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[Antiwhippy]

Why are people insisting on borthwick?

I've seen him bowl in australia. I was initially hopeful but his bowling was worse than steve smith's, and that's saying something. Didn't bat all that well either.

I just think that they need to give moeen more overs, or bring in an actual specialist. Kerrigan probably deserves another chance but his last effort wasn't inspiring to say the least.

 

[Steverulez]

Why are people insisting on borthwick?

I've seen him bowl in australia. I was initially hopeful but his bowling was worse than steve smith's, and that's saying something. Didn't bat all that well either.

I just think that they need to give moeen more overs, or bring in an actual specialist. Kerrigan probably deserves another chance but his last effort wasn't inspiring to say the least.

Well others have said (and you yourself) that Kerrigan wasnt inspiring. Swann said when he retired that he thought Borthwick was his replacement and the fact that he can bat is in his favour.

Also, the only other person I know of is Danny Briggs (Hampshire spinner, but I only know of him because I play Cricket Captain, heh) so my knowledge pool is pretty limited. Im willing to think Swann's assessment of Borthwick was probably the feeling within England too

 

[Antiwhippy]

Alright fair enough. Guess he might deserve more chances too, but from what I've seen moeen is the more impressive batsman part-time spinner than borthwick. I feel that if you're going to double up you might as well get a specialist.

Also I feel that england don't really need four seamers, but with broad and anderson not performing I'm afraid that they do.

 

[Dynedom]

Alright fair enough. Guess he might deserve more chances too, but from what I've seen moeen is the more impressive batsman part-time spinner than borthwick. I feel that if you're going to double up you might as well get a specialist.

Also I feel that england don't really need four seamers, but with broad and anderson not performing I'm afraid that they do.

I say get rid of Broad, in that case.

 

[Antiwhippy]

I just want to give props to rahane for his century. Great knock on a green top and probably the most important knock to actually make an indian win possible.

 

[Zvonimir Boban]

That was embarrassing, perhaps the worst seven wicket haul in the history of test cricket?

With regards to the spin situation, it doesn't matter who your spinner is if the captain is an idiot.

 

[War Peaceman]

Rahane, Vijay, Kohli and Pujara is an obscene batting line up. I wasn't sold on the first two before this series, but they've both been excellent. I'm particularly impressed by how solid they were - patient and watchful on tough pitches. Kohli's received some snorters this series, but he is just brilliant. Pujara is the best young Test batsman around as far as I am concerned. Solid as a rock.

Cook has to stay on as captain for this series, if only because there isn't any other option. Bell's in bad form and a weak leader. Anderson might be banned and is a questionable choice anyway. Broad is a bad captain in T20s and has poor fitness. Root is the only choice inside the squad right now, and he shouldn't be captain.

Prior has to be gone. I feel England had good intentions by not rushing Buttler, but Prior is a broken man. Bring in Buttler.

The seamers need to be rotated around. Jordan back in. Stokes can play as a full time seamer IF one or both of Anderson and Broad are dropped. No spinner is viable, depressingly.

 

[Vaddon]

Hey CricketGAF, long time lurker of this thread, thought I'd join in with all the fun.

Anyway, Matt Prior is standing down for the rest of the Summer due to an injury:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/28413373

 

[Steverulez]

He was injured before the first test back in Australia iirc and was dropped in the latter part of that series if he is injured why is he playing? Its ridiculous. Im sure he will be back at some point, it'll be interesting to see how we do with someone younger (presumably) in the team. I assume they'll go for Jos Buttler?

They talked on Sky Sports about Broad having a knee injury as well, leave him to get properly fit again and pick someone else, its a ridiculous situation.

 

[Jezbollah]

As an Essex fan, I keep wondering why James Foster's name doesnt pop up in discussion about England's next 'keeper.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Jos buttler seems to be the anointed one.

 

[Vaddon]

Yep, Jos Buttler replaces Prior as wicketkeeper:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/28423662

Interested to see how he does!

 

[Antiwhippy]

I'm surprised that they're going without kerrigan.

England really needs to bowl moeen more if they want to survive with playing 4 seamers in 5 tests with so little rest.

 

[Steverulez]

Why no spinner still? Jesus

Jordan in for stokes too surely?

 

[Antiwhippy]

No, jordan is in the squad. Remains to be seen if he will be selected though.

 

[Vaddon]

Jordan and Woakes are in, replacing Stokes and Plunkett.

Edit: Shame about Cook, so close to a century. A good innings from him though.

 

[Steverulez]

Great knock from Cook, I felt after his last innings that a bigger score was coming and whilst it is a massive shame for him that he didn't get those extra 5 runs, I don't mind.

Time to back the captain, he did his job: got us a great base from which to carry on from now its up to the rest of the boys to carry it on and hopefully the conditions for bowling will improve

 

[Antiwhippy]

Damn, gotta feel for cook. So close.

Need to wait and see how the indians bat on it first, but barring a cape town 2011-esque collapse it's hard to see a result on this pitch.

 

[Jezbollah]

Yeah, England have got to be looking at getting 400+ quickly today.

Cant get over the fact it's Monday and it's day 2 of the test..

 

[War Peaceman]

Yeah, England have got to be looking at getting 400+ quickly today.

Cant get over the fact it's Monday and it's day 2 of the test..

Damn, gotta feel for cook. So close.

Need to wait and see how the indians bat on it first, but barring a cape town 2011-esque collapse it's hard to see a result on this pitch.

As long as there are five days of play (and with this weather, that seems likely), I'd be surprised if there wasn't a result, or a close draw. Both teams are prone to batting collapses and there was more in the pitch than the score suggested.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Damn, seems like the south Africans are getting that test mace back from us.

Well done to Hashim amla. Did well in his first series as captain. Still one of the best batsman in the world by my reckoning.

 

[Steverulez]

Great innings from Balance, seemed like an incorrect decision? I'll wait for another replay

Edit: Yep, another shit decision and undeserved breakthrough.

Edit 2: I don't want to double post but that over from Jadeja to Bell, my word, smacked around like he's a nobody, incredible batting.

 

[Vaddon]

Great six from Bell to bring up his century! Playing some wonderful shots.

 

[Steverulez]

Difficult to tell but its not clear, right decision to me.

 

[Jezbollah]

Yep. He may have got a finger or two under it, but I think part of the ball is on the ground there. But then again, I'm an England fan and probably biased..

Speaking of which, outstanding work today by Ballance and Dinger. I really hope this is a sign of things to come rather than a brief blip in good form.

 

[Steverulez]

Yep. He may have got a finger or two under it, but I think part of the ball is on the ground there. But then again, I'm an England fan and probably biased..

The way I look at it is some compensation for giving Ballance out when he wasn't.

Bell is in superb form today, Buttler made the most of his innings too

 

[kmag]

Difficult to tell but its not clear, right decision to me.

No it's not the right decision. The camera lens foreshortens so if you slow it down and zoom in it almost always looks like a bit of the ball hits the ground despite multiple studies showing unless there's a clear bounce it almost never hits the ground. What should happen is that the fucking umpires actually make a decision, as soon as it goes upstairs even though the ICC has repeatedly explained foreshortening to the 3rd umpire they never ever give it out.

While it's easy to rag on India for their refusal to use DRS, they've had some stinking decisions against them in this innings both Bell (plumb LBW not given) and Ballance (nicked off) were out early in their innings.

 

[kmag]

The way I look at it is some compensation for giving Ballance out when he wasn't.

Bell is in superb form today, Buttler made the most of his innings too

Ballance was out yesterday on 10 and not given, so it hardly balances up. See what I did there?

 

[Steverulez]

Ballance was out yesterday on 10 and not given, so it hardly balances up. See what I did there?

The Ballance one? The only appeal I can think of was the question of the edge and hotspot showed nothing? There was a white mark that was behind the bat (and covered it up on the next frame) and it seemed like a good decision.

Unless theres one i've forgotten.

 

[kmag]

The Ballance one? The only appeal I can think of was the question of the edge and hotspot showed nothing? There was a white mark that was behind the bat (and covered it up on the next frame) and it seemed like a good decision.

Unless theres one i've forgotten.

There was a mark on the edge of the bat on hotspot (sky didn't pick up on it until later instead talking about the reflection on the face you have to remember the commentators have pretty small screens), and a small spike at the point the ball passed the bat. It was out.

 

[Vaddon]

Jos Buttler batting superbly now.

 

[kmag]

The Indians have been absolutely appalling with the ball and fielding. This pitch isn't as flat as it looks. I can see India being a couple down by stumps.

 

[Steverulez]

Buttler should be out about 4 times and was out once but I'm sure he'll savour this impending ton. The Indians have been absolutely appalling with the ball and fielding. This pitch isn't as flat as it looks.

They played like we did against the Australians at times, although I am quite enjoying it not being us smashed around for a change..!

He didn't get his ton which is a shame but never mind.

Re: that Ballance one, its again so fine but that does look more convincing that what I saw yesterday so far enough. But DRS is there to check things like that, its not like the technology is there for fun, its there to be used and in my opinion - and seemingly that of most (all?) the other test cricket playing countries, it should be used.

If there are any significant issues with the umpiring then there is a very simple thing that can be done to improve the reliability of the decisions. I don't think the technology will ever be 100% because there are some things that will always be a bit ambiguous in which case the system of benefit of the doubt to the bowler/batsman should go with what the umpire originally decided which seems fair to me.

 

[War Peaceman]

The second half of Bell's innings was orgasmic. Stunning.

Buttler's innings was shambolic. Numerous dropped catches (including on zero), a missed stumping and aerial shots that just fell short of the fielders. Hopefully he isn't hyped up too much.

The conditions are better than they appear here. This is not as flat as it seems.

 

[kmag]

They played like we did against the Australians at times, although I am quite enjoying it not being us smashed around for a change..!

He didn't get his ton which is a shame but never mind.

Re: that Ballance one, its again so fine but that does look more convincing that what I saw yesterday so far enough. But DRS is there to check things like that, its not like the technology is there for fun, its there to be used and in my opinion - and seemingly that of most (all?) the other test cricket playing countries, it should be used.

If there are any significant issues with the umpiring then there is a very simple thing that can be done to improve the reliability of the decisions.

The BCCI don't like the rather silly tactical nonsense which has been added to DRS, they also don't like it's use is essentially at the disposal of tv companies (who pay for and provide Hawkeye, Snicko, Real time Snicko and Hotspot) which means it's nowhere near uniform across test series. I actually have a bit of sympathy to that view. They need to fix a few things with DRS.

 

[Gareth Bale]

The second half of Bell's innings was orgasmic. Stunning.

Buttler's innings was shambolic. Numerous dropped catches (including on zero), a missed stumping and aerial shots that just fell short of the fielders. Hopefully he isn't hyped up too much.

The conditions are better than they appear here. This is not as flat as it seems.

To be fair we needed him to come out and play some shots. And that's what he's good at.

 

[Jezbollah]

Quite a couple of days play for England. Wishing to temper my expectations of any kind of new dawn, I cannot help but be optimistic for Ballance and Buttler's future. I just hope Robson can now shine more.

I have to think that Buttler's innings was a bit of awkward timing.. I bet Cook and especially Anderson would have liked an extra half hour of bowling after tea.

Tomorrow will be very interesting.

 

[kmag]

Quite a couple of days play for England. Wishing to temper my expectations of any kind of new dawn, I cannot help but be optimistic for Ballance and Buttler's future. I just hope Robson can now shine more.

I have to think that Buttler's innings was a bit of awkward timing.. I bet Cook and especially Anderson would have liked an extra half hour of bowling after tea.

Tomorrow will be very interesting.

As well as England batted, India were appalling, absolutely everything everyone said about them in the run up to the series. A bunch of wayward samey medium paced bowlers and part time off-spin backed up with atrocious slip fielding and poor ground fielding.

but even then they should have had the English top 3 pretty cheaply. While Cook battled gamely for his 95 the Indians managed to get his edge 3 times (dropped one dolly on 15 and the other two just didn't carry due to the Indians bizarre slip positioning) and he scored most of his runs when their wayward bowling fed his cuts, pulls and nurdles off the pads. So it doesn't really seem like he's fixed his technical issues off stump, the Indians just gave him enough other scoring options (what's gotten Cook into difficulty is since McCullum worked out if you just keep it in the channel offstump consistently he can't score at all, everyone has been doing it) They had Ballance on 10, Bell on 0, Buttler on 0 all turned down by the umpire but clearly out.

What that means is there is plenty enough in the pitch for England to win this and they almost certainly will from this point, but I doubt it'll be any real renaissance for England, I mean if the Indian bowlers stay reverted to type then the English batters will end up with great averages but it won't really prove anything.

Ballance technique looks like he'll be a sitting duck against any quick pace attack. Ali can't play short pitched stuff even when it's bowled at 80mph by Sri Lankans and Indian medium pacers, Robson has an issue with his offstump although unlike Cook, Robson's problem is he is a compulsive driver of the ball. Cook can't won't play a drive which is why he gets bogged down by a consistent offstump line.

Root and Bell remain the two most proficient English batters, especially now Root has forced himself to come forward.

 

[crazy monkey]

congrats SA. Number one in the world again.

 

[Antiwhippy]

I feel so bad for pankaj. Bowled so much better than the figures showed.

 

[Andiie]

Phil Hughes just made 202 in a 50 over match. Australia A v South Africa A

PJ Hughes not out 202 151 18 6 133.77​

Apparently the first Australian male to reach 200 in limited overs beating Warner's 197.
Decent effort.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/735797.html
www.heraldsun.com.au - phil hughes hits incredible double century in one day match for australia a

 

[Antiwhippy]

Having never seen phil hughes before I can see why people would say that he's unorthodox. Some of those shots in that knock are ridiculous.

 

[Jezbollah]

Phil Hughes seems to be one of those cricketers who excels at all but the highest level of the game. Heard so many stories about amazing knocks for state and Australia A cricket, but never at Test.

 

[Antiwhippy]

I reckon he'll have a chance once rogers retires. Not that many openers knocking on the door from what I've seen. I will absolutely crack it if aaron finch is chosen to replace rogers.

 

[kmag]

Phil Hughes seems to be one of those cricketers who excels at all but the highest level of the game. Heard so many stories about amazing knocks for state and Australia A cricket, but never at Test.

He's had a bunch of good test innings he famously took Steyn and Morkel apart twice in the one test in Durban (http://www.espncricinfo.com/rsavaus2009/engine/match/350473.html), but he's got such a weird technique (a bit like Ballance actually with an exaggerated trigger movement), his main issue is that he is a compulsive slasher of any width which will always get you in trouble as an opener at test level.

 

[Jezbollah]

He's had a bunch of good test innings he famously took Steyn and Morkel apart twice in the one test in Durban (http://www.espncricinfo.com/rsavaus2009/engine/match/350473.html), but he's got such a weird technique (a bit like Ballance actually with an exaggerated trigger movement), his main issue is that he is a compulsive slasher of any width which will always get you in trouble as an opener at test level.

Spot on.

 

[kmag]

I reckon he'll have a chance once rogers retires. Not that many openers knocking on the door from what I've seen. I will absolutely crack it if aaron finch is chosen to replace rogers.

That would be madness. You'd need four openers if you have Finch and Warner as openers. When it came off it would be unbelievable to watch but that would be very rarely.

Finch has a lot of talent and cracking hand/eye coordination which half the battle but to me if he's going to make in the longer format it's probably at 6 as a counter attacker. That's where Yorkshire have played him this year with a bit of success (average of 48.50 with a strike rate of 72 and a HS of 110)

 

[Antiwhippy]

Problem with australia at the moment is that there are too many batsmen to fill that role.

I would love to see glenn maxwell take that role. Mostly because it'll be hilariously frustrating, but when he does come off it comes off spectacularly.

 

[kmag]

Problem with australia at the moment is that there are too many batsmen to fill that role.

I would love to see glenn maxwell take that role. Mostly because it'll be hilariously frustrating, but when he does come off it comes off spectacularly.

I'd like to see Maxwell there as well for the entertainment factor but he'd have to take the 4 day game a bit more seriously first which I don't think he's minded to do. At least Finch decided to try the English county game this summer to push for a test berth, Maxwell's in England but only for 20/20 (well he played one 4 day game)

 

[Antiwhippy]

From what I've seen of his recent performances he's actually been doing crap-all in the T20s but has done well in the List A and first class matches. Did well against a side with saeed ajmal too, which is no mean feat.

From what I've seen, I'd say aaron finch is the better batsman but he needs to have his temperament and defensive technique tested in Tests, maxwell is very mercurial with some ok off-spin, and james faulkner is the better bowler with a proven record of handling pressure situation when batting.

Dunno how batmen like chris lynn and jordan silk will fit in but they seem pretty promising.