The cricket thread

crunchman

guitars4you said:

No Bess
No Archer - still a sore elbow
Woakes in
5 seamers - expected to be a pacey pitch

4 seamers are enough.  Would be better keeping Bess in.  He's a decent fielder and knows which end of a bat is which.

guitars4you

crunchman said:

guitars4you said:

No Bess
No Archer - still a sore elbow
Woakes in
5 seamers - expected to be a pacey pitch

4 seamers are enough.  Would be better keeping Bess in.  He's a decent fielder and knows which end of a bat is which.

I wouldn't disagree about 4 + Bess - Worry attached to Wood's fitness and even Stokes doesn't weigh in with long spells over the whole match - Tends to be spasmodic as to when they utilise him

Question is do they go with Bess, to hopefully anchor one end for 30 + overs and rotate at the other end - Or run all 5 pace bowlers in 4-6 over spurts

They are talking about it been a pacy pitch over the 5 days

crunchman

Given that England are scoring at over 4 an over so far off the SA quicks, I would be far happier with a spin option.

guitars4you

First 100 partnership in a 1st innings for well over 100 years

scrumhalf

400 all out, I'll take that. Great slapfest by Broad and Wood.

Hope rhey're not too tired to open the bowling.

scrumhalf

Woody's day. 

RandallFlagg

England turning SA over and looking good.

scrumhalf

Well, it was looking less than certain for a while but SA's batting subsided in a very English manner.

Who knows, had they come out a little earlier and not gone into the first test undercooked (as seems to be the norm these days it might have been a whitewash. 

RandallFlagg

ODI series: 

SA 1 - 0 Eng

Sunday's 3rd match and the Jason Roy & Johnny Bairstow show were rattling along until Bairstow falls...61-1 and tanking along though

guitars4you

1 all in the ODi - Best bowling by Rashid for a while - Bairstow devastating today for 20 odd deliveries

see what the T20 brings

Heartfeltdawn

earwighoney said:

AFAIK it's the ECB of England & Australia who are supporting them who want the 4 day test, I imagine it's the ECB's idea as they want to decrease the days of test cricket played in the summer so they can put forward their 'marquee players' to play as much THE 100 cricket as possible.

The ECB keep on trying to reinvent the fucking wheel in order to bring more people to cricket but the solution is fucking obvious to anyone who isn't a fucking cretin (that's you Colin Graves), cricket behind a paywall in the UK is preventing people from watching the sport.

CSA support them as well. They released a statement the day after this Mail report stating that their official position is to support four-day Tests. 

https://www.iol.co.za/sport/cricket/proteas/cricket-south-africa-support-four-day-tests-40194021

Attendance figures at SA Test venues has been going down for some time. But four days are not the answer to bring those figures up. Four days will simply reduce financial losses and then open up more opportunity for more lucrative games. The obvious one would be a World T20 tournament played annually as has already been discussed by the ICC thus putting ECB and BCCI noses out of joint. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-7870511/ECB-hit-plans-Twenty20-World-Cup-2022-three-years.html

Laughable, isn't it? The ECB disses the ICC for potential T20 overkill with an annual world tournament which could affect the ECB's ability to play bilateral series yet we have the ECB shitting on first-class cricket with the overkill of shitness that is The Hundred. 

Test series: what a sad reflection of Test cricket as it is. SA cricket is beginning to resemble Zimbabwe after the black armband protest (hell, they've even got a left hand keeper as arguably their gun batsman now). Big Vern's over, Faf looks fucked and ready to get his Kolpak deal signed and sorted, loads of administrative messing and changes in the FC game planned that will arse things up further... Been the usual toss going around about how the 2nd Test was one of England's greatest overseas wins. It's not even England's best win in SA over the last 20 years, let alone an all-time performance. Clearly some people can't remember 2005...

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/14925/scorecard/64119/south-africa-vs-england-4th-test-england-tour-of-south-africa-2004-05

Not many of the current SA team would get in that 2005 squad. 

Nitefly

guitars4you said:

1 all in the ODi - Best bowling by Rashid for a while - Bairstow devastating today for 20 odd deliveries

see what the T20 brings

They made hard work of it in the end though, Mark!

Heartfeltdawn

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/51446633

Foakes must surely play. The two Somerset spinners will start with Root and Denly as the part-time options. Jennings... fair enough. Most of us old sods are used to horses for courses when a seamer is selected for a green top wicket a la Neil Mallender against Pakistan. With Burns being out, Jennings gets his chance based on performances in Asia previously. 

How I think they should line up:

Crawley 
Sibley
Jennings
Root
Denly
Stokes
Foakes
Bess
Leach
Broad
Wood or Curran

Keep the two young uns opening after their SA efforts. Jennings at 3 offer a right-left combination first wicket down. Root at 4 is obvious. Denly at 5 with Stokes in case we have the collapso start-oh. Foakes for bat and gloves as JB's plop right now. Two spinners select themselves, Broad as senior bowler, and then you decide depending on the pitch whether you want Wood as the shock quick or Curran if there's anything there for him as well as him being left handed creating patches of rough (this could work for or against England). 

Wowzers, suddenly we look solid again once we've dispensed with two keeper-batsmen who aren't in the runs...

crunchman

Heartfeltdawn said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/51446633

Foakes must surely play. The two Somerset spinners will start with Root and Denly as the part-time options. Jennings... fair enough. Most of us old sods are used to horses for courses when a seamer is selected for a green top wicket a la Neil Mallender against Pakistan. With Burns being out, Jennings gets his chance based on performances in Asia previously. 

How I think they should line up:

Crawley 
Sibley
Jennings
Root
Denly
Stokes
Foakes
Bess
Leach
Broad
Wood or Curran

Keep the two young uns opening after their SA efforts. Jennings at 3 offer a right-left combination first wicket down. Root at 4 is obvious. Denly at 5 with Stokes in case we have the collapso start-oh. Foakes for bat and gloves as JB's plop right now. Two spinners select themselves, Broad as senior bowler, and then you decide depending on the pitch whether you want Wood as the shock quick or Curran if there's anything there for him as well as him being left handed creating patches of rough (this could work for or against England). 

Wowzers, suddenly we look solid again once we've dispensed with two keeper-batsmen who aren't in the runs...

You can't leave Pope out of the starting side.  Surely Denly and Jennings are fighting over the 3 spot.  Given the spin option he gives, then I'd pick Denly.

You are right that they should pick Foakes, but I have a nasty suspicion that they will pick Buttler.  If he's in the squad, then I suspect he will be in the team.

Moeen not wanting to play has simplified the selection slightly.  If he had played, then it could be an awkward conversation with Bess, but Moeen isn't a good enough batsman these days to play at 6 and play 3 spinners.

Heartfeltdawn

Blimey, I forgot about Ollie Pope. Whoops. 

So yes! You can't leave him out of the side but you can forget about him somehow....

So Denly 3, Pope into the lineup. Other than that, keep it going. 

scrumhalf

I hope that Jennings is there as a reserve openrr. Demly has done nothing to merit being dropped. 

guitars4you

T20 v SA

with 5-8 overs to go it looked like it should be a good win for us - 7 required of 6 balls and it should still be our game

Good to D Steyn still playing - I thought he had retired - Talk of AB De Villiers coming back for the T20's

guitars4you

T20  v SA

Crikey that is 2 tight finishes - I'm a big Test Cricket fan but I'm also a cricket fan and those last 2 T20 games have been fun + exciting

Don't think this T20 England team has enough quality in the team to win the WC - Not sure if this is meant to be the finished article or try a few different options - Bowling attack looks to hit 'n' miss IMO

Nitefly

I was keeping an eye on it via the BBC news website, and they made hard work of it in the end!  Mind, Jordan had good little spell there 

sixstringsupplies

full commentary of the final days play of "that" Ben Stokes innings. England are 156-3 chasing 359.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/cricket/52136844