early wicket.

However it is after this that the innings falls down and a 4/5/6 of Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood and either Dimitri Mascarenhas or James Foster was clearly not good enough. This was evident in our loss to the West Indies as for almost 9 overs we did not hit a boundary and it was only Stuart Broads 4 and 6 off the last 2 balls of the innings that propelled us to anything like a par score on that pitch. So when you have Eoin Morgan and Graham Napier sitting on the bench it is rather hard to understand just why we couldn't find the boundary.

The wicket keeping position should definately not be in question as anyone that watched James Fosters stumpings of either Yuvraj Singh or Dwayne Bravo can clearly testify that he is the best gloveman in the country and that is what you need when every run is vital. Both of those batsmen thought they were safe until they lifted their feet to help find their balances and by then James Foster had already whipped the bails off in the blink of an eye.

The bowling unit was a good one and after the pace of Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom (yes even he reached almost 90mph at times!) the spin of both Graeme Swann and Adil Rashid was introduced and this worked well for large periods with both guys getting good turn and showing good variations. The contribution of the part timers as well can not be underestimated here with people like Luke Wright, Dimitri Mascarenhas and Paul collingwood all bowling good effective overs at some point throughout the competition.

So the Twenty/20 cup is over for us English and our attentions now turn to the waiting Australians and the Ashes contest that faces us this summer, but the Twenty/20 Tournament is still rolling and with South Africa and Sri Lanka the 2 hot favourites all eyes in the cricketing world will turn towards Lords on the 21st June for the final of this short but sweet tournament.

Until then readers stay safe and remember you can't get fitter than a switch hit hitter!!