The Cricket Thread

A lot of those spinners developed their art in the days when pitches were left uncovered overnight, which immediately gave the spinners a huge advantage.

By the way, you left Richie Benaud out of your list.

 

And Lance Gibbs!!

 

The beauty of this games is that You and I (to a much lesser extent knowledge wise) have seen the game evolve, change and adapt to.the modern world. How radical.was the 40 over Sunday game at the time? It is ridículous to think how dated it would look now! Even more so, the Gillete Cup, but oñe thing it ensured was an improvement in fielding standards and raising the level of bowling to avoid giving away cheap runs. I remember in 83, Middlesex v.Somerset in the Nat West and with only 222 runs to play with took Somerset to the 59th over to reach that target. That target is gettable in.the T20 now. Of course, there have been rule changes that allow the batters to take more chances, but even so.

 

I forgot to talk about England's superb series win in Pakistán this month. And this is a good Pakistán team!! To think that less than 12 months ago, Agnew was calling for an overhaul of the CC, reducing it to 10 teams. At least Joe Root stepped asíde in the decent manner to allow Stokes with McCullum the opportunity to galvanise the test team. It is proof what a change of coach can achieved. I wonder if it wiil succeed with our beloved football team?

 

Anyone care to hazard a guess as to the last time England won a Test Match with neither Anderson or Broad in the team?

Spoiler: Answer

June 2007, England beat West Indies by 7 wickets.

Staggering.

 

Thet did say this morning when I was watching. 15 years ago!

 

I'm just glad that England finally adopted #Schadball, which was definitely the product of a lot of careful consideration and understanding of cricket, and not a really bad idea I had while watching Moeen Ali edging balls to slip because I couldn't sleep one night and there was nothing else to watch.

https://not606.com/threads/the-cricket-thread.326952/page-406#post-13142908

 

I'm very surprised no IPL franchise has taken a punt on Smeed. Could have been a huge bargain for someone.

 

Shaun "Shaggy" Udal...

 

Good to see that Surrey will start their title defence without Jacks, Sam Curran and Topley, due to them all getting IPL contracts.

As far as I can tell, the IPL schedule hasn't yet been confirmed, but the final will seemingly either be Sunday 28 May, or Sunday 4 June - with the group games ending one week before the final. Surrey begin their sixth CC match (and final one, before the break for the t20 Blast) on 18 May. So that's the best part of half the CC season which they are seemingly going to be without those three, including our trip to the Oval in April.

If we're really lucky, we might not have to face them in our home t20 vs Surrey either (on 31 May).

On the flip side, there are no England matches during April and May, so Pope and Foakes (and Roy) will be available.

 

Such a nice bloke Udal. Used to play and work with a lot of Hampshire players in the noughties. What he done regarding helmets is fantastic.

 

Did Udal end up going to Middlesex??

 

He did. Regardless of who he played for he was influential in pioneering helmets and creating a safe playable lid for everyone.

 

You are more up to date on and better informed on that than me but as he has improved player safety particularly the guy fielding at short leg, then he is to be commended!

 

Just looked at the BBC webpage, and see that South África were hammered yet again by the Aussies. From where they were a few years back with the likes of Amla, Steyn, Kallis and Smith playing for them, their test status has slipped alarmingly. I did expect them to put up.a sterner fight than they have done, but if they haven't got the calibre of player or right mindset, what can you expect.

 

On the same site, I see New Zealand have a useful lead going into the fifth day of the first test in Karachi. Can they get into Pakistan's suspect mindset and pull off a win that would be as good as any that England managed?

 

Can't see it. They took much longer than England to score their runs.

 

Pakistan are under pressure to avoid another loss. New Zealand can set attacking fields to induce nervous batters into mistakes.

 

Whiteley the last over hero (with the ball)

 

Sixers lost but the question is, when is a six not a six?