General England Cricket Thread

[Barsiem]

What a win today!  Don't think anyone saw this result happening after days 1 & 2.  Phenomenal performance firstly from Pope and then from Hartley on debut to get us the win.

This England team is great to watch - not always for the best reasons, but always entertaining 

[Lighthouse]

Considering we were 163-5 in our second innings and still 27 runs short of even making them bat again, that’s a phenomenal performance. Brilliant from Pope and Hartley.

[trousers]

Anyone got a link to any 'free' highlights? 

[31cc]

https://youtu.be/udxY2JtmwXE

[Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan]

On 28/01/2024 at 14:24, Barsiem said:

What a win today!  Don't think anyone saw this result happening after days 1 & 2.  Phenomenal performance firstly from Pope and then from Hartley on debut to get us the win.

This England team is great to watch - not always for the best reasons, but always entertaining 

I still think the squad would do well to have a Hampshire player (Dawson for this tour) but very happy to see them do so well. 

Stokes showing his captaincy again, great resilience from the squad (the sort of mental toughness Saints have only just rediscovered). 

[Picard]

Been quiet on this thread since the first test.

[badgerx16]

England go from 175:3 to 175:6 as Bairstow, Root, and Stokes are all out on the same score, burning all 3 of England's reviews in the process. Now 183:8.

[badgerx16]

If we are going to have these split test series, and each visiting team gets to play at Lords, then there should not be a third test in London at the Oval.

[Trader]

England continue to play T20 cricket in a Test match. 'Basball' apparently. Absolute stupidity, it's a 5-day match FFS, there's no hurry. Limited overs stuff has destroyed proper cricket. Geoffrey Boycott must be spinning in his grave. Well he would be if he was dead lol.

 

[badgerx16]

2 hours ago, Trader said:

England continue to play T20 cricket in a Test match. 'Basball' apparently. Absolute stupidity, it's a 5-day match FFS, there's no hurry. Limited overs stuff has destroyed proper cricket. Geoffrey Boycott must be spinning in his grave. Well he would be if he was dead lol.

 

All 10 wickets to catches, with none of them 'traditional' snicks to the keeper or slips. Calamity cricket before lunch.

[John B]

17 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

All 10 wickets to catches, with none of them 'traditional' snicks to the keeper or slips. Calamity cricket before lunch.

I went to the Oval yesterday for the test match the first time for over twenty years.

 

Awful experince beer £8 a pint toilets disgusting England tactics bewildering with six slips and gullies letting Sri Lanki score at five an over when bowling and giving Sri Lanka catching practice when batting.

If that is Bazball they can forget my patronage I will stick with County Championship cricket

[Gloucester Saint]

30 minutes ago, John B said:

I went to the Oval yesterday for the test match the first time for over twenty years.

 

Awful experince beer £8 a pint toilets disgusting England tactics bewildering with six slips and gullies letting Sri Lanki score at five an over when bowling and giving Sri Lanka catching practice when batting.

If that is Bazball they can forget my patronage I will stick with County Championship cricket

Whilst I like the attacking cricket overall - not keen to go back to Rory Burns and Dom Sibley opening - yesterday was just reckless, rudderless and didn’t respect Sri Lanka. They’re lucky Pope got a much needed ton otherwise they’d be behind. 

One definite positive is the return from the Fletcher era of picking potential rather than bog average pros bowling at 80mph tops cashing in on green tops and tired batters in the volume not quality county scene. Hull looks like another gem and Atkinson proof that what it takes internationally and domestically are different and makes England better overseas. Trescothick, Vaughan, Harmison were similar examples in that era of selecting on potential. 

 

[Lighthouse]

20 hours ago, Trader said:

England continue to play T20 cricket in a Test match. 'Basball' apparently. Absolute stupidity, it's a 5-day match FFS, there's no hurry. Limited overs stuff has destroyed proper cricket. Geoffrey Boycott must be spinning in his grave. Well he would be if he was dead lol.

 

I agree, it was mad. As soon as we went five down, we started playing like it was the last four overs of a T-20. I got the feeling they thought they had it in the bag already, so might as well have a bit of a swing. Bizarre cricket.

[John B]

3 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Whilst I like the attacking cricket overall - not keen to go back to Rory Burns and Dom Sibley opening - yesterday was just reckless, rudderless and didn’t respect Sri Lanka. They’re lucky Pope got a much needed ton otherwise they’d be behind. 

One definite positive is the return from the Fletcher era of picking potential rather than bog average pros bowling at 80mph tops cashing in on green tops and tired batters in the volume not quality county scene. Hull looks like another gem and Atkinson proof that what it takes internationally and domestically are different and makes England better overseas. Trescothick, Vaughan, Harmison were similar examples in that era of selecting on potential. 

 

Yes I agree with what you are saying but will reserve judgement on Hull for later

[John B]

20 hours ago, Trader said:

England continue to play T20 cricket in a Test match. 'Basball' apparently. Absolute stupidity, it's a 5-day match FFS, there's no hurry. Limited overs stuff has destroyed proper cricket. Geoffrey Boycott must be spinning in his grave. Well he would be if he was dead lol.

 

I thought Boycott was in the waiting room on the way to his grave 

 

Nasty little man 

[Gloucester Saint]

Just now, John B said:

I thought Boycott was in the waiting room on the way to his grave 

 

Nasty little man 

Second lot of cancer - recovering from surgery. I read a lot of different accounts of what’s he’s like but clearly unpleasant if you meet him on the wrong day. Mind you, scoring runs in middle age against Holding, Marshall, Lillee and Thomson (not in his 74-77 pomp when he was as fast as there’s been but still as quick as Mark Wood was this summer post-shoulder op) shows a high class player. 

[Toadhall Saint]

54 minutes ago, John B said:

Yes I agree with what you are saying but will reserve judgement on Hull for later

Thought Hull looked good against us in last years one day final.

[Lighthouse]

4 hours ago, Toadhall Saint said:

Thought Hull looked good against us in last years one day final.

Looked decent enough in the group game at the Ageas too, if I remember rightly.

[badgerx16]

And I thought the batting in our first innings was calamitous. This has been Bazball at it's worst.

[Lighthouse]

So I make that 16 wickets lost for 191 runs, at home to a pretty ordinary looking SL team.

[Gloucester Saint]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

So I make that 16 wickets lost for 191 runs, at home to a pretty ordinary looking SL team.

Poor wasn’t it? Brook has batted like a busted arse this game, and was petulant first innings when Sri Lanka finally found a disciplined off stump channel line to him. Lawrence is never an opener in any format, and should have been out a few times before he was, for an admittedly useful 35. Duckett too frenetic again. Root got a good full delivery in swinging conditions and the SL top order batted really well tonight. The bright spots were Hull again and a superb knock with the tail yet again by Jamie Smith. The difference between Smith compared to Duckett, Pope, Lawrence and increasingly Brook is that he has got a solid defence so his shot selection is far better.

Brook actually has got a good defence but just won’t use it at the moment. Stokes needs to have a word. Duckett has a decent defence but notorious for playing at 98% of deliveries. It’s serving him well and makes a good combination with Crawley when his finger heals, but in Australia he is going to need to leave the rising ball a lot more at times, as that’s why Root has never made a hundred there. Lots of 50s, but plays a rising one regularly he doesn’t need to on 70-odd. 

[rallyboy]

I thought our batting was appalling, then I saw us bowl... 😨 

Lack of consistency, lines and lengths all over the show, too many balls inviting to be smacked.

I guess it's good to get all of your mediocre performances out of the way in one hit.

[Gloucester Saint]

Started to claw back the Aussie start until Rashid bowled a floaty pie. Him and Carse are actually international bowlers though. Curran is in for his batting these days and Topley lost whatever he had. If you are only bowling at 80mph, you need plenty of variations. 

[Gloucester Saint]

Aussies got 193. Rashid, Livingstone and Carse did a great job pulling it back but Topley and Curran bowled county medium dross and got smashed all over Cardiff, as they got smashed all over Southampton midweek. Pity about Carse’s gambling ban as he’d have got Test opportunities this summer but might get a game on the Pakistan tour coming up. 

Hopefully a better start with the bat than Southampton.

[Gloucester Saint]

Good win in the end, Salt got England off to a good start, excellent knock by Bethell but MOTM with bat and ball Liam Livingstone enjoying being up the order.

[Lighthouse]

I love the idea that they told Brydon Carse, "okay, just go out and knock a nice easy single, so we win the game," and he was like, "I’ve got you bro!"

[Gloucester Saint]

This is ridiculous, need to get to 20 overs a side for a result and there’s a drinks break at 17 overs. At the end of September in Bristol.

Potts now wasting time changing boots when he should have done that during the needless drinks break.

[Weston Saint]

1 hour ago, Gloucester Saint said:

This is ridiculous, need to get to 20 overs a side for a result and there’s a drinks break at 17 overs. At the end of September in Bristol.

Potts now wasting time changing boots when he should have done that during the needless drinks break.

Think you have forgotten rain was due and England were well behind the DL rate.  All about trying to keep below the 20 over minimum for a match. As it was the rain came just after the 20 overs so we lost!  

[Gloucester Saint]

5 hours ago, Weston Saint said:

Think you have forgotten rain was due and England were well behind the DL rate.  All about trying to keep below the 20 over minimum for a match. As it was the rain came just after the 20 overs so we lost!  

Know what you’re saying but we’d been so badly outplayed at that point that it would have felt hollow to have escaped! We still owe them one for Bairstow at Lords but save it for the next Ashes series if we actually go down there and make an effort to run them close for the first time since Strauss’s team. 

Good effort from 0-2 down but the batting needs Root - or someone who can score a lower risk run a ball rate regularly - in it still to get a balance with the batters who can get it over the ropes regularly. 

Edited September 29 by Gloucester Saint

[Gloucester Saint]

Stokes doubtful for first Test v 🇵🇰 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cj6e9k22e88o

As the article suggests, save him for 2nd 3rd tests, have Smith at 6 and 5 bowlers. The wickets there are often very flat. Grass on it now but less so by next week. 

[badgerx16]

What a phenomenal game of cricket - more records than HMV.

 

Any idea who has the Saints flag at the ground ?

[Gloucester Saint]

Great win, rare to win after conceding 550+ first up on a shirt front. Pakistan are about as effective at home as Saints are these days but taking nothing away from Root, Brook, Leach and Carse, who deserved more wickets on his debut.

[rallyboy]

That was an incredible match and victory.

As for the women, I've just seen the highlights...

During the Hundred and T20 season it became apparent that fielding isn't good enough, simple catches were being put down.

This manifested itself in this latest defeat, five dropped catches, at least four of them fairly straightforward.

Perhaps instead of having a nice game of football as a warm-up before the match, try a bit of catching practice?

Really poor.

[badgerx16]

4 for 14 rips the heart out of our middle order.

[badgerx16]

On 11/10/2024 at 07:58, Gloucester Saint said:

Great win, rare to win after conceding 550+ first up on a shirt front. Pakistan are about as effective at home as Saints are these days but taking nothing away from Root, Brook, Leach and Carse, who deserved more wickets on his debut.

From an Andy Saltzman article on the BBC;

''It was the fourth time in Test history that a team has been bowled out for 556, and Pakistan's defeat took the all-time record for Teams-Dismissed-For-556 to an unimpressive won one, lost three.

The stats thus suggest that, strategically, teams are better off being skittled for 75 (won two, lost two) or collapsing to 96 all out (won two, lost one, drew one, with a 100% win record since 2004), than piling up a once-impregnable 556. #YouCanProveAnythingWithStatistics''

 

Edited October 16 by badgerx16

[badgerx16]

There is a scale used to measure the state of a cricket pitch in relation to batting, where 1 equals a table top and 10 is completely unplayable. The pitch used in these 2 tests was rated around 3.4/3.6 for the first test, but had deteriorated to 7.4 on day 3 of the second test, and 7.3 on day 4.

I wonder what we will see in Rawalpindi.

Edited October 19 by badgerx16