The Official Cricket Thread

[lifetime fan]

Not a bad days play but the pitches have been turgid.

[Frankenhooker]

All out for 306, lead of 72.  Not pretty watching Stokes, especially when he got a short ball.

[Stickman]

Lead almost gone now Pakistan 68-0....Alistair Campbell is a better spinner than our bowlers... 

[Jairzinho]

Patel and Ali have bowled more overs than Rashid...

 

[lifetime fan]

How many coaches will pick Patel before realising he's dogshit.

[George Costanza]

How many coaches will pick Patel before realising he's dogshit.

 

all 3 of the spinners on tour are dogshit

 

Without a genuine top class spinner, England have zero chance of winning anything in the sub continent.  Ali is not the answer unless he improves by about 300%.  The spinners have been taken apart on a pitch where they should thrive.  It should be the opposite of eng conditions where the seamers get the wickets while the spinner ties down an end. Anderson & Broad have done a terrific job this test match. Tomorrow one of the 3 spinners needs to fucking step up and start posing a genuine threat & take wickets. Ideally more than one so JA & SB aren't flogging themselves from 1 end in the heat

 

as for our batting we desperately need to find a new opener, number 3 & a middle order grinder. Taylor did himself no harm in the 1st innings but in the middle order he has to be consistently stubborn.

[Jairzinho]

Ali isn't good enough. At bowling or batting.

 

Taylor should be a permanent fixture in the side, he's clearly top class.

 

Hales, or whoever else is in the frame to open, should have played in these games. We've made the same mistake that we did with Lyth. Should have played in the Windies, then ends up having to start his test career in the Ashes. Hales might be starting his against Steyn and Morkel. Either that or we stick with Ali, and he'll average about 12 in that series.

[mouse1989]

Rashid has potential to be a really good bowler but I don't think Cook has much confidence in him and it's clear to see that he's a massive confidence player from seeing him and hearing what some of the Yorkshire lads have said about him

 

Patel and Ali are batsman that can bowl a bit. Not that bad in English conditions but whenever we tour Asia or even the WI, we will get found out

[Jairzinho]

I don't think bowling spin in a team captained by Cook is probably all that much fun.

 

The confidence thing that you mention, mouse1989, is so key for a spinner. I know it's at a much lower level, and with less pressure, but I used to bowl off spin and from the age of about 14 playing in adult cricket I wouldn't have even considered allowing a captain to set a field for me. You're the one that has to fucking bowl to it after all.

 

I'm concerned that none of Ali, Patel, and Rashid seem to have the confidence and aggression required to be a top spinner. To be fair, in the case of Ali and Patel I don't think anyone is assuming they ever will be. Rashid needs to stamp his authority. He's 27, not a kid. He's going to be judged, and quickly. He might as well be judged playing the way he wants to. 

[A_S]

What could England realistically chase on this pitch? 300? Big session coming up. 

 

Kiwis and Aussies going at it tomorrow, can't wait. It'll be very interesting to see how the Australian top-order performs now given the recent retirements of Rogers, Watson, Haddin and Clarke who all batted top 7. 

[Frankenhooker]

Couple of quick wickets, Pakistan 260-6, lead of 188.

[lifetime fan]

What could England realistically chase on this pitch? 300? Big session coming up. 

 

Kiwis and Aussies going at it tomorrow, can't wait. It'll be very interesting to see how the Australian top-order performs now given the recent retirements of Rogers, Watson, Haddin and Clarke who all batted top 7.

 

Anything over 250 and I can see us shitting ourselves.

[Frankenhooker]

Patel gets Sarfraz Ahmed, interesting this. Pakistan lead by 244, 7 down.

[Frankenhooker]

And now Rashid gets Yasir Shah. Eight down, lead is 247.

[Jairzinho]

284 to win.

 

Pakistan threw away almost every single one of those wickets. Two ridiculous run outs and a collection of terrible shots. Our spinners have been abysmal.

[Stickman]

Lead nearly 300 now which will well be enough especially the way the ball is turning it's just a pity that our spinners are Sunday league standard...You just know England will be 3 down by the end of play.

To be fair there is no shame in losing over here England should have won the first test and if we could produce a Swan type spinner I think we could have won the series....but we are a way away from producing that type of bowler...

On the plus side Anderson and Broad have been superb the best I have seen them bowl in not very friendly conditions...and as I type they need 284 to win...come on England we need a couple of big innings

[A_S]

Is this Ali situation bad? Amazing that players wouldn't now have an extra part on the back of the helmet given recent events. 

[Navman]

Brilliant day of test cricket today

 

England sinking fast against Pakistan - but have been good this series

 

Aussies smashing NZ

 

India vs SA competitive

[Stickman]

England 66-6 ..land it is like something out of the Omen they way England are batting this morning

[Yozzer]

Could someone let me know how Samit Patel still plays cricket at Test level?

[A_S]

So it looks like England will go down in this series, but it won't be down to Cook's batting. Say what you want about his captaincy, but he does exceptionally well with his primary job at the toughest place in the order. He's also fast approaching 10,000 runs and realistically, the only one who I can see getting near him from the current crop is ABDV. 

 

If he plays an average of 7 Tests per year for another 6 years (making him roughly 37 years old) and bats twice in each of those games to his average of 47, he will finish as 2nd to only the great Sachin Tendulkar. He could even not bat for a quarter of those games in the 2nd innings and still achieve this. That would be an amazing feat and I genuinely think he can do it. For his own sake though, relinquishing the captaincy at some stage might actually help his career, in a similar way I believe not playing ODIs anymore has helped in this regard. 

[lifetime fan]

Great point about Cook the batsman. The only world class batsman we have.

[lifetime fan]

Anything over 250 and I can see us shitting ourselves.

Now that's what you call buying money. Not fucking shopping trolley tokens.

[A_S]

Great point about Cook the batsman. The only world class batsman we have.

 

Root will be soon enough. 

[lifetime fan]

Botham has been at the crack, smack, snatch, red stripe, natch and special brew if he thinks England will beat the Saffas.