Dreadful error that one. It was a dolly Overall it seems to me if england get by for a while theres a big score due to lack of bowling in this lot.
No jinx at all. They have dropped cook twice now. Not my fault vince is gash. Roots 48 is par. That not too bad.
Have to say I'm enjoying this test. I couldn't get into the Sri Lanka series at all, it was so predictably dull. Been watching last 2 days and the game has swung back and forth throughout which is Test ceicket at its best. Pakistan probably just has the edge but the way the game is going England still more than capable of winning it. Two highlights are the bowlers Woakes and Shah
Woakes has taken me by surprise. When he first came in I thought he was no where near good enough for test cricket, but he's gradually proving me wrong. Been pick of bowlers this game that's for sure and offers a bit with the bat as well. When stokes is fit do they play them both though?
It's a record run chase on a deteriorating pitch. We need a decent partnership and there's no need to go gung ho. Plenty of bad balls available. Just pick them off and defend the rest. Edit: use of the word 'just' perhaps a bit of an overstatement lol
****. Why, why WHY do we always struggle against Asian leggies on home soil? It's not as if our spinners can do **** all against them on the sub-continent.
Its really simple. It's piss poor technique. Look at bairstow. I took a walk and while I was out I was sure he'd be done. He was still cutting with a horizontal bat against spin. They guys on sky analysed it to death already. P4lay straight bat and hit it back where it came from... simple. Pakistan just blocked for hours to build that lead. We've no patience nor technique for it.
That Bairstow one in the first innings was like bowling a ten year old by getting them to hoik horizontally at a slow ball aimed straight at the wicket , but with back spin on it. No middle order batsman should fall for that, especially one with his eye in who's got the seamers in his pocket. As you say, just do nothing against the spin that you don't have to (just kick the leggie away when 3 out of five balls pitch off line on leg) and take the ineviatable bad balls from the relatively ordinary seamers. Why were we trying to hit the spinner out of the attack? We had two days to get 283. No ****ing rush.... Aaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!
