Yeah but it doesn't on desktop.
The fact that of everyone on TV/radio/all newspaper journalists, only Dan Norcross appears to have seen Westley bat before is pretty ridiculous.
Yeah but it doesn't on desktop.
The fact that of everyone on TV/radio/all newspaper journalists, only Dan Norcross appears to have seen Westley bat before is pretty ridiculous.
No need to be a cunt.
Pollock just said Morris swinging the ball both ways is "great to see of a young cricketer".
Young Chris Morris. At 30
Ex cricketers think anyone younger than them is young. I'm sure a few said the same of Stephen Cook who is like 35.
Might also be an assumption based on him not having played internationally for long.
Fairly heroic knock from Cook today. It looked horrendous out there for long periods. Good job big Vern had the shits or it could have been much worse in the morning session. Just need to somehow avoid losing two for nothing in the first 15 minutes tomorrow.
Vernon has somehow reached his absolute peak in this series I think. I thought he'd had it as well after all the injuries, but I guess not and English conditions are perfect for his style of bowling. We've probably seen the last of Steyn. Not sure he gets in this attack.
Rabada's ball to dismiss Malan was proper Waqar Younis stuff, deary me.
I know his score wasn't eye-opening but all I saw of Westley was some Sky highlights just now and some of his shots looked absolutely lovely. How did he get on before went?
And how soon can we sack off Jennings without feeling bad about it?
Interesting, looking at the current Cricinfo scorecard thing, that Moeen Ali's Test batting average is higher at 35 than that of Stokes (34).
Vernon off the field with a dicky tummy, allegedly for the rest of today. If you can't beat 'em, poison 'em.
Was Roland-Jones the double-barrelled lad who was sort of implicated (well, he was captain and chief banterman) in Tom Maynard's death or was that someone else?
TRJ
That was Rory Hamilton-Brown.
EDIT: @niko
Stokes bowling average is lower. I would have expected those to be the other way round for sure.Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
Rory Hamilton-Brown is who you are thinking of.
Edit Ital
Yeah, I thought it didn't sound right.
Bavuma's a fabulously nuggety little character.
Toby was in my year at school. Nice chap. He was in my A level economics class and was better than me. He was a batsman then. Really fucking good one. In the upper sixth he started having a little dabble with a bit of net bowling, it started coming out alright, and then he exploded in uni cricket at Leeds.
I think Broad had a similar transition, albeit earlier in life.
I suspected Ronald-Jones might do well on his debut but not that well. It was a quality bowling performance and he got quality players out. I have thought for a while that he should be in the test squad due to his consistency in the County Championship division 1.
He is certainly a better fit for the test team than Mark Wood, who I believe to be more of a one day bowler. After this match, Jennings must be dropped, it's time that Stoneman made his debut and opened the batting with Cook. I'd stick with Malan in the middle order and I'm happy with Westley at 3 for now.
Huh. My best friend in the UK is a math teacher at that school. The more you know.
EDIT: After your time, obviously. We did our PhD's together. I'm actually staying at his place this weekend, which is just down the road from the school.
Like the look of Westley. Inscrutable face and crisp drives.
I don't give a shit about any of that noncey rubbish, Max. Does he come from the right kind of family?
Truly great school. I still have a lot of links with them through cricket so half-know a couple of the maths teachers.Huh. My best friend in the UK is a math teacher at that school. The more you know.
EDIT: After your time, obviously. We did our PhD's together. I'm actually staying at his place this weekend, which is just down the road from the school.
Twestley.
Some top, top work from 'Faf' in this match. Has anyone ever been out like that twice in the same match?
TRJ has a batting average of 48 and as of today his bowling average is just under 13. I would call thats a successful debut so far.
Another belting leave.
I doubt my friend has ever been involved in cricket, but they'd definitely know him.
Pretty sensational stuff from Moeen there
Presumably the Umpire was so certain that was out he thought he'd hand it over to the DRS for the added drama.
Stokes and Moeen are basically the only two real all-rounders in the top sides, right?
Angelo?
Graeme Cremer.
Trashwin.
I'm not going to say Jadeja.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05b5j5t
Boycs being surprisingly restrained.
On the ARs, Shakib too.
Are there levels of batting and bowling required to be a proper all-rounder or is it just general consensus?
The traditional benchmark is batting average higher than bowling average, but really it's just doing both on a regular basis.
Not too many doing that these days.
Bolded have a higher batting than bowling average in tests (since its the only format that matters)
For what its worth (Bat vs Bowl avg)
- Cremer 16 vs 47
- Matthews 45 vs 52
- Jadeja 28 vs 23
- Stokes 34.19 vs 34.49
- Mo 34 vs 37
- Philander 25 vs 22
- Holder 30 vs 36
- Woakes 29.55 vs 29.33
- Trashwin 32 vs 25
- Shakib 40 vs 33
4-45 and a hattrick on a seamers deck. Still only really love him for his batting tbh.
The only person in Test history 40+ with bat and 29- with ball, over a significant number of bats/bowls, is: http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/conte...yer/45039.html
I wasn't expecting that. Even the great stat hoarder Kallis couldn't manage it. Sobers 58/34 a solid effort.
Shakib is ace, but I was omitting Bangladesh/Zimbabwe in my assessment. Although that's getting a more tenuous limitation by the year.
I don't consider Ashwin or Jadeja to be all-rounders. As previously noted though, I really do rate Ashwin as a bowler.
I was once a Moeen doubter, but he's a perfect fit for our test side. It would be nice to have a spinner as good as Swann, or a genuine all-rounder like Shakib, but it's probably fairer to compare him to someone like Giles - the King of Spain had a really useful role in the side as a number 8 bat who averaged about 20 and could hold down an end averaging around 40 with a great seam attack operating around him, and Moeen is basically a much better version of that.
People want a "proper" spinner, but I'm not sure there's either A) much use for one in English conditions or B) anyone good enough. Sure, you could throw someone like Mason Crane in, which admittedly I'd have preferred to totally pointless bits-and-pieces Dawson style player, but I still don't see any reason for it.
I think Wood is pretty much finished and I hope we don't take him to Aus. I can imagine the selectors being obsessed with the idea that his height and pace would suit conditions there, but he's about 5 mph down, and a Mark Wood bowling 80-85mph doesn't really offer anything. Assuming full fitness and form, I'd tentatively go with:
Cook
Hameed (shame he's stuck playing 2nd XI cricket after a terrible start to the season, during a seemingly never-ending marathon of white ball stuff)
Westley
Root
BATTER (technical issues and test failures aside, I think Gaz Baz was batting 5 whilst scoring shit loads in county cricket, and I'd give him a fair go there against windies and judge him on that, and if he fails then some other chancer)
Bairstow
Stokes
Mo
Woakes
Broad
Anderson
TR-J for whoever inevitably gets injured
You know who would be perfect for that open spot? Taylor
Too small, mate.
I'm not sure who I want at five. Really I want Dan Lawrence, but he's still 19 I think, and also the world would explode if there were three Essex bats in the top five.
Moeen Ali? No?
Does he have a brother?
On all-rounders, there was a decent 5-10 year period when Ryan ten Doeschate could easily have argued that he was one of, if not the, best all-rounder in cricket.
I'm not sure about that. He was a good limited overs batsman for about 4-5 years but his bowling has never been up to much.
If we push him up who you bringing in?
Liam Dawson, obviously.
The fourth Test. Big Vern is out (thank you, god) and so is Chris Morris. In come Duanne Olivier and Theunis de Bruyn. Hmm.
England are UNCHANGED and bat first.
Truly blessed to see the legend Theunis yet again.
Jennings playing for his spot this morning.
So do we want Jennings to TURN THE CORNER, Liverpool-style, and cement his spot in the Ashes / the next 10 years or do we want him to balls up and have them give Stoneman (he's the opener, right?) a bash for the Windies?
I kinda want them to just ignore Hameed's domestic form and pick him again but I guess that won't happen / might be a dreadful idea.
Jennings has basically been bodybagged by Philander, so it's only fair to see what he can do in this match. If he fucks it again then might as well go to Stoneman, although he isn't actually playing in the white ball stuff at the moment as Surrey enter our triannual internal death spiral (hopefully not literally this time).
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