England Cricket Thread 2011

[TheTimVilla]

I expect KP will get man of the match, but I'd give it to Prior. Great 1st innings knock, superb match saving second innings and exceptional keeping. Great win.

[Chris Smith]

Great team performance, this lot deserve to be number one in the world.

[taylorsworkrate]

Great team performance, this lot deserve to be number one in the world.

That they do.

Everything about the whole England set up is extremely impressive.

[taylorsworkrate]

I expect KP will get man of the match, but I'd give it to Prior. Great 1st innings knock, superb match saving second innings and exceptional keeping. Great win.

I'd probably go Broad.  Swung the match in our favour in India's first innings, made a vital 70 odd when we were slipping a little in our second innings and I thought he bowled fantastically today.  3 wickets did not do him justice.

[KevinGage]

Excellent performance.

Unlike some other test matches recently, this was tough going at various stages -though the final margin doesn't necessarily reflect that.

At 60 for 5 yesterday India were back in it, and I think England sides in the past may well have crumbled. Three good days and then just throw it away in one mad session. Previous England sides might have struggled today, too. That spell just after lunch that didn't yield a wicket could have been disheartening, or one bowler not quite at the races could have started to leak runs and ease the pressure. Yet even though Tremlett wasn't at his best, that didn't occur. And the bowlers eventually got their reward.

This could be a more telling result (and series) than the Ashes campaign down under. That was effectively the 4th best team versus the 5th. This is now the 2nd best team chasing down the 1st.

[TheTimVilla]

I expect KP will get man of the match, but I'd give it to Prior. Great 1st innings knock, superb match saving second innings and exceptional keeping. Great win.

I'd probably go Broad.  Swung the match in our favour in India's first innings, made a vital 70 odd when we were slipping a little in our second innings and I thought he bowled fantastically today.  3 wickets did not do him justice.

Good shout.

[Villan For Life]

What a fabulous test match. it had everything. We lost the toss on a bowling first morning, declared twice and bowled them out twice to win by the best part of 200 runs. Richly deserved.

I really hope that we can carry this on through the series, although India will come good. They're too talented not to.

Oh and Prior was my man of the match. His partnership with Broad on the 4th day turned the game back in our favour. He was pretty tidy with the gloves too.

[PaulWinch again]

Brilliant perfomance, so many outstanding individual efforts. England are the best in the World.

[Dave Cooper please]

Superb performance, and with a ruthlessness that reminds one of Australia in their pomp.
We lost just one session in five days, against the best team in the World (for now).

[spangley1812]

Quick note to say that the Bears have put tickets on sale for the 5th day of the Test Match @ £10.00 each, thats Sunday,
15th of August

[KevinGage]

Flower unhappy with limited DRS

Andy Flower, the England coach, has said the ICC should have over-ruled India's insistence on using a watered-down Decision Review System (DRS) for the ongoing Test series. He felt the system for the series - which doesn't use ball-tracking technology, and doesn't allow lbw decisions to be reviewed - was "unsatisfactory", a view shared by England bowlers Graeme Swann and James Anderson.

England had several close lbw appeals turned down as they hunted for wickets on the final day of the Lord's Test, including against Sachin Tendulkar and Suresh Raina off Stuart Broad. Though England ultimately completed a straightforward 196-run victory to take a 1-0 series lead, Flower was unhappy.

"It would have been wrong if the outcome of the game was seriously affected by a couple of those decisions. It's unsatisfactory the way it is, no doubt about that," Flower said. "I think the ICC should be stronger in taking a lead on these issues. They are the world governing body and they should lead."

Whilst I get the logic in having a universal application of full DRS for all the test playing nations, I get India's concerns too.

Particularly on sub continent wickets, the spinner comes into it far more and I've seen quite a few iffy looking hawkeye playbacks when slow bowlers are involved -here and abroad.  If it was just an error rate of a few millimetres, then fine. But what about the ball that dies and dips at the last second?  The variation in pace is a key part of spin bowling and I think hawkeye struggles with that at times. For the pace bowlers it's less of an issue, same with tennis, as the ball will most likely maintain more of a consistent pace throughout the specific delivery measured.

[taylorsworkrate]

Flower unhappy with limited DRS

Andy Flower, the England coach, has said the ICC should have over-ruled India's insistence on using a watered-down Decision Review System (DRS) for the ongoing Test series. He felt the system for the series - which doesn't use ball-tracking technology, and doesn't allow lbw decisions to be reviewed - was "unsatisfactory", a view shared by England bowlers Graeme Swann and James Anderson.

England had several close lbw appeals turned down as they hunted for wickets on the final day of the Lord's Test, including against Sachin Tendulkar and Suresh Raina off Stuart Broad. Though England ultimately completed a straightforward 196-run victory to take a 1-0 series lead, Flower was unhappy.

"It would have been wrong if the outcome of the game was seriously affected by a couple of those decisions. It's unsatisfactory the way it is, no doubt about that," Flower said. "I think the ICC should be stronger in taking a lead on these issues. They are the world governing body and they should lead."

Whilst I get the logic in having a universal application of full DRS for all the test playing nations, I get India's concerns too.

Particularly on sub continent wickets, the spinner comes into it far more and I've seen quite a few iffy looking hawkeye playbacks when slow bowlers are involved -here and abroad.  If it was just an error rate of a few millimetres, then fine. But what about the ball that dies and dips at the last second?  The variation in pace is a key part of spin bowling and I think hawkeye struggles with that at times. For the pace bowlers it's less of an issue, same with tennis, as the ball will most likely maintain more of a consistent pace throughout the specific delivery measured.

I think that one of the commentators (can't remember which) made a good point.

It was basically that a lot of the Indian batsman play with bat and pad together vs spinners.  Its difficult for an umpire to ascertain whether the ball hits bat or pad first, and will most likely give the batsmen the benefit of the doubt.  But the technology would show this on a review, leading to more being given out. 

I'm not wholly in favour of the system, but it does mean a higher percentage of decisions are correct.

[Villan For Life]

Flower unhappy with limited DRS

Andy Flower, the England coach, has said the ICC should have over-ruled India's insistence on using a watered-down Decision Review System (DRS) for the ongoing Test series. He felt the system for the series - which doesn't use ball-tracking technology, and doesn't allow lbw decisions to be reviewed - was "unsatisfactory", a view shared by England bowlers Graeme Swann and James Anderson.

England had several close lbw appeals turned down as they hunted for wickets on the final day of the Lord's Test, including against Sachin Tendulkar and Suresh Raina off Stuart Broad. Though England ultimately completed a straightforward 196-run victory to take a 1-0 series lead, Flower was unhappy.

"It would have been wrong if the outcome of the game was seriously affected by a couple of those decisions. It's unsatisfactory the way it is, no doubt about that," Flower said. "I think the ICC should be stronger in taking a lead on these issues. They are the world governing body and they should lead."

Whilst I get the logic in having a universal application of full DRS for all the test playing nations, I get India's concerns too.

Particularly on sub continent wickets, the spinner comes into it far more and I've seen quite a few iffy looking hawkeye playbacks when slow bowlers are involved -here and abroad.  If it was just an error rate of a few millimetres, then fine. But what about the ball that dies and dips at the last second?  The variation in pace is a key part of spin bowling and I think hawkeye struggles with that at times. For the pace bowlers it's less of an issue, same with tennis, as the ball will most likely maintain more of a consistent pace throughout the specific delivery measured.

I think that one of the commentators (can't remember which) made a good point.

It was basically that a lot of the Indian batsman play with bat and pad together vs spinners.  Its difficult for an umpire to ascertain whether the ball hits bat or pad first, and will most likely give the batsmen the benefit of the doubt.  But the technology would show this on a review, leading to more being given out. 

I'm not wholly in favour of the system, but it does mean a higher percentage of decisions are correct.

I've got a feeling that the Indian board vetoed DRS for the duration of this series to nullify the effect of Graeme Swann. I read somewhere that almost 30% of his test wickets were LBW which is 10% more than Warne and Murali.

[taylorsworkrate]

Tremlett a doubt for second test.

Although one of the great things about this current English side is that we have a high quality cricketer like Bresnan to come in and the side wouldn't be weakened.

[Dave Cooper please]

It will probably be Bresnan but I'd go with Dernbach, he offers something different and has a superb slower ball.