The Cricket Thread

[Alex 30327]

He's about a number 6 at test level. Might play ok there against Sri Lanka and the Windies this winter but you know he'd get peppered with the short stuff as soon as the Ashes start if he was coming in first wicket down.

[Alex 30327]

England name the same 13. Think they've missed a trick not picking Burns like. Currently 60-odd not out and just gone past 1,000 first class runs for the 5th year in a row. They could've even played him at 3 if they wanted to persist with Jennings. While I didn't mind the experiment of Rashid I don't see the point in him playing when Root clearing didn't trust him in the last test. Although Root didn't have huge amount of runs to play with in the 4th innings if Rashid wasn't going to bowl much there then when will he bowl a lot? The problem he has is his lack of red ball cricket. In the longer format you need a stock ball which is reliable and which makes up for the majority of your deliveries. With one-day games and T20s it's almost the complete opposite with the bowler needing to have lots of variety and almost always bowling with defensive fields.

[David Kelly 1115]

Doesn't Jennings bat at 3 for Durham (previously) and now Lancashire?  Maybe he would be a better bet at 3 and then Burns opening as he does for his county.  That still leaves us with someone else to bring in like.  We might need to try and convert someone like Bairstow.  Of course then you risk knocking the game of someone who has been doing well where he was.  Or do we go for someone with plenty of experience like Joe Denly while we wait for someone like Hameed to come back into form?

[Dr Gloom 19768]

shame about hameed. he looked like a proper test batsman when he first broke into the side, unlike jennings. 

[Alex 30327]

I would play Bairstow at 7 if he's got the gloves and 5 if he hasn't. Same with Buttler. Hameed has averaged about 10 this season I think but I would go along with what Boycott was saying and get him games but have him batting down the order a bit at 3 or 4 to try and get his confidence back. The way he's going he might drop out of the game altogether as that's two poor seasons in a row for him now. I think the Lions are in the UAE playing Pakistan before Xmas but they've only got one 4 day game and the rest are one-dayers and T20s.

[Alex 30327]

On 04/09/2018 at 13:46, Alex said:

England name the same 13. Think they've missed a trick not picking Burns like. Currently 60-odd not out and just gone past 1,000 first class runs for the 5th year in a row. They could've even played him at 3 if they wanted to persist with Jennings. While I didn't mind the experiment of Rashid I don't see the point in him playing when Root clearing didn't trust him in the last test. Although Root didn't have huge amount of runs to play with in the 4th innings if Rashid wasn't going to bowl much there then when will he bowl a lot? The problem he has is his lack of red ball cricket. In the longer format you need a stock ball which is reliable and which makes up for the majority of your deliveries. With one-day games and T20s it's almost the complete opposite with the bowler needing to have lots of variety and almost always bowling with defensive fields.

Looks like Michael Vaughan reads my posts on here:

Quote

Michael Vaughan

Ex-England captain on BBC Test Match Special

England have missed a trick not bringing in whoever they will replace Alastair Cook with in Sri Lanka this week.

They should have gone with the best five bowling options for this pitch and that would've freed up the opportunity to bring in the next batsman. They could have played Rory Burns at three.

[Dr Gloom 19768]

cook finally making some runs

[Alex 30327]

1 minute ago, Dr Gloom said:

cook finally making some runs

Don't put the fucking kibosh on it, man!

[Dr Gloom 19768]

 it's a dead rubber 

[Dr Gloom 19768]

i see bairstow has the gloves again at 5, with buttler batting at 7 

[Alex 30327]

I hope you're proud of yourself, Gloom

[Dr Gloom 19768]

[Alex 30327]

14 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

i see bairstow has the gloves again at 5, with buttler batting at 7 

Sounded like he spat the dummy out when there was speculation about giving Buttler the gloves. To be honest I like the balance of the side with him batting at 7 and keeping wicket. It should be that with Buttler at 5 or vice-versa if Buttler's the wicketkeeper.

 

And he's out for another duck

[Dr Gloom 19768]

Root carrying his form at 3 to his favoured number 4 spot 

[Dr Gloom 19768]

Yet another collapse. They can’t even make a first innings score in a dead rubber. Our bowling in home conditions has saved this batting lineup all summer. Still, it’s made for an interesting series, all these low-scoring matches 

[Dr Gloom 19768]

Buttler averaging 55 in tests this summer

[Alex 30327]

Fucking get in there.

[PaddockLad 14558]

He’s certainly not done a Bradman has he?

 

(not suggesting he was in the Don’s class btw) 

 

 

[Alex 30327]

Just now, PaddockLad said:

He’s certainly not done a Bradman has he?

 

(not suggesting he was in the Don’s class btw) 

 

 

Nobody is

[PaddockLad 14558]

We wandered into the Adelaide Oval when we were in Oz a couple of years ago and went round the Bradman museum, he was a phenomenon. Seem to remember one of the Aussies from the 90s declared rather than beat his record for an innings?  Then about six months later Lara smashed it  

[David Kelly 1115]

Brilliant way to end a test career.  Think it shows how his heads not been completely right for a while.

[Alex 30327]

1 minute ago, PaddockLad said:

We wandered into the Adelaide Oval when we were in Oz a couple of years ago and went round the Bradman museum, he was a phenomenon. Seem to remember one of the Aussies from the 90s declared rather than beat his record for an innings?  Then about six months later Lara smashed it  

It was Mark Taylor. He declared overnight when he was on 334, which equalled Bradman's record. But it wasn't the world record score for a test innings, it was (at that time) the record for an Australian. It was the world record when Bradman scored it but Wally Hammond beat it not long afterwards before Len Hutton's famous 364, which Garfield Sobers eventually went past about 20 years later. Lara beat that with his 375 before Matthew Hayden beat it. Lara then set the current record with 400 not out against England (same opposition and ground as the previous record).

[Alex 30327]

1 minute ago, David Kelly said:

Brilliant way to end a test career.  Think it shows how his heads not been completely right for a while.

Absolutely. He carried his luck a bit in the first innings but batting with the pressure lifted seems to have made all the difference. Worth noting as well that his 50 in the first innings was the first by an opener in this series.

[David Kelly 1115]

3 minutes ago, Alex said:

Absolutely. He carried his luck a bit in the first innings but batting with the pressure lifted seems to have made all the difference. Worth noting as well that his 50 in the first innings was the first by an opener in this series.

Hi was hoping likelihood that we have to take Jennings away in the winter might relieve a bit of pressure from him and get him a score too.  Unfortunately his mind looks completely scrambled.

[Alex 30327]

6 minutes ago, David Kelly said:

Hi was hoping likelihood that we have to take Jennings away in the winter might relieve a bit of pressure from him and get him a score too.  Unfortunately his mind looks completely scrambled.

The daft thing is they'll probably still take Jennings this winter as he's a decent player of spin but it's just delaying the inevitable iyam. Plus there's only 7 tests before the Ashes to bed in 3 new batsmen at the top of the order (on the assumption Jennings will have to be discarded at some point). I do think anyone would've struggled against that India bowling attack in English conditions though.