The Cricket Thread

As much as the bowling in the first innings was great, it is truly awful in the 2nd innings from England.
Spraying it all over the place, no build up of pressure. Bowling way to short

 

Why the **** are we bowling so short. Ridiculous, to go along with the batting of only 67 overs in 2 innings of a test match.

 

Surprise surprise, look what happens when you bowl a better length. Just 12 overs and 75 runs to late

 

Need another Stokes miracle now…

 

Oh well , it was exciting for a while …..

 

Feels like watching Saints. Score early, get very excited then the other lot change things and start to play. We put on clown outfits and lose.

I need England’s cricketers to give a lift, not reaching for the anti-depressants

 

England really should have put bazball to one side for their second innings and just grind out a big total over 150 overs to put the game to bed.

 

Obviously I didn't want us to lose but I'm not despondent. In a low scoring game, it does take just one batter to make a score which stands out above all the others, and that's what they got from Head. Whether they now continue with him as an opener will be interesting.

Mark Wood only bowling 11 overs in the match is a concern. Was that merely a coincidence based on circumstances - we bowled less than 75 overs in total - or does it indicate that he wasn't really fit? You can't win in Australia with 10 players.

 

Should be ashamed with that batting performance. 59-1 at lunch to collapse. That's a golden opportunity wasted. I wonder if Saints can cheer me up.

 

I don't see any particular reason to be concerned about Wood, beyond the fact it's Mark Wood and he's prone to something snapping at any moment. You'd expect him to be used in short bursts and 11 overs out of 75 isn't too far off his share. We bowled them out cheaply in the first innings, his spell in the second was expensive and the game had basically gone by the point he might have come back on.

The problem today was clearly the batting. Dreadful stuff from Pope, Root and Brook. We just needed to sit in for a while, wait for the ball to soften a little and the pitch to flatten and bat them out of the game.

The question now is whether this match is more Lord's 2005 (where we lost but rattled the Aussies first time around in a signs of things to come) or Brisbane 2013 (where we had a good first day only for the wheel to come off the whole tour in spectacular style). I fear it's closer to the latter.

 

You never mentioned Crawley 11 balls faced!

 

So England bat for a goal od 66 overs in a first test match. Truly and utterly pathetic.Bazball will win a test but not a series. That performance is truly more disgraceful than te Saints. SHAMBOLIC

 

Fair point. I suppose I just have that baked in when it comes to Crawley. He'll come off every now and then but he often gets out early.