England Cricket Summer 17 - South Africa & West Indies

Ballance is out injured, wonder who will replace him and will Jennings, Dawson and Wood be given another chance in the 3rd test
 
paulscholes18 said:
Ballance is out injured, wonder who will replace him and will Jennings, Dawson and Wood be given another chance in the 3rd test
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I would have kept Ballance on the team so its a shame he is injured however I would have put him down the order to 5. I think Root needs to bat at 3, the coach, he doesn't but he needs to do it for the team.

I think Stoneman and Westley should come in. Both are in great form. I think Jennings to be given another chance, its silly to chop and change too much. There is no need for Dawson in the team. I think it is a straight shootout with Roland Jones and Wood and I think this is where TRJ deserves his chance. Been a frequent wicket taker in FC cricket for a number of years now. I think the middle order needs strengthening so I would drop Stokes down to 7. I would go with:

Cook
Jennings
Root
Stoneman
Bairstow
Westley
Stokes
Ali
Broad
Roland-Jones
Anderson

Unsure about Ali but like I mentioned in another post, real shortage of spin options at the moment. You've got strength in depth in batting and still a 5 man attack with Root to offer an extra option of spin.
 
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Freedom Aluteni said:
Agree with the sentiment above. Dawson got 18 runs and bowled just 18 of the 200 overs. Not sure why he was picked. England had the same problem in India, too many bowlers and not enough proper batsmen. I feel sorry for Moeen Ali, you get the sense he just wants to be picked at 3, 4 or 5 and focus principally on getting runs. If he's the 5th bowler fine but England should pick someone else to be their frontline spinner. Ballance is out for the Oval anyway, Morkel broke his finger, probably does SA more harm than good. I'd pick Stoneman at 3, Ali at 5, move Bairstow to 7 with Stokes at 6, same 3 seamers and a proper frontline spinne.r.

For the Proteas, the batting order is also a mess. There's a keeper opening, another keeper at 4 while there's a batsmen at 6. Kuhn will probably get another chance but they should just shift to Markram. He is the future at the top of the order, might as well give him the opportunity instead of to Kuhn who frankly probably isn't Test calibre. Bavuma has to bat in the top 5 for me if he's going to play. I know they're trying to turn him into the sort of X factor number 6 but while he is an excellent fielder, his bowling is rubbish. He needs to get runs if he is going to stay in this team. Quotas or no quotas, they're doing him no favours by babying him. If he can't get runs, drop him. Zondo has made runs domestically recently if they have to have another black batsmen. De Kock should be at 6 at least if he is the keeper. Elgar, Markram, Amla, Du Plessis, Bavuma/De Bruyn, De Kock, Philander, Morris, Maharaj, Morkel, Rabada.
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The problem is that there is no other option at the moment. Rashid is too inconsistent, Crane hardly gets into the FC team, Dawson is not very good and Leach has had to amend his action.
 
TheGame said:
The problem is that there is no other option at the moment. Rashid is too inconsistent, Crane hardly gets into the FC team, Dawson is not very good and Leach has had to amend his action.
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If he is their best spinner then pick another batsmen. 6 bowlers is overkill, especially when you have middle order problems.
 
TheGame said:
I would have kept Ballance on the team so its a shame he is injured however I would have put him down the order to 5. I think Root needs to bat at 3, the coach, he doesn't but he needs to do it for the team.

I think Stoneman and Westley should come in. Both are in great form. I think Jennings to be given another chance, its silly to chop and change too much. There is no need for Dawson in the team. I think it is a straight shootout with Roland Jones and Wood and I think this is where TRJ deserves his chance. Been a frequent wicket taker in FC cricket for a number of years now. I think the middle order needs strengthening so I would drop Stokes down to 7. I would go with:

Cook
Jennings
Root
Stoneman
Bairstow
Westley
Stokes
Ali
Broad
Roland-Jones
Anderson

Unsure about Ali but like I mentioned in another post, real shortage of spin options at the moment. You've got strength in depth in batting and still a 5 man attack with Root to offer an extra option of spin.
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Decent lineup but Stoneman is an opener and Jennings better at 3 which also means Root can keep his spot at 4 which is his favourite. If you're bringing in a new specialist batsman, would you really want him batting as low as 6? It might be that the pitch/ conditions don't allow for it but I'd tweak your lineup slightly and go:

Cook
Stoneman
Jennings
Root
Bairstow
Stokes
Ali
Rashid
Broad
Ball
Anderson

4 seamers and 2 spinners should be enough for England to win a Test in England.
 
ChrisNelson said:
Decent lineup but Stoneman is an opener and Jennings better at 3 which also means Root can keep his spot at 4 which is his favourite. If you're bringing in a new specialist batsman, would you really want him batting as low as 6? It might be that the pitch/ conditions don't allow for it but I'd tweak your lineup slightly and go:

Cook
Stoneman
Jennings
Root
Bairstow
Stokes
Ali
Rashid
Broad
Ball
Anderson

4 seamers and 2 spinners should be enough for England to win a Test in England.
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We have a problem with the batting but you are basically keeping the same lineup with 6 bowlers? Stokes and Ali are not consistent and don't have great test averages. 6 bowlers is overkill, 5 is fine and you have Root to bowl additionally.
 
TheGame said:
We have a problem with the batting but you are basically keeping the same lineup with 6 bowlers? Stokes and Ali are not consistent and don't have great test averages. 6 bowlers is overkill, 5 is fine and you have Root to bowl additionally.
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I bet that is not a million miles away from where they go with Ballance out injured though tbf.
 
TheGame said:
We have a problem with the batting but you are basically keeping the same lineup with 6 bowlers? Stokes and Ali are not consistent and don't have great test averages. 6 bowlers is overkill, 5 is fine and you have Root to bowl additionally.
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I would like him banned from bowling. His mild ability is not worth the risk to his back.
 
England squad for third Test

Joe Root (Yorkshire, captain), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Alastair Cook (Essex), Liam Dawson (Hampshire), Keaton Jennings (Durham), Dawid Malan (Middlesex), Toby Roland-Jones (Middlesex), Ben Stokes (Durham), Tom Westley (Essex), Mark Wood (Durham).

So no place for Stoneman on his home ground and looks like Malan will be 12th man. Didn't think Wood would make it fitness wise but he's due a change in fortunes.
 
ChrisNelson said:
England squad for third Test

Joe Root (Yorkshire, captain), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Alastair Cook (Essex), Liam Dawson (Hampshire), Keaton Jennings (Durham), Dawid Malan (Middlesex), Toby Roland-Jones (Middlesex), Ben Stokes (Durham), Tom Westley (Essex), Mark Wood (Durham).

So no place for Stoneman on his home ground and looks like Malan will be 12th man. Didn't think Wood would make it fitness wise but he's due a change in fortunes.
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Westley at 3 should hopefully insert a positive influence in the top 3. Still think they could picked Stoneman even if he wasn't opening especially on this home ground. Malan should play as well to improve batting. Not sure why Dawson is in the squad.
 
So a guy who's been picked because he played a good knock in a T20 innings and a person who averages under 40 have been bought in to shore up our batting.

Jesus wept.
 
England won toss, batting first at The Oval.


England 1 Alastair Cook, 2 Keaton Jennings, 3 Tom Westley, 4 Joe Root (capt), 5 Dawid Malan, 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 8 Moeen Ali, 9 Toby Roland-Jones, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 James Anderson

South Africa 1 Dean Elgar, 2 Heino Kuhn, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Quinton de Kock (wk), 5 Faf du Plessis (capt), 6 Temba Bavuma, 7 Vernon Philander, 8 Chris Morris, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Morne Morkel


Jennings out already for a duck, England 12/1.
 
Cook very lucky to survive that. Should've been given out, the ICC ruling says that there's should be a long spike for Ultra edge.

Tom Westley looks like a proper number three. Plaing grittly so far.
 
KM said:
Cook very lucky to survive that. Should've been given out, the ICC ruling says that there's should be a long spike for Ultra edge.

Tom Westley looks like a proper number three. Plaing grittly so far.
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Going by how he was given out last test, N/O was the right call
 
KM said:
Cook very lucky to survive that. Should've been given out, the ICC ruling says that there's should be a long spike for Ultra edge.

Tom Westley looks like a proper number three. Plaing grittly so far.
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That seems wrong, when the on-field decision is not out.

I thought he hit it, at the time, and was happy to see SA review it because of that. Have I missed evidence that suggests he didn't?
 
The boss and me have had to have IE upgraded just to display the stupid thing! If ever the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" applied, it's Cricinfo. Does anyone know if you can still get the desktop scorecard for an individual match?

In terms of the match itself, Root and Cook sewing the seeds of recovery for England, a familiar story, 2 batsmen we are very lucky to have.
 
KM said:
Would not have picked Ballance, Jennings and Dawson. Ballance is still understandable given he has had a ridiculous county season but Haseeb is in talent wise another class as compared to Jennings whereas Dawson is a poor man's Jadeja.

What is England's obsession with picking mediocre spinners for their batting?
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England listening to me with two and I guess Jennings is out for the next match unless he plays a ridiculous innings in the next innings.
 
Rabada is the most talented young bowler around, by a long way, at the moment.

I think he could become the best SA have ever had, if fitness allows.
 
He's definitely up there. Hard to believe he's still so young - It seems like years and years ago since he tore us apart in that test in SA.
 
Fairly even day assuming we are done.

Root and Malan got good balls. Westley played a crap shot, no idea why he was trying to play it through mid-on, to a decent ball and Jennings should have done better. Not an easy pitch to bat on I don't think, need Cooky to go big.

And yes Rababa is great, such a smooth action.
 
DiseaseOfTheAge said:
Rabada is the most talented young bowler around, by a long way, at the moment.

I think he could become the best SA have ever had, if fitness allows.
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He is very talented, but I think even if he had the potential to surpass Steyn, he wouldn't because he doesn't have the support of a good team. SA are declining as a test team and don't seem to have the support structure to improve..
 
DiseaseOfTheAge said:
Rabada is the most talented young bowler around, by a long way, at the moment.

I think he could become the best SA have ever had, if fitness allows.
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Surpassing steyn will be a massive challenge who for my money is the best ever, and at worst top 5 all time.
 
Bairstow/Stokes to have another mammoth partnership?
 
I'm watching Star Sports. They're advertising the start of the third test, in advert breaks during the second day of the third test.
 
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