English & Irish Cricket Summer 2018

Hope we play with the same effort & discipline as the first Test. Expect some sort of reaction from England, surely they can’t be as bad again.
 
Sarfraz has won the toss (his first toss win as captain) and elected to bat first.


England XI: Cook, Jennings, Root, Malan, Bairstow, Buttler, Woakes, Bess, Curran, Broad, Anderson

Pakistan XI: Azhar, Imam, Sohail, Shafiq, Salahuddin, Sarfraz, Shadab, Faheem, Amir, Hasan, Abbas


So no Stokes for England. Slightly surprised Pakistan have elected to bat first - the way we've been playing and the low confidence levels, early wickets were inevitable if Pakistan had stuck us in. Hope Curran does well, play to start in 7 minutes.
 
Or...... what the hell do I know? :lol:

Pakistan 0/1: Imam-ul-Haq c Root b Broad 0
 
Why did we choose to bat?? Strange decision, moreso with the loss of an early wicket.
 
PAK still only two down. Might be a decent result if they can survive until lunch. Batting will be tough for both sides.

England's attack looks horribly one-paced now. The left-armer is only bowling 77mph and you've got to have Philander-like skill to be effective at that pace.

We should have dropped one of the big two, not Wood. We're not going to make any progress if we don't inject some pace into the attack.
 
JohnnyKills said:
PAK still only two down. Might be a decent result if they can survive until lunch. Batting will be tough for both sides.

England's attack looks horribly one-paced now. The left-armer is only bowling 77mph and you've got to have Philander-like skill to be effective at that pace.

We should have dropped one of the big two, not Wood. We're not going to make any progress if we don't inject some pace into the attack.
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Neither of them bowled particularly well in the first test, but both looked far more dangerous than Wood.

Mark Wood takes his wickets at 41, looked toothless at Lord's, and has best figures of 3/39. We've seen a lot of Wood now, and I just don't see the test match bowler that people apparently see in him.

He's not even particularly quick.
 
Yeah it was stupid to bat first
 
NinjaFletch said:
Neither of them bowled particularly well in the first test, but both looked far more dangerous than Wood.

Mark Wood takes his wickets at 41, looked toothless at Lord's, and has best figures of 3/39. We've seen a lot of Wood now, and I just don't see the test match bowler that people apparently see in him.

He's not even particularly quick.
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Yeah I agree with that. His problem is that he's bowling 89-90, not 92-93. But if he's the only spearhead we've got, we need to stick with him.

I'd also take a look at Stone from Warwickshire for the India series. Not sure who else is out there but he's been getting wickets and we need to take a risk. Otherwise we're going to keep getting slaughtered whenever we go away.
 
JohnnyKills said:
Yeah I agree with that. His problem is that he's bowling 89-90, not 92-93. But if he's the only spearhead we've got, we need to stick with him.

I'd also take a look at Stone from Warwickshire for the India series. Not sure who else is out there but he's been getting wickets and we need to take a risk. Otherwise we're going to keep getting slaughtered whenever we go away.
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Those that have watched a bit more of Stone than I have suggest that his speed varies dramatically throughout an over and, whilst he is quick, he seems to have some issues with his action that he needs to work on.

He's definitely an interesting prospect, but talk of the India series seems too soon. Especially given that he's currently injured, the latest in a long series of injuries at that.

Our next away tours are Sri Lanka, West Indies, New Zealand and South Africa taking us up to 2019/2020 so I imagine we could get away without an extreme quick bowler (not that one wouldn't be handy) at least until that South Africa tour and give the younger quicks some more time to develop in the County Championship before thrusting them into test cricket.
 
NinjaFletch said:
Those that have watched a bit more of Stone than I have suggest that his speed varies dramatically throughout an over and, whilst he is quick, he seems to have some issues with his action that he needs to work on.

He's definitely an interesting prospect, but talk of the India series seems too soon. Especially given that he's currently injured, the latest in a long series of injuries at that.

Our next away tours are Sri Lanka, West Indies, New Zealand and South Africa taking us up to 2019/2020 so I imagine we could get away without an extreme quick bowler (not that one wouldn't be handy) at least until that South Africa tour and give the younger quicks some more time to develop in the County Championship before thrusting them into test cricket.
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Are we going to NZ again?

In Sri Lanka I'd say pace will be vital, as our seam bowlers will be completely nullified otherwise. West Indies should be beatable no matter who we send out, and the South African wickets tend to offer a lot of assistance, so maybe you're right.

Watching Sam Curran is giving me horrible flashbacks of the 1990s and the days of the Mark Illott and Mike Smith. No matter how bad things are at the moment, it's got nothing on those dark days.
 
JohnnyKills said:
Are we going to NZ again?

In Sri Lanka I'd say pace will be vital, as our seam bowlers will be completely nullified otherwise. West Indies should be beatable no matter who we send out, and the South African wickets tend to offer a lot of assistance, so maybe you're right.

Watching Sam Curran is giving me horrible flashbacks of the 1990s and the days of the Mark Illott and Mike Smith. No matter how bad things are at the moment, it's got nothing on those dark days.
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I think you'd want one rather than not, but if the best you've got is a young inexperienced kid then it's possible they'll just start spraying it around and be expensive.

England's bigger problem is the lack of decent spinners for that tour, as usual. Although saying that, Wood is supposed to be a decent exponent of reverse swing, so it's possible he might provide a bit more threat on drier pitches out there.
 
England close on 106/2
Jennings still not learned his lesson, how many times does he want to get out that way
 
Batshit decision to bat first.
 
2mufc0 said:
Batshit decision to bat first.
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Only saw the last 2 hours, but on commentary they were saying they would have chosen to bat first, and on BBC it says it looked like a bat first pitch.
But not seeing the conditions before the start of play I don’t know
. The Pakistan bowlers certainly wasn’t bowling as well as they did at Lords
 
NinjaFletch said:
I think you'd want one rather than not, but if the best you've got is a young inexperienced kid then it's possible they'll just start spraying it around and be expensive.

England's bigger problem is the lack of decent spinners for that tour, as usual. Although saying that, Wood is supposed to be a decent exponent of reverse swing, so it's possible he might provide a bit more threat on drier pitches out there.
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Yeah lack of quality spin is a massive issue. Wouldn't be surprised if Parkinson from Lancs forces his way in. He got a few wickets in a championship game recently and has been one of the best bowlers in the 50-over tournament.

Not sure who else there is. Mooen, Leach and Bess all offer a good all-round package but none is a particularly good spinner.
 
Dropped catch... annoying!

England in a decent position. New ball will be key to determine how much of a lead England end up with.
 
ha_rooney said:
Dropped catch... annoying!

England in a decent position. New ball will be key to determine how much of a lead England end up with.
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Already 16 overs old
If they can get Buttler out early, could keep it under 150. If they don't, England could get a critical lead, enough to perhaps have Pakistan 5/6 wickets down before they even draw level
 
Healthy lead for England, expect them to win from here. The Buttler drop was crucial, he played well in his innings - so far a good decision to bring him back into Test cricket.
 
Classic Pakistan, brilliant last game then collapsed this game.
 
Something slightly unsatisfactory about watching England win in 3 days, a large part of why they fall apart so easily is because they rarely get a chance to grind a test out for 5 days, they've either won in 3 days or lost in 3 days.
 
Complete domination from England. Not the result or performance this game, but a drawn series & some decent experience gained for a young side.

The bowlers mostly did well, Abbas & Amir bowled some beauties. Yasir will get back in the side so that will strengthen the bowling further. Fielding was very good by our standards (Buttler drop aside). Batting is still the biggest issue for us, but hopefully with more experience they’ll get better & stop collapsing every time there is a bit of pressure. Babar’s injury was unfortunate as I’d have liked to have seen how he would’ve performed in this Test match.

Overall a few positives for Pakistan. I like what Arthur is doing with this side & hopefully he’ll be allowed to carry on with his good work & we’ll see further improvements in all formats. The tour of SA to end the year will be very tough but a good benchmark of how far this side can actually go.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
Something slightly unsatisfactory about watching England win in 3 days, a large part of why they fall apart so easily is because they rarely get a chance to grind a test out for 5 days, they've either won in 3 days or lost in 3 days.
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Yeah agreed. Would have loved to have seen England chase down 200 odd and see how they coped. Pakistan were a bit pathetic this test.
 
Called it a try lunch to my mates. This will be over today. No fight and no desire to come back for another day once hope looks to be over
 
Been paying cursory attention to Pakistan recently. I just realized Pakistan actually WON the toss?!?!? And with Babar out they... Decided.... To.... Bat.... First! In England?Where England batted first and capitulated? :eek:

Nothing to see here. :wenger:
 
Dumbstar said:
Been paying cursory attention to Pakistan recently. I just realized Pakistan actually WON the toss?!?!? And with Babar out they... Decided.... To.... Bat.... First! In England?Where England batted first and capitulated? :eek:

Nothing to see here. :wenger:
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Root wanted to bat, as well. Not sure either team's leadership is all that great.
 
These 2 test match series should be stopped. Australia England one day series is meaningless, and another test with pakistan would have made more sense.
 
AshRK said:
These 2 test match series should be stopped. Australia England one day series is meaningless, and another test with pakistan would have made more sense.
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It's not meaningless in the long term though, England wanted to play an ODI series (though why with Australia and not Pakistan is something I'm not sure of) around the same time the World Cup will be next year. It's also why the Indian ODI series is ahead of the Test series when recent years Tests have kicked a series off.
 
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