AndyinLiverpool

18 hours ago, Topram said:

Bad light and they are off again ?

The light thing was ridiculous.

Looking at the scene this morning, it's hard to believe that I am in the same country as that cricket ground. It's already too hot here for me.

Can we swap weathers?

Just now, sage said:

Would you turn it down?

absolutely not. 

When I first saw this, I was going to post my enthusiasm but had the good taste to wait for you.

55 minutes ago, sage said:

Can this one please be true.

 

Greetings. We've been expecting you ?

And now we're doing that thing where we think we're being clever by trying to get the better batsman to the non-strikers end.

Now Rizwan knows we're not trying to get him out and they've put on 29 for this wicket.

See also how many runs Steve Smith racked up whilst we did this for him last summer.

Looking through this thread, I seem to do a lot of complaining about English cricket. 

So here's a moan about the cricket authorities. What the duck are they doing taking lunch now? They started at 12.30, work for an hour then have 40 minutes for lunch. bankers.

Once again, I find myself cursing the micro-climate. It's sunny and bloody hot here.

already dropped one because the slips are too close together

35 minutes ago, Carnero said:

I think that simplifies things from a selection point of view.

Crawley comes in at 3 with Root & Pope at 4 & 5.

I would be tempted to bring Sam Curran in to bat 8 and offer a bit of his golden left arm.

You might be right. Which of the seemers would miss out? I’m still inclined towards Anderson. 

Stokes unavailable. 
 

just to make it more complicated. 

47 minutes ago, sage said:

He made 3 big mistakes in one Test. It is part of a pattern. Foakes is a much better keeper with a better average in both Test and First Class cricket. Yes his Test career only consists of 5 matches but why drop him when he made such a good start.

He was in possession and was dropped in favour of Buttler. 

The stats suggest that over the last 3 years Buttler has 35 run a Test negative impact on the team in terms of his keeping. The worst of all the current Test keepers.

I'm not saying he is an awful cricketer and absolutely should be in the ODI and T20 teams but Foakes is simply a better keeper.

 

 

We’re a batsman light. Bringing in Foakes and having Buttler as a batsman doesn’t change that for me. We need Crawley back and we need to lose a bowler. Whisper it but I think that bowler should be Anderson. 

Terrific stuff.

Buttler and Woakes deserve great credit.

edged through vacant 4th slip for 4. Marvellous

Isn't this fun?

At this rate, we'll knock these off within the hour. ?

Well, this has gone downhill quickly...

Buttler's last stand is here

10 hours ago, RadioactiveWaste said:

Well, there was a fightback from England with the ball. You have to wonder how much they depend on Stokes, or rather, how lost without him the test side would be.

But I would say it's in the balance, although I'd still make Pakistan favourite and every little bit makes England's job harder. The tail gets another 10-15 it all just hurts that bit more.

 

11 off the first over.

It's almost as if the captain told Archer not to bother with line and length against the tail.

38 minutes ago, Carnero said:

The daft thing is that the commonly accepted best gloveman in the country, Ben Foakes, has a higher (40+) test average than Buttler and a higher (40+) first class average than Buttler, who gets picked on his one day game and a misguided fantasy about what he "could" do in test cricket.

I just get the feeling tomorrow may be his last chance. Fail with the bat and I don't think he'll play in the next one. 

1 minute ago, RoyMac5 said:

It's great in UHD though! ?

I especially enjoyed the slo mo of that Anderson misfield.

And now they wait until the players come back on before they repair the footmarks. This being poo is spreading to the groundstaff.

I need to stop watching this. It's doing nothing for my state of mind.

I'm so annoyed by the captaincy here (again). 2 effing slips. Not 4 - 2. Rubbish.

Not only is he a poor captain but it's affecting his batting. People talking about him in the same league as Smith and Kholi are miles wide of the mark.

Just now, Carnero said:

Crap keeper, crap captain, crap slip catching...

We can't set up a slip cordon. They are far too close together.

12 minutes ago, sage said:

As much as they have been better than us, if we had a proper keeper we may have actually had a first innings lead. 

One of the commentators just said (as Pakistan picked up 4 byes) that Buttler has had a difficult time behind the stumps and I couldn't help but blurt out, 'That's because he's not very good.'

A leg spinner to tailenders - marvellous

I can't believe that it's raining. We've got blazing sunshine here.

What an absolute joy it is to watch quality leg spin bowling.

I remember as a kid watching the Pakistan touring team of 1982 and seeing the great Adbul Qadir bowling. I have been captivated by leg spin since then, even when Warne was ripping us a new one.