The Cricket Thread

Yes, Warwickshire doing us a huge favour so far!

 

Australia win the toss put us in to bat and denley gone . 27-1

 

In other news, Yorkshire chasing 426.

 

Difficult right now to see anything other than big wins for Somerset, Kent and Hants, and a draw between Warks-Essex.

But I guess Surrey could bat really well, or Essex bat really badly.

 

Couldn't have asked for a better session there. Happy for us to declare (or be bowled out) any time soon now.

 

Somerset closing in, Yorkshire 94-7

Surrey 48-3

Essex need another 185 to avoid follow-on.

England 130-2

 

Notts losing means that, by my maths, they will be relegated tomorrow unless Warks somehow lose to Essex.

 

Somerset win by 298 runs, and go top by 17 points. Essex will need a miracle to overtake them in this round.

 

Abbott takes out the Pope and I love the Organ music!

 

5 wickets for Organ. Has to be one of the strangest scorecards I've ever seen. 149, 162, 436 and 138/9.

 

Great win

 

Well done Hampshire. I would, however be grateful if you didn’t play quite so well in the next match!

 

Organ has done his absolute best to try steal the MOTM award, but I think it has to go to Vince. Our second innings was the stand out of the match, and it was largely because of Vince.

Setting them 200 became setting them 250 became setting them 300 etc. Surrey were already crushed long before the Dawson-McManus partnership killed the game.

 

As someone who only watches cricket occasionally...except in situations where you're running out the clock, would it be better for England if they let the Bairstows and Buttlers play in one-day mode even in Test cricket? The side features so many players who seem more comfortable thrashing away, and can't resist making bad shots here and there...perhaps you're better off having them make a quick 30-40 than a patient 20.

 

I’ve thought this aswell. If it is so against their natural game to go out and prod away and get out being conservative why not just throw the bat at it and try and score like an ODI? One full session of it coming off (which isn’t completely out of the realm of possibilities) and it would take the game completely away from the opposition.

Factor in the bowling is very different in test to 20/29/ODI and should make being aggressive and scoring easier for a batsman

 

It's not just the bowling it's also fielding restrictions. As far as I'm aware there's only one in test cricket which is no more than 2 people excluding the wicket keeper behind the popping crease. Makes it a lot harder for one day mode imo.

 

Even if it wasn't easier, they just look so out of their element. I remember there being a stat on here that England registers more wickets per defense attempted than any other Test side by a mile, and my thought is that it might be time to stop trying to play cautiously, because there are really only three or four players (Burns, Root, Stokes, maybe Denly) who have that capacity. The rest are wickets waiting to happen, but they can run up the score given half the chance.

There will be times when that isn't really an option (say, when Australia hangs 500 on them in their first inning), but especially when England wins the toss, might as well go down swinging.

 

A Canadian that understands the subtleties and nuances of Test Cricket....i'm impressed Schad...

 

We'll let you win if you loan us Tom Banton for the whole of next season mate...

 

Or Essex declare, inviting Warwickshire to get quick runs to set Essex a target in their second innings. It has been done in the past, none more so than when Middlesex and Yorkshire connived on the last afternoon 4 years ago in a game that was drifting to a draw. Hopefully it doesn´t happen, a draw is the result leaving Essex 7 points adrift going into the last two rounds of matches.

For the last match, Somerset could well have the services of Leach. Maybe they´ll have his services for the Hampshire match.