The Cricket Thread.

[rupertramjet]

Originally Posted by rupertramjet

Oh well abject surrender again!

Of to watch the England Barbarians match, seem to recognise the guy playing in the centre for the Ba bas!

Errrrr looks like the Rugby team screwed it too England 45 Barbarians 63! No guesses as to who I was supporting! Mind you Chris Frome showed British Sportsmen ans Women how to win! Holding the three biggest titles in cycling at once, the third ever man to do it!

Hope the cricketers were watching, I noticed Root take his cap off, I think that there are a few that need to remove them permanently!

[DB83]

Aye. Root took off his cap, tossed it in his hand and muttered 'Think we fcuked this one up'

[scoundrel]

I should mention in passing that Pakistan played extremely well at Lords. Without being flashy and without any individual genius, they played for each other as a team and played thoughtful and well judged cricket. They took their catches while England repeatedly did not take theirs; even during the formality of Pakistan's second innings Stokes dropped quite a simple slip catch. This followed five drops in the Pakistan first innings, meaning that England's bowlers had to take 15 wickets rather than 10. Pakistan's fielding was much more focused and much less wasteful; and they have always had a reputation for costly fielding errors.

It is much easier to relax and play your natural game when your opponent is not putting you under pressure. But for all that, Pakistan played extremely well, and they richly deserve this well-earned victory. While we are right to castigate the multiple failures in the England "performance", it will be wrong if we do not give full credit to Pakistan for being far better than England were and for showing England how this game is played.

[steamjon]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

I should mention in passing that Pakistan played extremely well at Lords. Without being flashy and without any individual genius, they played for each other as a team and played thoughtful and well judged cricket.

That won't last long, playing for each other as a team.

[buttsie]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

I should mention in passing that Pakistan played extremely well at Lords. Without being flashy and without any individual genius, they played for each other as a team and played thoughtful and well judged cricket. They took their catches while England repeatedly did not take theirs; even during the formality of Pakistan's second innings Stokes dropped quite a simple slip catch. This followed five drops in the Pakistan first innings, meaning that England's bowlers had to take 15 wickets rather than 10. Pakistan's fielding was much more focused and much less wasteful; and they have always had a reputation for costly fielding errors.

It is much easier to relax and play your natural game when your opponent is not putting you under pressure. But for all that, Pakistan played extremely well, and they richly deserve this well-earned victory. While we are right to castigate the multiple failures in the England "performance", it will be wrong if we do not give full credit to Pakistan for being far better than England were and for showing England how this game is played.

The ECB knew Bayliss wasnt going to become a test winning guru but they hired him for the 50 over game - why they cant split the game - the stupid money driven scheduling

They'll never admit it but they want a Sri lanka ending so they have that one trophy that has bypassed them since the 70s.

Where the ECB have lost the plot in this T50 goal is what the county system has been turned into....one article lists all the county batsmen tried in tests average 26....Ballance at 37 the high point

The county system has been sacrificed so you get inferior test batsmen & bowlers coming through , especially spinners.

England seem to produce reasonable fast bowlers and not much else

For mine a Jason Gillespie or someone with a winning recent record - Tests
Trevor Bayliss / Paul Farbrace - T20 / 50

Makes far more sense - as long as the ECB stop playing around with county cricket
or trying to turn it into the T20 cash cow like other countries

[countjimmoriarty]

Originally Posted by steamjon

That won't last long, playing for each other as a team.

Don't you believe it. They are a very tight unit. Mostly young players, well led and coached, seems like a lack of the inflated egos that have hamstrung them in the past. Just a shame they still can't play home games at home.

[effCup]

Originally Posted by countjimmoriarty

Just a shame they still can't play home games at home.

They've already asked. Would you want to travel/play there?

[victor meldrew]

Originally Posted by effCup

They've already asked. Would you want to travel/play there?

NZ are considering a visit in November, what formats and for how long I have no idea, its possible its already dead in the water.

[effCup]

Originally Posted by victor meldrew

its possible its already dead in the water.

Yes, possibly. Last I read ~a week ago NZC were asking players what they thought of the idea. Not certain but impression gathered was would only be shorter formats, i.e. no tests?

[scoundrel]

Pakistan are forced to play home games in the UAE because their security situation in Pakistan was too dangerous. We will all remember that an organised ambush was mounted against the Sri Lankan tour side in 2009 by the same pond-life scum who mounted the Mumbai atrocity in 2008; a Kashmir Islamist group who are supported by the Pakistan secret police. Until the Inter-Services Intelligence bureau is disbanded and all past and present members are either interned for life or else shot, terrorism will be integral to Pakistan's social fabric and it will not be safe for any cricket team to go there.

It is a great pity. I am impressed with this current Pakistan side, whose technique in batting is way better than England, and whose bowlers appear to have sized up the technical flaws in England's batting perfectly. The England batsmen seem to have formed a really bad habit of driving hard at the ball without moving their feet. It's not so bad in one day games where the white ball hardly does anything. But when the red ball moves in the air or off the seam it opens up the gate and Mark Stoneman and Jonny Bairstow both went that way.

It also means that the batsman is far more endangered if the ball swings or seams, because they are simply playing the line of the ball. Joe Root was especially culpable, flashing hard at a very wide delivery he didn't need to play, and getting the edge when it swung. Dawid Malan's feet didn't move when he just poked at the ball. Apart for Alastair Cook, only Ben Stokes got out to a good enough ball. The other England front line batsmen got out because the Pakistan bowlers laid bait and they weren't disciplined enough not to go for it, and weren't technically sound when they did go for it.

Pakistan play plenty of one day cricket too. It doesn't seem to stop them from adjusting when they are in a five day game.