English cricket 2015 - NZ, The Ashes, Pak and SA

Great comeback by England but this wicket looks really flat once the ball becomes old.

On a side note S Ravi had an excellent day today, all the big decisions were on his end and he got all of them right
 
Who is England's next great bowler? They're heavily reliant on Anderson. That bowling attack is just going down in quality with Anderson aging.
 
If it wasn't enough hearing Shane Warne calling a cricket ball a ''cherry'', Michael Vaughan has followed suit.
 
BBC reporting that Gillespie will take the England job if he receives an offer.
 
Mitchell Nicholas said:
BBC reporting that Gillespie will take the England job if he receives an offer.
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Seems the best choice. Those who've seen him in his role at Yorkshire have been praising him relentlessly. Also just generally a pretty popular bloke amongst English cricket fans.
 
Overall England have bowled decently today. Bit unlucky, could have had couple more wickets.
 
Williamson needs to get a move on here. He went to his 100 within a over of the start of play. He's made 20 runs after that.
 
Root is brilliant and no sign of any continuing back problems. What do people think to moving him up the order?
 
TwoSheds said:
Root is brilliant and no sign of any continuing back problems. What do people think to moving him up the order?
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You jinxed it!

Leave him where he is as it's working out. Lyth is a proven opener who I think will adapt to test cricket, and Bell is still a great player. Root at 4 is fine.
 
WAYYYY!!! :D Well done, Captain Cook!
 
No chance we should move any of the top five with Cook Root & Stokes in such good form. If Bell can turn it up a notch, and Lyth recaptures his county form, our top order is looking beautiful going into the Ashes.
 
Cook with captain's knock and great innings from Root and Stokes again. Might end in draw now this match.
 
Erm...are we just ignoring Ballance then?
 
Anything below 320 and I think we have a good day's cricket ahead of us. Fancy NZ to chase that down.
 
TwoSheds said:
Erm...are we just ignoring Ballance then?
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Seems I am - Woops :lol: I guess I'm guilty of focusing on the positives, and not a lad who's been out for 0 and 1 this match.
 
Tommy said:
Seems I am - Woops :lol: I guess I'm guilty of focusing on the positives, and not a lad who's been out for 0 and 1 this match.
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Ballance is one of THE positives for England over the past 12 months.

The 9th fastest person of all time to 1000 test runs and averaging over 60. But god forbid he gets two good balls, he must be shite.
 
I don't know if he's good enough or not -- seems like a decent player, but this '9th fastest' is such a simplistic stat thrown out by George Dobell all the time.

It means nothing considering every player makes his debut against different types of bowling attacks. Ballance played 5 of his first dozen matches against India, which is one of the shittest bowling attacks going around.
 
zing said:
I don't know if he's good enough or not -- seems like a decent player, but this '9th fastest' is such a simplistic stat thrown out by George Dobell all the time.

It means nothing considering every player makes his debut against different types of bowling attacks. Ballance played 5 of his first dozen matches against India, which is one of the shittest bowling attacks going around.
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It's just an objective fact. Of all the players to score 1000 runs only 8 have done it faster.

Whether that means he'll go on to be a great test player or not is kind of immaterial, he's earnt more than enough rope to make two failures (where he did, again, get two good balls) immaterial and has been one of England's best players in a difficult time. Arguing he's anything other than one of England's brightest talents is just weird.
 
One thing I don't understand. Why do the English call it 'entertainment' when there's an innings like Stokes in test cricket, but look down at T20?

Cook's innings was high quality today, but Stokes was bashing it about and I am reading a lot of people calling it an amazing innings.
 
zing said:
One thing I don't understand. Why do the English call it 'entertainment' when there's an innings like Stokes in test cricket, but look down at T20?

Cook's innings was high quality today, but Stokes was bashing it about and I am reading a lot of people calling it an amazing innings.
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Well you have your answer right there - red ball cricket encompasses both defence and attack, T20 is a boring slogfest.
 
peterstorey said:
Well you have your answer right there - red ball cricket encompasses both defence and attack, T20 is a boring slogfest.
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They were independent events.

Stokes' innings was much of a slog fest and a lot of people are hailing it as 'brilliant entertainment'.
 
zing said:
They were independent events.

Stokes' innings was much of a slog fest and a lot of people are hailing it as 'brilliant entertainment'.
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Context. It was a brave/foolhardy innings in a test - it was 'so what?' in a T20.
 
Is Cook going to make an aggressive, proactive declaration with the aim of trying to win the match, as opposed to just making sure they're trying not to lose? Set New Zealand 330 to win the match.
 
Mitchell Nicholas said:
Is Cook going to make an aggressive, proactive declaration with the aim of trying to win the match, as opposed to just making sure they're trying not to lose? Set New Zealand 330 to win the match.
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I would personally declare first thing and try to win the match, but cook is so defensively minded that he will probably try and stay in bat until tea.
 
Mitchell Nicholas said:
Is Cook going to make an aggressive, proactive declaration with the aim of trying to win the match, as opposed to just making sure they're trying not to lose? Set New Zealand 330 to win the match.
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I bloody hope not, given how flat this pitch is and runs having been scored at four an over. I'd give 'em 380 in 60-65 overs.
 
Rolandofgilead said:
I would personally declare first thing and try to win the match, but cook is so defensively minded that he will probably try and stay in bat until tea.
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Warne berating Cook for negative captaincy if this ends up a bore draw will be good viewing.
 
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