The Cricket Thread

[Super_horns]

Noticed we let the lower order get a fair few runs again...back to our old habits?

 

[George Reilly's Hairpiece]

Play abandoned for the day. That takes one result away now.

 

[Matt_]

*Cough* Call up James Taylor *Cough*

James Taylor is a fine player but I feel he's far more likely to establish himself in the shorter forms of the game for England than in the test side at the moment.

To be fair, his record in County cricket over the past few seasons, whilst decent, doesn't really make a compelling case for his selection in the test side just yet.

 

[Matt_]

Headingley is turning into a poor venue for England of late.

We managed to lose here from a very strong position against Sri Lanka this time last year and, if the weather hadn't intervened today, we looked odds on to repeat that in this game.

Tomorrow will be a long, and probably difficult, day for England but hopefully we can get now get out of this with a morale boosting series victory ahead of the matches against the convicts.

 

[Saddlerrad]

I think there will probably be more rain round than they are expecting tommorrow, I'd be surprised if there's a full days play again so I have hope that England see the day out if they bat properly and don't just leave every single ball. They will do better to try and score like it's a fresh test. Hate the fact we have another abundance of fucking shit ODI cricket coming up now and it's virtually 5 weeks until the Ashes start. That's too long a gap.

Scrap ODI cricket and just keep T20/Test.

 

[JJH]

Still very much debating whether to spend the money to go up to Headingley tomorrow for what is quite likely to be a day disrupted by much rain, and no real chance of an England win.

Hm..

 

[Saddlerrad]

Ballance is a walking wicket. He needs to spend 10 hours a day for the next 6 weeks in the nets working on A) Getting forward, B) Getting out of the popping crease and C) WATCHING THE BALL.

61-2 England so very much in trouble. Hopefully a few showers pop up on radar.

 

[Aber gas]

Ballance is a walking wicket. He needs to spend 10 hours a day for the next 6 weeks in the nets working on A) Getting forward, B) Getting out of the popping crease and C) WATCHING THE BALL.

61-2 England so very much in trouble. Hopefully a few showers pop up on radar.

Or perhaps going back to the county game for a bit , Instead of playing one dayers ?

 

[Saddlerrad]

Or perhaps going back to the county game for a bit , Instead of playing one dayers ?

Yeah, that's what I meant. Just have him playing in the nets for hours per day for the next month to 6 weeks. Just take his technique out of the national firing line for a while and let him work on it. He's the kind of player that is valuable to the side so long as he is scoring a few runs. When he stops becoming that and turns into a walking wicket he's very much a candidate for the drop with his slow style, lack of counter attack and boring nature. Everyone of his dismissals are almost the same.

Big innings for Bell this. He has his name on the Ashes ticket already, but England and he will want some sort of score into his legs before he comes up against the Aussies.

 

[Skinner]

I said he should have gone back to county after the WC but then he posted some good scores against WI. Now he's gone to shit again and playing as if he's drained of confidence, again. He might be our new Ian Bell....

 

[Skinner]

Bell's place is the only one that's uncertain, in my view anyway. No doubt he'll put on a 150+ to cement his place in the side for another 18 months.

 

[Pilgrim Meister]

Bell out for 1, Root out for a quack (nothing he could of done about that one).

Collapse in progress

 

[Saddlerrad]

Bell is a good enough player to turn it round in my opinion and I'd keep him. He needs to score some runs this summer though or else he will most definetely be struggling when we head to the UAE. He always struggles when the ball properly spins. Very poor this morning from England and the collapse is full on occuring. Not much rain around on radar either so this one is all said and done.

I'd have taken a 1-1 before the series after the Windies. This lot are a very good side. I think they'd give the Aussies a brillant 5 test match series right now. We are probably a little bit short of that at the moment.

 

[Skinner]

Yeah there goes Root and England's chances.

 

[JJH]

England in cracking under pressure whilst batting shock.

 

[Dazza]

Better hope it starts to rain this afternoon.Only way we will avoid defeat by the looks of it.

 

[George Reilly's Hairpiece]

Some rain starting to move in from the west. Could/should hit the ground in the next 15-30 minutes according to the radar.

 

[hodge]

Bell out for 1, Root out for a quack (nothing he could of done about that one).

Collapse in progress

Nothing he could have done..... Except play it to the fielder? It was s nothing ball and he's just done similar to bell in playing it to leg and picked the fielder

 

[Saddlerrad]

Cook out LBW and Mo leaves the straight one. This could be over pre-tea.

 

[JJH]

Not even going to hold out for the showers.

Collapse reminiscent of England of old.

 

[Pilgrim Meister]

Only 3 wickets left now

 

[Super_horns]

NZ deserve the win really.

 

[Pilgrim Meister]

NZ have won by a county mile

 

[DarkSithLord]

Cant say NZ dont deserve it. Over th two tests I think 1-1 is a very fair result

 

[Saddlerrad]

New Zealand win with 19 odd overs to spare. Good, tough test match cricket. Good side NZ and not only above us in the ranking, but they are a couple of years ahead of us in terms of rebuilding a team after the McCullum/Taylor affair a couple of years ago. They have a good young bowling attack in perfect conditions, a decent spinner, a very good wicket keeper batsmen and some solid batsmen in the top 5. Williamson, Taylor and McCullum would get in virtually any test sides.

I'd put this NZ side above South Africa and a feather behind the Aussies as the best test side in the world.

Well done. Shame we have to spoil things with what will be a dead rubber, shite ODI series now and a 5 week gap to the Aussies.

 

[JJH]

Shame it's not a 3 game series really for a decider, because as Chris referred to, we now have 5 weeks without Test Match Cricket.

Shame - but I can't say that I don't enjoy ODI's.

 

[hodge]

New Zealand have practically been playing an ODI with their batting at least, we are going to have to be a lot smarter with our bowling.

 

[Aber gas]

Someone needs to explain to broad probably in single syllables that bowling short at 80 mph is not very clever . Either he's getting very bad advice or he is incredibly arrogant . He got wickets but the cost in runs was ridiculous imo.

 

[hodge]

ODI Squad: Morgan Billings Buttler Finn Hales Jordan Plunkett Rashid Root Roy Stokes Taylor Willey Wood

So batting order (for the team I'd pick)

Hales
Roy
Taylor
Morgan
Root
Stokes
Buttler
Rashid
Willey
Wood
Finn

 

[Skinner]

Good squad, a lot better than our test imo.