Shittest nightwatchman ever.
Shittest nightwatchman ever.
8 off 7 this time
What a tit.
That sounds like the greatest run-out of all time.
Pakistan gave a 39 year old opener his international debut. Classic Pakistan
Good to see Billings come to the party, great talent.
There's a Scottish-Pakistani guy at work who just thinks Pakistan doing stuff like that (didn't they start an aged spinner for the first time recently as well?) is the best thing.
Between that, Imran Tahir's nightwatchmanship, and the comedy run out to end all comedy run outs, it's been a superb 24 hours for Pakistan comedy.Originally Posted by Max Power
Pakistan gave a 39 year old opener his international debut. Classic Pakistan
Both of them racing to the same end so the other one is out. Great scenes.
Time to whip out one of Youtube's greatest videos.
Tea and Dinner being the sessions in this day night test
The gift that keeps on giving.
Going well for New Zealand again by the looks of things.
He just doesn't care
What are your opinions on the day/night test? I quite like it, and would love to watch one one day.
I don't get why they are using a pink ball.... why not just use white? Pink isn't actually that easy to see when there is a crowd background, especially, when it's moving fast.
I had a cricket ball manufacturer bore me shitless about different coloured balls on Tuesday night so I can explain all. The red ball is the only colour of ball that retains its shine over a long form innings because it's the only dye which is light enough to see, but dark enough to allow use of the lachre which makes it stay shiny and hard for longer.
The pink ball can probably get closer than the white ball to the above, but still nowhere near the red. I've used orange balls before which are similar to the pink.
Basically, day/night Tests won't work unless you are willing to use a shit ball.
Because 1) they wear white and 2) the white ball might as well be entirely cork after about 40 overs.
They can't get a white ball to last 50 overs, let alone 80. Heck, they switched to 25 overs a ball in ODI cricket and they're still shithouse by over 40.
There's not been anything shit about the ball so far in this game to be fair. It's actually lasting better than the red Kookaburra, although that's probably just because there's actually some grass on the pitch this game.
It's certainly great for visibility on TV. Very easy to spot. So far seems to move as much as the Duke when it's new and the conditions are favourable, but it doesn't have the late innings legs that the Duke does - once the lacquer goes and you start knocking off the paint, you need to be able to seam or spin it. No problem there as long as the seam lasts, which it seems to be so far.
I didn't think I'd be in favour, but I've come around to the idea of day/night tests. I got home from work and had a chance to watch some test cricket. That alone basically won me over.
Also, the Australian physio did some substitute fielding in the afternoon. That's a thing that happened.
I think we need to be very resistant to doing it in England, a) because we don't need to, b) because it's cold as fuck and c) because Michael Vaughan loves it.
Well up for them trying it elsewhere although the old pink ball on shit pitches like the Caribbean could lead to some truly dreadful cricket.
I'd love to see it happen over here. The vibe in the evening would be pretty epic.
Would also work well climate wise.
Woakes to Afridi at the death
Great big choke from Woakes.
Edit: thank god he did his usual.
I love Woakes but come on mates, there must be 200 better death bowlers in England, many of whom aren't even professionals.
Darren Lehmann's son currently 184* for South Australia.
The Big Bash must be coming around soon. Groan. I mean, it's great fun, but too many lurid green snapbacks at 7am can make a man ill.
It is. The positive spin on not picking Rashid for SA is hes going to the Big Bash.
The pink ball is probably going to get the blame for this test being over in three days, but the braindead batting has been the actual culprit.
Captain charging the spinner 5 down for less than 100
Getting spannered by New Zealand ought to put pay to this as a format. Come on Kiwi!
That's an absolutely abysmal shot by Latham. Lyth-esque.
Might as well skip 4 day tests and go straight for the 3 day format.
It's that testosterone I was on about.
Just seen that Lyon DRS 'controversy'.
Did they not have real time snicko or whatever it is called? Aw mate, that hotspot could have come from anywhere . . .
Probably fairly pivotal in the match.
I've been too busy seething at India bringing up 'greentops' that they have to bat on worldwide as justification for the series of minefields they have wheeled out to welcome the admittedly inept South Africans.
That Ravi Shastri is now apparently in charge of all things India just makes it worse. The bad news for us is that we're going there next winter, and this time we don't have Swann and Panesar. Getting whitewashed by Shastri and his tracer bullets might be the end of times.
Oh, it was bloody Nigel Llong being a twat. No surprise. Everyone in county cricket absolutely hates him.
The Guardian had a change of heart over the course of the afternoon:
... Fast forward to the end of play ...NOT OUT! Lyon survives
That was Lyon’s third sweep in almost as many balls and he definitely didn’t hit it but geez, calm down Lyono. Where’s the fire? Also, any danger that decision could have taken a little less time than the Godfather trilogy? Absurd.
Wankers.There will be plenty of focus on Nigel Llong’s inexplicable decision to reprieve Nathan Lyon.
They did, but it didn't show anything, which was the whole point.Just seen that Lyon DRS 'controversy'.
Did they not have real time snicko or whatever it is called? Aw mate, that hotspot could have come from anywhere . . .
Probably fairly pivotal in the match.
Didn't we have an issue in the Ashes of a pretty clear wrong decision not being overturned because two technologies couldn't agree, so there wasn't incontrovertible evidence that the decision was wrong? I remember talking about something like that.
The funniest part was probably the ball tracking review that they checked obviously being from the ball before, but nobody noticing. Played, umpire.
Yeah, was Root out LBW having looked like he hit it? I can't quite recall.
I've only seen the Lyon one once, so don't know if it's right or not. I just thought the 3rd umpires reaction, although I may have been paraphrasing, was quite funny.
Boult nicking off Voges has just made this slightly more interesting.
Finish. Kinda surprised Starc didn't just look at Siddle and go "you fucking what, mate?" when he called for the second run there.
Why did they send Starc in? For bantz?
The Channel 9 crew was in constant orgasm for the last 90 minutes or so.
I think they rated him as a much, much better chance of not getting out than the other two.
The only thing that Pakistani super over was missing was a run out. In the era of hyper-professionalism their commitment to shambolic amateurism really is a breath of fresh air. Even borking the (simple) chance to run Buttler out right at the end.
That was so fucking Pakistan. Needed 9 off 5, stupidly let the tailender on strike, he hits a six, 3 off 4, then 2 off 2 with the senior set batsman 75* on strike, then he completely bottles it and then in the super over they got bat to ball what, once?
An absolutely tremendous Cricinfo piece on Surrey's season here, which obviously is of greater interest to me but there are some brilliant anecdotes in it about various players including Sangakkara, Pietersen and Dernbach. Jade actually I'm getting the first good vibes out of for his whole career in the last six months, should we take him to the World T20?
http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/sto...-hell-and-back
As ever with Sangakkara, there is the quantifiable - seven hundreds (five Championship, two List A) contributing to a luscious lorryload of runs. And then there is the intangible: the acts of goodwill that warrant filing next to Chuck Norris' ability to kill two stones with one bird. Only, with Sangakkara, a fair few of these are true.
Like, when out for dinner with his team-mates, Sangakkara would make an excuse to go to the bathroom or take a call and return having settled the bill. Or that on the eve of the Royal London Cup final, sensing that the bowlers needed rest, he ran in and bowled seam-up till each remaining batsman was satisfied.
It's bloody brilliant. Peak South Africa. They must have put AB on ketamine before he went out there.
Partnership between two of the best players in all formats of the modern era is ticking along at 0.78 rpo. Great stuff.
De Villiers has form for this though? Didn't he absolutely crawl to 30 off like 20,000 balls against Australia. Got to love a sport (and a man) where someone can play like that when the situation dictates and also reel off a 33 ball century
I guess they knew the middle/tail didn't have it in them to last out.
I really hoped South Africa could hold out all day.
So, the Indian pitches. Taking the piss? Or reasonable leverage of home ground advantage?
Andy Zaltzman did a piece in which he showed that they were statistically the worst for batting ever produced for a series in India by an absolute mile, i.e. a total outlier (and Ravi Shastri defending them is kind of a giveaway) but South Africa didn't exactly help themselves.
It can't be helping India though can it? Yeah they beat everyone at home (except England in 2012 of course) but they are a total embrassment away from home. Maybe the worst touring side in the world and that has to improve for a nation of their size and resource.
I'm not saying greentops at Eden Gardens or anything. Just maybe some middle ground might help them adapt better on the road.
The 2012 England tour was proper comedy capers from the outset, perhaps my favourite away England tour ever. I think there's something with Indians in not only talking in clumsy clichés but also viewing the sport entirely through them, when in fact it's a subtle game that is won and lost on little moments. So we came over with a reputation of not being able to play spin, and as I recall they then fielded some sort of warm-up side with no spinners in it, which is a bit like inviting someone to a party at your house and then offering them a glass of your own urine.
They won the first Test in Ahmedabad, and then convinced themselves it was because England couldn't play spin, rather than the fact that we inexplicably picked Bresnan on a flat dead one and then flogged ourselves in the field for two days. Dhoni then ordered a raging turner for the second Test at Mumbai, with hilarious consequences as their batting lineup was duly spun out twice by our far superior pair, and Pietersen scored that ridiculous ton. On to Calcutta and by now they were so obsessed with pitches that didn't they end up sacking the local groundsmen or something when he refused their demands to create another rank turner? Anyway, we won that too and they were so cooked pitch-wise that for the fourth Test, needing a win, Nagpur rolled out the flattest, deadest pitch in Test history, and I think that was actually Joe Root's debut as well.
I can't really understand that mindset. Just find whatever pitch is there and play good cricket on it. The fact that they convince themselves that England, Australia and South Africa roll out green seamers for them whenever they tour is hilarious as well. No, chaps, you're just shit.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote