The cricket thread

Stuckfast · January 2020

Stokes is bloody superhuman!

scrumhalf · January 2020

Root's best test as captain, but having both himself and Denly to share the bowling burden with Anderson not feeling up to par was the kind of fortune you need.

jpfamps · January 2020

And remind me the argument in favour of 4 day Test Matches again.....

RandallFlagg · January 2020

He is Legend

guitars4you · January 2020

jpfamps said:

And remind me the argument in favour of 4 day Test Matches again.....

crazy - especially with our weather

Plus the plan is for 98 overs in a day - We often don't even get 90 and no punishment to the bowling team for failing to adhere - Crap idea

guitars4you · January 2020

They need to sort out this no ball rule - Sounds like many went unnoticed at the time - So no extra run etc

Also if the bowler doesn't know he is bowling a no ball, then how can he correct as required - Broad had a no ball this match that was a catch, but 3rd umpire had to step in and rule not out, so infuriating for the bowling team, but the batting team as missing out as well

crunchman · January 2020

guitars4you said:

jpfamps said:

And remind me the argument in favour of 4 day Test Matches again.....

crazy - especially with our weather

Plus the plan is for 98 overs in a day - We often don't even get 90 and no punishment to the bowling team for failing to adhere - Crap idea

They want to be able to shove in more meaningless one day matches as a short term money maker. If it kills the game long term, the people currently at the top of the ICC, ECB, BCCI, SACB etc. won't care. They will be long gone with their bonuses for raising revenue.

scrumhalf · January 2020

guitars4you said:

jpfamps said:

And remind me the argument in favour of 4 day Test Matches again.....

crazy - especially with our weather

Plus the plan is for 98 overs in a day - We often don't even get 90 and no punishment to the bowling team for failing to adhere - Crap idea

Apparently it's over 40 years since the average number of ovcers in a 6-hour test playing day was 90. To fit in 98 overs you'd have to play for 7½ hours.

Given how some of the playng days in the subcontinent at certain times of the year struggle to last for six hours, this is just idiocy. If you have four days of 14 overs per hour, five hours per day that's 280 overs. Knock off six for the gap between innings, that's 274 overs. That's not enough for a test match to reach a conclusion without contrived declarations. Do you really want test cricket sullied by declaration bowling?

earwighoney · January 2020

AFAIK it's the ECB of England & Australia who are supporting them who want the 4 day test, I imagine it's the ECB's idea as they want to decrease the days of test cricket played in the summer so they can put forward their 'marquee players' to play as much THE 100 cricket as possible.

The ECB keep on trying to reinvent the fucking wheel in order to bring more people to cricket but the solution is fucking obvious to anyone who isn't a fucking cretin (that's you Colin Graves), cricket behind a paywall in the UK is preventing people from watching the sport.

guitars4you · January 2020

earwighoney said:

AFAIK it's the ECB of England & Australia who are supporting them who want the 4 day test, I imagine it's the ECB's idea as they want to decrease the days of test cricket played in the summer so they can put forward their 'marquee players' to play as much THE 100 cricket as possible.

The ECB keep on trying to reinvent the fucking wheel in order to bring more people to cricket but the solution is fucking obvious to anyone who isn't a fucking cretin (that's you Colin Graves), cricket behind a paywall in the UK is preventing people from watching the sport.

I heard them chatting on Talk Sport about this - And they talked out the cost of 'media channels' for the last day or so when the game is over - I did not hear the full conversation, but it did appear as though 'profit and costs' were a big issue in this

MattW · January 2020

Excellent article from Barney Ronay in today’s Grauniad regarding this 4 day fuckwittery:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2020/jan/07/icc-plan-end-five-day-tests-best-about-cricket

ICC plan to end five-day Tests would remove all that is best about cricket
No. No. No. And also: no. Not even: no thanks. Not later or maybe or let’s see. This is simply a hard, flat no. And indeed an angry and reproachful no, too. When it comes to the ICC’s suggestion that four-day Test matches may be the future of international red-ball cricket there is only one sensible response. That response is an aggressive, concerted and righteous rejection.

This is an informed no, too, a no that understands we live in a sporting world dominated by greed and short-termism (otherwise known as the commercial or “real” world). Change and compromise have been the dominant notes of cricket’s evolution over the last few years. A great many lines that shall never be crossed have already been cheerfully discarded, often with no harm done in the process.

Four-day Tests might look like something similar from this distance. A bit of a do about nothing. Just another dimly felt note of contraction. How much easier simply to shrug and move on.
Except this is something else entirely. The four-day Test goes to the heart of the most basic question facing this delicate, enduringly beautiful sport. Does cricket exist to make money or make money to exist? Make no mistake. The shift to a four-day game, driven purely by the lure of reducing expenditure, would end Test cricket in its current form. So much for all the talk. Here it is. The real death blow.
Never mind the obvious point that snipping off the fifth day would automatically cancel the majority of great Test matches played to date, not to mention every single great Test draw (apologists will point to the possibility of the great four-day draw taking its place. Again: just no).
Never mind the death of comparative statistics, the loss of Test cricket’s narrative strand, the heritage wastage. Above all snipping off the fifth day would end something intangible, the fine balance of tensions that distinguishes the five-day Test from all other forms of sport; perhaps even all other forms of shared public activity.
Need some proof? Cut to Cape Town and England’s gloriously hard-won victory in the second Test against South Africa. Sometimes sport has a way of telling you things. In the week that the ICC’s plans have been rejected – hearteningly – by Virat Kohli, when there is a sense of traction being sought for this act of pure sporting vandalism, cricket cleared its throat and dished up a five-day Test of brilliantly sustained and engrossing drama.
This is not just about the final day. To get a proper feel for the value of Test cricket’s span it is necessary to look back down the timeline. To admire in particular Dom Sibley’s maiden Test hundred on days three and four, an innings that feels in its way like a slow-burn, perfectly timed two fingers to the basic idea of the four-day Test.
Consider the sleek, adrenal beauty of that slow, crabby innings. Sibley took 411 minutes to get there. He played the ball so late it was almost in the slips by the time his defensive bat made contact. Sibley finally produced a sweep shot when he was on 99, but only because it now made sense to do so with the field up. His refusal to be hastened, to alter his tempo, to be diverted from the process was glorious, and indeed deeply moving.
There was development here, too, subtle shifts of angle and intent. Sibley appeared to have no off‑side game at all in New Zealand, to stand at the crease like a blinkered horse, unable even to see half of the outfield.
In South Africa Sibley has moved across his stumps, given himself the freedom to nudge an off-side two, to apply the odd scathing cut. This wasn’t a six-and-a-half-hour hundred. It was a month-long hundred. And it bloomed in the shadow of that fifth day, in the sense of time in store, freedom to breathe and manoeuvre the day, the game, the opposition into his path.
This is the key point. Yes: five days rarely happens in practice. But the entire tone and texture of the game flows backwards from its possibility. Take it away and there is no Sibley hundred, or at least not this Sibley hundred. Take away the fifth day and that endlessly varied tempo, the sense of depth, of layers in reserve, is destroyed for ever (not to mention the entire thing wiped out with a bit of rain).
Take away the fifth day and you take away the need to build in all those variations: the essential nature of spin bowling, the diversity in team roles, the beauty of changing pitches, weather and physical capacities. Take away the fifth day and you may as well chuck out 20% of Monet’s paintings of Rouen Cathedral because, let’s face it, we’ve got enough of them to know what it looks like anyway.
Here’s another point the profit and loss account won’t reveal: slow things are good. Slow change, frustration, dullness, lost half‑hours. Test cricket tells us about life, that there are periods of death and slackness and frustration. The most unforgettable moments in this sport – and thereby in all sport – are functions of this. Jack Leach running a single. Monty Panesar blocking for half an hour. These are, without context, banal interludes. In context they become irresistible, powerful, in ways that can’t be staged or forced or hurried.
Yes, change is necessary. Change is often a good thing in its own right. T20 as a gateway to Tests, all forms interlocking and feeding into one another: this was the model we were sold, one that still makes plenty of sense. Here we have the reality. There is no argument for creating a four-day Test that isn’t to do with saving money.
A four-day Test would save on broadcast logistics, staff hires and fixed costs of every kind. But it would do absolutely nothing for the sport itself, would instead cheapen and subtract in ways that can never be put back.
Five days of Test cricket: this is an improbable kind of beauty, something that wouldn’t get past the first pitch meeting now. And yet it remains for all its fragilities the best form of the best sport; an entity that can only be destroyed or preserved from here. Time to pick a side.

scrumhalf · January 2020

Interesting that the ECB want the Hundred and Four-Day Tests, and most cricket fans want neither.

Dopesick · January 2020

I think if 5 Day Test matches are abolished, I fear that my love for cricket would probably diminish altogether. I don't care for T20, The Hundred is a joke and 50 over matches would end up being meaningless.

All those memories, all those batting records, all those climactic finishes after five days of hard graft...

All threatened to be consigned to the history books never to be updated because of a group of worthless money grabbing shit eating twats who want to decide 'what's best for the game'.

They can all fuck off to rot for all I care.

scrumhalf · January 2020

Anderson out for the rest of the tour, rib injury. Bugger.

rocktron · January 2020

scrumhalf said:

Interesting that the ECB want the Hundred and Four-Day Tests, and most cricket fans want neither.

It would appear also that Test players from around the world do not want Four-Day Tests.

HerrMetal · January 2020

scrumhalf said:

Anderson out for the rest of the tour, rib injury. Bugger.

Will he make it to 600 test victims or will injury prevent it? It's potentially only a handful of matches away. In the right conditions despite his age there is nobody better. Can still bowl quickly enough when the rhythm is there. I hope he can keep fit enough but it appears to increasingly be a struggle.

guitars4you · January 2020

scrumhalf said:

Anderson out for the rest of the tour, rib injury. Bugger.

sad news - There was talk about resting him for the Port Elizabeth test, so he would have been fresh for the final Jo Berg match were it would have suited him far more

Assume Archer back in to the attack for Port E, which will now save the management an issue

He is very fit for his age, but sooner rather than later it will be 1 match to many and time to go - As such I hope he can go out on his terms - He deserves it

guitars4you · January 2020

So back to cricket tomorrow morning

I understand a 3 way fight to take over from Anderson - So Archer v Woakes v Wood

I like Wood, but with his injury issues I'd be worried about him lasting 5 days - I also think he is a good impact bowler, similar to how we tend to utilise Stokes - Don't think he is a good opening option, or first choice after 10/15 overs

Woakes is steady but that is it - He will get the odd wicket but I don't see him as first choice

Archer - Needs to be more consistent to be more useful to the team - But the potential is there - IMO it has to be Archer

Looking forward to the next 5 days - Or at least I hope I enjoy the next 5 days

crunchman · January 2020

Leach is going home to get properly well. Out of the rest of the tour.

crunchman · January 2020

Wood is in. Apparently Archer's elbow is still not right.

guitars4you · January 2020

Slow and flat - Keeper standing up to the stumps on an opening spell on the 1st day of a match - When did you last see that

RandallFlagg · January 2020

guitars4you said:

Slow and flat - Keeper standing up to the stumps on an opening spell on the 1st day of a match - When did you last see that

An opportunity for England to keep SA in the field all day and tomorrow and wear them down.

crunchman · January 2020

When was the last time the England openers got through a whole session?

Commentators saying a ball from Nortje going to the keeper on the second bounce though. It might require some very incompetent batting to get a result in this game. Mind you, based on recent evidence, there is a good chance of incompetent batting at some point in the game.

Dopesick · January 2020

Full marks to Stokes and Pope - Pope in particular looks to be the real deal.

scrumhalf · January 2020

Well done Pope, but I really emjoyed seeing Wood cart their bowling all over the place.

More rain is forecast for Sunday, apparently. If we bowl them out for below 299 would you ask them to follow on?

guitars4you · January 2020

The Bess performance by an English spinner in the first innings for many a long while - Let's finish the job

Plus a couple of good catches by Pope

sixstringsupplies · January 2020

sadly I missed it! I turn it on just as the rain starts. Can he get an 7+ for?

guitars4you · January 2020

sixstringsupplies said:

sadly I missed it! I turn it on just as the rain starts. Can he get an 7+ for?

I just heard it on talk sport, but now seen the updates - And now I've got a spare hour no play - sods law

scrumhalf · January 2020

Nit a bad day so far, can Root get a five-fer?

guitars4you · January 2020

Hope the weather is okay for tomorrow - Not seen anything - Remarkable turn around for England if we can go 2-1 up - Considering the 1st test and a poor 2019 away from home

Potentially something to build on - Yet the bowling attack will need some work soon with a potential end to Broad/Anderson, that will be sooner rather than later

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ICC plan to end five-day Tests would remove all that is best about cricket