irishrover
Global Moderator
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 3,372 
|
Post by irishrover on Jul 12, 2015 23:20:19 GMT
Well maybe I was reading too much from the media hype here and how it was going to be a walkover. Still, I will reserve judgement until proven right/wrong! Got to say that they are missing Ryan Harris, I don't think his bowling would have been as wayward as the others. And Warner and Smith can start to pile on the runs when things go their way as started to happen in the 2nd innings. I watched a TV interview with Gideon Haig on Sunday and he made the point that Australia has not done well in 'non-Australian' conditions (think India 2013, England 2013 and Pakistan last year). More to the point they are going to have to get used to these sorts of pitches as opposition teams have worked this out. It's funny because sometimes I think the Aussies expect the Gabba or MCG pitch to be flown in especially for them. Yes, I think Aussies will moan massively about the wicket but the fact is Johnson needs pace and bounce to be effective and he's not going to get that in many places. The Aussies rightly spring loaded their tracks when they realised how badly England were dealing with it but there's no reason for anyone else to. That is the point of home advantage. I don't think Johnson is a very intelligent bowler, he has seriously effective stuff but he's very much in the 'wang it down' category - he's no Wasim Akram or Malcolm Marshall who could take wickets anywhere because they were such clever bowlers. Hazlewood is young and it's a tough ask. Only Starc has the necessary nouse and experience in English conditions. That's why they miss Harris - he could bowl on anything. Great performance by England - I felt they outdid the Aussie strategically which might be where they're quite vulnerable. Lehman has done a brilliant job of getting all his players to relax and play naturally but if you prepare pitches and tactics to make that difficult that's a potentially big problem for them. Let's see how they respond at Lords - they traditionally do very well there. |
|
|
|
Post by nickchippenhamgas on Jul 13, 2015 5:34:12 GMT
Any updates for us?   I'm glad to have been proved wrong-for this match!!! Let's try and make me eat humble pie for the next four?? I still feel being captain is hampering Cooks run scoring, so please God, never ever make Joe Root captain, please!!!!!  ? |
|
irishrover
Global Moderator
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 3,372
|
Post by irishrover on Jul 13, 2015 9:35:13 GMT
I'm glad to have been proved wrong-for this match!!! Let's try and make me eat humble pie for the next four?? I still feel being captain is hampering Cooks run scoring, so please God, never ever make Joe Root captain, please!!!!! ? The England captain run scoring problem is something of a self fulfilling prophecy in my opinion. We put far too much importance than we need to on the captain and the result of that is they feel a ridiculous amount of pressure on behalf of both themselves and the team and so their form (and often mental health) suffers. Compare that to the Aussie approach where they traditionally don't put a great deal of importance by the captain and their guys rarely suffer dips in form when given the responsibility. The Captain is only an important position in English cricket because we have made it so - really in international cricket captaincy should be a piece of piss. You have a massive support staff, you have bowlers at the top of their game who should know exactly what lines to bowl to each batsman and where to set fielders for each situation. It's not like my experience of captaincy - having to desperately ring round someone's contact book because my opening bowler has gone AWOL 25 minutes before the start of the match and half my team don't know what the fielding positions are..... |
|
Bridgeman
Alfie Biggs
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 3,549
|
Post by Bridgeman on Jul 13, 2015 10:54:49 GMT
I'm glad to have been proved wrong-for this match!!! Let's try and make me eat humble pie for the next four?? I still feel being captain is hampering Cooks run scoring, so please God, never ever make Joe Root captain, please!!!!! ? Yeah, just look what happened to Botham. Honestly why anyone would want to be captain I'm not really sure but as Beefy said, when he was offered the job at 24/25 it was impossible to say no ! Interestingly when Botham was interviewed in Cardiff after the game he said he thought Cook would make a very good captain in about 2 years time ! Well according to most pundits and journalists England would be lucky to get a draw so a huge plus for us so no disgrace to you for your prediction, as you said lets hope they keep proving everybody wrong. |
|
|
|
Post by nickchippenhamgas on Jul 14, 2015 15:57:27 GMT
Thanks guys for being 'gentle' with me!!! I think the biggest problem we have in our game at the moment is lack of choice, if they did relieve cook of the captaincy then who would step in? Morgan's the only choice that I can see, but please let's leave Root alone he is a world super star in the making, but he needs to be free to carry himself forward in his career!!!
|
|
Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2015 21:40:21 GMT
Morgan is not an option. He isn't test standard. Its a fallacy that bring captain harms a batsman. Being captain of a s**t team might, being captain of a competitive one doesn't. Cook's doing fine.
If Cook got injured it'd be Bell in the short term I think. Possibly Root or Broad.
|
|
Bridgeman
Alfie Biggs
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 3,549
|
Post by Bridgeman on Jul 15, 2015 0:08:17 GMT
I like Morgan's approach to the game but as you've rightly pointed out he isn't up to the 5 day test standard game. If you relieved Cook of the Captaincy (although I don't see any reason to as he completely out captained Michael Clarke), it would have to be either Bell or Broad although Broad hasn't proved himself that successful as England captain in the shorter form of the game. ps....if Morgan were Captain I wonder if he would sing the National Anthem at the start of the game ?!  |
|
Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2015 15:39:15 GMT
Not a great day for England so far, no wickets apart from a free one from David Warner.
|
|
irishrover
Global Moderator
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 3,372
|
Post by irishrover on Jul 16, 2015 16:19:30 GMT
Not a great day for England so far, no wickets apart from a free one from David Warner. Seems a completely dead track the Aussies one the toss. Not sure England are massively at fault. Disapointing really - end of Day 1 and realistically only 1 team can win the game and that was the team that won the toss. This is going to be a big Test for England's still somewhat fragile top order - boots need to be well and truly filled on Friday and Saturday if the Aussies are going to be prevented from squaring the series up. |
|
|
|
Post by lostinspace on Jul 16, 2015 17:25:13 GMT
think England have done quite well to restrict the Aussies to under 4 an over today, the wicket was a bonus really as, had he stayed, that was where the fireworks would have come from and Aussie would have been well into 400 by tonights end of play, but think the pitch may get a tad quicker by last session Friday when i think Aussie will be looking to declare with 600 + on the board with 40 minutes of Starc and Johnstone having a carefree blast
|
|
Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2015 19:11:22 GMT
If conditions remain fair and the pitch holds together, there's not much hope of either side taking 20 wickets in my opinion.
|
|
irishrover
Global Moderator
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 3,372
|
Post by irishrover on Jul 16, 2015 20:14:58 GMT
If conditions remain fair and the pitch holds together, there's not much hope of either side taking 20 wickets in my opinion. In theory that should be true but scoreboard pressure can do some funny things. If we get a poor start and find ourselves 20-2, 50-3 etc then there's suddenly that looks a massive ask no matter how good the pitch is. That's why our top order need to deliver here. We have a nice lower middle order but they're not the type of players you want to rely on to see out a day and a half to save a Test. |
|
|
|
Post by mentors on Jul 16, 2015 21:14:47 GMT
If conditions remain fair and the pitch holds together, there's not much hope of either side taking 20 wickets in my opinion. In theory that should be true but scoreboard pressure can do some funny things. If we get a poor start and find ourselves 20-2, 50-3 etc then there's suddenly that looks a massive ask no matter how good the pitch is. That's why our top order need to deliver here. We have a nice lower middle order but they're not the type of players you want to rely on to see out a day and a half to save a Test. Slow low but significant turn on the last day I think...would certainly be to our advantage to have all ten wickets in hand at the start of play |
|
irishrover
Global Moderator
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 3,372
|
Post by irishrover on Jul 17, 2015 0:20:14 GMT
In theory that should be true but scoreboard pressure can do some funny things. If we get a poor start and find ourselves 20-2, 50-3 etc then there's suddenly that looks a massive ask no matter how good the pitch is. That's why our top order need to deliver here. We have a nice lower middle order but they're not the type of players you want to rely on to see out a day and a half to save a Test. Slow low but significant turn on the last day I think...would certainly be to our advantage to have all ten wickets in hand at the start of play Logically you'd think that and historically it would normally be true of Lord's. However, the home of cricket has been a spinner's graveyard for quite some years now. At least since they relayed the pitch to get rid of the ridge - hasn't been a significant performance from a spinner for a while now. Swann always said he didn't like bowling there. |
|
|
|
Post by Geelong Gas on Jul 17, 2015 0:22:18 GMT
'Scoreboard pressure', you sound like an Aussie! They love that term over here especially when the opposition team is on a slow run rate and struggling to get to the target.
|
|
irishrover
Global Moderator
Joined: June 2014
Posts: 3,372
|
Post by irishrover on Jul 17, 2015 0:49:12 GMT
'Scoreboard pressure', you sound like an Aussie! They love that term over here especially when the opposition team is on a slow run rate and struggling to get to the target. Ah well I was coached and socialised into the game in the mid-late 90s when English cricket was utterly obsessed with aping everything Australian so I probably did swallow of those type of buzzwords! It's also where we got 'bowling in the right areas' from too I believe. Very dark era in English cricket that - we decided that an 'Aussie attitude' is what we needed to instill in our young players - not improving batting, bowling and fielding it was all about the attitude apparently. Worst example of this I ever came across was playing in an Under 13's representative game in Somerset I got bollocked by my coach because I clapped the batsmen in (standard practice in junior cricket). Apparently this sent 'the wrong message' and showed I wasn't competitive enough ....Seriously, the bulls**t the English cricket establishment swallowed during that period was staggering. We were told not to smile on the pitch. Utterly ridiculous. A lot of it came from Dermot Reeve (whose Warwickshire team because disproportionately influential despite basically only being successful because they had Alan Donald or Brian Lara playing for them) - came as no surprise to me when he later admitted to being so high on coke throughout most of the 90s that he couldn't remember most of what had happened. It wasn't even the way Australians actually play the game, just the way idiots at the ECB thought they did. Nevertheless 'scoreboard pressure' is a very useful phrase and rings true to me I think from playing experience and from watching these sort of situations in which in theory the conditions should favour the batting side heavily but the match situation clearly gets to a side. |
|
Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2015 15:16:59 GMT
Not the best start, 0/1.
|
|
Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2015 16:07:11 GMT
It'll be some salvage operation to save it from here! 30/4
|
|
|
|
Post by lostinspace on Jul 17, 2015 17:11:33 GMT
somebody turn the headlights off,,, or this will be over by this time Saturday ffs!!!
|
|
|
|
Post by lostinspace on Jul 17, 2015 17:30:18 GMT
don't hear too much of MV'S its the Yorkshire lot doing it again!!! only this time they have tossed this game away..... was always going to be difficult but to just surrender like this............. well!!!
|
|
?
