English cricket thread

Caught, bowled and then LBW. Perfect hat-trick for Atkinson.

We're obviously trying to build something that can win the next Ashes bowling-wise
 
jungledrums said:
Possibly but… so too were England, to some extent! Or at least patchy/inconsistent
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Since 2022, they've only lost two series in India and Pakistan playing on rank turners having done well on any decent, test-standard pitches offered up.

Their form is generally good and they won 5/6 tests last summer.
 
LDUred said:
Since 2022, they've only lost two series in India and Pakistan playing on rank turners having done well on any decent, test-standard pitches offered up.

Their form is generally good.
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I thought the Pakistan loss was a poor result. And we didn't lose in India purely due to pitches.
 
Utd heap said:
I thought the Pakistan loss was a poor result. And we didn't lose in India purely due to pitches.
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I still think England's form has been better than patchy. They should have won the Ashes in England and it was only really bad luck with the weather in Manchester that cost them.
 
LDUred said:
Since 2022, they've only lost two series in India and Pakistan playing on rank turners having done well on any decent, test-standard pitches offered up.

Their form is generally good and they won 5/6 tests last summer.
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I'm sorry but the India and Pakistan pitches were as test standard as a seaming wicket. Just because you have no clue how to play spin bowling doesn't mean a spinning wicket isn't standard, it just isn't to the standard you like.
 
LDUred said:
I still think England's form has been better than patchy. They should have won the Ashes in England and it was only really bad luck with the weather in Manchester that cost them.
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Yes, I think England under Bazball are comfortably a net positive.
 
England have a good problem to have when Smith is back from maternity leave, do they keep Bethell at 3, or bring Smith back in and move Pope back to 3.
 
paulscholes18 said:
England have a good problem to have when Smith is back from maternity leave, do they keep Bethell at 3, or bring Smith back in and move Pope back to 3.
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I'd put Stokes at 3 (his bowling is gone) and let Pope and Bethell rotate/battle it out at 6. Smith at 7.
 
I just hope once this partnership is broken we don't do that thing of trying to go at 10 an over and end up collapsing and only setting them about 350 to win. 350 would probably be enough but it would be really good to just bat and bat and not even give them a sniff of victory . It's only halfway through day 2, no need to rush.

Set them something daft to chase.
 
TheGame said:
It’s only day 2, England should bat at least a session tomorrow. Make sure the total is well out of reach.
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Yep bat till we are all out there is 3 days and a bit left no point in giving the kiwis any sniff,harmison the dope doing my head in the last 15 mins going on about declarations can almost hear it in the kiwis comms voices thinking yes please give us a chance.
 
massey said:
Yep bat till we are all out there is 3 days and a bit left no point in giving the kiwis any sniff,harmison the dope doing my head in the last 15 mins going on about declarations can almost hear it in the kiwis comms voices thinking yes please give us a chance.
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Exactly. The way Stokes is going probably only need one session. Let Root get his century, allow the bowlers to get some extra rest then declare.
 
TheGame said:
Exactly. The way Stokes is going probably only need one session. Let Root get his century, allow the bowlers to get some extra rest then declare.
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With three full days remaining, I don’t see any benefit in declaring at all, personally. As you said, give our own bowlers a good rest and continue to demoralise the opposition by piling on the agony (and the runs), for as long as realistically possible.
 
Northstand said:
With three full days remaining, I don’t see any benefit in declaring at all, personally. As you said, give our own bowlers a good rest and continue to demoralise the opposition by piling on the agony (and the runs), for as long as realistically possible.
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My only issue would be if a bowler was batting and they got injured then that would be annoying. Think if Stokes keeps going and Root as well then it will probably take only 1 session to be well out of sight even with the time remaining.
 
Shame about Duckett missing out on a ton, he often seems to fall in the 80s and 90s.

Otherwise great to see England really turn the screw and build a massive lead. Need this kind of ruthlessness if we want to win the Ashes down under, have to be willing to just bat and bat the opposition out of it. I'm guessing they'll bat on until Root gets a ton or gets out, I'd probably just bat on even more but I think we'll declare after that.
 
Zero reason to declare here, let the pitch get worse & the bowlers get more rest and just keep batting
 
TheGame said:
My only issue would be if a bowler was batting and they got injured then that would be annoying. Think if Stokes keeps going and Root as well then it will probably take only 1 session to be well out of sight even with the time remaining.
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Yeah, that’s a good point.
 
TheGame said:
My only issue would be if a bowler was batting and they got injured then that would be annoying. Think if Stokes keeps going and Root as well then it will probably take only 1 session to be well out of sight even with the time remaining.
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Its a fair point but the seamers are all bowling all rounders so the odds of them getting an injury batting is very low. Bashir is the only dodgy batsmen who might be at risk of getting hit by some short balls.

Declaring with three days left and losing would be the ultimate embarrassment. As in, the biggest embarrassment in test history. It just can't happen. Bashir probably needs to work on his batting anyway. Root and Bethell could bowl if he did get injured.

Best just to try and slog every ball until all out in order to end the innings quickly.
 
That’s a lovely scorecard. England’s selection policy at the moment has far more hits than misses, the only thing I think they really need to nail going forward is which one of Crawley/Pope gets dropped when Smith’s back.
 
England have looked very impressive, don’t forget that this is a very strong Kiwi’s side who are definitely no mugs themselves, but are being brutally hammered by some outstanding individual performances with the bat & ball from England. Especially Carse, Bethel and Brook have all been playing at an extremely high level. What find’s have Carse and Bethel been this fall.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
That’s a lovely scorecard. England’s selection policy at the moment has far more hits than misses, the only thing I think they really need to nail going forward is which one of Crawley/Pope gets dropped when Smith’s back.
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What a nice problem to have. This will just make England even better, these are going to be golden years for the England test side.
 
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