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  • iseverynamegoneiseverynamegone Frets: 1576
    edited December 2015
    Was pleased to see Bairstow gets runs. Jos can sit out for a while and come back as a batsmen as HFD suggested.

    Wonder if Hales will work out opening or if we will have Compton back there. Either way they look to be moving forward.

    (Edited "his" to "Jos "so @heartfeltdawn comments makes sense. Nice covering up of my shit typo that man:-)
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  • hungrymarkhungrymark Frets: 1782
    edited December 2015
    scrumhalf;916004" said:
    Nice way to start a series in South Africa, good performances pretty much all round.



    Of course, given our yo-yo performances in test cricket this year we'll probably cop a shellacking in the second test.
    Just what I was thinking this morning. It's all or nothing with England these days. Capable of thrashing the number 1 ranked team in the world, but equally likely to lose by an innings to the Windies.
    Use Your Brian
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  • @iseverynamegone Even some of the scribes on Cricinfo are coming round to this notion. When Buttler was at Somerset, he never learnt how to bat in the first-class game as he was fairly low down the order. It is completely mental that he has scored the three fastest England ODI centuries yet in FC cricket he has four centuries. Chris Woakes by comparison has eight and averages more that Buttler (36 to 32). For a man with so much talent, that is embarrassing. Back in the day, Clive Rice told KP that he was going to be moved up the order for Notts and he challenged his to score big runs. He dropped the bowling and took up the challenge. In my view, Buttler needs to do that for Lancashire next season. They have a good keeper there already who can bat. Buttler should be stripped of the gloves and told to go out and to show that he's a serious batsman, not someone fucking about with a first class average lower than Woakes and with fewer FC centuries than Tim Bresnan. 

    Hales will get the whole series. If he does reasonably (even an average of 30 would do), they will give him the whole summer next year as they have a fair bit invested in him. Woakes sadly I think has had his chances at Test level. I like him as a bowler but he's not delivered at Test level. Anderson straight back in, no brainer. 

    It was lovely to see Moeen stick the fingers up at the naysayers. He did go for a few runs in his first six overs of the game and Twitter was full of people panicking because he was going at 6 runs an over. He answered them beautifully. The simplified action works and he pushed the ball through, which is what you have to do on a pitch like that. 

    Compton played an absolute blinder. Man of the Match in my opinion. We could have been in serious shit on the first day but he nullified it against a very decent bowling attack on a very helpful wicket. It wasn't pretty but it was necessary. 

    SA look awful. They look like us Down Under when we got stuffed. Clear problems in the admin department with the quotas (don't mention the quotas), too many players feeling tired, and Amla looks spent as a captain. It's a great shame. One of the unexpected delights of the last SA tour was going to Taunton and bumping into his father in the smoking area. He'd literally flown in that morning from SA, got a train up to Taunton, and all to see his son play. He sat with my group for a couple of hours and told us all about life growing up and how they'd come through. Fascinating man and the pride was evident in seeing his son make such a name for himself. He actually left us when Boucher got hit in the face (the injury that caused his retirement) as he is a doctor and volunteered his services if needed. 

    The worry for SA is how weak their domestic game is. In Australia 15 years ago, you knew there were players who could play Tests. Many came to England as pros (Law, both Husseys, now we have the like of Hogan and Magoffin). South Africa were similar with the Kolpaks. The like of Rudolph and Prince were good enough to be in that side but jacked it in. Now with T20 coming in and the Test players playing few domestic games, the pool has shrunk. Old Somerset fans will remember Jimmy Cook. There are rumours of his son coming into the side. When you consider that his son is 33, it shows the same trend we've seen with Australia, in that players will be picked at an older age than 15 years ago (Chris Rogers, Voges) because of the paucity of younger talent. 



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  • iseverynamegoneiseverynamegone Frets: 1576
    edited December 2015
    Anderson back on no brainier. Good to have Woakes around as a decent back up. Like to see some serious young pace get blooded for the inevitable Broad/Anderson retirement.

    Only when they have gone will most really appreciate how amazeballs they have been .
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  • Bowling full stop is at such a low level compared to 15 years ago. A batsman doesn't become great by making runs on flat tracks: they achieve it by learning how to bat and succeed on poor tracks as well. Likewise a bowler doesn't become great by taking wickets on green seamers or some of the spin bowling shitholes India served up when SA went there: they become great by bowling well on flat tracks that offer them little. Personally I don't think bowlers are developing as they used to because they get removed at the first hint of people taking them on. The mentality in T20.ODI cricket is "one bad over - you're off'. That mentality is now firmly in place in a lot of league cricket and increasingly in FC cricket. 

    A young bowler after being smacked about can learn so much from developing a plan to come back against a destructive batsman. I remember how much I learnt playing a county festival and bowling 67 overs in three days (60 over games, unlimited spells) when I was 17. The ability to keep going, focusing on the right areas, changing methods of attack, all of that came through bowling those spells. People talk about there being a reduction in the number of batsmen able to play a long innings: the same is true for bowlers. 

    Quite seriously, I'd impose a restriction on the number of bowlers you can use in ODI, T20, and FC cricket in an innings. People might react with horror in the thought of injuries and going down to only four fit bowlers but I am sure that scrapping the dibbly dobblers and part-time shit would help bowlers to develop. As they develop, so the batsmen they play against has to develop or face the axe. Crap bowling breeds crap batting and vice versa. 



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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30824
    edited January 2016
    Watched Rabada y'day. He looks the bomb, like a superstar in making.

    Some of Marshall and Daniel in his action.

    We need to get @pj310 commenting on this thread....he's one of the best young cricketers I know....

    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30824

    Ginger Records broken by Stokes and Bairstow:

    Fastest 100 stand by 2 Gingers in test cricket
    Best 100 by a Ginger at Cape Town
    Highest stand v SA by Gingers.
    Bairstow- most Ginger England batter of all time
    Stokes- Chavviest Ginger in history of test cricket

    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • Gassage said:
    Watched Rabada y'day. He looks the bomb, like a superstar in making.

    He does indeed. The Saffer medical team must be watching him like a hawk after seeing the like of Mfuneko Ngam and Monde Zondeki start promisingly and then fall to injuries. 

    As a long term non-fan of Chris Morris ($625,000 for that?), I am highly pleased by his own personal century. If he were English, he's the type of seamer who would have been picked for a Test at Headingley in the early 90's and then dumped forever.  



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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30824
    @heartfeltdawn

    This is utter utter carnage!!

    I burned my croissants cos of Stokes...astonishing stuff.




    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30824
    That is one of the great innings.

    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • MoltisantiMoltisanti Frets: 1131
    it's all about Chris Gayle for me, 
    great technique - no
    nice bloke - apparently not
    record holder - no

    can hit anything out of the park while looking like he's putting in about 5% - Yep :D



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  • @Gassage Have you ever seen a South African side bowl so badly? I can't recall any time when they've been this shit since they came back into the fold.

    A friend of mine and I always lay out Test predictions after the toss. I told him it was a 450 minimum pitch, he was doubtful once we went five down. I thought their attack would slump and so they have. Morne Morkel is a bit like Mitchell Johnson in that he's a good bowler with a more senior figure there alongside him (most obviously Steyn) but he is not an attack leader. If you strip Morkel out of the equation then the frontline attack have 6 caps between them. 

    Morris doesn't know what's hit him. He's used to T20 cricket, bowl an over or two and get whacked and you get taken off. Having to keep going and to focus on a plan when you're being attacked as a bowler comes through playing longer forms of cricket. There's been a lack of bowling intelligence out there. Considering Morris and Morkel are both IPL veterans, where were the slower balls and the cutters? The yorkers were on short display (I can remember one in the final hour from Morris to Stokes just before his 200 came up. It's strange to me how T20 is meant to be this fast 'think on your feet' game as a bowler yet the Saffer bowlers virtually stopped thinking at all. Broad and Anderson don't have the same pace as Morkel and Rabada but they have a great deal more bowling nous. 

    13 months ago Stokes was coming back from Sri Lanka after a tour where he bowled dreadfully and couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo. Dropped for the World Cup, the fans said it was wrong... England got it right. It was the wake-up call he needed.    



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  • it's all about Chris Gayle for me, 
    great technique - no

    Pretty sure Steve Waugh said he hit it harder than anyone else he'd played with or against. 

    As good as Stokes has played, it still can't beat Nathan Astle 13 years ago. No sleep for me that night. 






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  • NiteflyNitefly Frets: 4901
    What on earth is this about?


    Tragically young!
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  • No idea. None of the report indicate how he died, bless him.
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  • scrumhalfscrumhalf Frets: 11262
    Well, Stokes and Bairstow gave it a bit of tap, didn't they.

    If I were a betting man I'd lay money on Stokes getting a fiver-fer.

    So much for my prediction that we might get a tanking. To be fair, I was one word out, replace "get" with "give" and I'm a savant.
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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30824
    Nitefly said:
    What on earth is this about?


    Tragically young!
    Word is suicide or drugs, but I may be horriblly wrong so don't quote me.


    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • GassageGassage Frets: 30824
    @heartfeltdawn

    I posted this on my Facebook. As someone who pro'ed for 2 seasons out there, I am astonished at the inepitiude....

    Apols to all my SA mates but I have never seen such an unprofessional Saffer side than this.

    Whatever you associate with the Jaapies you expect professionalism and polish, and both are sorely lacking, and I'd look at the skipper and management as being key to this.


    *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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  • @Gassage. That 2015 has seen both the rugby team and the cricket team looking foolish is not coincidental. You know the talk in the rugby camp. In the cricket camp, there's been a lot of talk for ages about selection decisions based around colour, most notably Kyle Abbott being dropped for the WC semi final with Vernon Philander coming in. Lorgat denied any political interference, Mike Horn confirmed it. When you also have the coach, Russell Domingo, and the covener of selection, Andrew Hudson, denying it, then I don't see how that creates an environment of trust between management and players. 

    The 'aggressive transformation' policy saw new quotas come into SA domestic cricket this year. The SACA considered legal action doe to the lack of consultation. It isn't difficult to imagine that it has caused a lot of waves in domestic cricket that filtered upwards to a national side already discussing the Abbott-Philander situation. So when you have all that going on and then go to India and get absolutely pulverised, it's no surprise really that the team has looked poor.

    The option of bringing in other players is also limited. Take Hardus Viljoen, currently on the sidelines but likely to replace Chris Morris for the next Test. He's had two first class fixtures leading into this series after playing a load of T20 games in the Ram Slam. Morris was in the same boat, playing two FC games before this series (One against England) after playing in the Ram Slam. Morris took 0-93 in that warm-up match and has 1-150 in this Test so it's fair to say he's not enjoyed bowling to them. I'm still in contact with a couple of SA guys I played with and they say the quality of domestic cricket has dropped quite significantly. 




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  • England drop a few, the pitch continues to look very good, and South Africa aren't taking risks. On the flip side, the lack of action did mean I made major inroads to cleaning out the broom cupboard. 



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