The Cricket Thread

Same all year really. Not the Hants of old.

 

Essex won .

 

That I think is that for the County Championship unless Somerset absolutely demolish Middlesex next week by an innings. They need to get more bonus points than Middlesex and the win if my Maths is correct.

 

Hampshire given an absolute roasting by Cook!!!! I suspect some on here are boiling with rage, others would like to give the Hampshire batters an absolute grilling. How can one side find batting so easy, and the other absolutely murderous? Perhaps Brendy or Tom might be able to answer if I have it wrong. Essex did some real damage with the new ball making it swing and move off the pitch whereas the Hants bowlers were ineffective as the ball got older.

 

Surrey are second having won fewer matches than all the others except Warwickshire. They have amassed a huge amount of batting bonus points.

 

Sorry , I am no expert but are you saying you think Hants are down ?

 

Certainly not!! I am thinking of the Someset v Middlesex game. Hampshire should get enough bonus points to stay up. I am thinking if Somerset really hammer Middlesex, then Middlesex would be the team relegated but I need to check the points between Hampshire and Middlesex. I think all Hampshire fans would want Middlesex to avoid defeat, or have rain descend across the country.

 

Thanks , like I said I am no expert / I am clueless

 

PS. Very good shout St. Brendy

 

Of course the irony is that we've been much better this season than the past two years.

I'm not blaming the batters too much for yesterday. Bailey always got it wrong by enforcing the FO, given the huge amount of time left in the game. It was the only realistically way of Essex wining the game. We went from having the chance to bat with a circa 180 lead under our belts (pressure largely off of us), to instead having to bat with a circa 180 deficit (and pressure hugely on us).

Why would you willingly risk a run chase against the best bowling attack in the division? Mind boggles. Essex went into the fourth innings with their tails up and wanting blood. They got it, and I'm not even sure if Sangakkara could have helped us.

I think this makes it six games in a row now that we've waited for the "one final win". We got so many points in the bag early on (and Somerset and Warks got so few) that we put ourselves close to safety at the half way mark. We've just been treading water ever since, with something like five draws in a row and now this defeat. Not all our fault of course - the D/N home game to Somerset naturally springs to mind in particular, given the state of the table, where the rain did it's best to ruin that match (and yet we still found a way to get them 8 down in the fourth innings, before we ran out of balls). We've always had what appears to be a get out of jail free card hidden in our back pocket, in the shape of a match vs Warks, should it be required. And as it turns out, it is indeed required. We just need to use it now.

Other than age and injury, there's not much wrong with the bowling attack for once. When they're on it, we have almost every base covered. But alas, age and - in particular - injury cannot be ignored. So there are problems. But the biggest problems have to be in the batting. Weatherley clearly isn't good enough. Ervine is past it, and Bailey and Adams aren't too far behind. Dawson I think is good enough, I just think that he isn't fulfilling his talent. The same with Rilee. The jury is massively out on Alsop and McManus - I can't yet lump them with Weatherley, but both need to do better. Carberry is gone, and Smith is going. Vince (coupled with Rilee and a bit of Alsop in limited overs, and the lower order and a bit of Bailey in the Championship) obviously can't do this by himself.

 

England Windies 3rd ODI .

England batting 209-5 , 18 overs left .we were flying though .

 

From 205 -3 to 217-6

 

Moeens going like a train .

The last over = 1 6 6 2 4 6 .....

He has hit 6 sixes in 8 balls .

 

87 off 49 balls so far!

 

Ali gets a ton off 53 balls! Fantastic hitting!

 

From the BBC

It's a niche record, but Moeen Ali now has the world record for the number of runs scored in a one-day international in overs 45 and 46. He got 48 - the previous best was Jos Buttler's 35 against Pakistan.

 

Moves to second place behind Jos Buttler for the fastest ODI century for England.

 

England finish on 369-9. 93 off the last 6 overs!

 

From Vic Marks on TMS .


Moeen has gone from 'promising Mo' to 'good, old Mo' in such a short space of time. He's so modest. He was talking about how he couldn't hit sixes like the other lads in a press conference recently. He'd just hit five sixes in his innings! He's like that - he's so self-effacing.