The cricket thread

crunchman · February 2022

I would have picked Anderson and left Woakes at home. We know what Woakes is by now. Anderson is still a better bowler. If we want a mediocre pie thrower to stiffen the batting then Same Curran would have been a better option.

Mellish · February 2022

Well we know by now that team selection seemingly has everything to do with madness, not commonsense

Heartfeltdawn · February 2022

sev112 said:

And the batting replacements are ?

Some already came in during the Ashes. YJB and Crawley were replacements. Lees is new, Lawrence coming back into the fray. If you think of a top 6 of Lees, Crawley, Root, Stokes, YJB, and Pope, then four of those have form or good history, Lees is new, Pope has a lot to prove. I think it's a good balance.

crunchman said:

I would have picked Anderson and left Woakes at home. We know what Woakes is by now. Anderson is still a better bowler. If we want a mediocre pie thrower to stiffen the batting then Same Curran would have been a better option.

Curran was on YT working on his batting last month. Might well be that the stress fracture injury that caused him to miss the T20 WC isn't ready yet for bowling duties let alone Test selection.

If you go by figures alone, neither Broad or Anderson are showing a drop off in performance. Since he came back against WI in 2020, Broad's got 54 wickets at 21 in 14 Tests and Anderson over 2020-21 has 63 wickets at 22 in 19 Tests. But there is a greater need for development. We need the first changers to step up and we need greater depth to the bowling. Dropping both does send a message and Strauss has laid down the gauntlet. To quote:

""We feel that it is important to look at some exciting new bowling potential and give some added responsibility to other players who have featured previously."

We can't get to the same point the West Indies were at when Ambrose and Walsh carried the attack and then retired within a year of each other, leaving some poor replacements to come in. Better to see if Wood, Woakes, and Robinson can step up and what the like of Overton, Mahmood, and Fisher can do. It should have happened at least a year ago before the Ashes, he says knowing he called for it more than once on this thread...

guitars4you · February 2022

Headingley to retain its International Status - Good news as I have a ticket for the ODI v SA in 2022- The test match v NZ also stays at Headingley in 2022 - Having tickets for the SA match ensures I'm in the priority queue for the Aussies/Ashes test match in 2023

scrumhalf · March 2022

Plus ca change...

Both openers gone in 20 minutes.

sev112 · March 2022

Possibly the only advantage of having COVID is getting to watch the cricket

….. errrr hold on ….

scrumhalf · March 2022

48-4.

They say that you should never judge a wicket until both teams have batted, but... 48-4!

Mellish · March 2022

Didn't realise there was cricket on. Who's 48-4?

crunchman · March 2022

Mellish said:

Didn't realise there was cricket on. Who's 48-4?

With a score like that do you have to ask?

Heartfeltdawn · March 2022

scrumhalf said:

48-4.

They say that you should never judge a wicket until both teams have batted, but... 48-4!

If this wicket breaks up like the warm-up match wicket did, it's going to be tons of fun.

Bookies have 20/21 on England, 2/1 on a West Indies win. I've got a mighty £4.25 slapped on for an England win.

If we get 250, that's more than competitive. The ball is swinging, it's not a quick pitch, but it is bouncing.

sixstringsupplies · March 2022

The red ball “reset” will take time and remember none of them have batted since the ashes or end of county season. I’m not surprised they were 50-4 at lunch.

What I don’t quite get is dropping Broad and Anderson to blood in some younger guys….who do not get picked. Why not pick Mahmood/Parkinson.

West indies bowling is superior but their batting is as shoddy as ours.

makes for an entertaining series!

sixstringsupplies · March 2022

PS I would rather this than the Pakistan v Australia test match - what an appalling wicket that was.

1,187 runs for 14 wickets.

Heartfeltdawn · March 2022

sixstringsupplies said:

The red ball “reset” will take time and remember none of them have batted since the ashes or end of county season. I’m not surprised they were 50-4 at lunch.

What I don’t quite get is dropping Broad and Anderson to blood in some younger guys….who do not get picked. Why not pick Mahmood/Parkinson.

It is peculiar. That first game, Mahmood bowled 7.3 overs, Fisher 4.1. Parkinson bowled zero despite it being a 15 man per side affair. That is our own long format tour game outside of the three Tests, which start today on 8 March and the final day is the 28th of March. Should any of those three be needed, then it's Test debut time with close to sod all under the belt in a match scenario in the West Indies. Been saying this back in the Bayliss days, we have no obvious strategy for our bowling line up whatsoever.

Roach to Foakes: off drive and on drive in the same over. Beautiful. Defensive shots either side of each drive, soft hands kept an edge down through the slips. Noticeable how much better his technique looks already compared to the hard hands of Crawley and BF's only faced 8 balls.

scrumhalf · March 2022

Well played YJB. Make it a double.

crunchman · March 2022

We've made it to the second new ball!

Heartfeltdawn · March 2022

sixstringsupplies said:

West indies bowling is superior but their batting is as shoddy as ours.

Collectively they average worse than we do.

Absolutely cracking Test so far. Windies potent with the new ball but really let things slip. Surprised Permaul was reluctant to go over the wicket and utilise the rough that was already there.

Crucially the £4.25 bet that sunk down to £3.50 has now risen to £4.75 if I cashed out. The bookies believe in England!

guitars4you · March 2022

I knew it was on this week - Somehow thought it was Wed, so missed it all until about 150 runs on the board - But good to see JB get his ton

scrumhalf · March 2022

Well, the Windies openers seem to be having few problems with the new ball, 61-0 off 15.

crunchman · March 2022

Need to bring back the old Barmy Army trumpeter. This one is playing Kylie.

crunchman · March 2022

This is embarassing. Our opening bowler is bowling, and the keeper is standing up.

Foakes is good though!

sev112 · March 2022

Ah, now I know why Foakes has hardly been picked as WK - the bloody bloke won’t shut up !

Heartfeltdawn · March 2022

None of them shut up. After seeing some of the on-field NZ-SA chunter, personally I think some times are guilty of behaviour becoming to a cricket field. It's frankly fucking stupid what you can be fined for as a bowler and what you can get away with as a close fielder or wicketkeeper.

crunchman · March 2022

I remember my wife commenting on Gilchrist talking to "Shaney" after pretty much every ball. She called him (Gilchrist) the frog man.

scrumhalf · March 2022

If it's possible to eliminate vocals from a track it should be possible to eliminate a keeper's unceasing chatter from the stump mic.

crunchman · March 2022

Heartfeltdawn said:

sixstringsupplies said:

West indies bowling is superior but their batting is as shoddy as ours.

Collectively they average worse than we do.

Absolutely cracking Test so far. Windies potent with the new ball but really let things slip. Surprised Permaul was reluctant to go over the wicket and utilise the rough that was already there.

Crucially the £4.25 bet that sunk down to £3.50 has now risen to £4.75 if I cashed out. The bookies believe in England!

Did you cash out?

Draw must be long odds on now.

Heartfeltdawn · March 2022

You bet I cashed. I dropped out at just over £5 and dropped it on South Africa to win the WWC match this morning after watching some of the Marsh Cup from Australia. Interesting commentary from one of the games earlier in the week in Oz: actual serious discussion about introducing another team to the domestic 50 over and first-class format. There's such a build up of talent that this isn't deemed absurd and that another team might increase the overall options to Australia.

When you look at how Oz are doing in both male and female games, they're doing things a damn sight better at domestic level than we are, and that's filtered through to the top ranks, even more so in the women's game.

crunchman · March 2022

In some ways, an England opener who is still there 20 minutes after lunch is a refreshing change, but Lees' scoring rate is awful.

Heartfeltdawn · March 2022

crunchman said:

In some ways, an England opener who is still there 20 minutes after lunch is a refreshing change, but Lees' scoring rate is awful.

SR of 20 versus 36 for Root, and Root's career SR in the Windies is just under 60. If he's going slow, then I'll cut Lees a bit of slack. Plus this last month at the same venue suggests a pitch that holds together. Proper 5 day wicket.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/west-indies-4-day-championship-2021-22-1300395/barbados-vs-jamaica-1300401/full-scorecard

sixstringsupplies · March 2022

I think I’d rather have Sibley than Lees if that’s the role he will be playing.

Did a good job though to be fair it allows Lawrence to play his natural game with the shine off the ball and the bowlers into the 2nd/3rd spells.

But Sibley has test hundreds in the bag. I think he’ll be back in the side before too long.

Heartfeltdawn · March 2022

sixstringsupplies said:

I think I’d rather have Sibley than Lees if that’s the role he will be playing.

Did a good job though to be fair it allows Lawrence to play his natural game with the shine off the ball and the bowlers into the 2nd/3rd spells.

But Sibley has test hundreds in the bag. I think he’ll be back in the side before too long.

Openers getting hundreds hasn't been the problem. If you go back to 2012 and Compton's debut, plenty of openers have tons: Compton, Robson, Lyth, Crawley, Sibley, Burns, Keaton Jennings, Root. Some who didn't still managed half centuries, Hales managed 94 as a high score. You look at most of those guys, Root excluded, and you're seeing very similar averages. Burns and Robson 30, Sibley just under 28, Compton 28, Stoneman 27.68, Jennings 25, Lyth the lowest at 20. It's the lack of substance in innings around those tons that was the problem.

Quite mad to think that Sam Robson played his last Test nearly eight years ago and no opener brought in since has topped his average (Burns is just short). Over the period 2012 to his retirement in 2018, Cook in the other opener slot averaged 42. We had a world class opener, we simply didn't develop the other opening slot. When this coincided with an inability to sort out the keeping slot and absolute carnage when it came to who the senior spinner was, then I think it's fair to say that our 'ready made' top class players in Root, Cook, Stokes, Broad, and Anderson, really kept us going for far longer than we deserved and papered over the inability to develop those players who needed a bit more to turn them into international cricketers.

Lees today has done a job. It's not pretty and it's not fast but you see the benefit for Lawrence today coming in at 4. His captain at 3 was well set, the Windies attack blunted, new ball seen off, and so Lawrence could attack. Shame about the ending today but if we get through the opening hour tomorrow with no wickets down, it's gonna be a long fielding day for the West Indies if we bat well. Ideally have a bowl tomorrow night, get the openers in with a juiced Barmy Army singing and get the two debutantes out there bowling. Get the nerves out of the way ready for the hard yards on day three.

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