Cricket

[st dan]

Good knock from Sibley here, but I just find him batting a tough watch.  

[TheGayTent]

Similar was said on many an occasion about Cook - never got that either. 

[kaosmark2]

Not seen Sibley bat yet, only highlights which isn't the same. I enjoyed watching Cook though, yes it wasn't the flashy shots, but the flicks off his pads were gorgeously timed.

[Gromite]

Sibley is the perfect live text player

[st dan]

A 300+ ball century for first time since 2000 for an English batsman ... with only 4 boundaries. 
I mean I’m all for not giving your wicket away, but this has been probably the dullest innings I have ever seen. Hope he can be an anchor in the side in the future for many years, but he will need to get that run rate up. 

Edited July 17, 2020 by st dan

[TheGayTent]

18 minutes ago, st dan said:

A 300+ ball century for first time since 2000 for an English batsman ... with only 4 boundaries. 
I mean I’m all for not giving your wicket away, but this has been probably the dullest innings I have ever seen. Hope he can be an anchor in the side in the future for many years, but he will need to get that run rate up. 

No he won’t. 

[kaosmark2]

Stokes has faced 200 balls without reaching a century. Its clearly not an easy pitch to score on. 

With Root, Stokes, and players like Pope, Buttler, Crawley (names may change) in the middle order, there will be plenty of quick batting to follow. An openers' job is to score runs and see off the new ball. Sibley does that. 

[kingbadger]

58 minutes ago, st dan said:

A 300+ ball century for first time since 2000 for an English batsman ... with only 4 boundaries. 
I mean I’m all for not giving your wicket away, but this has been probably the dullest innings I have ever seen. Hope he can be an anchor in the side in the future for many years, but he will need to get that run rate up. 

In fairness the outfield is horrendously slow. He's clocked up 8 threes, not something you'd usually seen in a ton. 

The fact Stokes is not scoring a huge amount quicker shows it's not the easiest pitch. Promising signs with the amount of spin Chase is getting and it's only day 2. Imagine the plan will be to accelerate massively given we bat extremely deep and have wickets to burn, post 450ish and maybe have a few overs at them this evening. 

[kingbadger]

Is anyone else preparing to play their first competitive match of the season tomorrow? Had an intra-squad match the Saturday just gone under the new regulations, will be interesting to see how certain things are enforced in a league game, particular running between the wickets and the 2m 'channels' in place. Also a bizarre choice that we're playing 50/50 cricket in coloured clothing etc but our league have changed their minds and we're now playing with a red ball for some reason. 

[kaosmark2]

17 minutes ago, kingbadger said:

In fairness the outfield is horrendously slow. He's clocked up 8 threes, not something you'd usually seen in a ton. 

The fact Stokes is not scoring a huge amount quicker shows it's not the easiest pitch. Promising signs with the amount of spin Chase is getting and it's only day 2. Imagine the plan will be to accelerate massively given we bat extremely deep and have wickets to burn, post 450ish and maybe have a few overs at them this evening. 

Woakes/Curran/Bess is a ridiculous 8/9/10. I don't think 450 and overs to bowl is realistic, but maybe Buttler will relish this opportunity. 

[kingbadger]

17 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

Woakes/Curran/Bess is a ridiculous 8/9/10. I don't think 450 and overs to bowl is realistic, but maybe Buttler will relish this opportunity. 

Still 57 overs left in today's play. If we don't go mad and aim to score at 4 runs per over then we'd still get at least 10 overs at them tonight with 450 on the board. If there's rain coming tomorrow then we need to make sure we're bowling by COP today. Both Stokes and Sibley look like they're trying to put the foot down, with Joseph and Gabriel falling to pieces here we could easily throw caution to the wind and have an hour bowling this evening.

[kaosmark2]

I had it in my head there were fewer than that left, fair enough. 

[kingbadger]

Starting to get frustrating from Sibley here. If he can't find a way to score off of Roston Chase in England when he's 115* then it really doesn't bode well for this winter's tour of the sub-continent.

[kaosmark2]

19 minutes ago, kingbadger said:

Starting to get frustrating from Sibley here. If he can't find a way to score off of Roston Chase in England when he's 115* then it really doesn't bode well for this winter's tour of the sub-continent.

He was taking singles to give Stokes the strike while Stokes accelerates. 

He's got out accelerating, but 125 overs in the legs of the bowlers gives the middle order complete freedom. 

[kaosmark2]

England love giving Roston Chase wickets don't they?

[kingbadger]

4 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

He was taking singles to give Stokes the strike while Stokes accelerates. 

He's got out accelerating, but 125 overs in the legs of the bowlers gives the middle order complete freedom. 

He wasn't though, and that was the issue. I wasn't expecting nor wanting for him to try going big as that's not his game, but he wasn't rotating the strike either. The fact a supporting spinner tied him down so easily is somewhat troubling as he just didn't seem to have any real alternative to patting it back. There was no real attempt to change Chase's line or length either via coming down the wicket, using the crease etc. He tried sweeping and got one away but it really didn't seem like his game either. 

That criticism aside he's played his role to perfection and as you've pointed out, put the lead into the legs of their front line attack. They might regret not changing it up slightly if it goes 1-1 and need to rely on the same bowlers to take 20 wickets in another back to back test. 

[TheGayTent]

14 minutes ago, kingbadger said:

 he's played his role to perfection and as you've pointed out, put the lead into the legs of their front line attack. 

Is the bit to concentrate on, the bit the matters. 

[kingbadger]

1 hour ago, TheGayTent said:

Is the bit to concentrate on, the bit the matters. 

Not disputing that, but you can't afford to overlook his shortcomings when there are tours of the sub-continent coming up where he's going to be facing 70% spin of a much higher quality than Chase. Looking at how he got tied down by him today you'd imagine he'd be eaten alive by Ashwin and Jadeja.

Not sure where today's innings places Buttler, he hit 40 but given his job is meant to be in the Gilchrist role and taking the game away from the opposition, it wasn't exactly the dynamic innings you'd have hoped for against a tired attack.

[kaosmark2]

2 minutes ago, kingbadger said:

Not disputing that, but you can't afford to overlook his shortcomings when there are tours of the sub-continent coming up where he's going to be facing 70% spin of a much higher quality than Chase. Looking at how he got tied down by him today you'd imagine he'd be eaten alive by Ashwin and Jadeja.

Not sure where today's innings places Buttler, he hit 40 but given his job is meant to be in the Gilchrist role and taking the game away from the opposition, it wasn't exactly the dynamic innings you'd have hoped for against a tired attack.

I think he's earned the chance to prove you wrong on that front.

I'm a huge fan of Buttler, and wanted him to succeed in Test cricket. I think he's got the intelligence and nous for it (unlike Bairstow), but given his form lately, that his keeping is starting to drop off again, and that he couldn't take advantage of the perfect situation, I don't see a reason not to pick Foakes. 

[TheGayTent]

41 minutes ago, kingbadger said:

Not disputing that, but you can't afford to overlook his shortcomings when there are tours of the sub-continent coming up where he's going to be facing 70% spin of a much higher quality than Chase. Looking at how he got tied down by him today you'd imagine he'd be eaten alive by Ashwin and Jadeja.

It’s all very well finding problems and focusing on the negatives, but it’s as pointless as only focusing on the positives unless you have solutions to the problems you think you’ve identified. 

Quote

Not sure where today's innings places Buttler, he hit 40 but given his job is meant to be in the Gilchrist role and taking the game away from the opposition, it wasn't exactly the dynamic innings you'd have hoped for against a tired attack.

Again, his job is wicket-keeper batsman. He scored 40, he did the 2nd part of his job. Let’s see how he goes with the first part tomorrow. 

That said, Foakes shouldn’t have been dropped. 

Edited July 17, 2020 by TheGayTent

[kingbadger]

Not trying to be a negative nelly purposefully, just pointing out the areas we need to improve. Maybe I'm too used to it given our inconsistent form over the last few years! On the flip side Stokes looked every bit a number 5 batsman in our innings, dug deep when needed and then importantly accelerated when the time came for it. If the ball continues swinging the way it has done for the first couple of days then he could well have a big part to play with the ball as well.

Bess has a real chance here too on a turning pitch to really solidify his spot as the front line spinner. He's got a beautiful action and reminds of Nathan Lyon, both in that and his seam position and dip he gets on the ball. 

Pope/Bess/Curran all seem very well equipped for test match cricket and all under 23 years old. The future certainly looks bright but a lot of pressure on Stokes/Root/Anderson in the meantime as the bedrock of the side.

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, kingbadger said:

Pope/Bess/Curran all seem very well equipped for test match cricket and all under 23 years old. The future certainly looks bright but a lot of pressure on Stokes/Root/Anderson in the meantime as the bedrock of the side.

There have been a lot of players who've looked good like Pope. He's only shown 2 innings of real quality though, others he's just looked nice then got out stupidly. His FC record suggests an extremely good player, but I think he's being over-hyped atm.

[kaosmark2]

Starting to think Buttler's time in tests should probably be over. Disappointing, as it would've been great if it had worked, but the situations he's batted in this test felt like they were designed for him, and he's scored 40 over 2 innings at his home ground (not that he plays at OT much).

[TheGayTent]

Don’t think you can judge on an innings in which he’s opening (I know you’re not), and neither will Smith - he’ll play in the third test. Foakes really should be playing. 

[TheGayTent]

Just been looking at the future tours programme. It really is disappointing that our next tour of the Caribbean is for just two tests. We all know why, but it’s wrong.