The Cricket Thread

[LDN Blue 7,903]

when is real cricket coming back?

India v England in June

[Strike 7,217]

India v England in June

will get dicked again. hopefully grind out a draw somewhere

[LDN Blue 7,903]

will get dicked again. hopefully grind out a draw somewhere

England are on an abysmal run, they'll still be licking their wounds from Australia and Sri Lanka won't make it any easier for them. They'll be vulnerable again!

Going to the T20 game in September too, we better not fuck that up.

[EBH 283]

@Alex

You like Peter Siddle

I fucking love Siddle

He has so much heart

He's like the stereotypical Australian fast bowler, minus the facial hair and the conversion to a vegetarian diet. I suppose he could be a little more 'in your face' to opposition batsmen, too.

[Madmax 9,219]

@Alex You like Peter Siddle I fucking love Siddle He has so much heart He's like the stereotypical Australian fast bowler, minus the facial hair and the conversion to a vegetarian diet. I suppose he could be a little more 'in your face' to opposition batsmen, too.

Pssh Siddle only eats bananas

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Pssh Siddle only eats bananas

@Alex You like Peter Siddle I fucking love Siddle He has so much heart He's like the stereotypical Australian fast bowler, minus the facial hair and the conversion to a vegetarian diet. I suppose he could be a little more 'in your face' to opposition batsmen, too.

I love him! He's been signed as the overseas player for my beloved Notts this season. Super bowler, always liked him. Love his aggressive batting style as well. We were utterly thumped last week at Trent Bridge by Warwickshire, but he played one of the shots of the season so far with a beautiful cover drive for four. Outstanding cricketer. Plus he's a nice guy, he always comes and sits in the Pavilion seating with the members and has a chat while he's waiting to come out and bat.

[DavidEU 2,023]

Anyone been watching the opening two days of the England v Sri Lanka test? Very different looking England side, which with a couple of question marks still, does look quite promising. 444-7 approaching lunch.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Joe Root bang back in form. Positive to see, lovely lad and a top prospect.

[DavidEU 2,023]

Joe Root bang back in form. Positive to see, lovely lad and a top prospect.

Get his double ton up and then declare? Or have a bit of a slog until tea?

Hes now 196.

[Strike 7,217]

india will get twatted when they visit next month

[Madmax 9,219]

india will get twatted when they visit next month

Nah, we have Jadeja, remember?

[Strike 7,217]

Nah, we have Jadeja, remember?

more reason to worry

[DavidEU 2,023]

Sri Lanka had done okay in reply today, couple of late wickets have dragged it potentially in our favour. Sangakkara with a big century but out late in the day, Matthews is 79* and Sri Lanka are 160 behind, 7 down.

[José1893 89]

I support Pakistan! So nice to see their fans celebrate and forgetting the crises in their country in turmoil for at least a match

[DavidEU 2,023]

Sri Lanka put on another 38 this morning for there final 3 wickets, 453ao with Angelo Matthews getting a ton. They're 122 behind.

So England batting again, lunch on day 4. Hopefully we can score at a similar rate to the first innings (4.3 an over) and be around 350/400 ahead and give Sri Lanka half an hour tonight and all day tomorrow.

Realistically though, it'll potter out to a draw.

[EBH 283]

I'd be amazed if we could get a drawn series in England. We're patently not good enough to compete in whites away from home, with the exception of playing cricket in the UAE.

I don't think we have the batting to get out of this mess, unfortunately. England have a massive lead and assuming they declare with about 15 overs left in the day, there should be enough time for them to bowl Sri Lanka out.

We have three batsmen who are good enough at this level, and one of them only made 55 instead of 100, which we can't afford when the other team rack up near 600 in the first dig. Sangakkara, Mahela, and Mathews need to score 300 between them every time in away tests these days because there's nobody else with the quality to stick it out when the ball seams. I had high hopes for Thirimanne and Chandimal but while they're both fine in Australia or South Africa (they like the bounce and like to play off the back foot), they haven't got it in them at the moment to handle the moving ball. Anderson in particular has brutally exposed that flaw in Thirimanne's technique.

The team selection continues to baffle. Karunaratne isn't a suitable replacement for Dilshan at the top of the order but then we haven't got anybody else at the moment so it'll have to be him. And while Prasanna Jayawardene is a fantastic wicketkeeper, there just isn't enough room in the modern game for your keeper to average 30 odd. I would be sorely tempted to drop him and play Chandimal as the keeper batsman instead - at least in away tests. Not like our bowlers create enough chances for a dodgy keeper to be found out, anyway. Might be necessary to have a top class keeper on turning pitches at home, but anybody who has had experience wicketkeeping can do it reasonably well on a plum pudding of a pitch like this one.

Karunaratne

Silva

Sangakkara

M. Jayawardene

Mathews

Thirimanne

Chandimal (wk)

Kulasekara

Prasad (lol)

Herath

Eranga

Shit. It's still rubbish.

[DavidEU 2,023]

Ton up for Gary Ballance with a big 6. Took 130 balls for his first 50, 54 balls for his second. Pretty average from England other than him, though important runs from Jordan and Broad once more.

Got a lead of 389 going into day 5, so expect the declaration overnight and fingers crossed we'll get 10 wickets tomorrow.

[EBH 283]

Well now. 298 more to get, 9 wickets in hand, 64 overs to go. Interesting.

I fancy myself as an armchair captain, so I'll have a go at formulating a strategy. I would make a push for victory. Cook is pretty weak willed and defensive, a couple of big overs and the men will start going out to the fence. Silva and if need be, Thirimanne, can shut things down from one end, just focus on not getting out. The guy at the other end, be that Sangakkara, Jayawardene, or Mathews; plays their naturally aggressive game. Even though the chances of chasing that many down in so few overs are slim, it's far better to go on the attack. Plod away at 1.5 an over and Cook will start crowding more and more dabbawallas around the bat and the pressure will begin to tell. Smack a few boundaries, the men will go out on the fence, the lines will be a metre outside off, and you can then grind away with relative ease to a draw. You can't soak up pressure when you're chasing, you have to put it on the fielding side. What I would do now, if a wicket fell, would be to promote Kulasekara and let him go out and swing the bat. He's a fine hitter and if he can deliver a quickfire 20 then it would heap the pressure, massively, on England. The target would come down from near 300 to about 270 in two overs, and 270 in 60 with 8 wickets in hand is doable. Sri Lanka's strength is our unorthodoxy, England's weakness is that they play by the book at all times. Doing something ballsy like promoting a bowler is the sort of masterstroke that the English mangement would never be able to understand, thus, never be able to combat or plan for.

The other school of thought would be to focus on keeping wickets in hand and unleashing in the final 20 overs or so. But I don't like that approach, because as I said, if you play defensively, you make things more difficult for yourself as the opposition can be more and more aggressive.

@Strike do you still like my captaincy