Test Cricket is Back

[Curtains]

13 minutes ago, Anag Ram said:

Regular readers of this forum will know I’m not a big fan of Jack Leach so I thought it only fair I should come on to say he’s bowled well in this test.

Still don’t think he’s the answer long term.

2 fifers in the match for Leach 

Very good in this game. 
 

England need 296 to win 

[Anag Ram]

Big innings for Lees and Crawley. Neither is safe on current form.

[Comrade 86]

40 minutes ago, Anag Ram said:

Big innings for Lees and Crawley. Neither is safe on current form.

Think Lees has done enough to warrant a few more games to prove himself. Two half decent knocks in the last test. Crawley, whom I thought was going to be a superstar, has generally been very disappointing and is edging towards the exit. He's seems to be becoming Trent Boult's bunny which won't help his cause any.

EDIT: Well Lees won't be getting a biggy today then. WTF! Crawley looking like his nerves are completely shot at the moment ?

Edited June 26, 2022 by 86 Hair Islands

[Anag Ram]

27 minutes ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

Think Lees has done enough to warrant a few more games to prove himself. Two half decent knocks in the last test. Crawley, whom I thought was going to be a superstar, has generally been very disappointing and is edging towards the exit. He's seems to be becoming Trent Boult's bunny which won't help his cause any.

EDIT: Well Lees won't be getting a biggy today then. WTF! Crawley looking like his nerves are completely shot at the moment ?

It’s all a bit frenetic isn’t it?

Never good to be at the far end when a batsman needs runs. Awful call.

Crawley looks like he’s closing his eyes and hoping for the best.

If he keeps finding the middle we will make rapid progress.

Edit: what a dick.

Get the axe ready

Edited June 26, 2022 by Anag Ram
Addition

[Wolfie20]

Can't see how Enyland can persevere any longer with Crawley. Given the stroke players at 4 to 8, a solid start is essential if the long term aim is to play a more expansive game.

[Anag Ram]

36 minutes ago, Wolfie20 said:

Can't see how Enyland can persevere any longer with Crawley. Given the stroke players at 4 to 8, a solid start is essential if the long term aim is to play a more expansive game.

Ben Compton has been scoring runs at the top of the order and may come in. 

[TuffLuff]

41 minutes ago, Wolfie20 said:

Can't see how Enyland can persevere any longer with Crawley. Given the stroke players at 4 to 8, a solid start is essential if the long term aim is to play a more expansive game.

There was a proper fist fight in the party stand just before he was dismissed. Not making too much of an excuse for him, professional sportsman and all that, but it delayed the game for a couple of minutes and looked completely out of rhythm when he took his shot. When NZ are trying to slow the game down anyway it wasn’t overly helpful. 

One of a few instances where the crowd haven’t really helped today, not that it’s dampened a good day for England, but I’ll try and elaborate more in a bit when I get home.

Edited June 26, 2022 by TuffLuff

[Comrade 86]

54 minutes ago, TuffLuff said:

There was a proper fist fight in the party stand just before he was dismissed. Not making too much of an excuse for him, professional sportsman and all that, but it delayed the game for a couple of minutes and looked completely out of rhythm when he took his shot. When NZ are trying to slow the game down anyway it wasn’t overly helpful. 

One of a few instances where the crowd haven’t really helped today, not that it’s dampened a good day for England, but I’ll try and elaborate more in a bit when I get home.

Urgh. Hoolies at the cricket? Always been one of the few sports where the crowd can have a decent few beers and not end up acting like t**** ?

[TuffLuff]

20 minutes ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

Urgh. Hoolies at the cricket? Always been one of the few sports where the crowd can have a decent few beers and not end up acting like t**** ?

It wasn’t that bad overall, Im probably over egging to defend Crawley where it’s probably not deserved to be honest. But it was a proper fist fight with arms swinging in the western terrace.

Edited June 26, 2022 by TuffLuff

[Wolfie20]

1 minute ago, TuffLuff said:

It wasn’t that bad overall, Im probably over egging to defend Crawley where it’s probably not deserved to be honest. But it was a proper fist fight with send swinging in the western terrace.

Being in Leeds that's a real shock.

[TuffLuff]

I’m really tired so I’ll try and keep this somewhat short.

First of all, it was probably my favourite day I’ve seen at Headingley. As I said earlier, I usually end up seeing an opposition bat out on a cloudy day, but got my moneys worth today. Sat in the new stand, with a bar behind us and shade. Much better than being sat in The White Rose stand/Western Terrace.

Was Leach’s day really, looked to be enjoying himself despite a slow morning session. Potts too getting the eventual breakthrough was impressive too. Pops and Root was a pleasure really, Root especially looked in control of New Zealand’s attack. Gonna be interesting to watch us against other opposition, I feel us and NZ is a good match up that we have shaded here.

Re: the crowd and all that…again it probably wasn’t as bad as I originally implied.

My overall point is that in test cricket, much like football, the crowd can play a vital element in influencing what’s happening on the pitch. First thing I noticed today was how sparse the stadium was and how flat the atmosphere was at start of play. Considering where we were at end of play yesterday, I thought more may have made the effort to get into the stadium early. I get it’s part of a day at the cricket that people won’t necessarily come in for a variety of reasons, but watching Broad and Potts rattle off those early overs with no crowd to feed off set up the morning session for what it was. Maybe the slow morning session opened up NZ to hit out a bit more and I need more patience, I just felt there could have been an early collapse today.

The worst bit was in the afternoon session, when Potts gets the breakthrough. England start getting their tails up, crowd has picked up and everything starts to feel good. Then a snake starts to get formed. It’s not something im bothered about really, it’s a bit of fun really, but this was still early into the session and it caused two things. 1) half the crowd are watching a snake and taking it away from the momentum on the pitch 2) snakes eventually break, cups get thrown everywhere and people get, quite rightly, annoyed and soaked in dregs. This kinda starts everything in the party stand which culminates in the fight just before Crawley dismissal an hour or two later. Crawley didn’t look in the best headspace anyway, but he was just building his innings and getting runs. The fight happens, stops the game for a couple of minutes and to me he switches off and is dismissed. A test batter shouldn’t let it effect him to that extent but what was going on in the crowd influenced what happened. 

Quite a few people kicked out after too for the hour, people gave too much drink and start mouthing off at each other. It was the usual really when everyone just needs to chill out and enjoy the game, but there’s always those groups that want to make it about themselves and their antics. 

I know I’m coming across a bit grumpy here, it’s mainly because I’m tired from looking after a poorly child last night and tonight so I’m not really filtering my thoughts. I enjoy the fun aspects of the crowd and it’s all part of the day to me, and England are in a great position to win a series 3-0. I think today it got out of hand and had an effect on the game, rather than the game having an effect on the crowd.

All in all a good day, I really shouldn’t complain about any of it really!

[Grumpy Git]

Interesting over from Broad in the final throes of the India 1st innings in Brum:

[Magicman]

Lees and Crawley flop again time to change. 

[Anag Ram]

On 02/07/2022 at 13:32, Magicman said:

Lees and Crawley flop again time to change. 

Haha, funny how things pan out. I’ve said exactly the same.

How I miss the halcyon days of Sibley and Hameed batting three hours for ten?

[Comrade 86]

Wonderful again from England. Rapid start, a mini-collapse, then an imperious partnership between the two most in-form players in the game. Astounding how easy they made that look. This side is almost unrecognisable and in so little time and Ben Stokes seems to have re-invented test cricket, tearing up the book of conventional wisdoms in the process. How will we fare away from home, I'm not sure, but what fun it will be watching in any case.

[Van der MoodHoover]

7 hours ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

Wonderful again from England. Rapid start, a mini-collapse, then an imperious partnership between the two most in-form players in the game. Astounding how easy they made that look. This side is almost unrecognisable and in so little time and Ben Stokes seems to have re-invented test cricket, tearing up the book of conventional wisdoms in the process. How will we fare away from home, I'm not sure, but what fun it will be watching in any case.

You get the feeling we're treating every batting innings like a one day match. 

The scoring rate has been better than one day games in the 80s and 90s!

We'll either eke out stonking high scoring victories or lose inside 3 days I suspect..... 

[Rev]

7 hours ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

Wonderful again from England. Rapid start, a mini-collapse, then an imperious partnership between the two most in-form players in the game. Astounding how easy they made that look. This side is almost unrecognisable and in so little time and Ben Stokes seems to have re-invented test cricket, tearing up the book of conventional wisdoms in the process. How will we fare away from home, I'm not sure, but what fun it will be watching in any case.

In regards to your earlier comments about Crawley, the cricket writer in the Guardian summed up his current predicament nicely, I thought. 

"He's got all the shots, the problem is he's trying to play them all at the same time"!

[Zag zig]

9 hours ago, 86 Hair Islands said:

Wonderful again from England. Rapid start, a mini-collapse, then an imperious partnership between the two most in-form players in the game. Astounding how easy they made that look. This side is almost unrecognisable and in so little time and Ben Stokes seems to have re-invented test cricket, tearing up the book of conventional wisdoms in the process. How will we fare away from home, I'm not sure, but what fun it will be watching in any case.

My lad said how can you listen to test cricket on the radio, when we was in the car yesterday; if it had been back in time I doubt many would want to listen unless you were sat round some pond fishing or back garden half asleep, but this brand is just a little bit exciting now. 

The one day and limited over forms have reinvigorated even the longer game version be it 4 day county or 5 day test in my opinion; nobody is afraid to go for it now, because they know the fans love it. You’re right about the away from home though, litmus test as to whether this is sustainable, will likely be how they fare in South Africa.

[kevinhectoring]

4 hours ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

You get the feeling we're treating every batting innings like a one day match. 

The scoring rate has been better than one day games in the 80s and 90s!

We'll either eke out stonking high scoring victories or lose inside 3 days I suspect..... 

love the mentality that says: we’ll let them bat... and we’ll chase them down   They have turned the game on its head

But what was Bumhra doing? Jadeja is a better spinner than anyone we had on the pitch, he’s got a few square feet of rough to bowl into, we’ve got a load of left handers  -  and we hardly see him. 
 

Captains may matter more in cricket than football but can’t help comparing  the decision to make a Root captain with the appointment of Tom Lawrence 

[Eddie]