The Cricket Thread 2016

[peter w]

Too many 4 balls from every bowler. largely except Woakes.

[PaulWinch again]

Jordan really needs to sort out his accuracy. The Aussies are going to walk this at the moment.

[peter w]

That's why I'm loathe to have him in the team. He's always expensive which you can ill afford in the shorter form of the game. Although conversely it would probably be better for England to play him in the 20/20 where slogging is the norm and bowlers are expensive as he does tend to chip in with a wcket or two.

[PaulWinch again]

But got an important wicket there, which is what he tends to do. We lack wicket takers, so that's why he's playing. Smith, in the form he's in, is a worry.

[PaulWinch again]

I really think we should have slips in here, we're not going to win this unless we bowl them out.

[PaulWinch again]

This is going to be an absolute hammering at this rate.

[Villan For Life]

The quality of the performance aside, it was nice to listen to cricket on my way into work this morning.

[PaulWinch again]

Quality from Morgan and pretty good from Woakes. Pretty poor elsewhere. The 3 wicket margin makes it sound closer than it was, due to the bonus point. We need to get a lot better.

[paul_e]

I still think 240-250 was par on that wicket, some very loose deliveries to Warner (certainly in the first 10-12 overs which is all I watched) meant they had regular runs to ease any pressure.

This was a match that showed the naivety of the team, someone like Warner wants to feel bat on ball and watch it go flying off, so bowl slightly across him, pitching just in line with leg and then 'hitting' the top few inches of off.  Just get it nice and consistent and make him create his own space, then once he's moving start altering the pace but keeping the same line.  On a pitch that's got swing, seam and unpredictable bounce it will do the work for you but certainly Jordan and Finn seemed to want to be in control of the variation so they were trying too hard and bowling too far off that line so he knew he could defend the good ones and go after the stuff that gave him space.

Woakes bowled much better than the rest, the delivery that got Finch was an absolute beauty for someone who's trying to hit you out the ground, it tempted Finch to slash at it which brings the bounce into play and that completely did him.

[pooligan]

Same old England,carrying on from where left off.

[PaulWinch again]

I actually worry more about our bowling than our batting. Ok the batting failed today, but there's a lot of potential there and Morgan getting back to his best is great news. The bowling though is a bit samey, we have a selection of pace bowlers who do more a less the same thing. When Anderson comes in it adds swing and Broad clearly isn't up to speed yet. But I worry about Finn, because unless he can get his pace back up or become a lot more accurate he's not worth his place. Jordan needs to stop giving away so many four balls. We lack variety badly.

[paul_e]

I actually worry more about our bowling than our batting. Ok the batting failed today, but there's a lot of potential there and Morgan getting back to his best is great news. The bowling though is a bit samey, we have a selection of pace bowlers who do more a less the same thing. When Anderson comes in it adds swing and Broad clearly isn't up to speed yet. But I worry about Finn, because unless he can get his pace back up or become a lot more accurate he's not worth his place. Jordan needs to stop giving away so many four balls. We lack variety badly.

That's a coaching problem though, we just don't produce players with much variety because fast bowlers are all pigeon-holed as bang it in or swing and get coached based on the pot they get added to.  That England are trying to convert Jordan to a bang it in bowler says everything for me.

[Woofles The Wonder Dog]

Jordan runs up like a kid pretending to ride a horse. He lollops, and that can't be good for the rhythm needed for consistency.

[PaulWinch again]

I think that's a result of bad back injuries.

[Villan For Life]

Dagnall interviewed Brett Lee during the interval of yesterday's game.

Lee was one of my favourite Aussie players and he spoke at length about 2005 and that moment with Flintoff at Edgbaston.

It's well worth a listen and is available as a podcast on the BBC TMS website.