The Cricket Thread 2013

[Dave Cooper please]

Is it going to be like this all summer? I don't think my nerves can take another 2005.

Absolutely brilliant Test match, the obvious flaws on both sides only made it better, one or two good performances from either side can swing any of these games. Agar, Siddle and Haddin nearly did it for the Convicts, Bell and Anderson just edged it for England.
Brilliant stuff.
I don't think I've ever studied a Hotspot so closely...or celebrated one!

[The Left Side]

Just watched the highlights, great stuff... get in!!!

[KevinGage]

I hope this banishes any complacency from our players as well, this Australia side will fight and push us very close.

Yes.

England aren't as good as they think they are and Australia aren't anywhere near as bad as has been reported.

Looks like two pretty evenly matched sides, with England just shading it in the batting department. 

Should be some series. 

I completely disagree.  We were poor and we beat a side who were only in the game because of 2 massive last wicket stands.  That won't happen every innings We've got 200+ more runs in the side than they have, we should win much comfortably going forward, I really can't see them improving from this.

I wouldn't bank on their top and middle order having as little impact in future games though. Clarke is too good and resourceful a player to keep down for too long, Hughes has runs in him and the openers have shown they can be awkward and hang around. 

Nippier conditions bring their quick bowlers even more into the game (England's too, of course).  Another mediocre first innings with the bat might actually catch up with them. They can't keep getting away with it.

[LeeB]

I think to be honest, we did everything we could to lose this game. Batting poorly in the first innings, then losing our heads at the end of their first innings, and to a lesser extent, their second.

I've always thought that the Aussies have a decent enough seam attack, (although not as good as ours in form) but they have no spinner of note and an incredibly fragile batting line up. In all fairness if Agar was given out stumped correctly in the first, then we go on to win the game by at least a very comfortable margin of 150-200 runs.

I think that with Bell getting back into form, our batting lineup will surely fire much more than theirs throughout the rest of the series. I'd go with Bresnan over Finn unless the Lords pitch looks like having serious pace and bounce in it. I am a huge fan of Finn, but he has had a poor match and seems low on form/belief at the moment. The two overs he bowled today gave the Aussies a lot of momentum and confidence.

They have fight about them, they are an Australian side. However, if they come up against us in a not so generous mood then they won't get close.

That's pretty much my view.

They've had chance after chance to take control and they couldn't. The danger of their attack has been in how erratic it was.

[Steve R]

We've got to take a long hard look at the bowling. On a wicket that was set up for spin Swann was surprisingly impotent. Apart from one spell in the first innings when he really tweaked the ball he looked very ordinary. Is he still injured?

We needed tailenders out today and only managed it because Anderson flogged himself to the edge and back again without losing any of his menace.

Finn must surely drop out. He seems to have lost it completely. Broad bowled well (i.e. sensibly) at the death and should stay. I wonder if Rankin should get the nod for Lords, Bresnan is steady but carries only limited menace.

Right now Australia have a better all round attack, we have Anderson.

[Chris Smith]

Is it going to be like this all summer? I don't think my nerves can take another 2005.

Absolutely brilliant Test match, the obvious flaws on both sides only made it better, one or two good performances from either side can swing any of these games. Agar, Siddle and Haddin nearly did it for the Convicts, Bell and Anderson just edged it for England.
Brilliant stuff.
I don't think I've ever studied a Hotspot so closely...or celebrated one!

That's how I see it too, Dave. I don't want clinical, straightforward victories. I want to watch two sides slug it out, and that includes human frailties exposed by the pressure.

[Pat McMahon]

Are the match highlights available anywhere?

[Darlo Dave]

Are the match highlights available anywhere?

They're currently being shown on Channel 5 +1. Other than that, maybe try the Channel 5 website.

[taylorsworkrate]

Right now Australia have a better all round attack, we have Anderson.

I don't think its fair to compare the attacks purely on the basis of one match where for large periods our bowlers were well under their usual level (Jimmy obviously excepted).

Even with that it took over 230 runs for the last wicket (both innings) and a couple of shockers not to give Agar out, then to give Trott out to see the match go close. Hopefully the England set up will be honest with themselves and realise that the way they bowled at Agar after he was stumped was pretty pathetic for a decent hour and a half.

Swann was under par, but for all Agar's heroics/making the most of good fortune with the bat, he didn't look an especially good spinner.

Our bowlers have done the business consistently for a large no of years now.

[Dave Cooper please]

We needed tailenders out today and only managed it because Anderson flogged himself to the edge and back again without losing any of his menace.

The thing is, Australia don't seem to have any genuine rabbits in the tail-end, they have about five No. 8s, none of them great batsmen but all capable of getting a few runs.

[Villan For Life]

I wonder if the Crims have decided to target Finn in this series the same way that we targeted Gillespie in 2005. He fell apart and was dropped to take him out of the firing line.

I think that Finn may play at Lords his home ground but would rather see Bresnan get the nod.

[taylorsworkrate]

I think for how well that Agar played in the first innings, we need to see him doing it consistently before he's labelled as a potential all rounder or good no 8. He played and missed at a good fair few in the second innings.

I remember Darren Gough making 60 odd in his first test innings and being lauded as the next Ian Botham.

[taylorsworkrate]

I wonder if the Crims have decided to target Finn in this series the same way that we targeted Gillespie in 2005. He fell apart and was dropped to take him out of the firing line.

I think that Finn may play at Lords his home ground but would rather see Bresnan get the nod.

I think it depends on conditions really. If the pitch looks like having more pace and bounce in it, then Finn should play. If its likely to be a pitch like this one that starts slow and gets slower, then Bresnan should play as he's a better exponent of reverse swing.

[PaulWinch again]

Swann bowled poorly, but it was a very very slow spinning wicket and we don't want to see anymore of those. Slow spin is hopeless.

[peter w]

To be honest it was a symptomatic failure of our first innings batting which has been a trouble of ours for a long time. I read somewhere that around 2009-11 we averaged 400+ in our first innings.  Now its  about 100 less. Its also not that rare to see us being skittled for for 200 or less. Even before that Pakistan series in 09 the batting had shown itself to be brittle. So, are we just going to find form because thatis the battingform that this team really has. Or does it say more about the teams that we played at the times that we played them, giving our better players the chance to take advantage?

The bowling attack has usually kept us in, and winning games though. Even in the UAE, one innings apart, the bowling attack where brilliant andkept us in games, and actually giving us good chances to win. Even so, over the same period, our bowling attack concede about 50 more runs now than during the periods I mentioned. Its around 300 to 350.  So in 09-11 we'd usually have a minimum 1st innings lead. Now, its usually more or less even. We now lose, or draw, more because the bowlers can't always be expected to save it. Players getting on, more likely to be injured, new personnel etc

It was one of those tired moments twice when we looked bereft of ideas and seemed to be bowling with alack of a plan. it cost us a big innings lead, and nearly cost us the match. But, in saying that they came through and again its our bowlers that got us across the finishing line. Whether they should be happy with that credit they should be reminded that they didn't help the situation first time round after doing the hard work. and again, first time round the batting did let us down again.

I thought we didn't look quite right with Root at the top and Bairstow at 6. The latter is nothing more than one-day player with little or no technique for test-match level. The selectors must know this so it was riskyto allow him and Root to fail. I was for the idea of him opening butnot with thecaveat of Bairstow coming in. As it is I don't think Root looked comfortable there and so he should be moved back to 6. I don't think they will but theselectors should not just drop but bin Bairstow. But not surewho to bring in. The cupboard doesn't look to be  brimming full of batsman ready for the next step up. There is Compton but after his comments about not getting a fair crack at the whip, whether you agree or not, I don't think the ECB would want to give him a place back straightaway, especially as they'd arranged for him to play in two games against the aussies for two different counties so they could have a good look at him, and who could blame them?