England v Sri Lanka T20

[ClaretTony]

Interesting start to SL innings, first ball a four and second a wicket

[ClaretTony]

SL 29/3

[tiger76]

Great catch from Livingstone, and a well deserved scalp for Woakes, 29-3 now a curious innings by Mnedis hits a 6, and then is out next ball, SL struggling again with the bat.

[ClaretTony]

46/4 from 8.1

[dandeclaret]

64-6...... will they make 100?

[dandeclaret]

64-7....

[ClaretTony]

I’m flicking between football & cricket now but the cricket looks all but over.

[dandeclaret]

64-8.......

[dandeclaret]

Last 11 (ELEVEN) deliveries no runs and 3 wickets.

[dandeclaret]

88-9 - wicket for Livingtone

[dandeclaret]

91 all out - Sri Lanka reviewing the last wicket, but it looks out - probably clipping the bails but middle stump

[ClaretTony]

Confirmed out

[dandeclaret]

A wholly uninteresting, uncompetitive series, and now into the ODI's where it's likely to be more of the same.

[ClaretTony]

A wholly uninteresting, uncompetitive series, and now into the ODI's where it's likely to be more of the same.

There’s a huge gap between the two teams

[dandeclaret]

And Lancashire fall just short vs Notts, where Hales scored a century.

[Goobs]

Bloody hell what happened to Sri Lanka. They used to be a bit of a force.

[ClaretTony]

Bloody hell what happened to Sri Lanka. They used to be a bit of a force.

They had a team full of outstanding players, the likes of Jayasuria, Jayawardene, Sangakkarra, Vaas & Murali. They’ve not been able to replace them.

[tiger76]

They had a team full of outstanding players, the likes of Jayasuria, Jayawardene, Sangakkarra, Vaas & Murali. They’ve not been able to replace them.

Yes it was always going to take time for them to replace so much quality, and the real problem for them is that many of their experienced players have all retired at roughly the same point, and although they're trying to bring through a new generation it will be a painful learning curve before they become competitive again.

Their bowling doesn't look too bad, but their batting is the main issue for them to address, now if they can do that and start setting decent totals they'll become harder to bet at least, and may start edging games to increase their confidence.

[dandeclaret]

Yes it was always going to take time for them to replace so much quality, and the real problem for them is that many of their experienced players have all retired at roughly the same point, and although they're trying to bring through a new generation it will be a painful learning curve before they become competitive again.

Their bowling doesn't look too bad, but their batting is the main issue for them to address, now if they can do that and start setting decent totals they'll become harder to bet at least, and may start edging games to increase their confidence.

That point of retirement was 7+ years ago

[tiger76]

That point of retirement was 7+ years ago

Blimey! was it that long ago, mickey Arthur has a bigger job on his hands than I thought in that case.

It doesn't help that Sri Lankan cricket is struggling financially, and the pandemic will have made that lack of cash any more apparent.

The real danger is that we end up with effectively a 2 tier system with the bigger nations Australia, England, India & New Zealand becoming even more dominant than they are ATM, whereas the likes of Sri Lanka & the West Indies among others will simply struggle to compete at international level on a consistent basis.

How this problem is resolved I have no idea, but it's something the ICC may well have to find a solution too if international cricket is going to continue in it's current form.