English cricket thread

DiseaseOfTheAge said:
Channel Five has highlights. Probably need a proxy for that, outside of UK though.

I find if I google 'cricket highlights' I pretty quickly find a dodgy website that offers me 20 minutes or so highlights from each day's play. Pretty badly edited but watchable.

ECB does about 5 minutes per day on Youtube. I don't know about the availability of that in different countries.

This one has bits from Archer's day four spell.

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Thanks.
 
AshRK said:
I still think England will make a comeback and win the Ashes 2-1 or 3-1. Australia are totally dependent on Smith and he will have one or two failures and that is when others have to step up and I cannot see who those others will be for Aussies. Archer will only get better so that will be an awesome thing for England and their batting is too good to continue failing. Stokes have found his groove back and Butler and Bairstow would be happy after getting to spend some time at the crease. I like Burns and call em crazy but I will continue with Roy. I think he was trying too hard in the first two matches. Still trying to find the correct balance maybe. I would just ask him to play his natural game and not think too much. Are there any good spinners coming from the domestic setup for England? They should call someone to strengthen their spin department.
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Apparently Simon Harmer, the South African off-spinner who plays for Essex, qualifies for England next year.

Tbh I'd rather we didn't just start plucking players who come over to play cricket in England. Archer's fine as a one-off - he's learnt his trade at Sussex and his dad's English. But if we just start luring players from other countries, like a club side signing the best players from lesser teams, it'll lose all meaning for me.

Unfortunately however, I'd imagine England will take Harmer. He's the best spinner in the Championship and he bats as well. The only other realistic option right now is Parkinson at Lancs, and he bats 11 and doesn't always get in the Lancs side.. There's an Afghan-born spinner at Derbyshire doing well too, but he's only 18 so probably won't be ready for a couple of years at least.
 
NinjaFletch said:
I do wonder if the Archer introduction actually serves as a blueprint for what England should be doing with young talent. Obviously Archer honed his game, and probably was prepared for this stage, on the T20 circuit, but most of his red ball skills will have been learnt in county cricket. If he had been England eligible from Day One he'd have been selected three years ago on his raw pace alone, does his accomplished debut suggest that it's a better strategy to hold these players back until they have developed, rather than asking them to grow on the international stage?
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I would say Archer is the exception not the rule. Clearly being able to draw on Jason Gillespie, Jon Lewis, Ishant Sharma and Chris Jordan at Sussex helped him a great deal. Going around the world and testing his mettle against international players no doubt helped reinforce his confidence too. However I cannot help but feel that if Archer was thrown into tests after a few games he would have faced the challenge with same equanimity that he has faced every other challenge that has been thrown his way in the last 3 years. This excerpt from Cricinfo's Day 1 report when he made his debut versus the touring Pakistani team might as well be from 2 days ago:

Sussex took the new ball as soon as it became available and in the fourth over, Archer claimed his third wicket of the day when Misbah padded up to a ball that would have taken off stump. Archer struck again when Azhar was late on a pull and was taken by the keeper. It is the mark of a promising bowler when his last spell of the day can be as good as the first.
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Also I would say it was pretty important that Archer was developed outside of the guidance of the ECB. Whatever we do next with him, please keep him away from the coaches at Loughborough!
 
Fiskey said:
Interesting, would suggest maybe Denly opening in Leeds? Would be madness to chuck Ollie Pipe in at opening.
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I had a dream last night where we went through with the joke and made Leach opener. He quickly got his hand broken.

That's all I have to add here.
 
sammsky1 said:
think 3rd test will be as bounceAthon .... England certainly expecting payback for Archer :lol:

England call up Ollie Pope as Jason Roy concussion cover - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/49421396
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Payback? Australia started the short ball stuff halfway through our first innings.

And Pope is cover in case Roy can’t make it as he got struck in nets. Incidentally, so did that South African lad Australia brought in for Smith
 
EdWeatherall said:
Payback? Australia started the short ball stuff halfway through our first innings.

And Pope is cover in case Roy can’t make it as he got struck in nets. Incidentally, so did that South African lad Australia brought in for Smith
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Yeah don't think Australia will start a bouncer war. Not unless they play Starc anyway.

Pope scored 200 for Surrey today so is bang on form (interestingly Curran batted 3 in the same game. Wonder if that was a request from the England management).
 
JohnnyKills said:
Yeah don't think Australia will start a bouncer war. Not unless they play Starc anyway.

Pope scored 200 for Surrey today so is bang on form (interestingly Curran batted 3 in the same game. Wonder if that was a request from the England management).
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It was just Surrey getting some batting mileage out of Curran before he joined the England team.
 
JohnnyKills said:
Yeah don't think Australia will start a bouncer war. Not unless they play Starc anyway.

Pope scored 200 for Surrey today so is bang on form (interestingly Curran batted 3 in the same game. Wonder if that was a request from the England management).
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As @EdWeatherall said, it's already started since first test and the barrage at Archer himself in 2nd test. I think we can guarantee that Archer will send down his fair share, meaning Australia will have to exchange in kind.

Just like in war, it doesn't really matter who fires the first bullet, it's already started and will continue as long as Archer plays. He's a gun bowler, much like Waqar, Aktar, Lee, Johnson etc. Whenever these guys play, its a special atmosphere and fireworks almost always ensue.

Personally, I really want to see Archer/Anderson vs Cummins/Starc on a bouncy fast track, though we'll probably have to wait for Old Trafford or the Oval test for that.
 
EdWeatherall said:
Payback? Australia started the short ball stuff halfway through our first innings.

And Pope is cover in case Roy can’t make it as he got struck in nets. Incidentally, so did that South African lad Australia brought in for Smith
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In a practice game in past few days? Yes, I'd imagine both teams are doing lots of bouncer practice at 90+mph with bowling machines and their own fast bowlers
 
EdWeatherall said:
Didnt bowl second innings?
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Ok, guess you're right about him leaving the game early.

But still, Surrey batted for the best part of two days. He'd have had plenty of time to bat, whether he'd gone in at three or seven. It may have been England requesting that he get some batting practice in case he's needed.

Hope he gets more exposure at the top of the order as England have an obvious weakness there and he's shown he can face the new ball in test cricket (albeit the second one).
 
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Cracking game in prospect today. England must be tempted to bowl first whatever the conditions, given the impact Archer had just a few days ago.
 
Losing Smith is such a big blow to Australia. Most of their other batsman have been dire in England since 2005. I remember the days when players like Stuart Law could not get in the team and he used to score runs for fun in England. Same with Darren Lehmann too.
 
DixieDean said:
Losing Smith is such a big blow to Australia. Most of their other batsman have been dire in England since 2005. I remember the days when players like Stuart Law could not get in the team and he used to score runs for fun in England. Same with Darren Lehmann too.
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Yep, remember it well. Stuart Law would score 1,500 runs a season for Essex for Lancs and not get a sniff. You could throw in Martin Love, Greg Blewett, Jamie Cox, Michael Di Venuto... the Aussie Second XI was stronger than our first XI.
 
Watched the full KP documentary last night.

I was very surprised, the tone was quite different from the trailer clips which tend to prepare you to expect a complete character assasination.
 
JohnnyKills said:
Maybe, but he played the whole game as far as I could see. Wasn't as though he had to leave halfway through.
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He did. He batted 3 because he was joining up with the England squad. From the Surrey website:

Curran was promoted to No 3 because of his impending call-up to the England squad for the third Ashes Test, but he didn’t much time (sic) in the middle. Edwards, who had by this stage switched to the Pavilion end banged in a short one which Curran hooked straight down the throat of Stevenson at deep square.
 
JohnnyKills said:
Cracking game in prospect today. England must be tempted to bowl first whatever the conditions, given the impact Archer had just a few days ago.
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Think bowling first would be a bad option given how much Archer bowled in the last two days of the last Test. He's only had 3 days off!
 
FlawlessThaw said:
Think bowling first would be a bad option given how much Archer bowled in the last two days of the last Test. He's only had 3 days off!
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Well, if England bat first he'll have three and a half, so it's not a big difference!

Hopefully he'll have less bowling to do this time though.
 
NinjaFletch said:
He did. He batted 3 because he was joining up with the England squad. From the Surrey website:

Curran was promoted to No 3 because of his impending call-up to the England squad for the third Ashes Test, but he didn’t much time (sic) in the middle. Edwards, who had by this stage switched to the Pavilion end banged in a short one which Curran hooked straight down the throat of Stevenson at deep square.
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Fair enough. In my defence, The Guardian described it as an 'experiment' in their match report on Tuesday. Shame he didn't make more runs! It's not like there are many top-order specialists scoring runs at the moment.
 
The Cat said:
Watched the full KP documentary last night.

I was very surprised, the tone was quite different from the trailer clips which tend to prepare you to expect a complete character assasination.
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Yeah I watched the first two episodes this week. He comes across a bit of a strange guy doesn't he, like he doesn't know how to deal with people at all. Not sure he's as arrogant as some people say, just really insecure and needy.

That said, he was a brilliant player and his sacking was a total failure of management.
 
Typical that London is forecasting 2 weeks of unbroken sunshine just after a rain affected Lords test, and that it’s rainy in Leeds today :mad:

Minimum 30min delay
 
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England win toss and bowl first! It’s overcast.

England same team as 2nd test.

3 changes from last team for Australia: Pattinson for Siddle; Harris for Bancroft, Labuschange for Smith. Still no Starc.
 
Bayliss: We've learnt lessons from the Caribbean, we know 4-8 is our strength and we're not going to tinker with it

Cue 7 months of pointless tinkering. Buttler and Bairstow swapping today seems particularly insane.
 
NinjaFletch said:
Bayliss: We've learnt lessons from the Caribbean, we know 4-8 is our strength and we're not going to tinker with it

Cue 7 months of pointless tinkering. Buttler and Bairstow swapping today seems particularly insane.
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Have they swapped? Didn't see the team news. That's hilarious. What are we doing?
 
Overcast, green pitch, no Smith. England are going to waste the opportunity by bowling too short aren't they.
 
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