Cricket: More Than a Game

Now Harbhajan is out for the 3rd test. It really would appear that India didn't do themselves any favours by going on tour to the West Indies and then coming straight to England and having only 1 warm up game in conditions which are very different to those in the WI (and those they are used to at home).

One thing Quicket has done for the good of the game is the increased nous shown by fielders.

That catch from the Aussie v Shrees game was smart and well executed. Naturally such an action was not performed by an Australian. (Actually Brazen Hussey is capable of such things - but not many others)

We should finally lose the #1 ranking for ODIs over the next fortnight and our fall will be complete just in time for the release of the Argus review.

Pitchforks and torches time is nigh.

Wow, the Indians look all at sea. We'll be batting today, so India 158 all out and England 78-1 at close of play is my call for today.

Good Lord, India could at least attempt to look like they are making an effort to play well. The batsmen get out at stupid times, the bowling is without any penetration and the fielding.....the fielding is just woeful. Every England batsman is just helping themselves to the feast, or watching pointless balls drift outside the off stump. Run rate is greater than 4 an over, and the pitch looks as though it will start to spin a bit in the next few days.

This looks very much like a tour too far for some of these players.

As I said the other day - India have been broken.

I like Bresnan, and Cook is a proper test batsman. Can bat for days.

I assume Joost van der Trott is injured - I didn't see what happened to him though.

Trottie injured his shoulder in the 2nd Test diving for a ball in the field and landed awkwardly.

Commentators were going mad at the end of yesterday about one of the Indian players going off the pitch before the end of play, not because he was injured or because he was being given a rest, but because he looked like he just couldn't be arsed. Team spirit doesn't look too hot with this lot.

One point that was made yesterday is that there will probably be a crackdown on substitutions in the field, such that players can no longer go on and off the field willy-nilly, as they seem to be doing recently.

crockinfo wrote:

117.1

Sharma to Cook, no run, Ishant shoves this outside off stump and looks like he's entering a game of patience with Alastair Cook. Good luck with that

LOL! Is there a better leave in world cricket right now than the Chef? So much better than the FTBs in baggy green.

Bruce wrote:
crockinfo wrote:

117.1

Sharma to Cook, no run, Ishant shoves this outside off stump and looks like he's entering a game of patience with Alastair Cook. Good luck with that

LOL! Is there a better leave in world cricket right now than the Chef? So much better than the FTBs in baggy green.

Classic.

Personally, I love Cook's ability to almost will himself back into form. A couple of scrappy innings does not a slump make.

The Indians haven't bowled aggressively enough for my liking. Maybe its because they can't, but their line has been far too far outside off for me. That ball from Kumar to Bell was a beauty, but not indicative of the rest of the day.

Cookie out for 294. Shame he didn't get his 300, and he looked like someone who'd lost his wallet and found 10p while he walked off.

Umpires spending too much time arsing about with the light. Look lads, if stadia go to the expense of putting enormous floodlights up, then they are there to prevent breaks in play due to bad light.

You deserve your #1 ranking. Likely to hold it for a bit too based on current and potential form.

And the Bangers couldn't even beat Zimbabwe - They have lost all bar 6 of their 90-something test matches. Surely something has to give there.

Comments at the end of the 3rd Test, largely from David Gower and Michael Holding, were largely bemoaning the state of bowling around the test playing nations. The consensus seemed to be that only England and SA had attacks which could stand comparison with previous eras, although the point was made that Pakistan's attack looked fine in 2010, before it self-destructed.

The point was also made by Mike Atherton that the central contract system enables continuity and for players to improve, largely because the county game over here is no longer what it was.

I'll wait a while before anointing them as a #1 dynasty though

Yeah, no good taking the top spot if you don't hold onto it a la the turn of the century Aussie team, but at the moment, we look like we've got the depth to hold it. That could always change, though.

Ugh! India will be chasing a lot of leather today by the looks.

Hope Matt Prior has brought a Kindle with him. And his battery charger.

Wishes can come true - thanks to the Argus report.

Ponting - no longer captain
Hilditch - gone
Sutherland
NEILSON - role no longer exists but deciding whether to apply for the new role.

No backroom stuff was in the review so Stakeholders Sutherland keeps his job. The report was pretty scathing:

The evidence from the Ashes and other recent series is that our basic cricket skills are lacking in key areas, in particular:
* For batting
— Batting for long periods
— Batting against the moving ball
— Our approach to playing spin
— General batting technique in some instances
* For bowling
— Building pressure
— Bowling to an agreed plan
— Spin bowling and captaincy of spin bowling
— Swing bowling, including generating reverse swing
* For fielding
— Overall fielding, especially catching
— General athleticism
— This has extra significance as in the panel‟s view fielding standards reflect the attitude and professionalism of the team
* For our overall approach:
— Building batting and bowling partnerships
— General game sense/match awareness and cricket expertise, including the ability to problem-solve during the course of a match

----

That is utterly damning. Especially of Ponting. Not that there is anything new there for the AGB community.

So, basically lacking in.....all key skills of the game then ?

Bit harsh perhaps - that England side was the best that had gone down to Australia since at least the early 70s and sometimes the quality of the opposition in some or all phases of the game can actually prevent you doing things, even if you have the ability to do them.

davet010 wrote:

Bit harsh perhaps - that England side was the best that had gone down to Australia since at least the early 70s and sometimes the quality of the opposition in some or all phases of the game can actually prevent you doing things, even if you have the ability to do them.

That seems a fair assessment of how that Ashes tour went.

The report is fairly damning and I think its right to 'back to basics,' but I know your lads can play cricket, at the end of the day.
I think we run the risk of overanalysing sometimes. The margins are so fine at the international level that you can't put things down wholly to the failure of one team. I imagine Ponting and the rest are fully aware of where they were outplayed, but sometimes these reports are the prompt you need to dig out personalities that become entrenched. Bit like a brushfire clearing out the scrub.

Also, why did it have to rain on the day of my first day of Test cricket? I took the day off work for that?

I don't think it was too harsh. All the signs were there for the previous summers - except they won those series and so thought everything was sunshine and lollipops; Whereas those not drinking the bathwater could see just another lot of wallpaper being pasted over the cracks.

It wasn't until confronted with a side playing good test cricket that suddenly all those failures were brought out in the open.

Yeah - think back to the 1980s England team. Some fantastic players, Gower, Botham, Lamb et al, but if you watch the highlights of the West Indies tours, particularly the 1984 tour, the brutal assault of that pace attack meant that whatever England could potentially do, they couldn't put it into practice.

It didn't help that injuries intervened, but the parallel is there - even when the WI top order failed, the tail enders would weigh in.

Am I reading right that 7 of Englands last 13 wins were by and innings??

That is very strong parallel with the Windies of the first half of the '80s.

davet010 wrote:

Crooked Pyjama Slogging carnival, of great interest to the Indian Police and taxation authorities.

Oh, and bookies, which is partly related to the previous two.

Good to see that at least the group stages of Pyjama Slogging have been reduced in size over here, from 16 games to 10 if I remember correctly.

Be a bit of a cricket off-year for me this year, spectating wise - Lancs only have 1 county game at OT this year due to its redevelopment, so they are playing at outlier grounds in Liverpool and Blackpool.

Jeesus Mary and Joseph - Lancs win the County Championship title with one of their weakest teams for many a year, and with no county games played on their own ground. Still, 10 wins doesn't lie.

IMAGE(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/55398000/jpg/_55398990_lancashirecelebrate2.jpg)

Honestly though, when I think about the poor summer weather we've had up here this year, and compare the team to the 70's or 90's teams, I am truly astonished.

Altogether now...."Whoooahhh Lancy Lancy, Lancy Lancy Lancy Lancy Lancashire...."

IMAGE(http://www.best-buy-flags.co.uk/pics/great-britain-lancashire-red-rose-7303b.gif)

RIP Graham Dilley - passed away at 52.

Headingley 1981, should get through the pearly gates for that knock alone.

Graham Dilley played in 2 winning sides in 41 tests and one of them was bloody Headingly '81!!

#stillalittlebitbutthurtfromthatonedownunder

This was England in the early 80s mate, we were utter pish. I always remember wondering how many pairs of boots he destroyed with that foot-dragging last step.

Weirdly, I know a 17-year old kid that has the same damn drag on his back foot during the delivery stride, and he goes through boots at the rate of about a pair a year.

A few tests going on around the world this week. Good to see some real cricket going again.

Looking forward to Newlands tonight but will be keeping an eye on Delhi. I'd love The Wall to do nothing for the day and give Sachin a chance to chase down his 100th international ton. If he could do that in the same innings as passing 15000 then that would be a nice underline to the greatest we are likely to see.

The shift of the game means we are unlikely to see someone start early enough in their life to chase his numbers down. 22 years as an international cricketer is amazing longevity.

Bruce wrote:

The shift of the game means we are unlikely to see someone start early enough in their life to chase his numbers down. 22 years as an international cricketer is amazing longevity.

Maybe, but the sheer number of tests played per annum might make it possible.

I think the number of tests per annum is contracting slightly.

This SA v AUS series is only 2 tests so they can fit in 2 more ODIs and 1 more T20. Neither nation was prepared to give up their boxing day or new years' fixtures at home. Hopefully the SA crowd turns up this time.

Very surprised to find that Clarke wasn't part of the clatter of wickets in some juicy bowling conditions. He's one of the worst #4s in the history of test cricket, but a solid enough #5. Surely the new selection panel will tap Punter on the shoulder sooner rather than later and that will only leave Haddin on my hit list.

There is no one else sending down as many unplayable or un-get-outable balls as Dale Steyn in world cricket right now. I love it when he starts using the Fred Truman lines with fast outswingers starting at leg stump. Opening batsmen up like a tin of sardines.

Blimey, shows what happens when the pitch dries out.

One down side to the commentary over here. Dominic Cork, the living embodiment of 'empty vessels make most noise...'

96 all out ? 47 all out ? I'm guessing there's going to be an inquiry about the pitch after this...

Nice drop, Mr Cricket....