Was in Australia a couple of weeks ago, and oddly, no one wanted to talk cricket!
I was there when it happened which, as it was in the middle of the Commonwealth Games where they were all back-slapping, was great to see and hear it all unfold on the TV 🙂
Bairstow or Buttler doesn’t make a lot of difference as they are peas in a pod keeping-wise. Both good athletes so good standing back, but up to the sticks is where keeping moves into an art form and both of them are capable of looking like a bloke playing the cymbals.
+1 dannyh (are you a member of the keeper's union, by any chance?); however while he isn't in the Russell / Taylor league, Bairstow has improved quite a bit.
I'm pretty sure I read that Buttler was in to bat at 7, so Johnny keeps the gloves
AB!!! Don't leave! You're one of the best I've seen! Along with Viv 😃
Great loss to international cricket, however I wish him the very best for the new chapter in his life, whatever that may entail. Big respect to the man for being true to himself too.
TMS on air from 1025.
And some nincompoop here has called a meeting at eleven; gah!
Very sad about AB- enjoyed watching him in the IPL and certainly leaving on a high point.
+1 dannyh (are you a member of the keeper’s union, by any chance?);
Actually no - I was a left-arm brute force and ignorance quick(ish) bowler - played to a reasonable level (my team used to win our county prem league pretty regularly) and I played first team for about ten years before becoming a 2nd XI 'stalwart' holding back younger players(!)
In the course of my 1st XI time we based our attack around a guaranteed 28 overs (14 max per bowler in our league) from two very good finger spinners - one left arm one off-spinner. We had two keepers in my time in that team - both of whom could easily have been first class players if they could have batted to that level. They were both awesome standing up to the sticks - real 'how did that just happen' stuff. They also both stood up to seamers of anything below top pace if necessary and I saw several stumpings from fast medium bowlers that just made everyone shake their heads.
Keeping is so specific that you just know a good one when you see one.
England win toss and bat first.
Bold.
Blowers out, Simon Mann in. It's going to be a long summer.
started to listen to TMS and that awful tiresome yorkshire bore pipes up! jesus bbc put him down please.
Oh come on, Vaughan isn't THAT bad!
he's on too is he, turned off before having the pleasure.
So this is our summer.... 🙁
Well, this is going well
It is safe to say this now as he has already exceeded any expectations, but Cook is finally having a good day.
LOL
And as I was writing that I just double-checked on CricInfo....
Oh.
Bugger.
Dismal stuff
Aaaaaaaaargh.
Bowled our for spit by an attack that, Mohammed Amir aside, would be more at home at a decent club side.
”It’s my natural game to be positive”.
You can’t score runs in the shed.
”I like to get the scoreboard moving”.
You can’t score runs in the shed.
”I need to feel bat on ball early doors”.
You can’t score runs in the shed.
I know a lot of people decry Boycs, but he talks a lot of sense. Quoting the man himself after a county player sledged him late in his career by saying “he won’t die of a stroke”.
”I’ve got over forty eight thousand first class runs, average fifty six. I must have played some shots somewhere else all the bowling’s been rubbish”.
If England had taken the sap out of this ****stan attack, where does Sarfraz go? He hasn’t got a real game-breaking bowler. It is the type of attack that should lead to some very long days in the field, but England have gifted them momentum with some shit batting.
I know a lot of people decry Boycs, but he talks a lot of sense.
I think he has one point that he repeats continuously.
I think he has one point that he repeats continuously.
Yep Boycott bingo was quite humorous at first, now it's just painful.
You can't blame Boycott for the fact that for a few years now the English batsman have been making the same mistake game after game after game...
FINALLY!
You can't score runs in the shed!
A few years back we had a really talented young kid in our club side. He was playing a bit of 2nd XI for the county and doing OK - he was never going to make it in first class cricket because he was unfit and a liability in the field, but I digress.
He was hit and miss, but mostly miss in the run up to one game where he then got himself out in the first over. It was a horrible, wide long hop and he went to cut it, got it on the toe end a bit and slapped it straight to point.
When he got back into the dressing room and the dust had settled I just asked him what was going through his mind when he played that shot (he was never shy about piping up about other things during a game so I wasn't being nasty - just asking a slightly pointed question).
He just said breezily "It was in 'my area'" - whatever the hell that meant - probably just the kind of thing he had heard from pros he looked up to.
I lost it a bit at that and just asked him if his 'area' was the pavilion balcony and how many runs he'd scored from there. He seemed a bit put out.
given how bad the first day was you couldn't imagine england sinking any lower but somehow they managed it.... truly abysmal!
..... and further still today.
dannyh will be pleased to see Sarfraz stood up to the poles for the quickie!
Wow. This is truly pathetic.
There is something very rotten with this team.
I don’t think it’s too difficult to see what’s happened.
5 -10 years ago we could block for Britain - a good test team, but stodgy at ODI/T20.
We have completely revolutionised our white ball cricket - one of the most aggressive international teams. Unsurprisingly the same players aren’t so good at playing long innings - it isn’t their natural game.
When Stokes/Bairstow counter- attack in tests, we eulogise. If they get out we slam them. It’s just a game - we have no divine right to win everything.
West Country lads see off the deficit. If only the rest of the tail could wag and set a 200-225 4th innings target...
I'm not looking for a divine right to win, what I would like is some backbone! Yet again, England capitulate and there is little or no contest.
Questions now surely as to Root and his ability to lead the side. There is no disputing his talent but time and time again, the ECB make our most talented player and promote them to a position of incompetence! It started with Botham FFS, as soon as he was made skipper, his form dropped off the cliff.
What is it that our set up has or does, that no other test playing nation has or does with regard to being captain of the test side? Graeme Smith, Kholi, Waugh, Williamson, Steve Smith(sic), they all maintained their form, despite leading their country out onto the field of play. I would go further to say that there's not much wrong with the group of players, the rotten core has more to do with the expectations and system of the ECB.
IF, Butler, Bess, Broad and Wood perform with the bat this morning and up to tea, then a lead of 200-250 will certainly make things interesting, but ONLY IF, our frikkin bowling attack start pitching it up a bit more than is their default setting.
Questions now surely as to Root and his ability to lead the side.
Even bigger questions for the coaches and selectors. They appear. To have fixed. No 3 by screwing up the rest of the lineup the batting has not been addressed. Unless this was the experimental test....
That'll be that that then.
Probably for the best - if they'd wormed their way out of this one it would reduce the need to sort their lives out.
Painful.
Even bigger questions for the coaches and selectors. They appear. To have fixed. No 3 by screwing up the rest of the lineup the batting has not been addressed. Unless this was the experimental test….
I'm sure it's phone formatting / the forum's foibles that have led to this punctuation, but is it. Only me. That has to read this. In the style of. Mark E Smith!
You can’t blame Boycott for the fact that for a few years now the English batsman have been making the same mistake game after game
I don't. I blame him for being an exceptionally boring commentator. I also find it staggering that TMS renewed his contract after his racist remarks
It can't be any worse today, can it?
2nd test. Headingley.
Praying for rain already!
What records can england chase today?
Decent start...
Yep that Broard needed dropping there 😉
Oh, hello...!
Yep can't see why he is still in the side 😉
Strange decision by the tourists to elect to bat
Strange decision by the tourists to elect to bat
I thought exactly the same thing.
Headingley is always a sporting wicket and I would have thought they'd relish the chance to put England straight back under the pump.
Maybe they're worried about batting last at Headingley, but when you are only chasing 50-odd at worst, I wouldn't have thought it would be a problem.
Happy with the day so far. 49-3
Oh, I say !
we might get a draw out of this after all
