Cricket Thread

[MillionMilesAway]

1 day of play 300+ is decent in India pitch though looks fine to bat on! What score will worry India I reckon 350

very good, and a good recovery.
Maybe it won't be over on Sunday!

I have a feeling Robinson will be told to bowl short a lot to prevent India scoring, but he can't do it that much in India.

 

[domalino]

Bazball should be for the openers and Bairstow. Root and Stokes invariably do better when they play more carefully. 184 for 2 since the last recognised batsman other than Root got out

For me the alarming thing is that the Bazball bounce seems to be waning.


Average under Stokes (ie Bazball) vs. career average:

Duckett 50.38 v 43.06
Crawley 35.87 v 32.1
Pope 40.37 v 35.08
Root 53.43 v 49.78
Bairstow 47.62 v 36.46
Stokes 37.16 v 36.05

3 batsmen are basically the same, 3 are better.

Last 10 innings average vs career average.

Duckett 38.3 43.06
Crawley 55.2 v 32.1
Pope 34.4 v 35.08
Root 36.3 v 49.78
Bairstow 32.1 36.46
Stokes 28.9 v 36.05

Only 1 doing better, 4 doing worse.

 

[jimharri]

Excellent recovery. At 112/5, I had doubts about them crawling up to 200. I'm at work, so I obviously couldn't watch the later stages (and 4 am is an ungodly hour to be watching anything apart from lobste QVC). Apparently, Root's knock was outstanding. And credit to Hartley, Foakes and Robinson who, between them, have amassed 91 runs. As many as the top 5 in the batting order (minus Root).

 

[Postman Pep]

For me the alarming thing is that the Bazball bounce seems to be waning.


Average under Stokes (ie Bazball) vs. career average:

Duckett 50.38 v 43.06
Crawley 35.87 v 32.1
Pope 40.37 v 35.08
Root 53.43 v 49.78
Bairstow 47.62 v 36.46
Stokes 37.16 v 36.05

3 batsmen are basically the same, 3 are better.

Last 10 innings average vs career average.

Duckett 38.3 43.06
Crawley 55.2 v 32.1
Pope 34.4 v 35.08
Root 36.3 v 49.78
Bairstow 32.1 36.46
Stokes 28.9 v 36.05

Only 1 doing better, 4 doing worse.

Over 10 innings 6 of which have been in a place where we have won twice in 40 years, also on the back of 2 heavy defeats. The overall stats are a better indicator surely? There is a table in the article below that compares their career averages pre and during Bazball, rather than using the cumulative ....... also their strike rates.

How Bazball alters one of the fundamental truths of Test cricket

The genius of England's approach is that it takes the traditional consequences of dismissal out of the equation

www.espncricinfo.com

It was obviously written before the last test hence the discrepancy in numbers .... and nobody would have started a piece with these words after last week.

The genius of England's approach is that it takes the traditional consequences of dismissal out of the equation

 

[Dr Jacoby]

How is the pitch behaving?

 

[domalino]

Over 10 innings 6 of which have been in a place where we have won twice in 40 years, also on the back of 2 heavy defeats. The overall stats are a better indicator surely? There is a table in the article below that compares their career averages pre and during Bazball, rather than using the cumulative ....... also their strike rates.

How Bazball alters one of the fundamental truths of Test cricket

The genius of England's approach is that it takes the traditional consequences of dismissal out of the equation

www.espncricinfo.com

It was obviously written before the last test hence the discrepancy in numbers .... and nobody would have started a piece with these words after last week.

The genius of England's approach is that it takes the traditional consequences of dismissal out of the equation

Why does it matter where the matches are if the whole point is that this genius playing style takes everything else out of the equation?

Bazball only works if someone gets a big century every innings.

It was working when Root and Bairstow were in the forms of their lives, now they’re not, England are restricted to competing only when Crawley, Pope or Duckett score big, which is a problem because they collectively have 12 centuries in 100 tests.

It reminds me of Pellegrini. First season the players still had years of Mancini’s defensive drills in them, we had a great season combining that with Pellegrinis attack, but as time went on and things became 100% Pellegrini’s, we got worse.


England players clearly weren’t enjoying themselves under the old regime, Bazball comes in and promises fun and no consequences for being shit, so they immediately pick up. But as time goes on, having no consequences for bad play means the team is pretty much carrying Bairstow half the time Stokes as well because he thinks being the embodiment of Bazball is more important than winning or scoring runs.

Everyone on the outside can see they need to mature in their approach a bit. Consolidate the lead when you have it, take the game away from a team by making them field all day or having a big partnership when you’re 200/2 instead of trying to hit a six per over.

They’re so close to hitting on something that could make them the best in the world and change test cricket but they it’s like they’re too ideologically driven to notice.

 

[waspish]

Why does it matter where the matches are if the whole point is that this genius playing style takes everything else out of the equation?

Bazball only works if someone gets a big century every innings.

It was working when Root and Bairstow were in the forms of their lives, now they’re not, England are restricted to competing only when Crawley, Pope or Duckett score big, which is a problem because they collectively have 12 centuries in 100 tests.

It reminds me of Pellegrini. First season the players still had years of Mancini’s defensive drills in them, we had a great season combining that with Pellegrinis attack, but as time went on and things became 100% Pellegrini’s, we got worse.


England players clearly weren’t enjoying themselves under the old regime, Bazball comes in and promises fun and no consequences for being shit, so they immediately pick up. But as time goes on, having no consequences for bad play means the team is pretty much carrying Bairstow half the time Stokes as well because he thinks being the embodiment of Bazball is more important than winning or scoring runs.

Everyone else can see they need to mature in their approach a bit. Consolidate the lead when you have it, take the game away from a team by making them field all day or having a big partnership when you’re 200/2.

It works because it puts pressure on the opposition thinking they need mor runs they would need!

Look at the high chase runs we have got to win games am sure England are one of the best since smashBall

 

[domalino]

It works because it puts pressure on the opposition thinking they need mor runs they would need!

Look at the high chase runs we have got to win games am sure England are one of the best since smashBall

High run chases are cool, but a lot like last minute goals in football, if you keep having to get them it’s because you’re always losing the rest of the match.

 

[waspish]

High run chases are cool, but a lot like last minute goals in football, if you keep having to get them it’s because you’re always losing the rest of the match.

It's the change in mentality when chasing they believe they can chase down any score means they will win more games and that shows in our win ratio to losses!

Was happy to see Root play as he did that's his style Crawly and Ducket are not player who hang around!

 

[Postman Pep]

Why does it matter where the matches are if the whole point is that this genius playing style takes everything else out of the equation?

I didn't write that line ! We've just been hammered twice and the averages of our batters current form suddenly doesn't look to clever compared to their career average .... like every other time we go to India I suspect.
It was the table in the article I found interesting not the argument.

Bazball only works if someone gets a big century every innings.

It was working when Root and Bairstow were in the forms of their lives, now they’re not, England are restricted to competing only when Crawley, Pope or Duckett score big, which is a problem because they collectively have 12 centuries in 100 tests.

Sure you need regular contributions from all your batsmen to be a successful side. That's just test cricket not specific to bazball.

Everyone on the outside can see they need to mature in their approach a bit. Consolidate the lead when you have it, take the game away from a team by making them field all day or having a big partnership when you’re 200/2 instead of trying to hit a six per over.

Apart from the cliche at the end I can't disagree with any of that. They need to get smarter in certain situations for sure, especially against the best teams. Last week was very similar to Lord's. Concede 400+ 1st innings, get yourself in a strong position 180 odd for 1, opposition lose a bowler and then collapse like a pack of cards.

They’re so close to hitting on something that could make them the best in the world and change test cricket but they it’s like they’re too ideologically driven to notice.

That sounds like something they'd say ;-)