summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
Lancashire 39-2, 6 overs. Livingstone and Buttler batting.
Cricket
- Thread starter summerisle
- Start date
…Livingstone out, 70-3 (11 overs) Lancashire need to up their rate. Listening to live commentary on BBC website.
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
….many thanks @summerisle.
That score seems well below par, be interesting if Worcs find batting as difficult as Lancs.
That score seems well below par, be interesting if Worcs find batting as difficult as Lancs.
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
The pitch has got slower and slower, might have been a good toss to win.
bcblue1878
Player Valuation: £50m
No great pace in the pitch, but some poor batting at the end there, going to have bowl well!
Chris O'Connor
Player Valuation: £35m
Australia's Adam Gilchrist spectacular career changed the template for what's required of an international keeper. Long forgotten are the days a keeper was picked for keeping skills first and foremost with any batting skills a bonus.
Without Buttler, Bairstow etc (not even sure why they were unavailable - IPL reasoning is ludicrous given events this year) England picked someone who is useless at both keeping and batting - step forward the hopeless Bracey, when he's not making ducks he's dropping gilt edges catches behind the stumps.
Surely there's a better keeper playing in one of the local leagues who's better than this clown.
While most of the team (besides Rory Burns and perhaps Dan Lawrence in one innings) hardly merited much better than 4/10 - Bracey has stood out in this series as fully meriting 0/10.
Without Buttler, Bairstow etc (not even sure why they were unavailable - IPL reasoning is ludicrous given events this year) England picked someone who is useless at both keeping and batting - step forward the hopeless Bracey, when he's not making ducks he's dropping gilt edges catches behind the stumps.
Surely there's a better keeper playing in one of the local leagues who's better than this clown.
While most of the team (besides Rory Burns and perhaps Dan Lawrence in one innings) hardly merited much better than 4/10 - Bracey has stood out in this series as fully meriting 0/10.
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…Worcester doing it easily, just a poor performance.
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
One to forget that game.
Toffee in Jandals
Player Valuation: £35m
Yep, this current team is better than the Crowe / Hadlee-inspired sides we had in the 1980's. The only thing we're really lacking is a top quality spin bowler.
Amazing how poor English cricket is currently. We were missing Williamson, de Grandhomme, Southee, Jamieson, and Santner in this test and still walloped your lot on your own turf inside ten sessions. I'd argue that Broad, Anderson, and Stokes are the only world-class test players in the English squad currently. Joe Root has never convinced me in the sense of scoring runs for England when they need him the most, and he's not tactically astute as a captain.
Unless something dramatic changes, I can't see anything but a one-sided Ashes series similar to the thrashings handed out to English teams in the late 80's / early 90's.
I think you might be being a bit harsh on Bracey mate. He hasn't kept wicket for a long time and it showed and is still quite a young batsman (I believe he just turned 24).
England have a cluster of batsman who are talented but still have flaws (Crawley, Lawrence, Bracey and Pope). Some would tack Sibley onto this list, but to me he is that bit older, has had longer in the test team and shouldn't be continuing to fail as he does. The above 4 are the best we've got currently in terms of young batsman and will learn a lot from the experience they have had.
England are in a tricky spot as to whether they stick or twist. You can make a very reasonable case that Foakes, Buttler, Bairstow and Stokes all improve that batting line up more than the above 4 (and Sibley). There is probably a case for Malan as well, who I know has played well in Australia and I happen to think has been a little unlucky not to be in the reckoning more. Probably ensuring at least 1 of Curran or Woakes plays would also be a must and there is probably a case for Moeen Ali to come back in and ensure we bat to 9. But a top 7 of Foakes, Buttler, Stokes, Root, Malan, Bairstow and Burns is probably the best we have currently. But potentially the younger lads can probably hit higher heights than any of the above with the exception of Root and possibly Stokes.
If it's me, I am probably sticking in the analogy and trying to keep 2 of Pope, Crawley, Lawrence and Bracey in and hoping the investment pays off. I'd open with Crawley, Bairstow would be 3 and I'd probably play Lawrence in the middle order with Buttler at 7.
As a final aside, what we have seen happen has made an absolute mockery of the rotation nonsense too. New Zealand rotated but rotated from a position of strength. I seem to remember us sending Bairstow home after he made a hundred. You surely keep guys around the team when they are playing well and in form?
But yes, the dilemma for England is whether they go with the most experienced line up for Australia, or the one with the most potential.
Best England side for me is something like this (when everyone fit and not rested!):
Burns
Crawley (I think he has something - based on nothing more than a gut feel)
Malan
Root
Bairstow
Stokes
Buttler
Woakes (Maybe Curran in certain circumstances)
Moeen (Not much between his bowling and Leach's so pick the better batsman).
Archer
Broad/Anderson - but not both. They should play 2 or 3 games each in both the India and Australia series'.
3 quicks, a spinner and Stokes is enough bowling. Having Woakes or Curran at 8 is necessary to stretch the batting line up.
I agree with all of that mate. I've been a big advocate of Crawley and I still think he will come good. Malan I do think has been harshly treated and will play well on the bouncy pitches.
The broader point is though is that lads like him and Bairstow are never going to be world beaters, but they are better than what we currently have.
I happen to think the above could be competitive in Australia. The added names will probably need to be a Wood and maybe Robinson. So some games you can probably get Wood and Robinson into the team to crank it up, and can rest Archer/Moeen for certain games.
I have seen enough of Sibley to know, he won't cope on Australian bouncy pitches. He will continue to be a walking wicket.
It'll be 5-0 unless they start getting scores of 300 more regularly. Neither Anderson or Broad ever do much down there and Mark Wood seems highly speculative as he's had 3 good games against S Africa and the WIndies, with his remaining 17 games very, very average. Throw in that he's played 12 tests in the last 5 years and he hardly seems someone to build an attack around.
BigMick
Player Valuation: £20m
Bracey - better player than he showed in those games. Nerves clearly got the better of him and one mistake led to another. It happens.
Sibley - got to go. Even on the odd occasion when he gets runs I can't stand watching his crab-like technique.
Crawley looks woefully out of form, but he looked quality last season.
Ludicrous rotation policy. The likes of Woakes and Billings have probably forgotten which end of the bat to hold.
We write players off to quickly. Conway is 29, Young 28, Patel 32, Henry 29, - all early in their test careers. I agree about Malan - I'd give him a go against India.
Every NZ player who comes in seems to know his role in the team and what is expected of him. I suspect a few of them wouldn't even be given a chance by England.
Two match series are ridiculous.
Sibley - got to go. Even on the odd occasion when he gets runs I can't stand watching his crab-like technique.
Crawley looks woefully out of form, but he looked quality last season.
Ludicrous rotation policy. The likes of Woakes and Billings have probably forgotten which end of the bat to hold.
We write players off to quickly. Conway is 29, Young 28, Patel 32, Henry 29, - all early in their test careers. I agree about Malan - I'd give him a go against India.
Every NZ player who comes in seems to know his role in the team and what is expected of him. I suspect a few of them wouldn't even be given a chance by England.
Two match series are ridiculous.