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Lovely. Well played.
Sets my up perfectly as, and I apologise for being smug, I have tickets to Edgbaston on Saturday. Can't wait.
And it is a big 'THANK YOU' to the West Indies for touring here this summer.
They really didn't have to, after all.
Jeez cricket needs Windies back at the top table....
Good afternoon, evereeeebodeeee!
England win toss and bowl first. Glorious sunshine over Hampshire!
2 spinners and a lot of attacking intent in the England side. Could be fun.
Good start!
I fear this won't last long...
Oh dear.
Oof. Not good from Ireland.
Willey on fire! (#theresacreamforthat)
Oof. Not good from England.
Doh, late to the party. Still, there's Vic Marks and Alison Mitchell and an England collapse - plus the #bantz of telling Irish friends that England's captain and best batsman being a native-born Englishman...
Just got roped in to a game for the village 2nd XI tomorrow.
Please send your #ThoughtsAndPrayers
A grand day out.
Scored a patient, rusty Chesney.
We won, though!
Now, on to today's game. Roy out as cheaply as I was!
And Bairstow follows. Urgh.
It's a good job Vince can bowl, otherwise we'd be wondering what, exactly, he's here for...
You've got to love Josh Little - he's a proper filthy club cricketer who has briefly made the big time.
I'm not sure what his send-off to Bairstow was, but I enjoyed it.
You just know that when he bats, Jonny will be giving him all sorts of shit with the pithier stuff being between overs (out of stump mic range).
The test series against ****stan could be interesting.
Decent wheels for a sixth former!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UyRck54fAWw
So James Vince. 57(?) runs this series, 1 wicket and a howler of a dropped catch. He's not good enough for the Test side; it's tough to argue he's good enough for the ODI side
So James Vince. 57(?) runs this series, 1 wicket and a howler of a dropped catch. He’s not good enough for the Test side; it’s tough to argue he’s good enough for the ODI side
I can't remember which commentator said it today, but it was something along the lines of:
"You can watch him bat for a hour in a game and think he is one of the classiest players we've produced, but if you go away on holiday, don't follow the cricket and come back the figures will show that he's scored a hundred runs in five innings and has had a poor series".
He just doesn't do his talent justice. He will wear the 'enigma' hat as well as Graeme Hick.
Excellent explanation!
Superb batting performance from Ireland there.
Worthy winners!
And we're back underway again!
****stan opting to bat under leaden skies. Bold.
****stan opting to bat under leaden skies. Bold.
I don't think so. It is windy which means the effects of cloud cover are vastly reduced. The wicket is dry and flat and more likely to break up than any of the wickets so far this summer.
There will be balls hitting the seam and beating the bat, the opening bowlers have 1000+ test wickets between them, but once the shine and hardness have gone I think it will be very good batting conditions.
Wasn't sure they had the batting to back it up!
Nicely balanced start to this game though, England possibly just nudging ahead.
great tight bowling this morning.... putting the squeeze on!
@CaptainFlasheart
Wasn’t sure they had the batting to back it up!
To be fair, if the captain wins the toss, opts to bowl and gives the reason as "we haven't got the batting to back up the decision to bat first" they either need a new captain or they should get on the next plane back!
Not that it doesn't happen in practice. Quite a few mid-90s England 'put-ins' in Australia had the whiff off "we don't fancy this at all, so let's put off the inevitable for a day or two".
But you don't, as a rule, admit to it publicly!
My prediction: ****stan will win this. Properly quick bowlers and two world class spinners. Pitch is dry and the foot marks were chewing up on day 1.
300+ with the length of their tail is a fail by England.
I reckon England will trail on 1st innings and end up batting last on a minefield.
The big danger for ****stan is if one of the seamers goes around the park and forces the leggies to have their first bowl against well set batters.
England let ****stan get 50 runs too many methinks.
Agree dannyh, this'll be a touch match to win. Burns gone early as well.
Related, is Ben Foakes in the bubble and can he come into the next match? Buttler is not looking good behind the stumps.
****stan are all over England here!
😳😳😳
Sibley gone.
I had a fear that having 2 openers with very unconventional techniques would get taken apart by better bowling. I'm just not sure you can play against quality bowling in the way those 2 do.
Stokes gone, 12-3.
Ah, a good old-fashioned England top-order collapse. Haven't seen one of those for a while; now to wonder if it becomes "grimly hang on for the remaining 3 days and make the inevitable draw feel like a win" or "just carry on in this vein until the whole sorry affair finishes with a heavy loss inside 4 days".
Such a stark contrast with the last WI test - now it's clear the lineup's unbalanced with not enough batting depth. And the additional bowling strength didn't really pay off today
Woakes at 7 is scary enough before a collapse happens, that he’ll come in so early is very worrying. That Buttler is coming in at 6 is also a touch concerning.
Woakes at 7 is scary enough before a collapse happens, that he’ll come in so early is very worrying. That Buttler is coming in at 6 is also a touch concerning.
I was just thinking about that because Buttler is nearly as bad as Iron Mitts Bairstow behind the stumps.
Given the number of allrounders we supposedly have (admittedly when Stokes can bowl) you would have thought we could afford a proper keeper. But then you see Woakes at 7 and the doubts set in.
On a totally unrelated point, much as I am mega excited by Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah, I don't see them having long careers, and certainly not as out and out quicks. The reason is this:
Despite Aggers et al going on about Naseem as having a beautiful sideways on action, he actually doesn't bowl with the classic (if you are talking side-on) cartwheel action. Both of them bowl with what I call a 'fold-away' action. The front arm doesn't pull straight down and away, but pulls back across the body. Both of their arm swings that actually propel the ball are pretty short. Not wanting to tar them with this brush, but think Martin McCague (if any remembers). He was notionally 'side-on' but he actually bowled the ball with a flick of the arm that began with the arm pointing down, not a full swing around.
This type of bowling action suits a youthful, whippy physique. As they both fill out, I expect they will lose pace.
I guess time will tell, but for now it sure is great viewing/listening.
Given the number of allrounders we supposedly have (admittedly when Stokes can bowl) you would have thought we could afford a proper keeper.
I actually think Stokes at 5 really unbalances the side, they could never drop him if he's not bowling but should they bring another bat in instead and leave him at 5? Bring in Denley who can bowl spin along with Root and leave out a spinner maybe?
The 2 openers are to be persisted with for the moment, though I think Sibley will get found out against good bowling, James Bracey could be the answer here. Pope will end up at 3 I suspect.
In deep doodoo now Pope is out. Buttler needs to be told if he doesn't get a 100 he never gets to play test cricket again. 😛
That tail recalls England teams of old - Caddick, Gough, and Mullaly and Tufnell arguging over who's the worse number 11.
I actually think Stokes at 5 really unbalances the side, they could never drop him if he’s not bowling but should they bring another bat in instead and leave him at 5? Bring in Denley who can bowl spin along with Root and leave out a spinner maybe?
Agreed. The whole batting lineup looks off though - Root has repeatedly said he wants to play at 4 not 3, Stokes at 4 is a one-day move, and Buttler isn't reliable enough to be at 6. Actually, given his dropped chances in the ****stan innings, Buttler should be fretting slightly about his place (but probably isn't).
The whole batting lineup looks off though
It really does.
Burns is fine at the top, Sibley I fear will keep getting found out by quality bowling. I suspect Crawley or James Bracey will end up here.
Crawley is fine, if a little raw here, Pope will end up here long term.
Root is a 4.
Pope is fine here for the moment before he moves up the order, no idea who comes in long term, maybe Bairstow in the short term.
Stokes is best here.
Buttler coming in to thrash 30 or so here is OK when there's not a collapse up top, the problem is that his keeping is off. I love Foakes but there's a question as to if he can bat well enough. Bairstow is not the answer.
That means you have Bess or Woakes at 8 and 3 bowlers.
Sorted.
Actually, given his dropped chances in the ****stan innings, Buttler should be fretting slightly about his place (but probably isn’t).
But the only viable alternative I can see is Bairstow. Buttler and Bairstow are effectively the same player. Both are potentially destructive batsman who are almost equally likely to be out for a blob as scoring a quickfire century and both are awful keepers. They're even prone to howlers whilst standing back. Standing up to the stumps they're about as useful as Stevie Wonder holding some cymbals.
But the only viable alternative I can see is Bairstow.
Unless you accept that you want a proper keeper and pick Fowkes. There's also a glut of tidy keepers in county cricket at the moment, but how they bat is up for debate.
Or you throw caution to the wind and pick Billings...
Buttler and Bairstow are effectively the same player.
Almost weirdly so - they're totally interchangeable for the Test and ODI sides. Vaughn did mention... someone, whose name I forget, but could've been Billings?
Lunge's lineup makes a lot of sense. Tbh the last couple of days have shown that when England's bowling isn't working, it doesn't matter whether they have 4 or 6 bowlers - it's still not going to work.
Buttler/ Bairstow are fine inclusions as long as they're not missing chances behind the stumps, it's just that this team selection has left Buttler totally exposed in a role he's not equipped to do.
Buttler/ Bairstow are fine inclusions as long as they’re not missing chances behind the stumps,
Well, if you're being harsh you divide the total scored by ****stan and divide by 10 to get 32. Buttler missed three fairly regulation chances so he needs to be scoring 96 before he breaks par(!)
I know you can't really do it like that, but three chances missed in one innings is shit.
Pleasure watching the ****stan stumper today. Lovely hands although I do wonder if his foot movement is a little late.
My only issue is his vaguely germanic shouting of 'Oh Yah!' - my wife thought I was watching some kind of cricket based porn.
Buttler and Bairstow are effectively the same player.
Yet equally strangely, completely different personalities.
Bairstow is all fire, anger and Yorkshire, Buttler the well spoken, public schoolboy.
Anyone else getting mildly ticked off by the frequency of reviews this innings? I guess they're used more often in the tail end of the innings, but it does seem to be every over at the moment