International cricket thread

Squatter

England beaten comprehensively by India in the first 10 minutes of play this morning. Well done to the Injuns for fighting back so well from 0 - 2 down. Joe Root's decision to insert them certainly misfired. I blame him and the selectors for recalling the rusty Stokes (who did OK) and dropping Curran - there was no real need to change a winning team and it's always useful to have a left arm quickie for a bit of variety.

Squatter

Squatter wrote: »

England beaten comprehensively by India in the first 10 minutes of play this morning. Well done to the Injuns for fighting back so well from 0 - 2 down. Joe Root's decision to insert them certainly misfired. I blame him and the selectors for recalling the rusty Stokes (who did OK) and dropping Curran - there was no real need to change a winning team and it's always useful to have a left arm quickie for a bit of variety.

it comes back to the old dilemma of do you play your strongest team, or don't change a team that is winning.

I think it was a bit more than that though. The Trent Bridge pitch gave nothing to the bowlers and they seems bereft of ideas, whereas the Indian bowlers seemed to get some sort of movement and a lot of pace.

Squatter

Aegir wrote: »

it comes back to the old dilemma of do you play your strongest team, or don't change a team that is winning.

I think it was a bit more than that though. The Trent Bridge pitch gave nothing to the bowlers and they seems bereft of ideas, whereas the Indian bowlers seemed to get some sort of movement and a lot of pace.

And there were a few howlers in the field! At the moment, the English slip cordon probably couldn't catch clap in a Tijuana brothel!

Squatter

Squatter wrote: »

And there were a few howlers in the field! At the moment, the English slip cordon probably couldn't catch clap in a Tijuana brothel!

number rule of cricket. Catches win matches

Beasty

Pretty impressive T20 bowling for Barbados in the Caribbean Premier League last night.

Mohammad Ifran opened the bowling in the Powerplay and continued straight through hid four overs, taking Chris Gayle's wicket with his first ball. Not a single run scored off him until a single from his 24th ball#

4 overs, 3 maidens, 2 wickets, 1 run

Best ever T20 bowling figures....
…. and he was still on the losing side

Beasty

And tonight Irfan's first ball goes for a 4...

Squatter

Beasty wrote: »

Mohammad Ifran opened the bowling in the Powerplay and continued straight through hid four overs, taking Chris Gayle's wicket with his first ball. Not a single run scored off him until a single from his 24th ball#

…. and he was still on the losing side

Was half-watching it while nodding off on the sofa - Irfan was unplayable!

They lost it thanks to the 10 and 11th overs when the bowling of Stephen Smith (27) and Raymo Reifer (22) gave the opposition 49 handy runs!

The Patriots' score went from 31/2 from 9 over to 93/2, only 3 overs later!

(Smith was out for a duck last night too - so not the best 24 hours of his illustrious career!)

Slim Charles

Ladbrokes were offering 10/11 Jennings to score less than 20.5 runs....couldn't be arsed as she has me depositing to paypal and from there to LB to keep betting off the bank account and it was about 10.58 so left it off. Bollocks.

Slim Charles

Slim Charles wrote: »

Ladbrokes were offering 10/11 Jennings to score less than 20.5 runs....couldn't be arsed as she has me depositing to paypal and from there to LB to keep betting off the bank account and it was about 10.58 so left it off. Bollocks.

in fairness to Jennings, that one would have caught most batsmen out, absolute snorter of a ball

Slim Charles

Aegir wrote: »

in fairness to Jennings, that one would have caught most batsmen out, absolute snorter of a ball

Not criticising him for that at all, though I still wouldn't expect him to get much further regardless of a delivery like that.

Turnipman

Bumrah gets Root LBW, only to have over-stepped. Gets him again and Roots wastes a review. Great start to the game. Strange times when India can field such a top class pace attack!

Mid-afternoon update: England have struggled to 101/6/39 against some pretty good Indian bowling. Stokes has followed Root's bad example by wasting their second review on a plumb lbw.

One of the Sky commentators mentioned in passing that so far in this series England have used 18 reviews and have succeeded with 2!


17.05 Rashid has been given out lbw to a ball that would have missed leg stump - but no reviews left so he had to go!

BarryD2

Nicely poised test between Ind & Eng. Anything could happen, who dares wins.

Rjd2

So India need wickets and they keep bowling Ashwin.:pac:

Inquitus

England edging towards a decent defensible total here, lead of 179 and 4 wickets in hand, I reckon 250 might well be enough, there is a lot in this pitch for Ali.

BarryD2

Inquitus wrote: »

England edging towards a decent defensible total here, lead of 179 and 4 wickets in hand, I reckon 250 might well be enough, there is a lot in this pitch for Ali.

Surely Ind are as good at playing spin as anyone and looks like they’ll have plenty of time. Should be a result one way or the other at least.

Inquitus

BarryD2 wrote: »

Surely Ind are as good at playing spin as anyone and looks like they’ll have plenty of time. Should be a result one way or the other at least.

Well Ali took a 5fer in the first innings, and the pitch is displaying variable bounce, lots of turn as well as playing very slow.

Royale with Cheese

I'm hoping England can put on about 30-40 this morning. No more, no less, Would make for a great chase.

alchemist33

India 22 for 3 and doing a good impression of themselves in the first two tests

riffmongous

Up to Kohli again now it would seem

BarryD2

alchemist33 wrote: »

India 22 for 3 and doing a good impression of themselves in the first two tests

Ind & Irl have at least a few things in common then, apart from flags!

Rjd2

Hilarious, Ali out-bowling the biggest fraud in test cricket Ashwin.

Folkstonian

Looks like England’s bowlers and lower order batsmen are once again going to drag us to victory despite the best efforts of the top order

Ali has been phenomenal, Curran has surely cemented his place in the side, and Cook and Jennings will be in the last chance saloon in the 5th test

As an aside, the Ageas bowl is such a lovely venue for test cricket. It looks fantastic on the tv when the sun is shining. It deserves so many more test matches than it is currently awarded, especially as Headingley and Old Trafford are ugly building sites right now

TrueDub

Folkstonian wrote: »

As an aside, the Ageas bowl is such a lovely venue for test cricket. It looks fantastic on the tv when the sun is shining. It deserves so many more test matches than it is currently awarded, especially as Headingley and Old Trafford are ugly building sites right now

And it's chief groundsman is Irish, Clontarf's own Karl McDermott.

Rjd2

Ali not been picked for the first three tests looks so bad now, should never be dropped in England as he can always have these sort of games. He smashed India in 2014.

India deserved to lose, Ashwin and the selectors disgraced themselves this test.

Shastri really brings nothing to this side.

flatty

Rjd2 wrote: »

Ali not been picked for the first three tests looks so bad now, should never be dropped in England as he can always have these sort of games. He smashed India in 2014.

India deserved to lose, Ashwin and the selectors disgraced themselves this test.

Shastri really brings nothing to this side.

Ali himself says he would have dropped himself earlier than England did. I think he needed a rest.

riffmongous

That's a very good series win for England, what's up next for them?

ArmaniJeanss

Folkstonian wrote: »

Ali has been phenomenal, Curran has surely cemented his place in the side, and Cook and Jennings will be in the last chance saloon in the 5th test

Alistair Cook officially leaving the saloon and saddling his horse after the 5th Test, he announced it this morning.

Royale with Cheese

Only 33, a pity to have to call it a day that young. Not hugely surprising though, he's been out of form for a long long time.

You'd wonder if he has a rejuvenation in county cricket next year will he end up coming back at some stage, you'd have to imagine England will struggle badly to replace him.

Beasty

So only the 3 positions to fill now...

Can't say I'm surprised given how he's struggled recently. Perhaps a complete new opening pairing can gel and deliver a solid base. I can understand him wanting to go out in the final test of the summer but would have preferred it if he had made way for someone else (No idea who that may be though)

Ali's typically great on English pitches but does not seem to travel well (although there are a few that can be applied to)

I do think they need to revisit this whole flying in quick test series then flying out mularky. Particularly for those who are only going to be involved in red ball cricket they need a few weeks to adapt to local conditions (and India this year were a prime example although most of the "big" countries seem to struggle when they head away nowadays)

Inquitus

Beasty wrote: »

So only the 3 positions to fill now...

Can't say I'm surprised given how he's struggled recently. Perhaps a complete new opening pairing can gel and deliver a solid base. I can understand him wanting to go out in the final test of the summer but would have preferred it if he had made way for someone else (No idea who that may be though)

Ali's typically great on English pitches but does not seem to travel well (although there are a few that can be applied to)

I do think they need to revisit this whole flying in quick test series then flying out mularky. Particularly for those who are only going to be involved in red ball cricket they need a few weeks to adapt to local conditions (and India this year were a prime example although most of the "big" countries seem to struggle when they head away nowadays)

These stats are from 2015, but they clearly highlight how big an advantage playing at home has become.

AWAY RECORD FOR THE TOP TEAMS IN TESTS SINCE 1990

Period Wins Losses Ratio
Jan 2010 Onwards* 37 81 0.46
Jan 2005 To Dec 2009* 31 64 0.48
Jan 2000 To Dec 2004* 44 56 0.79
Jan 1990 To Dec 1999# 71 129 0.55
Jan 1980 To Dec 1989^ 51 74 0.69