The Cricket Thread 2013

[Villan For Life]

Play due to start again at 3pm

[paul_e]

Bracewell gone to Swann LBW, 1 to go.  It's fecking dark there though.

[paul_e]

If they were trying to score this would be great bowling from Finn, but against someone who's just trying to stay in until the rain comes he need to force him to play every ball.  Move one of the slips to leg side and bowl fuller and straighter.

Swann looks unplayable.

[Villan For Life]

They've batted 7.3 overs without scoring a run. Get Finn off and stick Jimmy on! We need that last wicket before it rains anymore!!

[cdbearsfan]

Job done.

[cdbearsfan]

They've batted 7.3 overs without scoring a run. Get Finn off and stick Jimmy on! We need that last wicket before it rains anymore!!

Good call!

[PaulWinch again]

Glad we won, I think we got a bit fortunate as it could easily have rained all day. I hope moving forward Cook is a bit more positive with his decisions, as to get to the top I think we need to be a little less conservative. However some really good individual performances, notably Root, Cook and Swann and a much improved Finn means a good Test for us.

[Villan For Life]

Finally we've dodged the showers to record a win. It can rain all it wants now!

Wonderful performance from Swann with a 10-fer in the match. Remarkable figures for a spinner at Headingley.

[PaulWinch again]

Finally we've dodged the showers to record a win. It can rain all it wants now!

Wonderful performance from Swann with a 10-fer in the match. Remarkable figures for a spinner at Headingley.

It's the best Swann has bowled in about 2 years, so it looks like his elbow surgery has really helped which is great.

[Villan For Life]

Glad we won, I think we got a bit fortunate as it could easily have rained all day. I hope moving forward Cook is a bit more positive with his decisions, as to get to the top I think we need to be a little less conservative. However some really good individual performances, notably Root, Cook and Swann and a much improved Finn means a good Test for us.

I wonder if the conservatism comes from Flower? Strauss was often accused of being too conservative. It seems that Cook & Strauss are by nature conservative whereas someone like Michael Vaughan always seemed to be prepared to take a few calculated risks with notable rewards.

[Chris Smith]

Glad we won, I think we got a bit fortunate as it could easily have rained all day. I hope moving forward Cook is a bit more positive with his decisions, as to get to the top I think we need to be a little less conservative. However some really good individual performances, notably Root, Cook and Swann and a much improved Finn means a good Test for us.

To be fair with an inexperienced batting line up it's understandable that we were a little conservative in our approach. Compton, Root and Bairstow have only a handful of caps between them and I think Cook tried to protect them a little.

[paul_e]

Very relieved we won, we made it hard on ourselves.  I still think Trott needed to play the situation better on Sunday though.

As with VFL above I'm fairly convinced the caution comes from Flower as Cook seemed a lot more positive before (when he captained the bangladesh tour for example) and it's slowly been worn away.

Lovely delivery from Jimmy to get the last wicket, exactly how to bowl at a tail ender, full enough and straight enough that he had to go for it and enough movement to make it one even a top order batsman would have struggled with.

Swann has had a fantastic match, loads of variation in bounce and spin and used the rough areas really well.  In that form he'd blow away far better sides than NZ.

[paul_e]

Glad we won, I think we got a bit fortunate as it could easily have rained all day. I hope moving forward Cook is a bit more positive with his decisions, as to get to the top I think we need to be a little less conservative. However some really good individual performances, notably Root, Cook and Swann and a much improved Finn means a good Test for us.

To be fair with an inexperienced batting line up it's understandable that we were a little conservative in our approach. Compton, Root and Bairstow have only a handful of caps between them and I think Cook tried to protect them a little.

Again, as I said on Sunday evening, I hope the comments about negativity don't all focus on Cook, he should have declared sooner but a lot of the issues were due to a very nervy performance from Compton and mind-numbing session from Trott.

I think Compton will be the one to make way for KP unfortunately, I just can't see him getting his form back in time for the 1st test as he's looked lost in all 4 innings this series.

[PaulWinch again]

Glad we won, I think we got a bit fortunate as it could easily have rained all day. I hope moving forward Cook is a bit more positive with his decisions, as to get to the top I think we need to be a little less conservative. However some really good individual performances, notably Root, Cook and Swann and a much improved Finn means a good Test for us.

To be fair with an inexperienced batting line up it's understandable that we were a little conservative in our approach. Compton, Root and Bairstow have only a handful of caps between them and I think Cook tried to protect them a little.

Possibly yeah, but I think that once they're starting Test matches the captain should have faith that they can do the job. As I said we won the game and that's what matters, but I hope Cook learns to be a bit more proactive in future. It's experience for him as well, provided he learns from it.

[PaulWinch again]

Glad we won, I think we got a bit fortunate as it could easily have rained all day. I hope moving forward Cook is a bit more positive with his decisions, as to get to the top I think we need to be a little less conservative. However some really good individual performances, notably Root, Cook and Swann and a much improved Finn means a good Test for us.

To be fair with an inexperienced batting line up it's understandable that we were a little conservative in our approach. Compton, Root and Bairstow have only a handful of caps between them and I think Cook tried to protect them a little.

Again, as I said on Sunday evening, I hope the comments about negativity don't all focus on Cook, he should have declared sooner but a lot of the issues were due to a very nervy performance from Compton and mind-numbing session from Trott.

I think Compton will be the one to make way for KP unfortunately, I just can't see him getting his form back in time for the 1st test as he's looked lost in all 4 innings this series.

Yes that is true, in fairness to Cook he batted at a really good tempo once he'd decided not to follow on. It was Compton and Trott that gave us problems with their desperately slow batting, which was not at all what the situation required. It's alright Trott saying, 'I play my game', but Cook is not naturally a stroke maker but he increased his scoring rate because of the match situation.