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England v Ireland: second one-day international – live!

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13:51

The hover cover is on

I can’t explain this; I can’t see any rain. But it’s on. Delayed start likely.





13:49

“Good afternoon Adam.” Steve Morgan in North Devon, good afternoon to you. “I was hoping that you, together with the OBO massive, would be able to help settle an argument: Following the great Sam Billings innings on Thursday, is it premature to be referring to the scandal of his regular omission from the side as ‘Billingsgate’”

I’ll promise you this: next time he’s rotated out, that will be the intro of my article.





13:42

“Great to have cricket on,” writes Toby Sims. Couldn’t agree with you more. “Thoroughly enjoyed the series against the West Indies, and enjoying this so far, especially with some ‘new faces’. Very happy to see Sam Billings back at it, and it would bring a smile to my face to see Topley in the mix again. Hope to see Ireland’s young ‘uns crack at it too.”

I spoke to Billing yesterday – he’s in very good nick. As noted by a couple of my colleagues, it was quite the sliding doors moment for him on Thursday when his county teammate, Joe Denly, pulled out with a bad back. If not for that, Billings would have been running drinks. Now, it looks like he’s earned a sustained go.





13:37

Reece Topley’s last ODI was February 2016. He was 21 then; tall and quick. On the basis of that form, he made the World T20 squad, playing in the tournament. Then, it all went horribly wrong. As is the case for some many fast bowlers, his back let him down over and over again. Many operations and two counties later, he’s back. My press box colleague Rob Johnston wrote a great long piece with Reece last year.





13:33

Ireland have won the toss, they’re batting

McCarthy out injured, Josh little into the XI. The left-arm seamer picked up four wickets on one-day international debut against England in Dublin last May.

Morgan says he “wasn’t really bothered” either way about the toss. You’ve gotta love him. And Reece Topley is in for Tom Curran. Nice story!





13:25

As we build up to the toss, have a look at Barney’s column on Stokes saturation.





13:09

Preamble

Adam Collins

Welcome to the second ODI between England and Ireland and welcome to the bio-bubble at Southampton where I’m coming to you from this afternoon. It’s a sticky and almost steamy, plenty of cloud cover and I’m afraid to say there has been some rain about. However, the sun is now shining ahead of the toss in about 20 minutes.

The hosts easily accounted for Andy Balbirnie’s men in the opener, winning by six wickets with 22 overs remaining. The damage was done early, recuding Ireland to 28/5 after sending them in. After that frenetic start, debutant Curtis Campher (a great story, which I’ll tell you more about as we go) settled in to bat through for an unbeaten 59, getting the visitors to 174. It wasn’t the most convincing chase early, but Sam Billings (67 not out) and Eoin Morgan took care of business.

In terms of selection, the main point of discussion is the fact that they are playing on the same surface as two days ago. It was slow then, taking to turn, so it should jag today. On that basis, Ireland have brought left-arm tweaker George Dockrell into their squad, seamer Barry McCarthy ruled out with a knee injury. For England, Liam Livingstone makes the 14 at the expense of Joe Denly, who has a bad back.

Watching warm-ups in front of me, I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if Reece Topley is brought in for his first international since 2016. The left-armer had has more operations on his back than hot meals over the last few years – this is quite the comeback tale. Maybe in for Tom Curran? Rotation, rotation, rotation.

Right, let’s settle in. Drop me a line, ping me a tweet. Good afternoon!

source: theguardian.com