English cricket thread

I’m starting to wonder if players have the attention span to play long format cricket now. It’s annoying me how often I see teams resort to short ball theory once they are convinced the ball isn’t moving (the West Indies did it when England were 110-5 FFS) and then even more annoying when batters refuse the shelve pulling and get out softly (they can’t bowl bumpers all bloody day can they!). It’s basically an admission that a team has no other ideas and if you bat that period out the game is pretty much yours.

What happened to plugging away on a good length and waiting for natural variation/misjudgement? The West Indies came out after rain, with cloud cover and the lights on and refused to even pitch it up for an over or two to just check if there was any movement. Utterly perplexing cricket.

The move to slow/low pitches in England and Dukes balls that barely swing or keep shape now haven’t helped mind you.
 
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DOTA said:
I say this partially to try and counteract the potential jinxing of him from your post but I have thought he looks a bit dodgy.

Not terribly worried long term though, my memory is that Matt Prior was dodgy for a few years and then somehow quite suddenly became remarkably reliable, so I tend to believe in miracles with keepers after that.
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You should feel reassured to say the opposite to me, I am so often wrong
 
Top day from England. Spin, searing reverse swing and ruthless batting. Mark Wood is an absolute unicorn in terms of English bowling.

West Indies are at the mercy of their schedule, it’s clear to me they have talent but they just don’t play enough red ball cricket for their players to be comfortable in doing it session after session. Against the top sides this will always show through in the end.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
Top day from England. Spin, searing reverse swing and ruthless batting. Mark Wood is an absolute unicorn in terms of English bowling.
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I wouldn't go that far, even though England are not exactly renowned for pace and Wood is the fastest.

Harmison, Flintoff, Jones, Gough, Malcolm, Archer were all genuinely quick. Then more historic ones like Bob Willis.

Hopefully Archer comes back at some point.
 
Very good series for England, won 3-0 and some really big positives across the lineup. Irrespective of the results this team makes me look forward to every test match which is such a huge positive. 1 draw under this regime and even that was the Manchester test which we should have won.
 
LDUred said:
I wouldn't go that far, even though England are not exactly renowned for pace and Wood is the fastest.

Harmison, Flintoff, Jones, Gough, Malcolm, Archer were all genuinely quick. Then more historic ones like Bob Willis.

Hopefully Archer comes back at some point.
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All names that crossed my mind, Malcolm came just before I started watching but I still think Wood has extra gas on all of them. Ever since he lengthened his run up he’s been brutally fast, he’s hit 97mph! Archer’s spell to Smith is only other one where I think I’ve seen anyone as quick for England but that was a one off spell for Archer.
 
I wonder how they'll go about the Sri Lanka series if Crawley's injury rules him out. Lawrence seems to be the next in line but more suited to the middle order, technically Stokes has the game to open and on yesterday's evidence it could be quite fun to watch too!
 
ArmchairCritic said:
All names that crossed my mind, Malcolm came just before I started watching but I still think Wood has extra gas on all of them. Ever since he lengthened his run up he’s been brutally fast, he’s hit 97mph! Archer’s spell to Smith is only other one where I think I’ve seen anyone as quick for England but that was a one off spell for Archer.
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Steven Finn, who's a bit forgotten about now, was also genuinely quick. ECB didn't treat him well.
 
IRN-BRUno said:
I wonder how they'll go about the Sri Lanka series if Crawley's injury rules him out. Lawrence seems to be the next in line but more suited to the middle order, technically Stokes has the game to open and on yesterday's evidence it could be quite fun to watch too!
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Confirmed that Crawley is out and Lawrence will open. Jordan Cox comes into the squad as spare batter, Olly Stone replaces Pennington who has a hamstring injury.
 
Absolutely gutted, I remember being so excited by his debut century against the Aussies and thought (wrongly) that we were entering an era of domination!
 
Horrible when I heard this news earlier, one of the finest cricketers we've seen wear an England shirt. No age either.
 
arnie_ni said:
What was the illness he had?
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I don’t think they ever announced it, but I remember he was very ill a couple of years back and they spoke about him being in hospital during the tv coverage. I’d kind of forgotten about it since, so I’m assuming it was some kind of long term disease that he’s been battling, and the family just wanted privacy.
 
Dan_F said:
I don’t think they ever announced it, but I remember he was very ill a couple of years back and they spoke about him being in hospital during the tv coverage. I’d kind of forgotten about it since, so I’m assuming it was some kind of long term disease that he’s been battling, and the family just wanted privacy.
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Yea that's what I figured but just wasn't sure if I missed what it was. Sad news. Was probably my favourite playee of that era. Changed from right to left handed (playing the garden as a kid) cause of players like him
 
From what I'm hearing on Sky News now he has been suffering from depression and insomnia. Did he take his own life? Shame if he did.
 
Fully Fledged said:
From what I'm hearing on Sky News now he has been suffering from depression and insomnia. Did he take his own life? Shame if he did.
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I guess it’s all speculation but it doesn’t sound like that with them previously saying he was hospitalised with a serious illness. I definitely remember there being things about him drinking and having difficulties in his personal life throughout his career but I was too young to really remember.

I do remember he was always the last line of defence when playing Brian Lara cricket on the PS1, as soon as he was out it felt like a collapse was coming. Almost like real life, except the collapse had usually happened already.
 
Dan_F said:
I guess it’s all speculation but it doesn’t sound like that with them previously saying he was hospitalised with a serious illness. I definitely remember there being things about him drinking and having difficulties in his personal life throughout his career but I was too young to really remember.

I do remember he was always the last line of defence when playing Brian Lara cricket on the PS1, as soon as he was out it felt like a collapse was coming. Almost like real life, except the collapse had usually happened already.
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He was a great player. I loved watching him bat.
 
Stokes has come off injured, looks to have done something going for a quick single, and with Sri Lanka test series in a couple of weeks, looking like Ben Stokes will be out.

EDIT: Hamstring injury
 
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Stokes looks like he’s done himself a relatively serious mischief playing this Hundred lark. So completely pointless.
 
Stokes should only play test/4 day cricket, being an all rounder is brutal at the best of times but asking him to do short format stuff on top red ball cricket at this age is spectacularly stupid. He should have never come back for ODIs, he shouldn’t have played in this tournament and he should be banned from doing those daft 8-10 over spells he likes to do.
 
Hamstring injuries can happen anywhere tbh, Stokes unfortunately learning the hard way that he is not 25 anymore and really needs to put less strain on his body


Tough decisions for the test matches now, I assume Pope will captain but balancing the team without stokes will be a big challenge. If Jordan cox plays then the bowling is very thin specially with Gus & Wood being fast bowlers who should bowl short spells only
 
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