The only good thing about this turn is that it's going to bring Gaz Batts into the game
The only good thing about this turn is that it's going to bring Gaz Batts into the game
I'm also quite open to the idea of a late Moeen Ali push for Sports Personality of the Year.
He'll always be Sports Personality of my heart.
Another crucial knock yet you look on twitter pre match and there's plenty of mugs trying to drop him
I saw someone trying to drop Bairstow on there yesterday and bring in Buttler. Some people will stop at nothing to be idiots. Another favourite category of selection moron is those who want Ansari instead of Batty because 'we don't have a spinner who turns it away from the bat', failing to note a) that we do, and b) that half the deshis are left handed.
Yeah because Bairstow has been really scratchy in the last 12-18 months...
Runs coming easier now. Get the Bangla's head dropping and 300+ is on the cards. Would be a very good total.
If we can bluff our way to 300 or even 280 that would be a good start. Looks a runs on the board pitch to me. I wouldn't buy too much into this stuff about our long tail, Broad is a walking wicket and Batty isn't that great.
My main concern is if Moeen/Rash go the distance, Gaz Batts will have to bowl thousands of overs and Broad/Woakes sweat their pretty faces off for the half inch of reverse swing that may or may not be on offer for about a five over window.
From the football thread:
You what? Is this on the test coverage?Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
Of Australia v South Africa, yes, and they have the right for the next away Ashes.
BT have all Australia based cricket now. Starting with the South Africa series I believe.
They seem to have gone down the banter bus route which is a shame. Also a shame because Sky's coverage is very good imo.
Sky will probably phase out Botham/Bumble/Holding soon enough and replace them with Key/Butcher/Cork, which wouldn't be a bad trade to be honest, even if the older three all have their charms. I like how they've resisted the temptation to get the trio of unmentionable twats above involved as well.
I could watch Hussain/Atherton talk to Gower about anything for weeks.
Key and Butcher are good but Cork is a massive twat.
Sir Beef really needs putting out to pasture and Nick Knight needs firing into the sun
Sky are at a point where they generally seem to make the right choice. I thought Strauss would be shit and too close to the players but he was solid enough as well. Warne might be the biggest mistake.
The Indian guy whose name totally escapes me is good on the Verdict with Lord Bob as well.
Nick Knight's commentary has done a great public service by making KP seethe so hard he got fined.
Still, a tour of India is coming up and Ravi Shastri is back in the box, so me and my cousin against the world and all that. I put their one dayer on the other day to find Laxman Sivaramakrishnan referring to MS Dhoni as a 'leadership genius'. Ugh.
Even Sanjay Manjrekar, who I used to think was alright, is in full on Pravda mode these days. IIRC he gently criticised the BCCI a while back and got benched so now he's just another insufferable sychophant.
They seem to have sent Harsha Bhogle to the gulag, which is a pity as I quite liked him.
Pietersen is a bit of a chameleon commentator from what I've seen - when he's with a team that is thoughtful and incisive and he can be a great contributor; put him with Warney and Slats and he'll be Bantersaurus Rex.
Dharmasena
Mahmudullah is probably the absolute king of all England's bogey players. Literally cannot stand the sight of him.
My word Dharma is having an absolute shockerAll a big conspiracy to get India to adopt DRS for the next series?
Outstanding work Jim.
It only works when you really fucking mean it.
I never got it to work for Brad fucking Haddin
I think Brad has superpowers, much like Andy Bichel.
Imagine playing Rashid as your main spinner, it'd be like your daughter bringing home a different boy each evening. Terrifying and wrong, but you know a good one's statistically on the way.
Batty looking properly innocuous here. Can he at least scream in someone's face?
And he nips Tamim out. Reverse jinx everywhere
You see? You see?
That one he pushes through is his chief weapon, especially to left handers who are always trying to milk him out to deep cover.
I know I won't find a lot of opposition to this idea here, but Misbah-ul-Haq deserves to be remembered as one of the all-time great cricketers.
This Mehedi Hasan I think is the first player Bangladesh have produced who's going to be properly world class. Shakib is good and all in a more prosaic way, but this kid is special.
His accuracy is incredible, I think I've seen him bowl short like twice in all the overs I've seen him bowl this test.
Can't call this one. What total will be enough? Part of me thinks Bangladesh will bottle anything in three figures because they are Bangladesh but probably 200 lead minimum.
Yeah, I was thinking 180+ and Bangladesh will bottle it. ODIs are one thing but they have won fuck all Tests, especially Tests against proper teams.
Would be tempted to call Baz Gaz unlucky there, but he didn't really commit to the shot and that's why that field is set to him. Still, 1 and 9, piss off and get Hameed in please.
Our top order is quite reliably shit these days.
He's just so tentative all the time. Nailed to the crease, tapping full tosses to midwicket and even his sweep is a bit wishy washy.
Ali/Stokes/Bairstow is where the magic happens anyway. Fancy a trademark Woakesy 40 odd as well.
Those must be the most nonsenical rankings in all of sport.
Great to see master blaster Rangy Herath on there.
Pitch looks like you want to bowl spin with the new ball and seam with the old, reversing ball. Gives England the edge as we actually have good seamers who can use the old ball. Need to get a score though.
The more I think about this Ballance selection, the more it winds me up because not only is it based on absolutely nothing other than pure, undiluted caution, but in order to reverse it for Dhaka they'll have to fuck around with Duckett, and if they want to reverse it for India they'll be asking Hameed to debut there in the toughest cauldron there is for an English player.
What were they expecting, a sparkling ton from the Harare Hutton?
They've done it fairly consistently recently. Given players one series/match too many. Even in the NEW ERA.
Maybe thought Desh would prepare roads in the hope of a 0-0 draw and Ballance could rack up some runs and gain confidence.
I think they might pick Buttler you know.
I still don't understand what makes people think Jos Buttler is going to improve on his first class average of 32 if brought back into the Test side. It's probably because they just don't watch/follow any cricket other than internationals and therefore don't understand the completely different skillset required in the different formats.
In a limited overs game you have x number of balls and it's down to the batsman to score as many as he can, which Buttler is world class at doing. In the first class game it's down to the bowler to get the batsman out, because there is as much time as the batsman needs. These are two completely different forms of batting, some like Root can transfer across both, others are only good at one. They used to get it wrong in the other direction by picking Cook in ODIs, why is this different?
It's Eoin Morgan all over again, but more so.
I have always agreed with that point of view but everytime I watch him bat it gets chipped away. He's just such an absurd talent I can't help but feel he'd succeed.
He's an absurd talent at hitting bowlers who are trying to defend against him with limited resources and knowing the time limit. Is he an absurd talent at overcoming bowlers who have a free run at him with no field restrictions or time limit? I'm not so sure.
If he was a great gloveman I'd run with it at number 7 but he isn't.
I'd still go Hameed but I understand the temptation to play Buttler. Literally anything is better than Ballance at this point anyway.
Right, they've brought a seamer on, we've won.
Stokes in huge credit.
Staggered that this Kamrul twat has been chucked the ball again. Absolute garbage
Just bowl spin. Any spin.
I can't see us losing now, Bangladesh will regret being skittled so easily in today's first session.
It must be great standing next to Wee Jimmy Taylor.
These two just sneaking onto this list of 6th wicket partnerships: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/eng...sults;type=fow
The third one down
I've been debating during this Test match how many of the 18 first class counties would put Kamrul Islam into their squad, were he English, and I have concluded that the answer is none.
Great knock from Stokes. Didn't fancy him in Asia with bat or ball tbh but hopefully this is sign of things to come.
When he gets those innies going he is dangerous as hell. Quite an underrated bowler really and allows us to play that third spinner without having to worry about balance (Woakes also helpful in that regard).
Gaz Batts and Moeen tearing shit up. Rashid looks pretty impotent in comparison.
Wonder how close the desh will have to get to the target before chef realises that 'let's try to get it reversing' is not a matchwinning strategy.
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