Doesn't Jamie Smith look like Leeds goalkeeper. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Or is it just me where al the young uns look the same with them daft hair cuts
Can't understand the mentality. Don't get me wrong...I love the positive approach from this side since McCullum and Stokes have taken influence,but,in order to win this match,it requires patience and diligence....time is not an issue. To see these batsmen playing reverse sweeps etc., under these circumstances is just bizarre. Test cricket has enjoyed a revival in fortunes,largely because of England's exploits in the last couple of years, but each match has it's own variables and we need to be able to adjust our approach. Stokes just out,coming down the pitch! FFS!
Brendan and Ben could do with a slight re-adjust! No way that approach is going to work against India and the Aussies next year. If the objective is to win the Ashes.....and retire on the back of the lucrative outcome.....they need a reset.
That last tgame hinged on the toss and one single over imo. This team is never boring and the game of Cricket is the real winner, so lets enjoy this series and see how the decider goes. I personally thought the batting order should have been tweaked for the second innings and I know nowt about cricket tbh., but I enjoy watching this team and how they play and agree about a reset in certain circumstance as you suggest. .
Absolutely agree. It’s all well and good saying time isn’t an issue, but if we try to “see them off” and get out playing defensive strokes then are people happy? We were losing that no matter how we played. This “road” from the first pitch turned into a badly looked after country lane in the second. And just deteriorated over the days. If we’d won the toss, we’d probably have won that game.
Agree with your sentiments, and,as you say, it's never boring and cricket is ultimately the winner.....but,whatever happens,we mustn't let Test Cricket succumb and die,as if the white ball game is the only version. We have too much history and joy invested in it. If we can't compete with India and Australia,Test cricket here in the UK will die....make no mistake. For example,West Indies.How many wonderful players and great Test Matches have they produced over my lifetime......couldn't begin to count.....now,they're a shadow of themselves...lost to the white ball! Coming back to England....who's going to buy a ticket for the 5th day in any match they're playing?
Money and patience. That’s the issue. The white ball game wins on both counts. Players earn more money playing the t20 leagues than the 4 day county game. There was an interesting conversation yesterday that England in the 70s played a 5 match test v India, with over a month between the 1st and 2nd test. And in that month played another series in a different country! I love watching this England side play cricket. I don’t think any other technique would’ve ended any differently on the pitch today. We’d have been all out before tea. But I’d much rather go Down fighting than prodding defensively at stuff.
Disagree Marcus. With a day and a half to get 250 runs,a more refined approach to accumulating the runs to try to win the match would have been more intelligent. I agree that I'd much rather go down fighting,but the game situation surely didn't demand defensive prodding?
Joe Root was out for 18. One of the best players of spin in the world at present. (questionable decision mind looking at the fact that the same umpire said not out to a Pakistani cricketer who was hit in line and hitting middle and leg half way up!!) I’ve watched the highlights from this morning and with that turn would beat most sides. I just can’t see how anyone thinks the result would be different if we’d batted differently. Ball turning square Bon a pitch rated around 7 (1=road 10=cut up local pub football pitch). Just deteriorated through the match. I don’t see any result other than a win for the team winning the toss.
Fair enough,can't argue with it. I just felt that reverse sweeping and trying to hit over the top was not the approach to give us a chance to get the runs needed.
Just chatting to my ex boss who is a cricket freak. He said you could’ve put the 11 best test batsmen from the last 40 Years on that pitch and they’d struggle to make 200! To a point so agree with the attacking intent sometimes need reigning in. But when one of the best batsmen of all time gets done by a spinner, it’s always going to be hard work!
