England 2012 Cricket Thread

[Brend'Watkins]

Bloddy idiot, what was he thinking?  He just needed to stay there.

Tall order to get a draw now.

[PaulWinch again]

Our discipline is fucking appalling, we have given away probably three quarters of our wickets.

[PaulWinch again]

Don't think Bresnan will get anything here.

[Villan For Life]

One thing in Bell's favour is that he is excellent at rotating the strike with lower-order batsmen. He'll need plenty of that skill this afternoon.

[PaulWinch again]

Whatever happens here, Bell is the only one who has shown anywhere near enough application. Bollocks to this 'well it's not his natural game to defend.' You're paid to win Test matches for England, if the situation dictates that you need to be defensive then you play defensive.

[PaulWinch again]

That is genuinely the end.

[PaulWinch again]

What a fucking terrible display this has been in every department.

[PaulWinch again]

The South African bowlers have completely crushed our bowlers in this game.

[PaulWinch again]

This game reminds me a lot of the first test of last summer. One hungry and tenacious side against one complacent and over confident side.

[PaulWinch again]

A thoroughly chastening experience that and hopefully the kick up the arse we need. Flower and Strauss deserve a lot of credit for the last few years, they've pulled us up to the top and we've been very good, but since we thrashed India last summer we have dropped off on the whole. We got beaten comfortably in the UAE and also there were lots of similarities as the defeat in this Test, a lack of patience and irresponsible batting. We then went to Sri Lanka and redeemed ourselves a bit. We then beat the West Indies, but we were sloppy and a better side could have beaten us with the opportunities we gave them. It's now lead to this Test which has been nothing short of a destruction. I trust Flower and Strauss to turn it around, but there has to be some serious words with the batsmen and bowlers and I think we have to get Finn in now, his extra pace gives us another dimension.

[PaulWinch again]

I'd consider Tremlett as an option as well.

[PaulWinch again]

5 matches out of 9 we've lost this year.

[paul_e]

I'd consider Tremlett as an option as well.

I don't rate Tremlett, on a bouncy wicket his height and pace are useful but in general he hasn't got the discipline or variety to be a threat in test cricket.

Finn for Bresnan is a good call though.  It weakens us with the bat buyt gives us a wicket-taker.  As I said earlier in the thread, if the bowling attack is working with Bresnan then keep him there, he's solid enough and his batting gives us a much deeper line up than most sides.  Having watched them fail with the ball last time there is an argument that we now need to look at getting the extra pace and threat that Finn brings.

The other alternative is drop Bopara and bring in Finn, moving everyone up a spot (Finn is clearly an 11).  Bopara doesn't look comfortable for England and has had enough chances without ever looking like making the step up, seems a bit of a ramprakash to me, destined to never make it at international level.  We'd need Bres, Broad and Swann to contribute with the bat though.

[TheTimVilla]

A bit more radical than that is to bring in Finn & Onions for Bresnan & Bopara. Our quicks were half killed in the last match; if Anderson or Broad pick up a fatigue injury then we'd still have a three man pace attack. Harsh on Bopara, but we can always bring him back for the decider...

[PaulWinch again]

A bit more radical than that is to bring in Finn & Onions for Bresnan & Bopara. Our quicks were half killed in the last match; if Anderson or Broad pick up a fatigue injury then we'd still have a three man pace attack. Harsh on Bopara, but we can always bring him back for the decider...

Now I'm not one for packing your team with batsmen, but even that is a bit light on batting for me.