England Cricket 2017

[PistoldPete2]

22 hours ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

Let's give Ali a chance to fail before we get on his back eh?

 

Is it ok to get on his back now? Out for nought. Another late order collapse at least we had 370 runs in the bag before this one. 

[AndyinLiverpool]

1 hour ago, PistoldPete2 said:

Is it ok to get on his back now? Out for nought. Another late order collapse at least we had 370 runs in the bag before this one. 

Yes, fill your boots.

[PistoldPete2]

8 hours ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

Yes, fill your boots.

I prefer to remember Malan's big hundred.. all in vain though it might be. Malan can do the biz in both Tests and one dayers and maybe one day cricket might be our best bet nowadays.  

[Coneheadjohn]

Ffs England,put up a fight!!

Nothing worse than being bombarded from Australia by abuse first thing in the morning.

[AndyinLiverpool]

It’s always going to be bad, isn’t it?

like in the 90s. 

[Ramchester]

On 12/15/2017 at 02:26, HantsRam said:

Cheers - you confirmed my suspicion that the pitch might be a bit of a road.

I'm still nervous that we're 1 wicket away from another collapse and then the only way we'll get smith and Warner  out is if they retire, bored 

How accurate! Back there again today and it was attritional. 

That is an extremely poor test wicket, but England simply do not have the attack, they lack pace and any variety. Best hope is the weather deteriorates as predicted tomorrow, even though the Aussie's have made that look easy to bat on, England will likely find a way to collapse and get rolled for under 200!

[Van der MoodHoover]

1 hour ago, Ramchester said:

How accurate! Back there again today and it was attritional. 

That is an extremely poor test wicket, but England simply do not have the attack, they lack pace and any variety. Best hope is the weather deteriorates as predicted tomorrow, even though the Aussie's have made that look easy to bat on, England will likely find a way to collapse and get rolled for under 200!

Keep the faith Ramchester.

Don't know whether it's psychological or not but as soon as talk turns to the Kookaburra ball, it's as though our bowlers hands turn to dough.

Moeen can't spin it, jimmy can't swing it and we generally look as toothless as my old gran. And she's been dead for 20 years 

[PistoldPete2]

9 hours ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

It’s always going to be bad, isn’t it?

like in the 90s. 

Like in the 70s with Lillee and Thomson. Same as it ever was. 

 

[Albert]

12 hours ago, Ramchester said:

How accurate! Back there again today and it was attritional. 

That is an extremely poor test wicket, but England simply do not have the attack, they lack pace and any variety. Best hope is the weather deteriorates as predicted tomorrow, even though the Aussie's have made that look easy to bat on, England will likely find a way to collapse and get rolled for under 200!

Before the end of day 4, someone is absolutely going to get a low one. Smith and Marsh have made this look easy to bat on, but so have England clone wars attack. Who the hell thought four 80mph right armers was a good idea for Australia? 

[Albert]

All very quiet here. 

[Day]

2 minutes ago, Albert said:

All very quiet here. 

It’s cricket, everyone has fell asleep watching it! 

[AndyinLiverpool]

7 minutes ago, Albert said:

All very quiet here. 

Well done Australia. Exceptional. Not that ‘exceptional’ was required. 

[WystonRam]

What a shambles.

[AndyinLiverpool]

37 minutes ago, WystonRam said:

What a shambles.

Quite.

It's difficult to know where to make changes when you have so many disfunctioning players and there's only a squad of 16.

Obviously Overton won't play and none of Cook, Ali or Broad can justify a starting place. Root's lucky that it's so difficult to drop the captain.

[froggg]

2 hours ago, Albert said:

All very quiet here. 

Well done, we will have to console ourselves with the Rugby Union ?

[ilkleyram]

On 16/12/2017 at 22:58, Albert said:

Before the end of day 4, someone is absolutely going to get a low one. Smith and Marsh have made this look easy to bat on, but so have England clone wars attack. Who the hell thought four 80mph right armers was a good idea for Australia? 

Is a fair point Albert. But to be fair to the selectors who have they left behind/not picked who would have been better?  Stokes would have improved the side, made it more balanced, added to the batting and fielding and mentality but they couldn't pick him; Finn started but finished; Wood would have been picked but just has a fragile body; are there any spinners that can exert reliable control in the way Swan used to?; and I can't think of any batsmen, old or new, that would have brought something better - they already took a substantial gamble in picking Stoneman, Vince and Malan (and those three outshone the experienced players and largely worked out ok). And if we went to Ian Bell or someone like that we really would be taking a step back.

England are going to have to find some replacements soon. Broad, Anderson and Cook are all near (or at) the end of good careers. I think Mo is worth his place as a batter who bowls a bit, but we need a spinner.

[Carnero]

5 minutes ago, ilkleyram said:

Is a fair point Albert. But to be fair to the selectors who have they left behind/not picked who would have been better?  Stokes would have improved the side, made it more balanced, added to the batting and fielding and mentality but they couldn't pick him; Finn started but finished; Wood would have been picked but just has a fragile body; are there any spinners that can exert reliable control in the way Swan used to?; and I can't think of any batsmen, old or new, that would have brought something better - they already took a substantial gamble in picking Stoneman, Vince and Malan (and those three outshone the experienced players and largely worked out ok). And if we went to Ian Bell or someone like that we really would be taking a step back.

England are going to have to find some replacements soon. Broad, Anderson and Cook are all near (or at) the end of good careers. I think Mo is worth his place as a batter who bowls a bit, but we need a spinner.

Jack Leach is the best spinner in the country, but he can't bat which seems to be what matters to the England selectors!

Somebody completely left field like Hamadullah Qadri would have done a better job with the ball than Mo has!

Samit Patel could have replaced Stokes at 6, keeping the balance of the batting the same with Bairstow 7, Moeen 8, Woakes 9

Liam Plunkett could have been called up when it was clear Wood wouldn't be fit?

Mark Footitt could have provided a completely different option?

[ilkleyram]

4 hours ago, Saul Pimpson said:

Jack Leach is the best spinner in the country, but he can't bat which seems to be what matters to the England selectors!

Somebody completely left field like Hamadullah Qadri would have done a better job with the ball than Mo has!

Samit Patel could have replaced Stokes at 6, keeping the balance of the batting the same with Bairstow 7, Moeen 8, Woakes 9

Liam Plunkett could have been called up when it was clear Wood wouldn't be fit?

Mark Footitt could have provided a completely different option?

All of which are perfectly good suggestions Saul but none that would guarantee you anything more than we already have out there. Leach would lengthen an already long tail, Quadri would also add less experience, Samit Patel at test level similarly. Footitt and Plunkett might have been reasonable choices but Overton - who you would presumably drop for one of them - hasn't done that badly so far as I can see. Neither have proved themselves world beaters so far but I guess on Australian wickets they could have done something. 

The point I was clumsily making was that there aren't any obvious options which would have guaranteed a different outcome and we were already taking risks with Malan and co without adding to them. 

In the three tests so far we've been out bowled and out batted and our senior/experienced batters and bowlers have largely failed to impress. I'm not sure that anyone else would have altered that.

[PistoldPete2]

8 hours ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

Quite.

It's difficult to know where to make changes when you have so many disfunctioning players and there's only a squad of 16.

Obviously Overton won't play and none of Cook, Ali or Broad can justify a starting place. Root's lucky that it's so difficult to drop the captain.

Nothing to do this series's but looks like cook and broad are. Nearing the end of the road.

[Albert]

6 hours ago, DC-1975 said:

I would guess that if we played this Aussie team over here in May with a Dukes ball, we'd beat them. 

Home advantage plays a big part in test cricket these days.

With this I'd say it's more than that. England for years have just rolled over when the going gets tough. Root is no Border, he hasn't have the guts to stick it out when it's tough, and doesn't make a big one when it counts. The experienced trio of Cook, Broad and Moeen all have been in poor form for a while, and they've seriously let the team down. Stoneman and Malan have been good, Vince passable. Bairstow really should drop the gloves, not because he's not a good keeper, but because his batting is being wasted because of it. Foakes is good, he should be batting 7. Hell, if they absolutely must, play Woakes at 7, Foakes at 6, and go with a side like:

1. Stoneman
2. Hameed
3. Root
4. Malan
5. Bairstow
6. Foakes
7. Woakes
8. Wood
9. Leach
10. Anderson
11. Footitt

At least there's more than just 4 right armers a "spinner" for Australia to dine on. That attack that played in the last game should never see a field together again, that pitch was showing inconsistent bounce since day 2, yet they managed to let Australia get a 250 lead after England scored 400. All too sameish, and too many players not getting it right. Jimmy sure as hell isn't good in Australian conditions, but he's making it work at the very least. 

Also, I know Hameed isn't in form, but hell, give him some experience now, there needs to be a plan when Cook retires, even if he's just "rested" for Melbourne and Sydney.