English & Irish Cricket Summer 2018

Just think it bounces up too high into his hands to have bounced on his fingers rather than the ground. Looks clean from the reverse angle though.

The cameras always make them look not out. Most of the time they're clean out.

Magnificent bowling this session.
 
This England team is so soft, top order is continually reliant on the lower middle order to bail them out.
 
Took India two tests to get up to speed in South Africa. England need to be careful that they don't bottle the series from 2-0 up.
 
England were bailled out big time by Sam Curran in the first test, he's not there and Stokes seems to always disappoint.
 
On the plus side, not going to be worried about missing anything good while watching United... Great catch there.
 
'Hey, we're four down, do you reckon we should try and bat time a bit?'

'Nah, let's just swing the bat at everything'
 
Why do every single team in world cricket crumble under the slightest bit of pressure?
 
:lol: This is brilliant. Hope India can win this one to keep the series alive.
 
You reckon? I'd have thought it was a no-brainer considering how well their bowlers were doing, guess it depends on the fitness of a few of them though.

They've collapsed under scoreboard pressure for the last 2 tests. Don't think they want to chase here at all.
 
Big questions need to be asked of Root decision to bowl first

Not entirely sure what a captain can do about his entire team getting bowled out within 1 session. England had gotten themselves back into the game, the difference in this test is this Rahane/Kohli partnership. India saw off the period where ball was swinging, helped somewhat by bad bowling, and cashed in. England fell apart.
 
Not entirely sure what a captain can do about his entire team getting bowled out within 1 session. England had gotten themselves back into the game, the difference in this test is this Rahane/Kohli partnership. India saw off the period where ball was swinging, helped somewhat by bad bowling, and cashed in. England fell apart.

Yeah the decision was fine.

Not his fault the bowlers wasted helpful conditions with the ball and our batting imploded.
 
As a general point, I think perhaps this is just what test cricket is now. Teams will oscillate from bad to good within the same match and captains will always be at the mercy of the game situation. It is noticeable now how many games draw a result and how few games end up in draws.

The pitches we have seen so far this series have rewarded proper batting but there's just been so little of it. For all the promise of the first test, where both teams were bad just long enough to make it a good game, these last two tests have been very bad unless you have an emotional attachment to either team. For all the talk about shorter formats making players ill-equipped for the longer format, England play the most test cricket and they still manage to churn out an absolute stinker of a test every series.
 
As a general point, I think perhaps this is just what test cricket is now. Teams will oscillate from bad to good within the same match and captains will always be at the mercy of the game situation. It is noticeable now how many games draw a result and how few games end up in draws.

The pitches we have seen so far this series have rewarded proper batting but there's just been so little of it. For all the promise of the first test, where both teams were bad just long enough to make it a good game, these last two tests have been very bad unless you have an emotional attachment to either team. For all the talk about shorter formats making players ill-equipped for the longer format, England play the most test cricket and they still manage to churn out an absolute stinker of a test every series.

Fair point.

What I will say about this current period of test cricket is that its highlighted both the highly skilled players and teams as well as providing far more entertaining than some of the eras gone by. Moreover, the last few years, in my opinion, invalidate the view that the likes of Root, Kohli, Williamson, Smith and AB cannot be compared to past greats due to the favourable pitches as they no longer provide assistance to the batsmen and havent done for atleast 6 or 7 years.

I remember a lot our dominace from 2009-2011 where we played on a lot of flat decks at home in England, Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Off to top my head, we amassed 500s, 600s and 700s on a consistent basis and my love for the longer format began to wane. Even for the short period afterwards, I found little joy in watching test cricket. However, over the last few years, and especially our last two tours, I have thoroughly enjoyed dominating the likes of SA, Eng and NZ at home as well as watching us grow in the averse conditions in Africa and the UK.

One of the reasons we're number 1 is because of the huge improvement in, not dominating, but being competitive in foreign conditions and we can thank Kohli for that. The man himself has come so far since his last tour of England and his sheer determination to prove that hes more than capable in these conditions have led to him not yet being dismissed by Anderson in 150 balls this series. But back to India. Since the moment he took over, we've been extremely competitive in Australia, in SA and now here in England. Others team should follow the precedent set by India. We're no Australia of 00-01 but we're a team that believes in themselves and have worked incredibly hard to overcome our shortcomings. Remember a few years back when Indians were renowned for their cowardness against pace and short bowling, what did we do? We compiled a team that has no fears or weaknesses against that type of bowling. We were also consistently criticised for our lack of pace in the bowling department so we workes on bringing through young and fast bowlers as well as working on those who were largely poor in the early parts of their careers.

My point is the likes of England, South Africa and Australia should work towards improving their ability in foreign conditions as the current changes towards pitch curation is a positive for the longer form of the game. We should be in for an awesome second part of a test series and thats great for the game of cricket.
 
Fair point.

What I will say about this current period of test cricket is that its highlighted both the highly skilled players and teams as well as providing far more entertaining than some of the eras gone by. Moreover, the last few years, in my opinion, invalidate the view that the likes of Root, Kohli, Williamson, Smith and AB cannot be compared to past greats due to the favourable pitches as they no longer provide assistance to the batsmen and havent done for atleast 6 or 7 years.

I remember a lot our dominace from 2009-2011 where we played on a lot of flat decks at home in England, Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Off to top my head, we amassed 500s, 600s and 700s on a consistent basis and my love for the longer format began to wane. Even for the short period afterwards, I found little joy in watching test cricket. However, over the last few years, and especially our last two tours, I have thoroughly enjoyed dominating the likes of SA, Eng and NZ at home as well as watching us grow in the averse conditions in Africa and the UK.

One of the reasons we're number 1 is because of the huge improvement in, not dominating, but being competitive in foreign conditions and we can thank Kohli for that. The man himself has come so far since his last tour of England and his sheer determination to prove that hes more than capable in these conditions have led to him not yet being dismissed by Anderson in 150 balls this series. But back to India. Since the moment he took over, we've been extremely competitive in Australia, in SA and now here in England. Others team should follow the precedent set by India. We're no Australia of 00-01 but we're a team that believes in themselves and have worked incredibly hard to overcome our shortcomings. Remember a few years back when Indians were renowned for their cowardness against pace and short bowling, what did we do? We compiled a team that has no fears or weaknesses against that type of bowling. We were also consistently criticised for our lack of pace in the bowling department so we workes on bringing through young and fast bowlers as well as working on those who were largely poor in the early parts of their careers.

My point is the likes of England, South Africa and Australia should work towards improving their ability in foreign conditions as the current changes towards pitch curation is a positive for the longer form of the game. We should be in for an awesome second part of a test series and thats great for the game of cricket.

You're being very generous to India in all of that.
 
You're being very generous to India in all of that.

Prior to this series, we'd only lost 4 of our last 36 test matches, home and away. Our away matches since Kohli took over:

Draws in Melbourne and Sydney post scores of 475 and 500+. Wins in Sri Lanka and West Indies. A win and 2 losses in a highly competitive series in South Africa.

England, for instance, failed to beat WI on two occasions, were humbled in India and Australia, drew against Bangladesh, lost to NZ and failed to beat Pakistan at home in two series'. They did, however, beat South Africa in SA.

South Africa, too, have lost 5 our their last 6 test matches in Asia.
 
Prior to this series, we'd only lost 4 of our last 36 test matches, home and away. Our away matches since Kohli took over:

Draws in Melbourne and Sydney post scores of 475 and 500+. Wins in Sri Lanka and West Indies. A win and 2 losses in a highly competitive series in South Africa.

England, for instance, failed to beat WI on two occasions, were humbled in India and Australia, drew against Bangladesh, lost to NZ and failed to beat Pakistan at home in two series'. They did, however, beat South Africa in SA.

South Africa, too, have lost 5 our their last 6 test matches in Asia.

I'm not denying India being the best about, but I think they are the best of a bad bunch.
 
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The batting problems resurfaced in Nottingham again on Sunday and in their past 61 innings, England have been 100-4 or worse on 30 occasions.

I do not understand how a team that plays the most test cricket cannot figure out what it takes to bat in test cricket, it's just negligent at this point. Watching England bat is like watching United attack.