🏏 The Cricket Thread

[Tacit Ronin]

Do you guys think Australia is gonna get Banglawashed? Would be quite a bad start for Captain Smith. Wait, is he even the ODI captain?

 

[regwec]

I wouldn't bet against Bangladesh at home at the moment.

 

[Iceman]

Come on Lyth, 2nd innings you need to get at least one score!

 

[Tacit Ronin]

How many no balls have been bowled by both the English and the Aussies? The umpires don't seem to give a ****.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Looks like England has been ....(puts on glasses)....uprooted.

 

[Iceman]

Bloody hell 64-4 now, mini-collapse on the cards. If we get thrashed here it will have been such a strange series. Every game has completely changed the context of the view of the 2 teams. The odds must have been all over the place, a lot of money to win/lose betting on it!

 

[Tacit Ronin]

To be fair England has already won the series. I wouldn't blame them for not being motivated for a meaningless match.

 

[Iceman]

Certainly looks like it. 6 wickets down now for 85! Still 396 runs behind!! This could be over soon lol.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Prediction: Moeen and Stokes 200 run partnership.

 

[Iceman]

Haha. Looking good so far.

We'd still be 200 odd behind lol.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

.....oh well.

 

[Iceman]

Final score 107-8. Can we bat out tomorrow?!

 

[regwec]

No.

What an odd series. It's almost as if the two teams had made a prior agreement to take it turns to be dreadful, with the fact that Australia took two turns in a row giving the series to England. In this test, only Alastair Cook really emerges with much credit, and the cynic in me wonders whether that is because, as captain, he was the most invested in it.

Well, who would be your eleven of the series? Mine-

Cook (Eng, c)
Rogers (Aus)
Smith (Aus)
Root (Eng)
Stokes (Eng, there for his swing bowling)
Buttler (Eng, poor with the bat but probably the pick of the wicket keepers)
Johnson (Aus, didn't have a great series, would have done better with stronger support)
Broad (Eng)
Starc (Aus, turned himself into an allrounder at times).
Anderson (Eng, probably beats Siddle of Aus purely by playing more matches).
Lyon (Aus, not much competition from Moeen as a spinner).

 

[Tacit Ronin]

How will the England batsman fare against Yasir Shah in the UAE?

 

[regwec]

Who can say? I presume they have had plenty of time in the nets against Adil Rashid, and in theory there are some decent players of spin in the lineup, but this England side is anything but predictable.

I meant to say that I am really happy that Chris Rogers named as Australia's man of the series. He seems like a genuinely nice guy as well as a gritty, focused and unfussy cricketer.

 

[Iceman]

Most unpredictable Ashes I've ever seen, and for the wrong reasons. Like reg said most of the matches were won by the loser being truly dreadful and not playing up to the standards expectedly of a Test side. Still at least we won!

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Ireland almost beat the Aussies. Yikes.

 

[regwec]

Yes, it was possible that Australia were saved by the rain, which truncated their first innings at a handy moment. Ireland are a pretty useful outfit these days- Ed Joyce averages 47 in county cricket and does a good job for Sussex, Porterfield is a key batsman for Warwickshire, and Tim Murtagh's bowling figures for Middlesex are pretty good. I wonder whether the perennial Australian mistake of underestimating an opponent was at work.

 

[regwec]

Huzzah! My home team, Lancashire Lightening, beat Northants to win the T20 blast- and without their best fast bowler!

 

[regwec]

And congrats to England for squeezing out Australia to win the Twenty20 by 5 runs. A flurry out late wickets really saved the day.

Incidentally, don't debutant Reece Topley (2nd from left) and Steven Finn (2nd from right) look almost identical? They're both 6'7", too.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Marsh lost Australia the game. Smith was playing a T20 match while friggin Marsh was in his own little playground playing an ODI innings.

 

[regwec]

Once again, they would have been better off without Shane Watson, too.

On England's side, I would swap either Hales or (preferably) Roy for James Vince, have him bat at three and move Moeen up to open.

 

[Iceman]

Anyone see Stokes' dismissal today for obstructing the field? Looked like he was putting his hand up to stop the ball hitting him but apparently this is only the 6th time ever someone has been given out like this! Seemed very harsh.

 

[aNarcHy2day]

It was probably a 50-50 decision because the more I look at it the more I feel that the hand is way out of its 'natural' position. It COULD still have been unintentional but there is enough evidence for someone to think otherwise, I guess.

But certainly, it shouldn't create the tension it's appearing to have created. Smith was well within his rights to appeal and he was justified in doing so. The third umpire probably looked at it the same way I did and that should really be the end of that.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Pakistan is getting Cooked.