Commentary is dreadful. Going on about how great the fielding was without a mention of Crawley basically sacrificing Lees through being switched off and dawdling.
English cricket thread
- Thread starter Samid
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Athers was annoying me saying how “nobody could expect Boult to get to that!” Well probably not, but he could also have got a straight hit on the stumps and he’d have been out too.
I can only think they’re holding back on Crawley because he’s Rob Key’s boy. Hell at this point it’s the only reason I can think of for him playing.
I'll just admire my shot, ball watch. Have a nice little stroll down the wicket... Realise it's gone to Williamson but don't tell Lees "no run".
Good captaincy from Williamson to get Bracewell into the game. With Bracewell’s height surely you just want to play him from the crease.
That’s such a bad review
edit: the 2nd one too
edit: the 2nd one too
Williamson’s had a mare there, was desperate to go both times for the review without any input.
You just know they’re not gonna use a review later that’s out because they only have one review left.
You just know they’re not gonna use a review later that’s out because they only have one review left.
Paine Williamson reviews.
Even Kohli at his most impulsive wouldn't have gone for those two reviews. Maybe one of them.
Crawley just isn't good enough. Not in first class cricket and certainly not in test cricket. There simply has to be a better option?
This, 'the ball needs changing', is getting ridiculous and the farce of passing the ball through the rings every few overs when nothing's happening needs to stop.
Unless the umpire decides to the naked eye that it's out of shape, it should not be changed. They should also limit the amount of times captains can chuck the umpire the ball.
Unless the umpire decides to the naked eye that it's out of shape, it should not be changed. They should also limit the amount of times captains can chuck the umpire the ball.
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I'd pick Compton or Salt personally. Worth a try.
I think Crawley will get the India test and if he fails again there he'll be out the side when South Africa arrive.
I thought the same but I’m not sure it’s just bowlers taking the piss as apparently it’s been happening all year in County Cricket too. Something with how these balls are being manufactured is the theory.
That Compton bloke looks good, small sample size but still..I'd rather go on that then a proven failure. Crawleys numbers are appalling for a front line first class batsman.
Further to the discussion on wider slips to the spinners, I think part of it is driven by reverse sweeps (wider to gamble on a miscue), I don’t like it one bit though and I don’t a country that’s used to a lot of spin would do it.
Compton has what, half a season of red ball experience? I’m not sold (although the numbers for that half a season are frankly ridiculous) and Salt is down at 6 in red ball in the county game.
I don’t know what the answer is, but keeping on throwing Crawley out there to fail and knock his confidence even more isn’t it. I think Gubbins is second highest scoring opener this season.
Saw someone make that point on the Wisden podcast.
Maybe Crawley will eventually be good enough to open in Test cricket but it looks pretty clear he isn't right now, and continually playing him anyway just risks wrecking his confidence and making sure he never gets picked again even if he does eventually get good enough for it in a few years.
Yeah, I was going to reply to your other post, suggesting Compton - he deserves a chance on his county form.
Get the feeling Crawley's only picked because he's 'Keys' boy' and that he could get off to a flier, to fit the aggressive approach, even though that only happens once every ten games.
I do think there’s an international player in there (albeit he looks a 3 to me) but I’m glad to hear someone semi sensible is thinking along the same lines as me!
There’s no positive to keeping him in there when he looks this shot. It’s all well and good saying you back him but sometimes players need to go away and learn to fight their demons without the pressure somewhat.
That’s one way to combat someone hiding it outside off
The situation with the Dukes ball definitely needs looking into imo.
What a shot from Root though.
I’m sure there was a statement or other on this a week or so ago, basically somebody new has done the stitching this year and they’ve been told that they have to make it tighter next year.
The opener who should displace Crawley is Tom Haines. Tbh I'm not convinced by Lees either, he has been unlucky in this test though so will get more time, but he'll go the way of all of our other openers since Cook and be out of the team within 12-18 months.
Sangakarra suggesting Buttler could open in tests, must be something in the water in Rajasthan.
Yeah, I'm not sure about him either. The only thing he's got going for him at the moment is he's a left hander which is a good combination if you have another right hander and he's at least got some hundreds behind him in domestic cricket whereas Crawley hasn't got many.
Openers have been a conundrum for a long time now.
Not picking Patel was a shocking decision by NZ. If they don't bowl England out here they'll look a bit silly.
Fully expect Crawley to play against India and would be quite surprised if he isn't against South Africa.
I'm not sure Burns is good enough, and he doesn't really fit the new all out attack mindset but is it fair to say he's been the best of a bad bunch of openers we've tried post Strauss?
The way I interpreted that was that he rates our openers so badly that he thinks literally nothing could be worse than Crawley/Lees, hence he suggested Jos as a kind of 'why not' suggestion rather than genuinely believing he has the skillset to open in tests. Even so, it was a pretty bizarre suggestion.
Lees has been ok so far but not overly convinced. Deserves a few more digs, I guess.
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Interesting component of ‘Baz-ball’ that I have noticed is England tend to push on right at the end of a day when most teams might decide to play out the overs and get to the close. 41 off the last 5 overs there.
It’s probably a very clever idea. Bowlers/fielders get tired and drop off as much as batters, probably some statistics somewhere that say there’s more sloppy fielding in the last 20 to 30 minutes.
And he doesn’t seem to give Mitchell a bowl either. Even try himself like Root.
Countless positives from this series but Matty Potts might be the biggest one long term.
He looks the real deal.
He looks the real deal.
Yeah I like him. How he only got 1 wicket in the first innings I'll never know. Very difficult to say who should be dropped when Jimmy is back fit - probably Broad even though he's bowled pretty well on the whole? Handy contribution he made with the bat too in that first innings tbf. Good problem to have whatever way you look at it.
Nick Compton and Sam Robson had similiar (slightly higher) averages. I'd say Robson in particular was unfortunate, he was only 25 when we ditched him. He wasn't at Cook or Strauss levels, but he was better than everyone we tried since, and presumably could have pushed on given further time and opportunities.
Our best opener since Strauss statistically is actually Jack Leach. Given the abundance of middle order batsmen, theres an argument that we as well just open with Leach to try and see off some of the new ball and fit in another middle order batsmen in place of an underperforming opener. Could go all out even, open with Leach and Foakes, then fit all of Pope, Root, Bairstow, Brook and Lawrence/Livingstone in the middle order
Nick Compton and Sam Robson had similiar (slightly higher) averages. I'd say Robson in particular was unfortunate, he was only 25 when we ditched him. He wasn't at Cook or Strauss levels, but he was better than everyone we tried since, and presumably could have pushed on given further time and opportunities.
Our best opener since Strauss statistically is actually Jack Leach. Given the abundance of middle order batsmen, theres an argument that we as well just open with Leach to try and see off some of the new ball and fit in another middle order batsmen in place of an underperforming opener. Could go all out even, open with Leach and Foakes, then fit all of Pope, Root, Bairstow, Brook and Lawrence/Livingstone in the middle order
Our No. 11, right?
Wouldn't be the first time, didn't Wilfred Rhodes play 11 and also open?
82mph, nips it off the seam and a bit of swing.
Not much use in India and Australia etc...
Looks like a new Chris Woakes to me, been really impressive admittedly but the usual concerns are there.
Right time to go IMO, go out at the top. The ODI team is in a really good place.
He's announcing it tomorrow apparently.
What a captain he's been, driven the mentality change and transformed the white ball team.