Test cricket

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,777]

We just need the rain to save us tomorrow and Steve Smith to get diarrhoea the night before the final Test. But even then, he'd still score more than England's top four put together again.

Edited September 7, 2019 by Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man

[Capt. Pants 4,195]

Beaten by the better team. Our top order batsmen simply aren't of test match quality in ability or temperament. And with little young talent coming through in the red ball game we are set to been in Australia's shadow for many years. 

[SwindonCanary 455]

England slip from 130-2 to 199-6 !

[king canary 7,578]

16 hours ago, SwindonCanary said:

England slip from 130-2 to 199-6 !

Classic England.

[Herman 9,713]

Bowlers did well today. On recent evidence I can't see the batsmen doing the same though.

[SwindonCanary 455]

We need to increase that lead today (no stupid shots) If we can last the day we may win this one !

[Herman 9,713]

And to cap off a good day, our batsmen done well too. Good day for sport.

[Herman 9,713]

5 wickets needed for a drawn series. With a non biased hat on I think Australia deserve to win, just about. Neither side have been at their best but Smith, Cummins and Hazlewood ave been consistently good.

[SwindonCanary 455]

And we had Broad and Archer but was missing our main man, injured  !

Well done to the lads drawing the series. It's a shame we have to wait another 2 years to get the Ashes back. I always believe they cheated there way to gaining them last time we were down there.

[Herman 9,713]

I wondered why Ben Stokes was trending I thought he'd done something good again. But no, The S*n has disgraced itself yet again.

#DontBuyTheSun

[Feedthewolf 4,844]

Interesting series in South Africa. Both sides have had a rough year in the Test format, both teams have aggressive pace attacks and iffy batting lineups.

Denly batted well for his 50, and Stokes looks in good nick. Can't for the life of me understand how Bairstow justified a recall; Zak Crawley has had one Test and then been jettisoned in favour of the old pals' act. Jonny needs a big score in the second innings or surely Zak has to come back for the second Test.

[How I Wrote Elastic Man 1,181]

Stokes and YJB back in the hutch 😞

 

[Feedthewolf 4,844]

Looks likely that this Test will end in defeat, but I don't think our batting collapse was as bad as some in recent times... fewer ridiculous dismissals and some genuinely excellent bowling from SA. We've also bowled pretty well... Jofra has plenty of room for improvement and should drop out for Woakes unless he pulls something special out of the bag tomorrow morning.

Considering all the illness and the terrible news about Stokes's dad in the build-up, I don't think we should judge too severely on the outcome of this Test; let's look at the series in its entirety and then decide how best to approach the summer.

However, one thing that really concerned me was that choosing to bat fourth on this pitch did seem a very odd decision from Root. Personally I'd like to see Buttler take over the captaincy and Root concentrate on his batting; I think Buttler's a much more front-foot captain and will give the opposition a lot more to think about.

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

I don't follow the game as much as I used to, so what follows may not be right but...

A few decades back the people  who run the game got fed up with being beaten up by the Aussies, and decided to tailor county cricket to producing players who would be able to compete at test level.

The argument was that Oz cricket at state level was far closer to what test cricket was like, while county cricket (derided by Oz players) provided too many easy wickets and easy runs for mediocre performers. So a move to better pitches (for batting generally) and four-day games. Even the Minor Counties went from two-day games to three-day.

And this seemed to work. Eventually we produced batsmen capable of playing long innings against the best bowlers, and bowlers (including finger spinners) capable of getting good batsmen out on good wickets, and we started beating the Aussies.

That seems now to have been thrown overboard with an emphasis on various short forms of the game, and we have a top order that is as weak as any I can remember, with sod all stickability, and no spin bowler worth the name.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

That seems now to have been thrown overboard with an emphasis on various short forms of the game, and we have a top order that is as weak as any I can remember, with sod all stickability, and no spin bowler worth the name.

Very few of the test playing nations get great support for Test Matches. The shorter version is far more popular. And I think the same is happening in this country. Apart from the Ashes of 2005, I haven't seen so much interest as this year's World Cup.

Test Match cricket is now all about scoring at 3-4 an over which was normal for the one day game when it first started and before fielding restrictions were imposed. 

[Indy 3,283]

Nice to finally see England looking to the future with Pope and Crawley starting this Test, even if Crawley just got out.......we need to stick with and blood young talent not look to 29 and 33 year old test novices!

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

Nice to finally see England looking to the future with Pope and Crawley starting this Test, even if Crawley just got out.......we need to stick with and blood young talent not look to 29 and 33 year old test novices!

If selectors think that these young men are test cricket standard then they have to stick with them. The question is. Are they test standard? Time will tell if they stick with them.

[How I Wrote Elastic Man 1,181]

Jesus, England have been poor. Most the leading batsmen get in, then get out to shít shots

A couple of years ago, the top 5 were failing but the mid and late mid order would bail them out. Now even that ain´t happening and England look awful

[Herman 9,713]

Fair assessment.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2020/jan/03/england-joe-root-captain-not-working

[SwindonCanary 455]

Despite a poor batting performance (again !). A great effort to get ourselves into a position where we should have a 1st Innings lead. The thing that impressed me most today was how disciplined we were. The fact that we kept the Run Rate under control gave us a chance.

Hopefully we can finish them off quickly, bat properly and then level the series.

[How I Wrote Elastic Man 1,181]

5 hours ago, SwindonCanary said:

Hopefully we can finish them off quickly

Done 🙂

5 hours ago, SwindonCanary said:

bat properly

in the process of doing so, 109-2 at tea 🙂

5 hours ago, SwindonCanary said:

and then level the series.

bloody hope so, unless we collapse badly we should be able to set SA at least 300

[How I Wrote Elastic Man 1,181]

for anyone without access to Sky or Talksport, the guerrilla cricket team do some good commentary. A bit overboard with the jingles, though

 

Edited January 5, 2020 by How I Wrote Elastic Man

[king canary 7,578]

Proper test innings by Sibley, nice to see.

[Van wink 2,994]

Great to see his first Century, well deserved.

.....and Stokes smashing it all over the ground. 😀

Edited January 6, 2020 by Van wink

[SHRIMPER 328]

Nice to see the NCFC flag pinned up also.

[king canary 7,578]

Without getting carried away, would be lovely if Burns and Sibley can establish a proper opening partnership for this team.

[SHRIMPER 328]

I think Burns is nailed on but just have to see how Sibley develope. We had a top line umpire as a member of this forum when it first started years ago. Have not seen him on the boards for years but would be nice to hear his views on the latest crop.

[SwindonCanary 455]

Come on England they have all day to get 8 wickets on a dead pitch, they need some luck

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

Only 6 to get now

[king canary 7,578]

5 now. Getting Malan was key, you'd like to think we'll finish it off with ease from here.