The Cricket Thread.

[countjimmoriarty]

Originally Posted by DB83

^^ Vic. Have you put a shilling on this ?

Must confess to still smiling over my 'joke' and Vic's reaction. Maybe one day we will find a spinner to emulate Jim. But the odds of ever emulating that 19 for (who was the quickie who pooped that immaculate result ?) are beyond even the most insane better.

Not a quickie. It was the other spinner, Tony Lock (3rd wicket, 1st innings), whose mood got darker and darker as the wickets kept falling at the other end whilst he was bowling his heart out. 2 seam bowlers of the quality of Brian Statham and Trevor 'The Boil' Bailey didn't get a wicket between them.

[DB83]

Never mind Vic.

Rashid morphs in to Britney Spears. Oops. I did it again

For a few moments earlier there was a suggestion that India could pull off the unthinkable. Methinks my bookie can enjoy his beer tonight.

[victor meldrew]

For India so near yet so far, for England plenty of water works and well done Jimmy.

[DB83]

Methinks they got the individual awards spot on.

Curran certainly deserved the England POTT. Good call by Ravi Shastri.

Kohli was probably the only contender for India.

And wasn't Jimmy a wee bit emotional. He probably thought he would have to wait a while to get that wicket.

For India like England at times it was the batsmen who let their bowlers down. Had their top order fired then the overall outcome could have been very different.

[victor meldrew]

ECB announce Alec Stewart to replace Strauss and England will now be called Surrey.

[scoundrel]

England did enough to deserve the series win; but the victory margin flatters them and does India a bit of a disservice. Only at Lords did England completely dominate India.

We are left with some interesting questions for the winter. The retirement of Alistair Cook raises a new puzzle and so does the character of the first winter assignment, a tour of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a difficult place for seam bowling, and England will probably tour with all of her main spinners - Jack Leach and Dominic Bess as well as Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid. Unless there are fitness considerations, Joe Root should be practising his off breaks as well.

I read some comments that Stuart Broad should be rested for the Sri Lanka tour, presumably to have him in tip-top condition to bowl in the West Indies after Christmas. I disagree. Idle machinery rusts. Unless he needs an operation or something like that, he should tour.

1. Keaton Jennings - only because Alistair Cook won't be going.
2. Rory Burns of Surrey has done more than enough for more than long enough and should be picked.
3. Moeen Ali at 3. He does bat three for his county and is a real batsman, plus if he can secure this spot it really benefits the time balance. Possibly he should not bowl as much if he bats so high up the order, but I remember Graham Gooch being a very useful fourth seamer/swing bowler who took good wickets at a respectable economy rate whenever extra bowling was needed, so its not unprecedented for a high order player to also bowl regularly.
4. Joe Root is by far the most proven batsman and is also the captain. If he wants to bat at four, then make it so. He should definitely do a bit more bowling as well, particularly if England are bowling in the fourth innings.
5. Ben Stokes.
6. Jonny Bairstow
7. Sam Curran
8. Adil Rashid
9. Stuart Broad
10. Jack Leach
11. Jimmy Anderson
    

Reserve opener - Mark Stoneman. He might not get a game even, if Jennings can come good and if Burns plays reasonably well, but he had a decent summer and he wasn't the only one to crap out in Australia last time.

Reserve spinner - Dominic Bess.

Reserve wicketkeeper and first choice spare batsman - Jos Buttler.

Also bring Chris Woakes and IMHO Mark Wood.

If there is room for a 17th squad member I would like it to be Oliver Pope, who I think has been punished for the failure of other batsmen. But we might only pick 16.

[victor meldrew]

Hales and Stokes charged with bringing the game into disrepute with a hearing taking place in December as well as being included in the ODI squad to play Sri Lanka.

[DB83]

^^ How convenient.

It was originally mooted that any disciplinary would have been held a matter of days after the court case (assuming naturelemant that Rocky would not be serving at the pleasure of Her Majesty)

So what happens ?. My crystal ball tells me that both will have rap on the knuckles and will only have their pants pulled down and whipped if they transgress again.

Mind you if my crystal ball actually worked I would be sending this from some far exotic place and not from where I call home.

On another matter Moeen now discloses that an Aussie was none to kind verbally a few years ago. The precise wording the un-named Aussie denies using.

But why bring it back up now ? The scinical (jeez I'll learn to spell one day) in me sees he wants to sell more copies of his autobiog. Yet he has removed the name from the text so what is going on ?

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by DB83

On another matter Moeen now discloses that an Aussie was none to kind verbally a few years ago. The precise wording the un-named Aussie denies using.

But why bring it back up now ? The scinical (jeez I'll learn to spell one day) in me sees he wants to sell more copies of his autobiog. Yet he has removed the name from the text so what is going on ?

Moeen may had had some legal advice regarding libel and defamation. Unless he has witnesses it is one man's word against another; and i think there's Buckley's Chance of any Australian cricketers informing against a teammate.

Not Moeen's fault (except that he doesn't trim his beard); but the Osama resemblance has occurred to me before. I strongly suspect that Moeen is telling the truth. But unless he can prove it, he could end up like The Daily Star when they reported truthfully on Jeffrey Archer. Best not to name names.

[Welderman]

C'mon You Bears..