Well I went to bed saying that if Leach could add a couple himself and help Buttler get to 50-odd I'd be happy so I think this is a pretty good position.
Jimmy's boy coming up with the goods again.
Well I went to bed saying that if Leach could add a couple himself and help Buttler get to 50-odd I'd be happy so I think this is a pretty good position.
Jimmy's boy coming up with the goods again.
Only caught a bit of the first session again last night, but the pitch looks Nagpur levels of awful.
Should be interesting to see if we can avoid collapsing in a heap in the third innings.
This could genuinely be a draw if we don't collapse second dig.
God bless Nagpur, what a game that was.
Nagpur was Rooteh's debut, wasn't it?
Unbelievably slow morning, 49 runs in 28 overs so far. Surprised NZ haven't even attempted to up the run rate a little.
Seven wickets to last us the day, about time Root did something here because I'm becoming fed up with his shit captaincy and increasingly disappointing returns with the willow.
The captaincy seems to be draining the life from him.
Imagine getting run through by Santner and De Grandhomme.
It'll be a best effort since we let that giant West Indian (non)spinner lol his way through us.
Neil Wagner's another bowler who I've never really understood. Highly aggressive, but never really strikes me as having the pace to really back it up. I'm guessing it's worked to bounce us out though.
Still, at least day 1 was alright. Remember day 1? They felt like good times.
Did we have three 'keepers playing when Foakes was knocking about with the gloves not too long ago? Seems like some effort to go from that, to not having any playing at all.
This team is absolutely crackers. Ed Smith is a mong.
No spinner and a non keeping keeper keeping? 90s England all over again.
A five man seam attack and someone being handed his debut cap by Joe Denly, it's amazing stuff really.
Jeet Raval is shite, New Zealand literally have about 9 good crickerers at any one time but what they make of them.
What is a Zak Crawley?
That lbw decision that was overturned has to be a joke. The noise comes when the ball is a yard past the bat, and there is nothing on hotspot (which is fucking wank by the way, let's bin that off). Shambles and a real shame because Broad had set Taylor up to get trapped in front.
Davey Warner getting 250 against this bowling line up is fucking grim.
If this odious flat track bully breaks Lara’s record...
Is that some sort of attempt at humility or has Smith just pulled the rug out from under him?
Common sense prevailing.
Last edited by Queenslander; 30-11-2019 at 07:37 AM.
Allowing that cunt to pass Bradman is disgraceful.
380 Matthew Hayden Zimbabwe WACA Ground, Perth, Australia 9 October 2003
2 335* David Warner Pakistan Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, Australia 29 November 2019
3 334* Mark Taylor Pakistan Peshawar Club Ground, Peshawar, Pakistan 15 October 1998
4 334 Don Bradman England Headingley, Leeds, England 11 July 1930
5 329* Michael Clarke India Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney, Australia 3 January 2012
Last edited by Queenslander; 30-11-2019 at 07:50 AM.
Looking forward to the NZ matches over here though.
You will annihilate them as well. No one touches Australia on these decks.
I wish Root would put away this wristy shite down to third man. He is constantly out to it in one form or another and almost was then too.
I am pro Burns but even his actual scores for England have been hilariously streaky.
There's a method in that tbh. You don't see Jimmy 'not seen him since' Vince getting Burns's luck because the bat is always coming down straight lines with hard hands. Set up like a cement mixer, play with the hands of a teenage boy undoing his first bra, and they'll need funny angles or a snorter to get you out.
He certainly doesn’t seem to let the edges and the misses affect him either. Solid enough character.
It’s a disgrace I’ll be asleep when England finally make 400.
First test ambush, second test draw, that seems to be the way series in NZ always go.
That drop was incredible.
It was quite impressive.
I'm seeing "worst dropped catch in Test cricket" getting bandied about a lot but I don't have the wealth of games watched to know if I agree or not.
There is a Mike Gatting one from the archives which is worse than anything you could ever imagine. Robelinda tweeted it the other day.
Gatting could at least blame some sun in the sky. Archer was legitimately off celebrating when he shelled that last night.
I have to say, this Test series really damped my normal enjoyment of late-night, winter cricket. Awful pitches which made for slow, torturous run compiling and a series too short to develop any battles or intrigue. That pitch today had barely a blemish and was still slow off the pitch, offering no lateral movement.
Test cricket in the downunderverse is universally shit to watch.
Hopefully the South Africa series will be more interesting.
Their pathetic Kookaburra ball doesn't help either, loads everything in favour of batsmen. Might as well use a hockey ball.
Happy memories of sitting in our old house one more while Stokes smeared them all over the ground.
Three years ago now. For fuck's sake.
There's a thing, should* the Test Championship not demand that the same type of ball be used everywhere? Okay so wickets aren't the same everywhere either but the ball is a different issue.
* I know it will never change.
I think they claim that the Dukes wears out in drier countries, i.e. other countries. To be honest, the Teat Championship is more of a random points table that someone has drawn up than it is an actual championship.
Yeah I tried to look at the format for it one day and to understand how they score series of different length etc. but I soon realised it wasn't worth it.
It's fucking ridiculous. There are so many instances where you can get more points for performing worse or playing shorter series.
Bob Willis is dead at 70
I’m more shocked he wasn’t nearer 85. Fucking 70?!
‘Well, Charles...’
Absolutely gutted. Was not expecting to see that when I opened up the thread.
Real shame, and no age really, a bona fide legend.
Big bad Bob. We all had some laughs at his punditry barbs but what a bowler he was. Such a shame.
Was he ill? He was on telly last week ffs.
That's really sad news. 70 is nothing nowadays.
A short illness they say. He was on the Debate at the start of the Kiwi tests so that's a heart attack or a stroke or something right?.
I've not seen a lot of his bowling. Interestingly the most "wow" moments are in Sky's recent Botham's Ashes series. He looked colossal in clips from that
Prostate cancer - I don't think he was on it in this series.
I met him once, at a local club six a side tournament where he turned up for no particular reason as far as I could see, got absolutely bladdered and then insulted everyone while handing out the prizes. Legend.
Last edited by Jimmy Floyd; 05-12-2019 at 07:23 AM.
I could've sworn he was on the first episode or two of the Debate for the first test but I may well be wrong. Doesn't matter anyway. Genuinely a bit sad about it.
RIP Bob Willis. He retired from cricket just before I started watching but his bowling statistics speak for themselves. He was good on commentary but really found his niche on The Debate. He really made that programme worth watching.
I wonder if they'll get another regular or just have two rotating guests. More Nas would be excellent.