Cricket: More Than a Game

(looks out of the window)

Yup, it's raining.

davet010 wrote:

(looks out of the window)

Yup, it's raining.

Not just any rain either. That’s Manchester Rain......

Not heavy, but persistent - "the kind that gets you wet through", as my mother would say.

So. I love test cricket

West Indies looked to be cruising towards a decent total and a draw being the only viable outcome.

Then Stuart Broad decided he’d had enough of that and went from 0-64 to 3-65 in the space of about 14 balls. Cue a West Indies collapse, but they still managed - just (17 runs) - to avoid the follow on

So England send out Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler to open their second innings. Buttler is out for a 3rd ball duck.

Tell me that’s not the best cricket......

Blimey, didn't really see what happened to Dowrich when he went down in real time, but getting a ball full into the mush looked as painful in slow motion.

davet010 wrote:

Blimey, didn't really see what happened to Dowrich when he went down in real time, but getting a ball full into the mush looked as painful in slow motion.

Yeah I think that hurt. Very confused when Da Silva came on though - I thought you needed permission for that.

England getting their act together the last 2 test matches. Winding up Broad by leaving him out of the first test was clearly the way to go.......

I think the rules about sub keepers were changed a couple of years ago - to the effect that you can now bring one on with the approval of the on-field umpires. Dowrich was clearly in some pain, so it wasn't like it was being done for tactical reasons.

davet010 wrote:

I think the rules about sub keepers were changed a couple of years ago - to the effect that you can now bring one on with the approval of the on-field umpires. Dowrich was clearly in some pain, so it wasn't like it was being done for tactical reasons.

It was more that Shai Pope took over and then Da Silva came in. I don’t have a problem with that I hasten to add, I just thought it wasn’t allowed on the basis Pope seemed to have taken on the keeper’s position. No idea how bad Dowrich’s injury is though. It looked nasty.

I think that Hope took over temporarily because they had to go and get Da Silva from the nets. So rather than wait around for him to arrive and then put his keeper gear on, they just put Hope in temporarily. I think there might have been more of an issue had it not been an injury concern.

And was it just me, but the best description I can come up with for the West Indies players reaction to Dowrich getting hit in the face would be 'pithily unarsed'. Only one player came to see how he was, which I can't imagine being the case for most other sides.

Well, that was a chase and a half.

Just watched the highlights package on BBC2. Not sure who the Pakistani co-commentator was towards the end of England's innings (wasn't Wasim Akram), but he was really putting the boot into Azhar Ali's captaincy. Described him as 'soft', 'too nice' and similar. Not unreasonable, but the tone was a bit harsh. I guess the idea was that with a very young bowling attack starting to struggle, having a captain just letting the game slip away is not what is required.

Mightily impressed with Buttler and Woakes there, the ball was doing all sorts for a while and they did well to carry the attack to Pakistan. That ball that did for Pope was venomous.

The commentary was just how it was edited I think, although do I think Pakistan backed off far too much and allowed Buttler & Woakes to play how they wanted.

Also seen a lot of online comments about some of the Pakistan bowlers no-balls towards the end. Some of them were damn near a foot (distance!) over the line but I think it was just the pressure getting to them. A bit disappointing to see the comments.

Jimmy Anderson is on 599 test wickets - he's already the leading seam bowler there's every been (even more than Glenn McGrath) but reaching 600 would put him up there with Kumble, Warne and Murilthuran, all spin bowlers.

It's been an odd test series this one between England and Pakistan, but one pretty much shaped by the weather - I fear for this game as I don't think England will take 8 wickets tomorrow given the conditions.

In the English County Championship (or Bob Willis trophy this season) Somerset (my team) are laying waste to all before them but keep getting rained off. Somerset have come pretty damn close to winning their first County championship the last couple of season but just falling short. I grew up watching Botham, Richards, Garner amongst others, they've never won the test series championship in the UK but high hopes this season - if the weather holds out for them.

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Congratulations to Jummy Anderson. Has a good chance of catching Kumble (possibly), but Warne and * are probably out of reach.

Some excellent cricket played in both of these series, given the horrendous circumstances. Much respect to the players, coaches etc of all teams who've had to live in bubbles. It would be fair if England were to respond to the WI and to Pakistan by organising proper tours over there.

If anyone is looking for a great book surrounding one of the bigger hoohaws of the last decade (sandpapergate Aus vs Sa), you could do a lot worse than reading Steve Smith’s Men by Geoff Lemon.

Really well written. Highly recommended.

So, dusts off thread.

I am watching (because I work from home and it's on terrestrial TV) the third test between India and England in Amedabad.

It is bonkers. Absolutely bonkers. Second innings India collapsed from 131-3 to 145 all out. Joe Root, noted English Spin Bowler took 5 for 8. 5, for 8 England got themselves right back into the game and at the start of their second innings promptly fell to 0-2 by the third ball.

The spinners have taken all but 2 wickets, and while the Pitch is very clearly a spinners delight, it's no really that bad. It's like both sets of batsmen have completely forgotten how to bat on a pitch that offers the spinners a little more to go with.

England now 24-3 and still about 9 runs behind India. I know a lot has been said about the pitches this series, and while I thought the pitch at Chennai during the second innings was a bit off (It was falling apart a few overs in) I don't think there's that much wrong with this one. If anything I think the batters are expecting more spin than they are actually getting.

Just popping in to post this...

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This is a century-old rivalry series representing some of the best players in the sport and I, as a dumb American, cannot stop finding presenting it in this manner as inherently hilarious.

Well, the Ashes got to come from somewhere..

Once again I have to remind myself that staying up all night to listen to The Ashes is not a viable option.

It really, really isn't. I've got work tomorrow.

God damn it.

EDIT: England 11 - 3 in the 6th over. Yeah I'm going to bed.

Very poor showing by the tourists so far. Muddled thinking and poor skills apart from Root and Malan. 4 of the top 6 are boat anchors weighing the team down.

Bruce wrote:

Very poor showing by the tourists so far. Muddled thinking and poor skills apart from Root and Malan. 4 of the top 6 are boat anchors weighing the team down.

I haven’t been able to bring myself to post about this utter shambles of an England team. I know they aren’t as bad as they are currently showing, but when you keep making the same mistakes match after match……

The strategy just isn’t right. I know going there and what little preparation they’d had hasn’t helped, but I was expecting a lot more parity between the two sides.

At least you've had Test cricket throughout 2021. Joe Root will likely play 15 tests this calendar year. That might be a record. Aussies haven't played since January and will have 5 test matches for 2021.

The 'other 4' of the top 6 are averaging 14.5 and have contributed a paltry 232 runs for their 16 wickets so far. Disastrously bad. Overall England are going at 21.8 per wicket vs 39.6 for the Aussies. That is a chasm of differential and I don't see how the turnaround may come.

Wow. 4-0 and only rain prevented the 5-0 whitewash. Touring Australia is tough but they only had a couple of winning sessions and not once did they outperform for a whole day.

In other news, the Bangers put up their first win against the World Champs away. Well done to that team. They came to back to earth with a bit of a thud, but great signs of their game developing.

I also enjoyed the SA v Ind matches. Some great bowling performances. Bumrah and Rabada are so strong.

Bruce wrote:

Wow. 4-0 and only rain prevented the 5-0 whitewash. Touring Australia is tough but they only had a couple of winning sessions and not once did they outperform for a whole day.

In other news, the Bangers put up their first win against the World Champs away. Well done to that team. They came to back to earth with a bit of a thud, but great signs of their game developing.

I also enjoyed the SA v Ind matches. Some great bowling performances. Bumrah and Rabada are so strong.

I thought England might fight it out for the final test there at the start of the second innings. More the fool me!

Unfortunately, this is going to be the death knell of the English County Championship, and most of the County Test sides in England. Thanks to the ECBs shambolic, money driven leadership Test Cricket here in the UK has been left to the mercy of the short, money making forms of the game, hence the utter lack of English Batsmen at the moment who are good enough to play international test cricket. The hundred is good fun and all, but it's an anathema to the long form of the game.

There are going to be a lot of very angry Cricket fans here - the real fans, the one that support their county sides through thick and thin, not just the national side - when they try to "Franchise" it to a handful of teams that happen to have international test match quality grounds. There will be an insurrection among those counties that can't provide that. I'll be with them.

We've had a big shift in priority for T20 domestic cricket. The BBL is now the background to Summer. There is at least one match on pretty much every day from mid December through to the end of January.

That comes at the expense of the Sheffield Shield which has been in recess since November. Boland hadn't been in a match for weeks when he made his debut. Cricket Australia are also money chasers and fans I know wish they did more for grass roots and the pathways to First Class, but it is at least still there.

That said, there was some cracking days of play in this series. But jeeze the English team was fragile.

Shane Warne appears to have died of a Heart Attack aged 52.

Considering they also lost Rodney Marsh today, it's a very sad day not just for Australian Cricket, but also cricket generally.

I was just about to post about the passing of Rodney Marsh (one of my favourite wk's when I started playing there), then came back in and saw the news about Warney. Only saw him once (3rd Test, 1997 Ashes), but he didn't disappoint.

Best spin bowler of the modern era, great commentator, seemed like a good bloke, and gone way, way too soon.

RIP Shane Warne.

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Dropping back in to GWJ after a good five to seven years of absence - makes me a happy man to see the cricket thread still going.

And damn, RIP Share Warne. Did a lot for Hampshire in his way and 52 is far too young.

Welcome back, Haakon7 !

Latest reports on Shane Warne said he was doing a lot of crash diets - apparently he'd just done 12 days on liquids only.

England are - for them - sitting on the remarkable score line of 244-3 at close of play, first day of the second test against the West Indies in Barbados. Joe Root has his 25th Test Century, 8 of those coming in the last 14 months. Definitely on his way now to being England's best ever test batter.

Shame Lawrence gave away his wicket there at the end.