I watched the highlights of his century. He looks the mutts. How does he do in other formats?
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I watched the highlights of his century. He looks the mutts. How does he do in other formats?
He is. I've been following Somerset all my life and he is the single most natural hitter I've seen, perhaps with the exception of Buttler. The thing about Banton though is that he's grown up solely in the modern era. Buttler and co pioneered what is natural to him. Banton has absolutely incredible wrist speed and poise. He gets into unorthodox positions extremely quickly while the bowler is in their action and can therefore play - confidently - almost 360-degrees. When he switch hits, he is in position twice as fast as any other player I've ever seen. His speed through the shot too via his wrists is absolutely remarkable. You can't set fields for him. He will play a slog sweep over mid-wicket from a foot outside off and he'll switch hit sweeps off middle stump yorkers, yet at the same time, watch his century and you'll see half his 'big' shots are absolutely classical cricket strokes. He really is truly breathtaking to watch.
He's excelled in T20 this year, but he was solid in the 50-over format too. I'm sure he'll develop in both to become an international player extremely soon. I don't think he's played any real championship cricket yet, but he might mellow into that in time.
Big shout out for Tom Abell too - 12 months ago, he was all at sea in the T20, picking up 8s and 9s off 16/17 balls. This year his strike rate is closer to 200 and he's the most deft manipulator of the ball and strike I've seen. He is ALWAYS looking for twos rather than singles, his running is exemplary and he's rightly being given an even bigger share of the T20 captaincy. We've got Gregory to come back in the T20 too and we're just hitting form so I'd absolutely bet on us getting to finals day again.
Last year's finals day I was sat up by where the teams hang out in between games, and walking past us Banton (although he was a reserve on the day) struck me as a proper unit of a young man. Big arms and legs almost like the Overtons. Reckon he will end up being a bit like Hayden or somebody of that ilk dominating attacks in all formats.
Phil Salt another one to look out for, for the white ball sides.
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I so badly want him to go well. Such a top lad.
He is an absolute breath of fresh air in so many ways.
Honours even for the first day then.
Result.
Steve Smith certainly struggled to get going. Progress.
At least this washout won't cripple a county, although Durham or someone will probably be on the hook for all the egg and bacon brigade's losses.
Sent in by the Aussies, this could get ugly.
Shane Warne will never forgive Punter bowing first 2nd Test 2005. Even when he brings it up in a jokey way his pure anger comes through. Hilarious.
Archer asked to review the first ball wide in the super over :D
He and Morgan were told by the umpire you can’t overturn a wide call.
Rough start.
Just as well our middle order is tough as iron.
One of the best things about changing jobs recently is the ability to now pop home and catch 40-45 minutes of cricket in my lunch break.
Burns does seem to be quite a jammy opener at Test level but if it works for us and he scores runs, I'm all for it.
I like him. He knows his game and values his wicket. Given that no one in the batting line up apart from Root averages above 35 that seems a good start to me. He will score Test runs.
The rule is they only pick one grinder, which is Burns, everyone else has to be an attacking stroke player. Suspect that will change when the coach changes, unless we have another Aussie (Australians cannot deal with being defensive in the same way Saffas can't deal with being attacking).
Our amazing middle order strikes again.
Well at least our second best batsman is in now.
A breezy century from Jofra and we'll be fine.
Weather forecast is looking a whole lot better now as well. Thought it was meant to rain all weekend?
:moop:
Bairstow's gonna get 300 so our middle order average a century between them.
It'd be nice if Vaughan could every so often just shout "YOU'RE FUCKING SHIT, JONNY" from the sidelines to keep him focussed.
Broady to slash his way to 100.
Or 10. One of the two.
Close enough.
Jack Leach to bat his Lords Test Average, happy days.
Well, he's improved it, I suppose.
Woof. :drool:
Not that it matters when Smith's going to come in and equal our score on his own but whatever.
What a beauty. Warner looked all at sea throughout that short stay. Another 2 before close please.
Watching the cricinfo feed on SL/NZ while waiting for our game, and I see Akila Dhananjaya is these days listed as 'ob/lb', and seems to be bowling the full variety. All subcontinental spinners terrify me, but that sounds like a full year's worth of night terrors.
Could these two have the decency to look a bit more frightened? Our batsmen coming into a new morning always look like the hood was only taken off as they were kicked onto the pitch out of the van.
They're really not getting much change out of Archer.
Simply cannot wait for the England bowl-too-short factory to ruin Archer, they have made a good start. He'll be on Celebrity Masterchef before the 2020s are out.
Weather's fairly tragic here (Brighton) at the moment so I'd expect this to be washed out for the day quite soon, thankfully.
Get Smith out in the next half hour: rain stay away.
Smith still in at Lunch: heavy rain, shake hands and on to the next Test.
If the rain today radar is anything to go by it'll be a bigger miracle than Steve Smith getting out if they're still playing in an hour or so.
Send them in for an hour and a half in the ultimate murky conditions.
:drool:
Although bowling them out only increases the likelihood of us losing this match as we'll doubtless get skittled for bugger all tomorrow.
In the murky conditions earlier we had Jofra Archer bowling short/short of a length to a leg slip, forward short leg, another short leg, and a short mid on. Absolutely ridiculous captaincy.
You could put that on loop and keep babies entertained for hours.
Smith is completely off his trolley, although I suppose you would be if you were him.
Just to confirm that, apparently he slept in the bath tub yesterday.
Lost count of the number of false shots, edges dropping short or lbws that were going over by a micrometer, so I fully expect to comeback in this evening and see both of these mooks still there on 100s.
I was about to say injuring Smith is about the only way to get him out before he reaches triple figures and then that ball hits.
Serious heat from Jofra.
Fuck me he’s trying to take him out for the series by the looks of it.
Smith just cant have seen that one. Christ.
Jesus it hit him in the throat basically.
Really needs to sit the next Test out, for safety reasons of course.