We’ve been better under Baz at doing it but historically England have been shite at bundling out the tail. I feel like we gifted India at least 30 there, which changes the game massively in terms of the potential winner.
We’ve been better under Baz at doing it but historically England have been shite at bundling out the tail. I feel like we gifted India at least 30 there, which changes the game massively in terms of the potential winner.
250 lead needed I think. 300 to be safe.
Time to step up fat boy.
Ashwin going to end with about 7 here. Especially with the ginger gimps in next who love an LBW
I'm the most dilitentey of dilitente cricket fans, but I feel like I spent roughly 15% of my summers from 2008 to 2017 listening to TMS commentators exasperatedly describing England seamers pitching the ball too short to tailenders.Originally Posted by Ben
That Root decision is unbelievably unlucky. If I was an umpire and my not out got overturned on that I would be fuming.
Even with all the replays it just doesn’t look right. I’m not arguing the decision per se, but Dharmasena must be pretty unhappy to have that one go against his stats.
Speaking of umpires who don’t get overturned much, where the fuck is Gough these days? He’s from the same league as me so I see him chirping on Facebook semi-regularly but in the last six months he’s disappeared.
After his rapid rise, he got stung a couple of years ago when he breached covid rules in Australia. That got him on a blacklist for a while and overtaken by Kettleborough and Illingworth in the pecking order. Not sure if his actual performance has declined.
Currently doing the PSL, last big game he did was Aus v Pak Tests before Christmas.
Another Crawley innings off to a good start. Looking forward to the inevitable kiss of death
Jesus. I’m good. Or bad.
Will you shut up.
That was like a clubbie dismissal going back to spin.
Another 100 will do. If India chase 250+ on this then well batted.
Stokes gets saved by umpire call followed by India not reviewing.
So he decides to then go out for LBW and bowled in the same sequence
Rolled along the deck didn't it? Don't mind it.
I like that waff is basically 90s versions of most of us watching England. Mild optimism as Butcher gets in followed by the inevitable crushing feeling of a collapse.
They’re pretty good though. Haven’t lost a full series under Baz, have they? With a frankly quite average side as well.
Bairstow, you are a disgrace.
This team is consistently playing well above the sum of its parts. 2003-2005 and 2009-13 we had much better sides on paper. At most other times since I started watching in 1995 it has been wall-to-wall abject misery with the odd uplfting moment.
Decent effort, this. I think they only bother winning when it’s unlikely
180 might be enough.
We'll be fine as long as literally every lbw shout is given on the field when they bat.
As long as England bowl as normal, if India chase 200 or so to win this on this deck then fair play to them.
Joel Wilson best umpire in the match.
Not if the pitch plays easier in the morning again.
India clearly not wanting to bat tonight. Foakes may as well take advantage and try smash a few 6s around the ground
They'll get these 3 down no drama.
Second game in a row we have completely shat the bed on day 3. Relying on the deck now.
Stokes has put the wind up them with his absurd and deeply unintelligent comments.
Look forward to the 190/2 chase.
Bairstow running there to save a boundary as made my day.
Someone ban Waff from this thread ffs.
Man for man they are, and I am fully on board with the regime, but fuck me they have blown some brilliant positions in the last 3 series.
When they lose this 4-1 it wont be a disgrace but hopefully there are some lessons learned and they at least tone down some of the cringeworthy chat in the press.
I think the regime is great. The problem is that the players just aren't good enough, particularly the batting. Only two of the top six average more than 36. That's the sign of an OK Test team, nothing more. Bazball has made it much better than OK and one can only presume they will pummel Sri Lanka and whoever else is coming over in the summer. But in the big series you're going to get found out. We pulled the Ashes round partly because Crawley outperformed himself but more so because Chris Woakes came in and the Australians couldn't handle him. No such hacks in India so if you have a bad day there's not much to fall back on.
At the same time, it's a miracle we're doing as well as we are, and Hartley/Bashir have been outrageously successful versus expectations and experience. It's a hard thing to make sense of. Bazball works, though. Of that there is no doubt. If it didn't we'd be heading for 0-5.
The fact that we've thrown away several positions to have taken a 2-2 score into the final test shows it's working. We'd all have taken that before a ball was bowled. The 40/0 start doesn't help matters but it's possible to still win this one.
Even if we do, it’d be an asterix win. Can’t keep having a shit day in every test.
I wonder if I'll wake up in time to see India win tomorrow.
I guess that's why early Bazball was all about trying to win the game in 3 days or less, thus lowering the number of days for a shit one to occur on.
Success!
Well
Bring back KP.
I'd like to see Dan Lawrence tried in place of Bairstow in the last game. 170 at 21 from eight innings and never reaching 40 is a desperately poor return from Bairstow in a specialist batting role (Foakes, with the gloves, has near-identical numbers).
I suppose the management are faithful because of what he did in summer 2022.
They’ll play him as it its 100th Test (how has that happened?)
Would have loved to see how Brook would have got on in this series.
McCullum thinks reviews are for cowards so he wants Bairstow in there to burn some.
I'm also about to venture into the world of bat buying, although for my 11 year old daughter as she returned home from cricket with a lid and instructions to get a bat. Not sure she knows what a forward defensive is but who am I to question the modern methods? Having not bought a bat since a size 5 elite in the 90s, what a bat that was by the way, what's the crack with modem bat buying? I don't really want to go into Sports Direct although I guess they do all the slazenger V bats which were rated back in the day. I'm equally not going to be off to get a Mulberry or something, but what has become of the independent sports shop? Think the wife suggested decathlon to the coach when the instruction was given and got a suitable eye roll response.
There are various online retailers. Allrounder, AJ and Romida are the ones I know, but there must be shit tons more. Junior bat should be about £40-60 for a half decent one, probably less if you're happy for it to be shit.
My next question was going to be do you still need to knock bats in, but I see Romida offer a 'knocking in service' so I guess the answer is yes.
Is she going to be hitting (or missing) hard balls with it at that age? I know it comes in at U11 for boys, not sure about girls.
I think they're in the process of transitioning to hard ball.
I see Decathalon actually do sell bats.
Looking like a choice between them and the Mike Ashley empire if you want to hold the thing before you buy it at the moment.
There must be a shop somewhere down there. The aforementioned Romida have a place in Leatherhead which is where I always used to go before trading in the Gray Nicholls for a horrendously overpriced panama hat. Surely around Hove there must be a place.
I'm a bit up from Brighton.
There appears to be a shop in Crawley, but it looks a bit bespoke shall we say.
It's weird not being from somewhere so not knowing where the place to go is, which you would know had you been around before the days of Sports Direct et al. I guess most of these places have been driven out of business by them and the internet.
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