The cricket thread

scrumhalf · January 2016

I also noticed that Anderson's a bit below par. However, I would leave him out for India and take him to the Ashes, if only because I rate the Ashes as the pinnacle of cricket and a trip to India, whilst not as arduous as it used to be, is still not for the faint-hearted.

Leaving aside the bowling attack, which, when not trying to bowl too short, is very potent, our batting worries the poo out of me. We collapse more often than an MFI dining table and if the ball is moving at speed we're not happy. A fit Philander and a fit Steyn may have made this series far more even.

I wasn't going out for a drink tonight with friends but since one of them is South African I might just haul my arse out there tonight.

Heartfeltdawn · January 2016

He'll be 34 in July. By the time we get to Australia around November 2017, he'll be 35. He's seen what happens if you go to Australia at less than top level in the twilight of your career (Trott, Swann, arguably Pietersen too). I think he'd retire before that trip.

All plaudits for Broad and rightly so. Since 1 January 2013 he's taken 158 wickets in 38 Tests at 24. Excellent form but the loss of Steyn was immense for SA when you consider that in that same time period he played 22 Tests and took 107 wickets at 19.

England aren't alone in disliking the ball moving at any speed. Australia capitulating at Trent Bridge wasn't a quick wicket. They spent the series whining about the pace of all the wickets. They collapsed at Durham. Sides simply don't know how to play the moving ball well now because the focus of batting has changed so much with the introduction of T20 cricket.

scrumhalf · March 2016

Time to resurrect this thread.

Congrats to the boys for getting to the World T20 final.

lloyd · March 2016

Yeah great win against a strong inform New Zealand. I'm not a huge t20 fan to be honest but enjoyed that.

kjdowd · March 2016

Amazed how easy they made it look! Very un-English(-and Welsh).

crunchman · March 2016

kjdowd said:

Amazed how easy they made it look! Very un-English(-and Welsh).

They're just building up expectations so that the way they shambles up the final will hurt more.

Actually, they have a chance in the final. I've never known an England batting line up that is so deep.

scrumhalf · March 2016

Given how things have been progrseeing so far should Morgan voluntarily get another first-baller in order not to jinx things?

scrumhalf · March 2016

So, it's the Windies in the final.

Too close to call.

Heartfeltdawn · March 2016

Perhaps people will now stop bitching about domestic cricket in England now. We've got to the final in one format, we've beaten Australia, India, and South Africa in recent years in the Test format, we've won five out of the last seven Ashes series, and yet there's still this moronic notion that the counties aren't producing international standard cricketers. This squad is a testament to county cricket, both the big Test ground counties and the smaller ones, and hopefully will act as a bit of a silencer to those people who have gone on far too much about how we need to have a domestic T20 tournament like Australia.

Exciting cricket but I have huge sympathy for a lot of the bowlers as the dew has hampered many of them. Ashwin and Jadeja looked like pub bowlers today with that damp ball.

lloyd · April 2016

Well this isn't going as hoped.

lloyd · April 2016

Oh hello, 5/2 Gayle gone after 1.3 overs, windies chasing 156.

StanleyAccrington · April 2016

Never judge if a game will be won or lost on the basis of one teams batting total.

lloyd · April 2016

Wow. What a last over. Great final.

rsvmark · April 2016

That last over was something else!

scrumhalf · April 2016

Easy to be wise after the event, but should Stokes have bowled that last over?

Well done, Windies.

Tip of the hat to England as well, 18 months ago reaching the final would have been unthinkable.

Great tournament.

lloyd · April 2016

scrumhalf said:

Easy to be wise after the event, but should Stokes have bowled that last over?

Well done, Windies.

Tip of the hat to England as well, 18 months ago reaching the final would have been unthinkable.

Great tournament.

Clearly not! No, it's one of those things, gotta feel for him. Great effort to get to the final.

menamestom · April 2016

lloyd said:

scrumhalf said:

Easy to be wise after the event, but should Stokes have bowled that last over?

Well done, Windies.

Tip of the hat to England as well, 18 months ago reaching the final would have been unthinkable.

Great tournament.

Clearly not! No, it's one of those things, gotta feel for him. Great effort to get to the final.

He was the death bowler in the last 2 matches to be fair, but it couldn't have ended any worse, so in hindsight.... Didn't work out but England did better than expected and the Windies are a team everybody loves to see win. Their swagger and attitude is infectious, I bet most of the England team are out partying with them now! Great final.

lloyd · June 2016

TMS in work, nice.

crunchman · June 2016

Batting still looks fragile if Cook/Root don't perform. Cook better stay for a while.

scrumhalf · June 2016

Not the greatest second hour of a test match.

:-S

lloyd · June 2016

Aye, mini collapse there-Compton must know he's on his way out now?

scrumhalf · July 2016

Time to revive this one.

Ten wickets at Lords for Woakes, he's really come on in the last few months.

But I don't think we can save this unless we bat better against the Lionel Messi lookalike leggie.

lloyd · July 2016

Nice timing of the wicket before end of play.

Should be a good last day, batting will need to be great but they're capable of it.

kjdowd · July 2016

Cracking test. I was there yesterday and despite the fact that he rolled up our batting like they'd never played spin before, it was a pleasure to watch Yasir bowl. Not often to get to watch a good leggie at work, and he's got some pace on him as well for a spinner. As to England, it was a surprise to see Ballance back (despite a decent international avg) and Vince has had his go, I think. With Stokes and Anderson back, what about: Cook, Hales, Root, Buttler, Bairstow, Stokes, Woakes, Ali, Broad, Rashid, Anderson. 4 seamers, 2 spinners (3 if you count Root...) and deep batting. And two keepers! Not sure about Buttler (or stokes/Bairstow for that matter) coming in at 4 but it's not like anyone else has done much better!

crunchman · July 2016

Drop VInce or Ballance and play Bairstow as a batsman. Pick Foster or Foakes as the keeper. With Stokes back you have him at 6, Ali at 7, Woakes at 8, and the keeper at 9 and you still bat incredibly deep.

Bairstow is one of our best three batsmen and you won't get the best out of him as a batsman if he's keeping as well. Look at Alec Stewart. His average was 12 runs higher when he played as a batsmen than when he kept wicket. Sangakarra and De Villiers also have much better batting stats when they are not keeping. Unlike Stewart, Bairstow isn't even that good a keeper and the batting depth we have there is no excuse for playing him as the keeper. Unless he's improved immeasurably in the last few months Buttler's keeping is even worse than Bairstow's so he's not an option either.

It does look like we are back to the bad old days of being completely unable to play leg spin. I wonder if Borthwick might do better given that he bowls leg spin himself.

scrumhalf · July 2016

crunchman said:

Drop VInce or Ballance and play Bairstow as a batsman. Pick Foster or Foakes as the keeper. With Stokes back you have him at 6, Ali at 7, Woakes at 8, and the keeper at 9 and you still bat incredibly deep.

Bairstow is one of our best three batsmen and you won't get the best out of him as a batsman if he's keeping as well. Look at Alec Stewart. His average was 12 runs higher when he played as a batsmen than when he kept wicket. Sangakarra and De Villiers also have much better batting stats when they are not keeping. Unlike Stewart, Bairstow isn't even that good a keeper and the batting depth we have there is no excuse for playing him as the keeper. Unless he's improved immeasurably in the last few months Buttler's keeping is even worse than Bairstow's so he's not an option either.

It does look like we are back to the bad old days of being completely unable to play leg spin. I wonder if Borthwick might do better given that he bowls leg spin himself.

You just want Foakes, Stokes and Woakes in the same team.

Neil · July 2016

Going to be nip and tuck in this test.

Pakistan are a far better match for us than poor old Sri Lanka.

lloyd · July 2016

Batsmen are under pressure here, need to keep this partnership going as long as possible, if it goes in the next 10-20 runs then I can't see us winning it, even then it's going to be. Tough.

Much better test match.

Heartfeltdawn · July 2016

Conditions are better. Pakistan having to deal with the Durham cold in the early season would have played as poorly as Sri Lanka.

Saw the second day. Decent day's cricket. The Woakes success is heartening as a lot of folk missed how much of last year he missed with injury. As Broad showed in the past, bowlers coming back from injury do take time to get back in. They need overs under their belt. Woakes in South Africa didn't have those overs but he does now and he looks much better. Finn is still a difficult one.

The England batting in both innings has not been good. Attacking is fine but if you only go for that then you're playing as one-dimensionally as the past. Batting techniques have evolved but in many ways the mental approach to batting has regressed.

As a leg spinner, it was most enjoyable watching Yasir Shah bowling. Terrifying though seeing how badly we played him in the first innings on a slowish pitch that wasn't turning much. That five-Test series in India in a few months is going to be a huge Test.

lloyd · July 2016

Well that's fucked it

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