The Cricket Thread

[WullieBroonIsGod]

Pat yourself on the back guys, this thread has been a belter for the past few months. A thoroughly deserved win for England.

No arguments at all surely with Bell as MOTS.

Everyone raring for the return or will it be too much of a good thing?

Strangely enough think conditions in Oz might actually favour England a touch, especially the batsmen.

Oh I'm really looking forward to the return series. Will seem strange having one so soon.

Only thing with these series is the time difference. Watching live is pretty much impossible whilst working days.

Sky do a good highlights show, but I can never resist and always check the score in the morning

Edited August 25, 2013 by WullieBroonIsGod

[peasy23]

Oh I'm really looking forward to the return series. Will seem strange having one so soon.

Only thing with these series is the time difference. Watching live is pretty much impossible whilst working days.

Sky do a good highlights show, but I can never resist and always check the score in the morning

Nightshift Sky Go loyal!

[mjw]

TMS through the night for me until the Boxing day test,that one is required viewing!

[Christophe]

Fucking maximum respect to Michael Clarke but a bit shitty to start moaning about the light isn't it?

[AberdeenBud]

Aggers view;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/23837976

&

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/665435.html

Edited August 26, 2013 by AberdeenBud

[Reynard]

Fucking maximum respect to Michael Clarke but a bit shitty to start moaning about the light isn't it?

Australia were looking for quick breakthroughs early on, when they didn't come and it was looking like England were opening up a bit the over rate slowed down. They were going at 12 overs an hour in that innings so they realised they had to go for the draw that way. No problems with that at all, again its down to the umpires to enforce slow play rules, and it's just the same as England were doing in their first innings. The declaration was an attempt by Clarke to see what would happen. The total was gettable, but was going to be tight as this sint one day cricket and you can bowl wide and down the leg side and set negative fields whenever you like. The over rate can be slowed down as it's a time thing too although you are "obliged" to get through a certain number in a days play.

I dont really understand why they dont start tests eary like they can do in Other parts of the world though as it helps get rid of the bad light issue at the end of a days play. There are issues in England with conditions of play, you certainly get a bit more moisture in the pitch before 11o'clock but so what? As Bycott would say, they played on uncovered pitches for nearly a century anyway.

It was a good ending to the series in a test that looked like it was going to drift on for a draw. It was still a draw of course, but a more exciting draw than it might have been.

The sight of Clarke whining about bad light as his arse was collapsing was also quite entertaining.

I think it also showed that England simply play quite ruthlessly really. When the chance to win the match was presented to them they clearly stepped up to it which may have surprised the Aussies a bit who were probably hoping for another bat for time job like the first innings. I have no issue with the way England played, the match would certainly have drifted to a dull draw had it not been for Clarke looking to take a win into the next series. As it was, he nearly made an arse of his team and it was them that had to "go negative".

Some ridiculous selection decisions although Woakes did OK, Kerrigan will go back to county cricket and hopefully Monty will be in a better place and they pick him..

Australia have their team more or less sorted now, Harris stayed fit and proved he is a class bowler and Faulkner showed he is decent and not a bottle merchant too. The next series will be tighter because of this and that is no bad thing really. England did a job here, they won the iportant bits of the tests although they didn't ever really impress fully. They won the series comfortably without real contributions from Cook, Root, Trott and Prior, but I'm pretty sure most of them will do better out there anyway. Englands quick bowlers will prefer the wickets down under too, although Anderson can perform on pretty much anything these days, it will benefit Broad, Finn, Tremlett and whoever else gets picked. Swann too does OK out there.

12 weeks! Yass!

[Uncle Psychosis]

The game ending the way it did was pretty good karma in return for England's timewasting earlier in the match. As for booing the Umpires---moronic, they don't make the rules. There'd be hardly a peep out of the likes of Aggers had the roles been reversed.

[Reynard]

The game ending the way it did was pretty good karma in return for England's timewasting earlier in the match. As for booing the Umpires---moronic, they don't make the rules. There'd be hardly a peep out of the likes of Aggers had the roles been reversed.

I don't think England actually timewasted in their first innings at all. They were confronted with a large total and in the first innings and the priority in that case is to rule out the Australian win. It would have been incredibly easy to have gone for it and lost cheap wickets and they could have ended up struggling. There was also a shit forecast for Saturday which at very least meant a lot of cricket being lost to rain.

Australias decision to declare was more or less right as there was around forty overs left, you can bet your lifeif they have knocked over a few quick wickets that England would have been in trouble and the over rate would have been right up at fifteen or sixteen an hour. Collapses happen in those circumstances so often in the last innings. As it was the declaration would never have come had England not skooshed on with the scoring rate on the last day. They scored well over three hundred runs in the four hundred odd scored and gave it a chance of opening up. If they had simply batted time again, nothing would have happened and there wouldn't have been a declaration at all.

There shouldn't be any moaning about either Englands progress on Friday or what Australia did yesterday. They were both dealing with the situation at the time and thats whats good about test cricket. The umpires now have the sole decision regarding light, back in the day it would have been offered to England and theyd have refused to go off, thats not even an option now, which in my opinion is wrong. It was a shitty way to end the test but on reflection it was fair enough and Australia were quite right to slow it right down, just as England were quite right to have speeded things up at their end.

Its a brilliant game! I cannot wait for the next series and one of my mates is going down there for a couple of the tests, including the boxing day test. b*****d.

[Raidernation]

I was absolutely furious as my TMS coverage stopped dead at 1.30pm here (7.30pm UK) and I was going to miss a climactic ending with only BBC text to keep me "up to date" (i.e. about 10 minutes behind everything)

Even more upset when they went off for light.

Overall England looked the better balanced and more composed side throughout the series, I still think they need to play some of the tests with 5 "proper" bowlers, or have a bowling all-rounder that can bat a bit, rather than a batsman who can "fill-in" a few overs as seems to be the case. That allows for the days Broad or Anderson aren't at their best (and we know those days will happen)

Other concerns for England are the lack of runs for Prior, coupled with his less-than-stellar keeping this series, and Cook's form since becoming captain.

I know there are other WKs out there who can do a job with bat and gloves, maybe the Oval was the place to try one out? As for Cook, I hope I'm wrong, but he does seem to be struggling with the "dual role" at present. Early days and I hope he grows into the captaincy and gets some runs, otherwise, I fear if England lose down under, he'll be unceremoniously dumped and made the scapegoat, probably damaging what has been an excellent England career.

Still hopeful of a win down under, but probably a tight and. at times turgid, 1-0 or maybe retaining the Ashes with a 1-1. Expect the Aussies to unleash another never-heard-of-before bowler who'll chuck them down at 90+mph and take a shed-load of wickets in the first 2 tests.

I think most of the matches will be starting around evening time for me here, so I guess I'll invest in getting whatever channel(s) I need to watch live and add them to my package. Can't wait!

[peasy23]

Teams bowling tactically slow over rates has been going on for years, is it time for the ICC to actually introduce rules that punish slow play?

[Fuctifano]

I was absolutely furious as my TMS coverage stopped dead at 1.30pm here (7.30pm UK) and I was going to miss a climactic ending with only BBC text to keep me "up to date" (i.e. about 10 minutes behind everything)

Even more upset when they went off for light.

Overall England looked the better balanced and more composed side throughout the series, I still think they need to play some of the tests with 5 "proper" bowlers, or have a bowling all-rounder that can bat a bit, rather than a batsman who can "fill-in" a few overs as seems to be the case. That allows for the days Broad or Anderson aren't at their best (and we know those days will happen)

Other concerns for England are the lack of runs for Prior, coupled with his less-than-stellar keeping this series, and Cook's form since becoming captain.

I know there are other WKs out there who can do a job with bat and gloves, maybe the Oval was the place to try one out? As for Cook, I hope I'm wrong, but he does seem to be struggling with the "dual role" at present. Early days and I hope he grows into the captaincy and gets some runs, otherwise, I fear if England lose down under, he'll be unceremoniously dumped and made the scapegoat, probably damaging what has been an excellent England career.

Still hopeful of a win down under, but probably a tight and. at times turgid, 1-0 or maybe retaining the Ashes with a 1-1. Expect the Aussies to unleash another never-heard-of-before bowler who'll chuck them down at 90+mph and take a shed-load of wickets in the first 2 tests.

I think most of the matches will be starting around evening time for me here, so I guess I'll invest in getting whatever channel(s) I need to watch live and add them to my package. Can't wait!

Alastair Cook batting as captain.

edit: this did not paste properly but basically he averages 54 as captain and 46 when he isn't

He obviously had a poor series with the bat there, if it continues down under then there's an outside chance they'll look at changing the captaincy (which begs the question: to whom?) but England won that series with one batsman in form and a couple of contributions from the others.

I can't really see him being binned from the team under any circumstances, he's England's highest ever ton scorer in Tests and he's only 28, he could easily have another 10 years ahead of him. Doesn't seem like the sort of guy that'll get into grief off the pitch as well unless he's caught fucking one of his pigs or something like that.

As long as Swann is there England have a world class spinner who can hold up an end and let the captain rotate from the others- they should just stick with 3 quicks and him- they spent most of the 90s looking for the next Botham and then most of the 00s trying to get Flintoff into form and keep him from falling to bits in an effort to play 5 bowlers.

Teams bowling tactically slow over rates has been going on for years, is it time for the ICC to actually introduce rules that punish slow play?

I'd love to see it but there's all sorts of excuses the fielding captain can use for slow over rates- DRS delays, pads / helmets being brought on, even having a left hander and right hander batting together means things take longer if you're swapping the field every couple of balls. England were blatantly at it on day 2, as were the Aussies last night.

Edited August 26, 2013 by Fuctifano

[Uncle Psychosis]

I don't think England actually timewasted in their first innings at all. They were confronted with a large total and in the first innings and the priority in that case is to rule out the Australian win. It would have been incredibly easy to have gone for it and lost cheap wickets and they could have ended up struggling. There was also a shit forecast for Saturday which at very least meant a lot of cricket being lost to rain.

I was thinking more of their woefully slow over rate whilst fielding. They were clearly wasting time, and for whatever reason Umpires never, ever pull teams up for it. Its maddening.

[peasy23]

I'd love to see it but there's all sorts of excuses the fielding captain can use for slow over rates- DRS delays, pads / helmets being brought on, even having a left hander and right hander batting together means things take longer if you're swapping the field every couple of balls. England were blatantly at it on day 2, as were the Aussies last night.

They were knocking the idea around on Sky earlier, but I'm with you that there's too many variables that affect the over rate. One thing that does get on my tits nowadays are the amount of subs that come and go during play. You get players now disappearing 10 minutes before lunch or tea, there's no need for it tbh.

[Reynard]

I was thinking more of their woefully slow over rate whilst fielding. They were clearly wasting time, and for whatever reason Umpires never, ever pull teams up for it. Its maddening.

Yes there are a few times when the umpires could have given a kick up the arse to either side. They have the power to fine but I actually think it would be better if they penalised the actual teams in some way. Not sure what would be the best thing to do though. Add six runs for every over not bowled in the day or something? But then again, what do you do if its the batting side continually changing gloves or moaning about some mythical person moving behind the bowlers arm? You could take runs away from them I suppose but how do you do that? Whp actually loses the runs? The batsman at the time? Fines obviously dont work well and dont get enforced much, there should have been fines in this test I suppose, but other than some folk that barely watch test cricket normally, having a whine about what was going on, I didn't have a problem with what either side did in the context of the game at the time.

It was still a bugger to have had to chuck it with four overs to go, especially with 4-0 looming

[Reynard]

Alastair Cook batting as captain.

edit: this did not paste properly but basically he averages 54 as captain and 46 when he isn't

He obviously had a poor series with the bat there, if it continues down under then there's an outside chance they'll look at changing the captaincy (which begs the question: to whom?) but England won that series with one batsman in form and a couple of contributions from the others.

I can't really see him being binned from the team under any circumstances, he's England's highest ever ton scorer in Tests and he's only 28, he could easily have another 10 years ahead of him. Doesn't seem like the sort of guy that'll get into grief off the pitch as well unless he's caught fucking one of his pigs or something like that.

As long as Swann is there England have a world class spinner who can hold up an end and let the captain rotate from the others- they should just stick with 3 quicks and him- they spent most of the 90s looking for the next Botham and then most of the 00s trying to get Flintoff into form and keep him from falling to bits in an effort to play 5 bowlers.

I'd love to see it but there's all sorts of excuses the fielding captain can use for slow over rates- DRS delays, pads / helmets being brought on, even having a left hander and right hander batting together means things take longer if you're swapping the field every couple of balls. England were blatantly at it on day 2, as were the Aussies last night.

Cook wasnt scoring like he normally does and I reckon he should be allowed to have a regulation form dip like any other player. Its not as if he was an absolute disaster though. The top three actually did OK in the last teast, definite signs that Root was working on oving forwads on these slow pitches, Trott did OK and Cook was alright. The openers have struggled all the same, Cook was simply out of form as was Trott, Root had a tough start as a newbie opener. It was a big call to fling him in as an opener and while you could argue it wasn't working as brilliantly as hoped, he will definitely get better. I reckon all three will do better down there, the pitches are faster and they all like that.

There is absolutely no chance Cooks captaincy is in question either. Look at his actual record as captain, its quite good! An ashes win and an away series win in India is good for any players CV. His teams havent actually lost too many test matches since he was made captain.

[Reynard]

Teams bowling tactically slow over rates has been going on for years, is it time for the ICC to actually introduce rules that punish slow play?

I remember the West Indies bowlers during the Holding, Marshall,Roberts, Garner era Down at 10 overs an hour at times. Mainly thanks to Holdings run up from the steps of the pavilion.

I think that its a valid tactic to simply slow the game down at times. You also get batsmen simply blocking from time to time, you cant actually poull a player up for that or fine a team for not scoring enough runs. This test was still good stuff, I actually quite enjoyed the attritional stuff when England batted and the negative bowling towards the end of Australias first innings.

[Raidernation]

I stand corrected, I hadn't realized his overall average as captain. Thanks

[The_Kincardine]

Well that's me for a while now. I have no interest in ODIs or County matches.

The blokes on here have been brilliant during this Ashes series with their sage and informative contributions - and very accepting of we cricket ignoramuses. Thank you.

The most civilized and informative thread on P&B! See youse in Brisbane in November..

Edited August 26, 2013 by The_Kincardine

[pandarilla]

Pissing on the pitch during celebrations?

That's just not cricket.

[WullieBroonIsGod]

Well that's me for a while now.  I have no interest in ODIs or County matches.

 

The blokes on here have been brilliant during this Ashes series with their sage and informative contributions - and very accepting of we cricket ignoramuses. Thank you.

 

The most civilized and informative thread on P&B!  See youse in Brisbane in November..

See you on the East Fife match thread K.