Best White ball Captains - ODI & T20Is - Matchwinning captaincy traits

[Stan AF]

Loved the way Morgan pulled a win out of nowhere yesterday. Australia were 144/2 and were cruising to an easy win with 8 wickets in hand. He brought back woakes and archer and finished it off with sam curran. Our posters here were skeptical of bringing in sam curran to the 11 but he delivered yet again. Morgan has  very good instincts on team selection, field placements and strategies. The win should be credited to his captaincy.

 

Morgan and Williamson are #1 and 2 in my opinion as best white ball captain. Who are yours?

 

Edited the title to give more scope for discussion in this thread.

Use this thread to discuss strategies, team selections, field placements, mind games and other innovative ideas tried out by captains in ODI/T2OI matches around the globe. Vote for your favorite captain now.

Edited September 15, 2020 by Stan AF

[Stan AF]

Eoin Morgan's gambler instincts engineer England's remarkable comeback

 

But most of all, there was Morgan. He top-scored for England, and at a time a player as proficient as Joe Root (39 from 73 balls) was making batting appear painful, Morgan (42 from 52) was able to hint at fluency, but his main contribution came in the field.

 

When all seemed hopeless, he was calmness personified. When Plan A had failed, he pursued Plan B with such conviction that his team were carried along in his wake. And while there must have been a moment when he feared defeat, you would never have known from his demeanour. It was revealing he reached for a poker analogy afterwards; you imagine there is no tell when you play with Morgan.

 

His biggest decision came midway through Australia's innings. With Mark Wood absent with a "niggle" in his ankle - a bit of a worry given his history - and Adil Rashid enduring an off-colour day, Morgan was limited to two strike bowlers: Archer and Woakes. And while England's usual template sees the pair of them brought back to bowl at the death, Morgan reasoned that, with the game slipping away fast, it was the time to go for broke.

 

"Jofra is obviously an ace and so is Woakesy," Morgan said. "You like to bowl them in the most important parts of the game and I felt at the time that was the most important part. The game was edging away from us."

So, Morgan brought back Archer in the 26th over and Woakes in the 27th. Perhaps, at the start of those spells, he hoped to keep an over or two from both of them in reserve. But as it was, with the ball starting to swing and seam and scuttle and rear, they threatened with every delivery.

 

The wickets wouldn't come, though. So into a seventh and eighth over they went. Gone were the plans for them to bowl at the death. Gone were the other options if this gamble didn't work.

Finally, Woakes beat the bat: Labuschagne caught in front by one that nipped back. But the umpire's finger stayed down.

"I threw everything at it. We needed to go all-in. But when the bowlers bowl like that - when the bowlers bat like that - it makes the captain look good" Eoin Morgan

Now, if there's one thing we have learned this summer, it is that Michael Gough is an outstanding umpire. Yet Morgan backed his wicketkeeper, Jos Buttler, and called for the review. It meant the end of Labuschagne. It was the moment the game changed.

 

"The protocol I use to is go to Jos before the bowler," Morgan said. "The bowler is very emotionally involved, but Jos sees everything from behind the stumps and he thought it hit in line. Given we hadn't created a chance in that period of really good bowling, if Jos was 50-50 I would have gambled anyway."

Archer followed up in the next over - his ninth - by bowling Mitchell Marsh with one that kept low and Morgan decided to go for the jugular. Both bowlers were going to complete their 10-over allocations in this spell. The game was going to be defined now.

 

Woakes struck again in his ninth over - the big wicket of Finch, bowled by a beauty which held its line to take off stump - and followed up with Maxwell, bowled in similar style, in his tenth. "Let's get the No. 7 now Woakesy," Morgan said a ball or two earlier, perhaps sowing a little seed of doubt and resentment in Maxwell's mind.

The manner of the dismissals was relevant, too. These weren't batsmen caught at long-on or fine-leg; they were quality players seeing their stumps hit when attempting defensive shots. "It sends quite a big message for the guys coming in about how difficult it is out there," Morgan said. "It was the bowlers getting the batsmen out. Australia didn't make too many mistakes"

 

Pat Cummins observes the wreckage of his stumps Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Even then, the game could have gone either way. There were 15 overs left and Australia's requirement, while much tougher - 82 required with four wickets left - was not impossible.

 

With 11 overs left, Sam Curran had six to bowl. There was no contingency should be struggle; nowhere else to turn. But within three balls of his return, two more wickets had been claimed and the game was all but won. The comeback was complete.

 

Morgan was modest afterwards and credited the bowlers. "I threw everything at it. We needed to go all-in. But when the bowlers bowl like that - when the bowlers bat like that - it makes the captain look good. The bowlers made us look good today."

 

But Morgan has to take some credit for instilling such belief in those bowlers. As Archer said, "he gives us the freedom to bowl whatever we want. He very seldom tells you 'no'."

Chris Woakes bowled Glenn Maxwell to continue Australia's slide Getty Images

Not for the first time, the thought occurred that Morgan appears to get more out of Archer than Root. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say England appear to get more out of him with a white ball than the red. For it might be that it's the format, the more neatly defined role and the guarantees of the overs required, which play to Archer's strengths.

 

 

 

Equally, it might be that the limitation on the number of short balls he is able to bowl helps. Archer's bouncer is exceptionally good. It's hard to imagine an England bowler has ever hit batsmen on the helmet so regularly. But it's even better when it's used sparingly. There's no batsman in the world unaware that it could be coming. Better, surely, to punish their reluctance to come forward with more full deliveries.

 

 

 

 

 

"That result will not only give the bowlers confidence to execute in that situation again but belief they can win no matter the situation of the game," Morgan said. "It's very satisfying,".

 

 

 

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/29881482/england-v-australia-2nd-odi-2020-eoin-morgan-gambler-instincts-engineer-england-remarkable-c

 

 

Edited September 14, 2020 by Stan AF

[speedheat]

Only Murugan.

[cricketfan28]

William is also good, almost won the world cup.

[Suhaan]

The trio of Morgan,Williamson and Rohit(5 times IPL champion)are all level headed and maintain their cool in crunch situations,being level headed in itself is also about perseverance

They back their guys ,while Kohli resonates too much between do's and don'ts and end up playing guys like Jadhav

[Real McCoy]

Voted for Morgan but didn't see Willaimson. I think he is better than morgan managing with lesser resources and coming up with spectacular wins like the WC SF, 2-0 white wash against us and beating padosis' oye oye test series