David Kelly

It's looking like fairly tough going for our bowlers so far like. The spinners might get more out of it when the ball gets older mind. That seems to be how it went for them. Of course they have better spinners.

Think we've certainly got a competitive score on this pitch.

Yeah that's possible but he does look better suited to playing down the order and hopefully being in a position where he can come in and take the game away from the opposition. There's no doubt he's a very talented player but I'm not convinced he's the type who can hang around if the pressure is on him to do that.

Aye it's perfectly understandable especially as Bairstow is improving quite a bit. It's just he seems like he would be more suited to playing further up the order and it's a lot of work for him to do playing there and keeping.

Of course it doesn't help Ali the amount he's been moved up and down the order. I read the other day that he was saying he wanted a chance to stick to one position.

It does happen way too often for someone playing that far up the order. Him and Butler would seem the most at threat if Hameed and Jennings can cement their positions. With Rashid looking like he can be a reliable bowler now, we probably aren't going to need a second spinner most of the time so if Ali can't step up as a batsman then he has no place. But Butler is also vulnerable. Do we want to be playing him as a specialist batsman at 7? If they give Butler the gloves and just use Bairstow as a batsman that might be the option but I don't think they really want to take the gloves off him.

Be interesting to see how this pitch goes. It certainly seems to be offering more for the bowlers now. It was looking like we should have definitely been making over 400 but now I'm not so sure what will be a good score. It definitely looks like if we could get over 400 we'd be in a good position.

Fucks sake

Worth it for a 69 though.

You don't want to jinx Jennings but it's hard not to be very impressed with how he's played this morning. Didn't let a couple of early close calls go against him, he's looked assured in defence and shown he has a number of shots. Cook, Hameed, Jennings, Root could be the answer to our top order problems if these two can continue the way they have started. Jennings conversion rate this year is amazing. He got to 50 nine times for Durham in the county championship this year and made hundreds from seven of them (two of them being double hundreds). And now he's converted for the Lions and England in a week.

Been fucking brilliant this morning. It's great having South Africa produce all these players for us.

Aye I get what you're saying and it is frustrating and the punishment doesn't really fit the crime. But I think it's the same as raising your hands. The players know the punishment if they get caught so I just save my frustrations for them.

Aye that's complete bollocks. As if they have some sort of code they won't go against. They're the most unprincipled twats on earth.

If it's just a touch, ie where they're diving, I don't think it should be pen. But if someone commits a foul in the box it's a pen regardless of which direction the attacker is moving. You're probably right in that most pens are down to defenders stupidity. Actually it would interesting to see what percentage of penalties over a season in a division were given for challenges a defender didn't need to make. I reckon it's probably greater than those that are given for a mistimed tackle.

Those pens are just down to the stupidity of the defender tbh. I agree it's like a freebie but I don't think it's remotely unfair to give it. Re the pundits, I'm sure they just don't want to be called out on when they dived. And all of the pundits who played from the mid 80's onward will probably be on camera at sometime diving. It's been going on for years and it's been something the authorities don't seem to want to stamp out. There's no way they'd allow this sort of thing in rugby or cricket and I've no idea why they put up with it in football. It's basically cheating that they know happens in every game so they just allow it. I can't think of another sport where it would be tolerated.

I fucking hope not.

Aye I did enjoy the giraffe hoofing that moggie like.

Ah is that right.

I've seen better refereeing on a Sunday morning. Mind you I did see one ref give a team (the one he used to play for funnily enough) three penalties when they hadn't even claimed for any of them and repeatedly shout man on when when their players were in danger of being tackled.

It makes a Sunday night bearable. There's a bit of a lack of kills it mind. The prey keep getting away.

So I hear but I can't help feeling its been misadvertised.

Aye seen that. Fucking ref should get sacked for that game. I'm surprised like.

He doesn't know himself far too often.

Aye the big Christmas one. Going for a pamper day first.

Aye there had to be at least a couple of hundred shirley.