The Cricket Thread

[Squeak]

He’s been one of our most consistent players for a decent length of time now but yeah sure.

He gets too square on. Second ball was a decent delivery and he turned into it. Then the same thing next ball that got him out. He's a solid number 5. And, even though he has undoubtedly been better over the last 12 months he's still averaging just over 30. Nowhere near good enough to open.

 

[Squeak]

Bit of a chicken out of a decision, just because you got rolled at Lord's doesn't mean you should default to sticking us in

First over was very good but Duckett and Pope have slayed them since.

 

[Carrotdude]

He gets too square on. Second ball was a decent delivery and he turned into it. Then the same thing next ball that got him out. He's a solid number 5. And, even though he has undoubtedly been better over the last 12 months he's still averaging just over 30. Nowhere near good enough to open.

He averages over 41 since the start of the Pakistan series in December 2022.

 

[Squeak]

He averages over 41 since the start of the Pakistan series in December 2022.

Sure, he has made 4 hundreds in that time and definitely improved. Maybe I'm doing him a bit of a disservice but I still believe he would be better lower down the order. He is not side on enough to open IMO and that was the reason he got out today.

 

[Squeak]

So it looks like we're doing our best to give wickets away again. Awful from Root and Pope has just been dropped. Then we see Brooks wafting at a ball and just avoid being caught at gully. 160-3 but could so easily be for 5.

 

[Squeak]

Nice hundred for Pope...dropped on 46 and 54...let's hope he keeps going.

 

[Wolftone]

Some really poor shots today. 5 wickets to 'spin'. Luckily it's not turning or it could have been worse . Only 4 actually. Butcher added one on.

 

[Tony Towner]

Flat track bullying poor teams in a 1 day style does nothing to prepare us for proper tests. I'm bored of Bazball, I just want it over and done with

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Flat track bullying poor teams in a 1 day style does nothing to prepare us for proper tests. I'm bored of Bazball, I just want it over and done with

But you aren't getting this set of players (the top three in particular) to start playing as if it's 1996. If they're in the team then that's how they have to play. We had Duckett Mk I under the Bayliss regime and he just went nowhere and averaged about 20. We're never picking shite like Burns or Sibley or Denly again. And thank fuck for that. Ineffective, shite cricket, no ta.

We're going to score around 400 in a day, against a team who look ill-equipped to get anywhere near matching that, I'm not sure what else we're supposed to do. Some of the dismissals are soft but they were at Edgbaston in 2005 too (407 in just under 80 overs), no-one cares as we won in the end, in fact the approach got lauded at the time.

 

[Tony Towner]

But you aren't getting this set of players (the top three in particular) to start playing as if it's 1996. If they're in the team then that's how they have to play. We had Duckett Mk I under the Bayliss regime and he just went nowhere and averaged about 20. We're never picking shite like Burns or Sibley or Denly again. And thank fuck for that. Ineffective, shite cricket, no ta.

We're going to score around 400 in a day, against a team who look ill-equipped to get anywhere near matching that, I'm not sure what else we're supposed to do. Some of the dismissals are soft but they were at Edgbaston in 2005 too (407 in just under 80 overs), no-one cares as we won in the end, in fact the approach got lauded at the time.

It's a flawed system, but we are rock bottom of the Test Championship, we don't play Test cricket and don't try to. It's entertaining in it's own kind of way, like watching an Ossie Ardiles side was, but while you have batsmen boasting about never letting a ball go or slogging themselves out and a captain (paraphrasing) saying being entertaining is more important than winning we'll always fall short against the best sides. It's tiresome.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I mean we lost in India but everyone loses in India. We were the last team to do anything over there, 12 years ago, with the best team we've had in 50 years or more.

Did we fall short against Australia? You can go over incidents within the games but we drew 2-2 and barring rain in Manchester (who'd have thought it) we almost certainly win 3-2.

We beat South Africa and New Zealand at home handily with this approach. We won 3-0 in Pakistan.

Scratching around like we did under Silverwood means we get bowled out for 250ish all the time. We're on 403 here without playing brilliantly.

 

[Wolftone]

I'm a bit betwixt and between, we can play some Bazball, without hitting the ball in the air surely?
Bearing in mind they've dropped four catches and missed a stumping as well.

 

[Squeak]

Can't help but feel we've left runs on the table here. I get the entertainment valve and when you play like this you take more risks but I'd rather we did it once we have a decent score on the Board. OK, we got over 400 in the end but we could have been bowled out for just over half that if the WIndies took their chances. As has been said, against better sides, you ain't getting away with it and it really doesn't condition us to grit out a tough battle when needed. We are always looking for a miracle man.

There has to be a better balance than constantly watching Root get in and get out. He needs to stop taking risks and just bat as we all know he can. As for the rest, most of them gave their wickets away. 416 all out speaks to entertainment but I'm sitting here thinking we would be sitting on 500 to 600 if we batted with less risk. It speaks to the mentality of course. And it's too much gungho sometimes.

 

[Tony Towner]

We lost in India not attempting to even take the conditions or opposition into account and the 2 Ashes Tests we lost were because of our own hubris, one a ridiculous declaration the other an ego driven hookathon. We failed to win the series in New Zealand with another stupid declaration. You can succeed at the highest level with attacking cricket, not the kamikaze stuff we do though. Weather permitting we'll win every Test this Summer and it'll do nothing batting wise to prepare us for the 2 series which really matter. 10 wickets today all out caught, none to the keeper

 

[jd1981]

Test cricket is about practice and preparation, touring sides ignore it now now and just hope for the best, it’s ok if you’ve got a squad that’ll out talent the opposition away from home. As said last week the ashes is piggybacking test cricket, don’t care what anyone says all our test series are a built up to the ashes.
Test championship has bought some relevance to test series but it’s a very slow process.
It’s annoying, personally the first thing I judge a cricketer on is their red ball record, everything after is second best.

 

[jd1981]

With today we’ve got ample to work with I’d be surprised if the windies get within 100 of us on first innings.

 

[Carrotdude]

Tbf aren’t we only bottom of the test championship because we kept getting penalised for slow over rates?

 

[Sniffer]

Some of the dismissals are soft but they were at Edgbaston in 2005 too (407 in just under 80 overs), no-one cares as we won in the end, in fact the approach got lauded at the time.

I was fuming as I had tickets for day four.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Bazball is fucking great. It’s going nowhere

 

[darlowolf64]

Nah, I wish we were playing "Boycott ball" scoring at 1.5 runs an over and forward defensive shots all day...