English & Irish Cricket Summer 2018

ArmchairCritic said:
Well he didn't get it because of any empirical evidence that he was a great captain because he'd basically never captained before.

There is a long held theory that bowlers don't make good captains because they can't be objective about their bowling and they get too hemmed up in their own bowling to make clear decisions about field placements, bowling changes, tactics etc. etc. Such a theory informs why Broad and Anderson and to a lesser extent Stokes did not get much consideration at the time for the job. And in terms of constants in the batting order you were only left with Cook, the incumbent, and Root. So Root got the job.

Unfortunately for Root, unlike say Mike Brearley who had 5 years of doing nothing much special at Middlesex as captain before 1976 where he won the County Championship and got the England job, he's having to learn on the fly in the most difficult arena of them all. There's not much a captain can do about rubbish calls for 2nd runs and dropped catches other than tell his players not to do these things.
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That's all fair. I understand there were not many options. However, I've seen too many decisions where he's been reactive immediately after the event.
 
There's no blame for Cook. Both of them were incredible balls. I'd guess left handers would get out of that ball 9 out of 10 times.
 
Sultan said:
That's all fair. I understand there were not many options. However, I've seen too many decisions where he's been reactive immediately after the event.
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Can say that about most captains. One day frequent tactical moves will be praised for pro-activeness, another day those same moves will backfire and come across as knee-jerk. When Root and England win it's the former - positive cricket following the stodgy Cook era, but as of the last twelve months positive cricket now has to reigned in as we're seeing brainless collapses. Root himself needs to convert 50s to 100s (I have read he has played twelve tests vs India and scored at least a half century in each of them which is pretty amazing) and lead from the front but the rest of the team have to step up too.
 
There's no great captain right now. Not in the mould of Taylor, Ganguly, Imran etc anyway.

Du Plessis is probably the best in captaincy terms. All the fab four are mediocre captains.
 
KM said:
There's no great captain right now. Not in the mould of Taylor, Ganguly, Imran etc anyway.

Du Plessis is probably the best in captaincy terms. All the fab four are mediocre captains.
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Du Plessis has the best fast bowling attack in the world which helps a fair bit. McCullum is the outstanding leader of recent times and it took a while for him to reach the level he did.
 
Ashwin's delivery was perfect. Game set up nicely.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
It's bloody brave to have Burns, Jennings and whoever comes in at 4 for Malan learning their craft at the same time but it might have to done by the end of this series. The England batting lineup is all over the place with the exception of Root and Bairstow.
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Might be too late for him now but surprised Hildreth never got a crack in the middle order for England, he has been a very solid player for a good number of years
 
Brilliant knock from Kohli but seriously sloppy from England.

They're getting all the little things wrong. Runouts, batting collapses, dropped catches, terrible reviews and weird bowling changes. We've got loads of talent but not sure we're being especially well led.

Stokes could be a great of the game if he screws his head on though. That spell today was unreal.
 
MDFC Manager said:
The last wicket partnership was the highest of the innings...
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Doesn't say much for Rashid given he's supposed to provide that x factor that tears out tailenders.

Also demonstrates that we're lacking real pace in the bowling attack.
 
JohnnyKills said:
Doesn't say much for Rashid given he's supposed to provide that x factor that tears out tailenders.

Also demonstrates that we're lacking real pace in the bowling attack.
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Kohli didn't let Umesh bat to him at all. One ball an over, not Rashid's fault.

Christ why the feck am I having to defend English players?
 
JohnnyKills said:
Doesn't say much for Rashid given he's supposed to provide that x factor that tears out tailenders.

Also demonstrates that we're lacking real pace in the bowling attack.
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He got Ishant. And Umesh isnt even a bad batsmen. Pretty sure he got a 60 ball 90 against Aus A.
 
KM said:
Kohli didn't let Umesh bat to him at all. One ball an over, not Rashid's fault.

Christ why the feck am I having to defend English players?
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Fair play. Kohli played a great innings. I'm probably being too harsh on Rashid.

Should be a cracking match from now on though. It's effectively a one-innings game and the pitch is starting to deteriorate. Can see 250 being a winning score.

Massive pressure on Malan after the stinker he's had so far. Tbf though we don't have many alternatives. Ballance and Vince have both been given loads of opportunities and failed. Hales isn't playing red-ball cricket anymore. Hameed's top score this year is 30. Livingstone hasn't done much in the championship and is now injured. Northeast hasn't played any first-class cricket for over a month.

Might sound ridiculous but should we look at Ian Bell as a short-term option? I know he's gone through a horrible three years but this season he's back in form and he's been round the block so many times. If we're happy to pick a guy who doesn't even play red-ball cricket in pursuit of short-term success, why not recall a 36-year-old?
 
Surely there are better players in the county game than duds like Jennings and Malan?
 
I'm putting my tinfoil hat on and saying the pitch was fixed to spin for Ashwin and India :wenger:

We only had one advantage over India that we played better than them against England in England, now that's gone as well :(
 
England's middle order is pretty dangerous. India need to be careful here.
 
India could win this match due to two outstanding performances from two players.
 
Malan's contribution to this match is -100 runs.

Scored 28 in his two innings and Kohli scored 128 runs after he was dropped.
 
Yeah i'm going to this tomorrow so if England could not completely collapse that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Nice of Malam not to do his customary 'just about doing enough not to get dropped' fifty in this match.
 
England used to be a very good test team and a crap ODI one. Now it's the other way round.
 
Was just typing 'this is the crucial partnership' and now Stokes is gone.

Buttler should just go into ODI mode now and try to smash the bowling, a la Flintoff against Australia in 2005. If he plays conventionally he'll get out.
 
So much so for this is a spinning pitch. It's a pretty typical English pitch!
 
Really poor from England, they should have bowled India out cheaply and be out of sight now even if they posted a poor 2nd innings total however have again thrown away the match from a decent position. India have made the most of it and taken their chances. Relying on a miracle from Buttler here.
 
TheGame said:
Really poor from England, they should have bowled India out cheaply and be out of sight now even if they posted a poor 2nd innings total however have again thrown away the match from a decent position. India have made the most of it and taken their chances. Relying on a miracle from Buttler here.
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Gone 2nd ball after lunch.

England truly are a fecking shambles. We seem to have collapsed at least once in every game for the last year. It's pathetic.
 
India vs tailenders :nervous:
 
Djemba-Djemba said:
Get one more and the innings will be over as soon as possible. Anderson is a proper tailender and Broad can't bat anymore since his nose got broke.
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Not trying to jinx or anything, but Sam Curran looks quality. Reminds me of a young Irfan Pathan.
 
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