I'm unable to watch any of today's play. What's going on? Pitch gone flat or bowling like twats?
I'm unable to watch any of today's play. What's going on? Pitch gone flat or bowling like twats?
Mostly Bangladesh playing well, but also our spinners a bit off it and Cook being a negative dweeb. Pitch is ragging. Gaz Batts has just ridden in on his golden steed of fury to get his second one from around the wicket.
I'm calling it now. This will end in a tie
Broad's sheer barrage of nonsense appeals and terrible reviews seems to be winning the day for us.
Opening the bowling with pace from both ends...
New ball after this over. Better chuck it to the spinners Cook ffs
Sticking with the old ball, sticking with Broad. Hmmmmm
Oh shit never thought that was out in real time. Still get spin on at the other end
Great stuff from Stokes. Absolute gun player.
Back to bed
Commentators who refer to "script-writers" should get the exact same (very severe) punishment as those who talk about "tracer bullets".
Take that, Deshi's.
Great Test match. More teams should play Bangladesh. I don't understand why they don't.
Looks like our team in Dhaka will be thus:
Cook
Duckett
Root
Ballance
Moeen
Stokes
Bairstow
Woakes
Ansari
Rashid
Ball/Finn
The amount of batting in that side is farcical. Zaf could bat above Woakes comfortably. Bats, like, 4 for Surrey.
Is he a good bowler though?
Ballance gets a stay of excecution.
Yes, albeit with limitations. He doesn't have a pretty action and get lavish drift and dip like Monty or Herath, but he keeps it in an area and doesn't bowl too many bad balls. He'll probably get a bit of grip on these decks as well.
He's also one of the best fielders in the country. There was a lot of outcry that they didn't take Leach from Somerset who took more wickets in the summer but to be honest, if you're looking for an England cricketer, I think Ansari is the better option.
It's good to get a left armer for balance and we do need at least one of the spinners to be consistently accurate (thought Batty would do that tbh but even his lengths were a bit off). Just hope he isn't being picked over Leach because of BATTING DEPTH because we really don't need it.
Bit weird that Broad is being 'rested' after one Test and Woakes isn't when the latter played all the ODIs as well.
I think he's being picked over Leach because he's shown promise to be an international class player over a period of time, whereas Leach has basically had about 10 good games out of almost nowhere. Same reason Keaton Jennings wasn't picked. I also fear there might be a touch of the Kerrigans about Leach, having seen him a couple of times.
The batting is where they're fucking up, if Hameed comes in for Gaz Baz in Vizagapatnam or somewhere with the team 1-0 down against a rampaging Ashwin and Kohli then good luck kiddo.
I read something where apparently Chris Rodgers said Leach wasn't there mentally.
Edit: "Even Leach's captain at Somerset, Chris Rogers, remarked that "emotionally, he still has a bit of a way to go" before he would consider him suitable for selection. He will instead be given an opportunity to familiarise himself with the England environment as part of the Lions programme."
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/conte...y/1063416.html
Watching this today it's only just dawned on me how massively we are going to get smashed by India
Cook trusts all four of the spinners on this trip (and all the ones in the country, presumably) so little that we're going to end up bowling far too much seam in humid conditions, one of them will get injured and it'll all go to pot.
I've never seen Ansari bowl as many full bungers as he did in his spell earlier. He tends to be a little short if anything. I would say it's nerves, but then Moeen still does it after 30 odd Tests.
Bangladesh are going to bottle even this start, aren't they.
Dunno about bottling it but they may blow a golden chance to bat England out of the game.
Rashid and Mo have bowled better this session. More consistent.
Stokes is a beast. Have to make sure we don't overwork him. He's a prime candidate to break down half way through the India series.
Bangladesh 231 all out, England 798/3 dec (Moeen 401*), Bangladesh 123 all out (Moeen 8/21). England won by an innings and 454 runs.
Incredible spell from Stokes and Ali. Peak Mongladesh though.
Dharmesena with another plumb decision overturned. He really is pish.
England cricket twitter is such a marvellous thing. Literally an hour ago, these were the worst bowlers ever and Jack Leach was like Murali/Warne with a sprinkling of Bishen Bedi. Now, it's incredibly quiet. It's like we thrive on failure.
Utterly vile effort from the 'desh after being 171 for 1, mind.
Don't think the pitch is as good as that partnership and England's bowling made it look, but Jesus this is some collapse.
Hope Moeen gets five for to silence the HATERZ
Yes Mo
England's best bowlers this series both bat in the top six. If we had one quality front line spinner team would be looking very good.
Trying to think if I've seen anything good around the counties, but the answer is probably no. All the Leach, Rayner etc options that people mention would in reality be just like this lot, but without the extra batting credentials.
Mason Crane looks good but you never know what will happen to leggies.
The reality is that England have had three world class spinners since the war, and one of those was Deadly who was kind of his own genre of bowler.
I have to say, there's a huge lobby out there which states we have to play an attacking brand of cricket and score quickly against the new ball yadder yadder, but I think it's total horseshit. We're constantly 20 for 2 in all conditions against all attacks. Hameed has to come in and open alongside Chef.
Cook is usually getting out in that early cluster and he's hardly Sehwag.
Do think they missed a trick by not blooding Hameed before India though. Ballance nailed on for a career saving 65 here as well btw.
Or not
Mehedi is class, hope they get enough Test matches that he can really flourish into a top class bowler.
Two down when I started work, what the fuck Bangladesh
Gaz Baz record this year slips behind that of NRD Compton.
Meanwhile in Australia:
'As well'Australia's deplorable batting displays in Sri Lanka have apparently cost Jackson Bird a place in the Test team, after the South Australia seamer and lower order batsman Joe Mennie vaulted several other contenders to take the last place in the squad to face South Africa in the first Test at the WACA Ground.
"I talked to Jackson again this morning and I said to Jackson the thing that probably cost him a place was his batting," Marsh said in Perth. "We've got to get runs at the bottom of the order as well, particularly against a very good attack."
Joe Mennie is legit rubbish.
"Probably". Like he isn't sure of his own reasons for dropping him
Enjoying all this Mitchell Johnson/Michael Clarke book stuff as well.
I feel that the Gabba crowd is now justified booing Clarke a few times as he walked out to bat as Australian captain.
Another cracking Test match. Chasing more than 25 might be a bit hairy though
I know we play spin like it's nuclear waste, but Mehedi Hasan really is quality.
Yeah he's a class apart. Looks to have a great temperament as well.
lol they've called Ansari 'Zafar' in the caption like he's some legit Pakistani. He's from Egham and talks like Prince William.
The fabled BATTING DEPTH might just save the day. Ansari in at 8, Rashid with 10 FC hundreds and an average of 35 in at number ten!
Athar Ali Khan has rocked up in a pink bow tie, so nothing else matters anymore.
Game over
I have to say, I'm really not convinced how much better the Indian spinners are than these ones. Their batsmen just won't collapse like a pack of cards.
Ballance still being in the team is the usual reckless shite.
The long lineup earning its corn even with these burgled runs. Within 40 would be a result.
Kamrul Islam Rabbi Priest into the attack. A minor victory.
I'm trying to work out if he's the worst seamer I've seen play Tests. Does Stuart Binny count?
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