England outdo England!

Having averaged fifteen wides a game during the one-dayers in India, England surpassed their own stupendous achievements by giving away 23 wides (42 extras) and a marginally better 21 wides (33 extras) against Sri Lanka at Lord's and The Oval respectively.

In fact, including the India series, England have conceded 135 wides and 31 no-balls in 9 games. That works out to in excess of 3 overs per game. And I've been wondering about how crappy they are. When they're bowling 53 overs when they should be bowling only 50, I'm hardly surprised teams are scoring 280-300 against them!

The inexperience argument doesn't really hold good. Harmison bowled 8 in the first game. In the second game, everyone had their share of the wide pie. It certainly isn't as though these bowlers are bowling in a limited overs game for the first time. Malinga, who's played only 10 one-dayers and Maharoof, who's played less games than Harmison, bowled a total of 3 wides between them (Maharoof only played the game yesterday).

Along with the bowlers needing to sort it out, Duncan Fletcher and Kevin Shine, have to do something about it. I don't think the problem is external - the weather is quite good, as are the ground/pitch conditions. The bowlers are certainly able to grip the ball properly.

What we can ponder about is when England will concede 50 extras in a game, a distinction achieved only by 3 other teams so far.