Problem is we have absolutely no one to replace them as anyone any near has been playing ****ing mickey mouse cricket for two months.
All over, amazed we survived so long. We must have some better top order batsman than the ones picked so far. Oh for a Boycott, Gooch or Gower!
That Jimmy Anderson, useless, can't bat to save his life Brilliant stuff from India, from being (almost) out of it at half eleven this morning they've absolutely mullered us. Great cricket game to watch.
At 11.30 am Root let them off the hook by sticking his fielders on the boundary and asking his bowlers to bowl bouncers. Bowl at the wickets, they are tail enders for a reason, with an average of 3 between them before today.
Put pressure on ourselves like last time, no intention to chase the runs and poor batsmen that haven't a clue on how to survive.
We had them at 150 odd for 8 at 11.30, the next two in were rank tail enders with no runs at all to their names. Skittle those two out before lunch and England would have only needed two runs an over to win it. But we bowled bouncers and down the leg side to them. They had nothing to lose so had a swing and rode their luck. It was piss poor captaincy by Root.
So despite Root's captaincy, which I agree was poor, you give India no credit at all? Not for good captaincy, disciplined bowling, determined batting?
India are a good team and give you nothing, Yesterday they snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat in a similar way to the Botham and Willis Test against the Aussies at Headingly, was it 81 ? But Root left the back door open for them, that is my point. If the situations had been reversed I don't think our number 9 and 10 would have been allowed to put on nearly 100 runs so quickly and allow the captain to be in a position where he could declare, which was unthinkable, and probably un backable at 11.30am on the 5th day of a Test Match. It was a thrilling test for the neutral, which I am not. I want England to win which we should have done.
England should have won? India were 209-7 when Ishant Sharma got out and Bumrah joined Shami at the crease, ie about 180 runs ahead. England were in a good position but I wouldn't have put money on them getting those runs even if India had scored not another run. Would you?
If we'd have skittled them out for a lead of under 200, yes I would have done, not that you'd have got very good odds on it. The wise men will have backed India and I bet not many did at that point with three tail enders averaging 3 runs a piece to come. But sets it all up for next two Tests, one of which I have tickets for.
