******Cricket Thread******

[Cricket Blue]

England 7 wins from last 8 test matches

 

[KS55]

I now know why England made such a hash of their second innings. You have to keep it exciting. Well done both teams on another terrific match.

 

[Gabriel]

The Australians begin their three Test series against South Africa on Saturday as well. They dispensed with a woeful West Indies quite easily, so these games should give a better idea of how well placed they are.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Win or lose, it's great cricket!

 

[waspish]

Leach our main spinner was wank! When we play in England make root out spinner and play an extra bowler or batter! Root can Easley bowl 20+ overs in a day!

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

I now know why England made such a hash of their second innings. You have to keep it exciting. Well done both teams on another terrific match.

I actually find myself wondering whether England are doing it deliberately, in a sort of Machiavellian mindset… i.e. had England got a lead of 400 and over, would there not have been a possibility of Babar just saying, “Right, fuck that for a game of soldiers, there's no way we're winning this, but we may just hang on to draw it. And live to fight to save the series in the third Test”. Implausible, I know, with the time that was left. But the wicket didn't, in the end, appear to deteriorate. And I just wonder whether England under Stokes are getting good at dangling a carrot in front of opposing teams, and then trusting their bowlers to do the business in the fourth innings.
Whatever the strategy, seems to be working… ;-)

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Stokes though what a captain even if he couldn’t bat couldn’t bowl I’d have him in the side he is that good a captain

It's interesting because even though Stokes seemed the obvious candidate to succeed Root, there were those who said he was too much of a loose cannon. That he didn't have the temperament. Well, it's meat and drink to him. And it doesn't seem to have put him off his batting that much (which was my only worry).

 

[KS55]

I actually find myself wondering whether England are doing it deliberately, in a sort of Machiavellian mindset… i.e. had England got a lead of 400 and over, would there not have been a possibility of Babar just saying, “Right, fuck that for a game of soldiers, there's no way we're winning this, but we may just hang on to draw it. And live to fight to save the series in the third Test”. Implausible, I know, with the time that was left. But the wicket didn't, in the end, appear to deteriorate. And I just wonder whether England under Stokes are getting good at dangling a carrot in front of opposing teams, and then trusting their bowlers to do the business in the fourth innings.
Whatever the strategy, seems to be working… ;-)

I think part of the strategy is indeed to dangle a carrot, but on this occasion it was accidental. I mean two run outs when we had all the time in the world?

 

[heslops barnet]

Fortune favours the brave……..

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

I think part of the strategy is indeed to dangle a carrot, but on this occasion it was accidental. I mean two run outs when we had all the time in the world?

Yeah, that was really, really abject. Unless it was a brilliantly disguised Super Carrot, that any bunny would go for? ;-)

Astounding to read that, prior to this series — and outside of home shores — England had won two tests against Pakistan in sixty-one years of trying!
I hadn't quite grasped those stats. By contrast, I know that winning a series against India in India is rare as hens' teeth.

On another note: always a bit sad to witness once again the terrible decline of Windies cricket, in the only form of it that really counts, for me. When I was a child and into my teens, they were the Brazil of world cricket. Not the Aussies, not the English. Sir Garfield Sobers was arguably the greatest living cricketer. Also, I have great memories of attending Tests at Lords and the Oval, over the whole five days (when it was affordable), and the tremendous atmosphere the local black community in London would generate at the grounds. The banter, sometimes a steel band, all of it. They had a Barmy Army before there was a Barmy Army.