Cricviz had it as England 9%, Pakistan 90% and 1% draw. That's probably a fair assessment. In the end it wasn't as close as it should have been, by the time the 6th wicket fell it was too late for Pakistan to really put pressure on. Next match... honestly I'd have: Anderson -> Curran and if Stoke can bowl I'd consider Archer/Bess -> Crawley I thought Woakes bowled best though Broad took the most wickets. Archer gets too much abuse, he was useful. Anderson was sloppy and putting sentiment aside was the weakest of the four. Bess only got 2 wickets but had 2 dropped catches and a missed stumping, I thought he bowled better than he has for a while. Batsmen. Of the top 6 Pope was unlucky, he got virtually unplayable balls in both innings. The rest need to turn up soon.
My view is if Stokes can bowl it is a straight choice between Archer & Anderson for the remaining bowling spot and i would probably go Archer .
I think that's what they'll do to be honest, though I'm not convinced they'll go with Archer. He's a bit of a whipping boy for not bowling 90mph, Vaughan likening him to Gus Fraser incessantly. They ignore that he took the first and last Pakistan wickets and almost got a hat-trick in between.
Enjoyed the latter part of that match ... great test cricket, Yasir is a superb bowler, looks like Messi though
Stokes out then. I'd go: Burns Sibley Crawley Root Pope Buttler Woakes Curran Bess Archer Broad It's a weaker batting line up than I'd like but at least the tail is strong. It may be almost worth putting Curran or Bess up to 6th and see how they do as they can both bat properly (Curran in particular).There's variety in the four seamers plus the spinner and back-up spinner.
I agree but I do think that's stronger than what we had for the last test. Stokes is in theory a big miss but I suspect he was going to continue to struggle to Yasir (especially in the second innings) and Crawley may be able to get a similar number of runs - and has the benefit of delaying Root coming in. Curran for Anderson gives us a lot of depth, having Archer 10, Broad 11 means there's always hope to make up for deficiencies higher up. Main issue though is who we'd bring in to bolster it. Chances are they wouldn't particularly get more runs than the likes of Curran or Bess anyway so may as well focus on attacking the Pakistani batsmen and trying to nick low scoring games - at some point in the ext four innings one of those top five is going to get a century and that'll win us that match probably.
Me and my brother are booking up for the 3 ODI’s in Holland, next May. Would anybody on here be interested in that?
Yeah pretty much. It’s just big events and festivals that are still closed but that ban lifts next week. A few parts of the centre it’s mandatory to wear face masks, now. The Dutch aren’t fans of wearing them. Mainland Europe is on the rise again tho so suppose anything can be locked down, at a moments notice.
