England Cricket 2016 - Sri Lanka & Pakistan

Misbah is too negative given the match situation.

England should aim for 150+. We have a legacy of collapsing.
 
Ali, Bairstow & Woakes somehow need to score 250 more runs between them to give us 1/2 a chance
 
Not sure what we do with Vince, Ballance and Hales... Drop them all? The pitches haven't been anything too taxing to bat on yet they've hardly managed a half decent score between them. On spinning pitches I can't see them getting out of single digits.
 
Thats a bollocks decision that to be fair.

When that much of the ball is hitting the stumps its out.
 
NinjaFletch said:
Thats a bollocks decision that to be fair.

When that much of the ball is hitting the stumps its out.
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I sort of agree with the commentators. If you don't give it out OK (though that's debatable with the DRS) but it's super unfair to lose a review for that.
 
Bairstow 70 runs behind Andy Flower's record of most runs in a calendar year by a keeper. Need to him to get that and a bit more!
 
Woakes running faster than Rooney :lol:

Pakistan edge closer
 
What a catch!! Wahab being the catalyst!
 
ArmchairCritic said:
A lot of mediocre captains would love test series wins in India, in South Africa and multiple Ashes victories. He'll most likely end up with the most test wins of any England captain, so whilst he's not too exciting or risk averse he's a much better captain then he's given credit for.
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Fair points, but England were a better team than India when we won there, and SA are on the slide. Cook may have two Ashes wins at home but he also got walloped 5-0 away by an Australian side which is nowhere near vintage.
 
If we were just going to bowl Root and Ali anyway then why the feck did we waste everyones times dragging this out. Just declare when Bairstow got out and save everyone some time.
 
Great shot. Start the car. Excellent series.
 
Good & competitive test series. Draw is a fair result. Should've been a 5th match.

Pakistan did a lot better than I expected. Some very good performances with the bat when we needed it & the bowlers performed reasonably well throughout. Sami looks a good prospect, Azhar showed form to the end & Shafiq impressed. Sarfraz did good with bat & glove. Still would be good if we could bring in an all-rounder like Razzaq, but other than that there is a nice balance to the team.

Solid start under Micky Arthur. Seems to be a team spirit around, which you don't always see from Pakistan. Misbah also deserves a lot of credit. Has guided Pakistan well in difficult situations these last few years & he continues to be a calming influence. When he & Younis do call it a day, we'll have big boots to fill in that middle order.

Overall an enjoyable series and nice to see us put up a fight. The upcoming winter series in NZ & Australia will be a good challenge for us. Hope we play more test matches in the coming years.
 
NinjaFletch said:
If we were just going to bowl Root and Ali anyway then why the feck did we waste everyones times dragging this out. Just declare when Bairstow got out and save everyone some time.
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To be fair, Finn got injured so I suppose Cook thought there wasn't much point taking any more risks.
 
2-2 is fair.

Pakistan play as a team under Misbah. Something I've never seen them do. There seems to be no individuals, everyone has done something for them in the series.

England really need to rejig their batting. Moeen isn't good enough as a spinner. If he's batting well then play him as a batsman.
 
2-2 is definitely fair. Pakistan showing some seriously awesome character in the final test, with Shah & Younis proving you can never keep a great player down for long.

Would die for a deciding test match. Ending a series this good on a draw seems unjust.
 
Seeing the performances by recent teams in away conditions, it's a terrific performance by Pakistani team.

Said earlier but this English middle order is crap.
 
Well played Sharjeel. Him and Babar are the only two I'm excited about before the ODI series.

Kyle Mccallan is still an annoying cnut btw.
 
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KM said:
Seeing the performances by recent teams in away conditions, it's a terrific performance by Pakistani team.

Said earlier but this English middle order is crap.
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Yep, poor middle order and lack a top class spin bowler, even if you take out Vince and Ballance Stokes walks back in but still there is nobody who can bat no4, in India Rashid you would think has to play. Might have to go, but it's a fecking long tail
Cook
Hales
Root
Bairstow
Stokes
Woakes
Rashid
Ali
Broad
Wood
Anderson
 
paulscholes18 said:
Yep, poor middle order and lack a top class spin bowler, even if you take out Vince and Ballance Stokes walks back in but still there is nobody who can bat no4, in India Rashid you would think has to play. Might have to go, but it's a fecking long tail
Cook
Hales
Root
Bairstow
Stokes
Woakes
Rashid
Ali
Broad
Wood
Anderson
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Looks a bit better when you have it like this:

Cook
Hales
Root
Ali
Bairstow
Stokes
Woakes
Rashid
Broad
Wood
Anderson

No idea why you played Ali at 8 still and we definitely won't play 5 paceman. Expect a batman instead of Wood who will play at 4. No idea who so it will probably be, so go with Ballance.
 
Samid said:
Kyle Mccallan is still an annoying cnut btw.
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"The only action that we have seen so far is when the blotter almost took out former Ireland spin bowler Kyle McCallan, as he ran across the outfield and into the hospitality tent."

Shame it didn't.
 
Pakistan ranked as number 1 Test side in the world :D Excellent achievement.

ODIs start from tomorrow. Expect England to play very aggressively & win the series.
 
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