The cricket thread

Heartfeltdawn · August 2018

Ishant Sharma is bowling beautifully. No coincidence that he worked with Jason Gillespie at Sussex earlier in the season.

Heartfeltdawn · August 2018

It gets worse and worse...

crunchman · August 2018

Listening to Boycott's view on TMS was quite entertaining.

They just don't know how to bat in this kind of cricket any more.

scrumhalf · August 2018

I've stopped watching and now have TMS on.

As they've been saying, it's a very unbalanced batting lineup. Too few specialist batsmen although you can blame the counties for not prividing many options. They drop Pope after one test, they drop Woakes after a great performance in the last test (has he been worse than Stokes?). Too many 6s/7s batting across the lineup.

None of which would matter if we weren't four down before lunch on the first day having chosen to bat. But we are, and it does. Oh for the days of losing the fourth wicket at 90.

Heartfeltdawn · August 2018

The one person who does, Cook, is playing nothing shots like that. I still don't think he's finished at Test level but I would drop him for the winter. Give him a complete break from the game, see how that goes with an eye to the Ashes next year.

crunchman · August 2018

Who is this woman on TMS talking about "executing their skills". She is rubbish. Not because she's a woman. She just isn't good. I like Isa Guha on Sky.

Heartfeltdawn · August 2018

Alison Mitchell's OK. A lot of the female commentators overuse the cliches (witness the ones on the Big Bash for sheer tedium). Isa Guha's pretty decent. Donna Symonds is probably the best of the female commentators.

sixstringsupplies · August 2018

This is tragic viewing!

Woakes is injured by the way - only reason he is not playing

crunchman · August 2018

Heartfeltdawn said:

Alison Mitchell's OK. A lot of the female commentators overuse the cliches (witness the ones on the Big Bash for sheer tedium). Isa Guha's pretty decent. Donna Symonds is probably the best of the female commentators.

To be fair to her, she's not as bad as Michael Vaughan. He does spout some rubbish.

Heartfeltdawn · August 2018

Yes, Woakes has a quad injury. Yet another bowler who has been hampered by injury.

I have close to zero time for Michael Vaughan. He's very much rooted in his time and way of doing things, amusingly a bit like Botham. Nasser Hussain across the various platforms is my favourite commentator because he balances up his cricketing knowledge from the era he played with respecting the changes in cricket now. This was why Richie Benaud was so good: respect for the past but also positive words for the present and the future, as he showed when he approved of World Series Cricket.

earwighoney · August 2018

Heartfeltdawn said:

Yes, Woakes has a quad injury. Yet another bowler who has been hampered by injury.

I have close to zero time for Michael Vaughan. He's very much rooted in his time and way of doing things, amusingly a bit like Botham. Nasser Hussain across the various platforms is my favourite commentator because he balances up his cricketing knowledge from the era he played with respecting the changes in cricket now. This was why Richie Benaud was so good: respect for the past but also positive words for the present and the future, as he showed when he approved of World Series Cricket.

Mark Butcher is my favourite.

Michael Vaughan has become a caricature of himself and never ceases to spout nonsense.

Have you heard Jimmy Anderson on TMS? He's the worst pundit I've come across in cricket. As a fine a bowler as he is, his oratory skills need a lot of work as on the radio he struggles to complete a sentence without saying 'You know/like' every other word or so. In contrast I think Broad has the potential to be fantastic pundit, very articulate and explains his observations on the game to great detail.

Gassage · August 2018

Key is superb. Informative, pithy and memorable.

scrumhalf · August 2018

Vaughan can be okay when it comes to aspects of playing the game but the wider stuff (day/night tests, things like that) he's prone to talking cobblers. I think it was last season where he was forever talking about the ball "tailing in". Arrghh!

We are lucky to have a decent crop of commentators and analysts. For me, Atherton is the cream of the crop.

Heartfeltdawn · August 2018

Can't stand Mark Butcher. Some of his cheerleading for a British BBL was horrific. Rob Key is good, Atherton is excellent, Gower still has his moments. It'[s the one area where we clearly beat Australia as most of them are horrific on the commentary front. Glenn McGrath on TMS really bucked the trend there with some superb analysis of the bowling on offer and with a very welcome wit to boot.

Stuckfast · August 2018

Michael Atherton's my favourite by miles, I love the dryness of his humour.

earwighoney · August 2018

Heartfeltdawn said:

Can't stand Mark Butcher. Some of his cheerleading for a British BBL was horrific. Rob Key is good, Atherton is excellent, Gower still has his moments. It'[s the one area where we clearly beat Australia as most of them are horrific on the commentary front. Glenn McGrath on TMS really bucked the trend there with some superb analysis of the bowling on offer and with a very welcome wit to boot.

Michael Clarke is pretty decent, his commentary is on the dry side of things as it's largely obsessive on field placements and captaincy but I agree Oz commentators are largely horrible. I like some of the Kiwi guys, eg Ian Smith.

Heartfeltdawn · August 2018

As Kiwis go, Jeremy Coney on TMS is always good value. Always like the tours to NZ for that reason.

scrumhalf · August 2018

I'd have no problems with Jeremy Coney being a full-time member of TMS. Like Bumble, he understands that when a sport is as stretched-out as cricket is there are things going on elsewhere that the viewer/listener might be interested in.

I'd also have John Holder doing the "ask the umpire" thing far more often, it's a reminder of the daft things that happen in the game's grass roots.

Tactically, Nasser Hussain brought a whole new level of analysis to commentary when he started, ppointing out things that the captains might have been thinking and dealing with.

Heartfeltdawn · August 2018

That's why I like Nasser so much. Sharp, observational, and the sense of humour he has comes out well too. Best England captain since Brearley. No Nasser, no 2005.

Gassage · August 2018

Heartfeltdawn said:

That's why I like Nasser so much. Sharp, observational, and the sense of humour he has comes out well too. Best England captain since Brearley. No Nasser, no 2005.

I believe that that captaincy evolved Gooch>Nas>Vaughan and each played their part to bring great change. Nas would certainly credit Gooch for influencing his captaincy and method.

Oh and finding 3 seamers who bowled c. 90mph and finding KP too.

sixstringsupplies · August 2018

Anderson and Broad seem to be moving into punditry after their careers.
Broad was a commentator on Sky Sports during the ODI's earlier this summer.
Anderson is on TMS during ODI's

I think Rob Key is great, Tuffers is funny. I also like Charlie Dagnall on TMS for the ODI's

On a different note - Im trying to get tickets for Day 1 of the Edgbaston Ashes test next year. £115 per ticket, not available to the general public until 30th September (currently available to members only)

A ticket for day one at the Ageas Bowl yesterday was £40.00.
For £40.00 I would have been entertained and happy. For £100+ I would be fuming if I saw England bat the way they did yesterday

Heartfeltdawn · August 2018

There's undoubted influence on Nasser from Gooch in terms of work ethic but also what not to do. Gooch's inflexibility ended up counting against him. Nasser had two major plus points compared to Gooch and Atherton: greater flexibility and a far better understanding of bowlers. So much changed over the years, central contracts to CC structure. Vaughan was the right captain at the right time with (crucially) the right players but his role wasn't so much about changing the culture of the team as Nasser's was.

Gassage · August 2018

When Kohli passed 6000 today, he only has Gavaskar's whole test record between him and Sachin's test record. Fact.

Heartfeltdawn · August 2018

Gassage said:

When Kohli passed 6000 today, he only has Gavaskar's whole test record between him and Sachin's test record. Fact.

So only 17.7 Ajit Agarkar's to go then.

Heartfeltdawn · August 2018

Got to love our slow bowling situation...

Moeen Ali went to Australia with Bayliss saying he wasn't our number one. He had a 'mare, got dropped, and a couple of others came in in the form of Leach and Bess. Both of these chaps weren't ready for the India games due to injury and lack of game time so we turned to a slow bowler who didn't like long form cricket and he became our number one. He performed pretty well really, hasn't been outclassed by Ashwin, but today he's barely bowled whilst our not number one returning slow bowler has been the number one turn to slow bowler.

So we tour Sri Lanka in the winter. Anyone want to place a bet on who our first pick slow bowler?

Gassage · August 2018

@Heartfeltdawn having played a huge amount of league cricket with Mo, he's one of the most emotional players I've encountered in terms of confidence. He's an inveterate bat fetisher, always not liking his bat and wanting more, always underconfident until he turns one and I think this comes across in his tests.

Lovely guy though, as is all his family, and his Dad especially, who is a legendary coach at West Bromwich Dartmouth youth cricket.

Teetonetal · August 2018

I think mo was very unfairly treated last year. His summer was excellent, he contributed with bat or ball, but in oz he was thrown under the bus. Not fit and not confident. He needed a rest.

Super pleased he performed today

Heartfeltdawn · August 2018

Gassage said:

@Heartfeltdawn having played a huge amount of league cricket with Mo, he's one of the most emotional players I've encountered in terms of confidence. He's an inveterate bat fetisher, always not liking his bat and wanting more, always underconfident until he turns one and I think this comes across in his tests.

Lovely guy though, as is all his family, and his Dad especially, who is a legendary coach at West Bromwich Dartmouth youth cricket.

That doesn't surprise me. He comes over that way with his bowling action, forever tinkering. You can see the differences in it today, the changes in action that have come along since last winter's badness. Haven't played with Moeen but Kadeer and Kabir both seemed like good chaps on and off the field.

Heartfeltdawn · August 2018

Teetonetal said:

I think mo was very unfairly treated last year. His summer was excellent, he contributed with bat or ball, but in oz he was thrown under the bus. Not fit and not confident. He needed a rest.

Super pleased he performed today

It also shows the value of actually having some first class cricket during a Test series rather than just T20 action. No CC games due to silly 20 over slogs = no double ton or good wicket haul for Moeen prior to this Test.

scrumhalf · August 2018

Heartfeltdawn said:

Teetonetal said:

I think mo was very unfairly treated last year. His summer was excellent, he contributed with bat or ball, but in oz he was thrown under the bus. Not fit and not confident. He needed a rest.

Super pleased he performed today

It also shows the value of actually having some first class cricket during a Test series rather than just T20 action. No CC games due to silly 20 over slogs = no double ton or good wicket haul for Moeen prior to this Test.

The schizoid nature of the cricket beggars belief. Everything seems to have been sacrificed in order to win the world cup next year.

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