The Cricket Thread

[Tooj 17]

Jennings is in canny nick atm.

[David Kelly 1260]

23 hours ago, Tooj said:

Jennings is in canny nick atm.

He's one of very few batsmen that have been near the England Squad who is.

 

Wood has 3 wickets so far today.

[Alex 35616]

I see Pakistan beat Ireland in the end. Fantastic achievement by Kevin O'Brien becoming the first player to score a test century for Ireland and doing it in their inaugural test. He also top scored with 40 in their first innings. He's the same player who scored a match winning 100 against England in the 2011 World Cup. It looked like Pakistan were going to murder Ireland but they did pretty well and only lost by 5 wickets in the end. Any gulf in quality will tend to be revealed more in a 5 day match so it was a pretty good effort.

[Alex 35616]

Also, Ed Smith's includied Jos Buttler in the test squad

[Dr Gloom 22187]

nice. i've fancied seeing him and bairstow in the same side for a while

[Dr Gloom 22187]

don't know much about dom bess, but we had to try something new in the spin bowling department

[Dr Gloom 22187]

Joe Root (c), Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Dom Bess, Mark Wood, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

sounds like bairstow will keep the gloves and bat at 5 and buttler will bat at 7, with a license to get after it. stoneman has to make some scores, you'd have thought. i wonder if cook will pack it in if he has another low-scoring series or two this summer. 

what's the craic with the kid hameed? 

 

 

[Alex 35616]

2 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

nice. i've fancied seeing him and bairstow in the same side for a while

It's weird though. According to the Beeb it looks like they've already picked the side (they've only announced 12 so they pretty much have) and Bairstow moving up to 5 as wk/batsman but Buttler at 7 as a specialist seems weird to me. To be honest I don't mind a bit of experimentation and there's not as much riding on these two tests as something like an Ashes series obviously but it just seems a bit all over the place. Bess has a pretty good first class record and I think with Leach out injured he's a good option on paper. I don't see the point in picking Moeen as a part-time bowler when you have all that batting in the side anyway. Especially when he's been struggling in the test side of late. Looks like Root at 3 which I think they've decided is worth a go since no one else has looked the part there. 1,2 and 3 are still the problem positions.

[Alex 35616]

3 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

Joe Root (c), Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Dom Bess, Mark Wood, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

sounds like bairstow will keep the gloves and bat at 5 and buttler will bat at 7, with a license to get after it. stoneman has to make some scores, you'd have thought. i wonder if cook will pack it in if he has another low-scoring series or two this summer. 

what's the craic with the kid hameed? 

 

 

Hameed's not made any scores for Lancs in the championship. Given his age and promise you'd hope he still has a bright future but his form doesn't warrant selection

[Dr Gloom 22187]

3 minutes ago, Alex said:

It's weird though. According to the Beeb it looks like they've already picked the side (they've only announced 12 so they pretty much have) and Bairstow moving up to 5 as wk/batsman but Buttler at 7 as a specialist seems weird to me. To be honest I don't mind a bit of experimentation and there's not as much riding on these two tests as something like an Ashes series obviously but it just seems a bit all over the place. Bess has a pretty good first class record and I think with Leach out injured he's a good option on paper. I don't see the point in picking Moeen as a part-time bowler when you have all that batting in the side anyway. Especially when he's been struggling in the test side of late. Looks like Root at 3 which I think they've decided is worth a go since no one else has looked the part there. 1,2 and 3 are still the problem positions.

i like it. buttler will always be vulnerable at test level, but if he can work on staying in before he starts playing shots, he has the potential to destroy teams. 

i don't have a problem with root at 3 at all (think we've already debated that to death tbf), but stoneman, cook and malan all need runs.

the other issue is, top two aside, it's a team full of strokemakers. i'm all for an aggressive approach but some of these players need to learn how to bat the situation or this will be another summer of batting collapses. 

[Dr Gloom 22187]

3 minutes ago, Alex said:

Hameed's not made any scores for Lancs in the championship. Given his age and promise you'd hope he still has a bright future but his form doesn't warrant selection

ah, right. fair enough then. shame as he looked the real deal when he first came in. more so than jennings at least, who i gather from further up the page has done alright so far this summer. 

Edited May 15, 2018 by Dr Gloom

[Alex 35616]

1 minute ago, Dr Gloom said:

i like it. buttler will always be vulnerable at test level, but if he can work on staying in before he starts playing shots, he has the potential to destroy teams. 

i don't have a problem with root at 3 at all (think we've already debated that to death tbf), but stoneman, cook and malan all need runs.

the other issue is, top two aside, it's a team full of strokemakers. i'm all for an aggressive approach but some of these players need to learn how to bat the situation or this will be another summer of batting collapses. 

I think the issue with Root at 3 was that he clearly doesn't want to play their so hopefully he'll get over that mentally as he's the best batsman we have.

[Dr Gloom 22187]

if we had a good option at 3, then i'd say fair enough to root, you can step down a spot, but he's our best player. malan is no number 3. he should arguably be further down the line up than bairstow, if bairstow didn't have enough on his plate already, being a wicket keeper allrounder. 

[David Kelly 1260]

I'd have been tempted to give Butler the gloves and move Bairstow up to 4.  Bairstow is probably second only to Root as the most reliable run getter we have at the moment so I want to see him in as early as possible.  Also giving Buttler the gloves might make feel that he can contribute in more ways to the team so not feel like he has to go out and start hitting from ball one.

 

No idea about this Bess kid but I'm glad we're giving a young lad a go in this series.  Sticking with Moeen as a front line spinner has made no sense for a long time.  It's got to be Stoneman's last chance.  I'm a bit surprised they haven't given someone younger a go in this series.  If Stoneman fails again they are going to have to try someone new against India.  And unless Jennings can continue on from his last couple of knocks, or Hameed can find some form again, it's going to have to be someone completely new.  And if Cook also struggles and decides to call it a day, we could be needing two new openers to come in.

[Dr Gloom 22187]

good to see england carrying their winter tour form into the summer 

[Alex 35616]

Why do we always bat first given the choice in these situations? Also, the leftfield idea of having Bairstow open might as well have been implemented

[Dr Gloom 22187]

at least cook is finally making some runs again, as it looks like he will probably end up with yet another opening partner this summer. 

probably just jinxed him now. 

[Dr Gloom 22187]

only went and jinxed him didn't i? cook probably would have carried his bat if i hadn't piped up.

164-5  - not looking too clever at home to pakistan

[Dr Gloom 22187]

we're going to do well to get much past 200 here. 

[David Kelly 1260]

Very well.

 

Jennings back in for India?

[Dr Gloom 22187]

broad strikes with the new ball. he looks in decent form - a different player since his aussie horror show 

[Dr Gloom 22187]

Now to today’s sporting event that really matters. 

Who said Buttler could only play limited overs cricket? What a mature knock that was, particularly given the game situation. Very impressive. Debutant Bess looking experienced beyond his years too - great knock on debut. 

They’re still massive favourites with the new ball just dound the corner but a great effort to give us an outside chance after the top order collapsed yet again. 

[David Kelly 1260]

Shame it went so quickly to shit on Sunday.

 

I had a great day out for the Durham Worcester game at Gosforth on Friday.  The rain actually helped Durham get the win and it coincided with the point where we managed to blag our way into the corporate bit for for some free food and drink.  Which was nice.

[Alex 35616]

On 26/05/2018 at 19:18, Dr Gloom said:

Now to today’s sporting event that really matters. 

Who said Buttler could only play limited overs cricket? What a mature knock that was, particularly given the game situation. Very impressive. Debutant Bess looking experienced beyond his years too - great knock on debut. 

They’re still massive favourites with the new ball just dound the corner but a great effort to give us an outside chance after the top order collapsed yet again. 

I like Buttler and, if they think he's good enough, I say play him at 5. But that was his 2nd first class 50 in 3 years. He's got a first class average of about 30 and a test average only marginally higher, plus in 19 tests he's failed to make a single century. Not exactly Viv Richards

[Dr Gloom 22187]

I’ve still got doubts about him at test level but he has potential if he can continue to play the situation like he did at the weekend. What I liked about the selection was it was based on form, albeit in t20. Looks like Smith is going down the same route with Jennings in for Stoneman, which is fair enough. There is a danger that we go back to the chopping and changing days of the 90s, but it just feels like this england team is at a crossroads and needs a shake up.