Cricket Thread

[dickie davies]

If he averages 55.0 in an ashes series do we really care how it's made up? Big game winning centuries are always going to be rare, the more impressive thing is that he's gotten a good start in 5 of his 7 innings in the series and he's putting himself in positions where he can make big scores. Consistency in turning more of those good starts into centuries will come as he gets older and his confidence keeps improving.

Michael Vaughan summed him up yesterday by saying "for the first 60 deliveries he's in total control and is world class. For the next 40-60 he looks like he could get out every ball "

 

[SWP's back]

Is play expected in 25 mins?

 

[BringBackSwales]

Is play expected in 25 mins?

Hope so. I’m in leafy Hale about 10 miles away and it’s cloudy and did rain earlier but only the odd spit in the last 2 hours. Just heard Tufnell on TMS saying “some rain due tomorrow and a little bit on Sunday”, sounded a lot more optimistic than my weather app. Bbc weather says 55% chance of rain at 11am

 

[FantasyIreland]

Is play expected in 25 mins?

Its a bit moist but stopped raining and the sun is trying to make an appearance.

Very much Cagoule and sunglasses weather ;-)

 

[Citizen of Legoland]

It’s sunny in NW Manchester and the back lawn is not too wet. Should be good to go!

 

[MCFC1993]

Need to bat in T20 mode, get 200-250 up in the next hour or 2 and then try to bowl them today or at worst leave few wickets and hope we get a break in the rain on Sunday.

Tomorrow looks a write off.

 

[shemnel]

had one of my best days at a Test yesterday at Old T, just lovely to see England attack with intent and control. Only blip was seeing Root cruising, and i mean completely cruising, to any score he desired, only to be un-done by an absolute grubber.

And to make matters even more unbelievable, i've come through a day on the grog without a hangover.

 

[supercity88]

If Crawley got a big 100 every day 4th test he plays I’d say that’s a great return problem is he won’t get another big 100 for another 12 test matches ain’t good enough plus he could has ti have all the look in the world to get to that score and that shot he got out too could of been when he was under 20 runs! Thing is though there is no one else out there who can open and why we stick with him…

The team is scoring a lot more runs than it ever did before Stokes and McCullum took over. Crawley and Duckett are the perfect openers for this England side. They don't get bogged down and invariably one of them gets a decent score. They get bat on ball and usually hit it enough to make life easier for the middle order which means life is easier for Root, Brook, Stokes and Bairstow which is exactly what we need. I remember the days of Root's captaincy and how often we were out for less than 300 whilst our ODI team made more than 300 quite regularly.

Crawley isn't a typical opener, but he's effective still. Duckett is clever in always attacking the ball because it makes bowlers change their length and his average shows he's winning that battle as much as the purists don't like it. Root came in and scored with ease as a result of their performance yesterday and our middle order have managed to score plenty thanks to how our openers have approached the game.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Gorgeous now

England getting the luck,but doing great.

 

[supercity88]

If he averages 55.0 in an ashes series do we really care how it's made up? Big game winning centuries are always going to be rare, the more impressive thing is that he's gotten a good start in 5 of his 7 innings in the series and he's putting himself in positions where he can make big scores. Consistency in turning more of those good starts into centuries will come as he gets older and his confidence keeps improving.

I was discussing this with a mate earlier. His post-match comments and those from Baz were that they'll keep his approach because he'll get out for low scores before having match winning innings like yesterday and they don't want that to change.

I would like to see a slight change in mindset. It feels like he gets out quite often, playing the exact same shot to consecutive balls. Sends the first to the boundary and is out next time around. Just needs to understand there's stamping your authority and also being sensible. The bowler knows what he wants to do and will take a bit of pace off or bowl a bit wider and you're gone. In time hopefully he learns those tricks and just manages himself a bit more. It's great to have an opener who can score anywhere, means he's not bogged down too often.