The Cricket Thread 2013

[PGW]

I think generally this has been an excellent start from England - i hope Pietersen reins it in a little otherwise his likely to get to 30ish and get out. I'm not listening to TSM but watching pictures on Sky - pundits on here saying a score of 350 on here will be a great total on this wicket i think due to the moisture under a dry surface - we are well on the way to achieving that. Shame to lose Trott as he was going so well...

[paul_e]

Someone mentioned earlier, scores over 400 are very rare here so anything approaching that is an excellent batting performance.  I also agree that this has been a good, if slightly slow, start to the test.  KP really wants to dominate them here, I like seeing him aggressive though so I'm happy with it so far, I retain the right to be frustrated if he doesn't make a big score though.

[PGW]

I think generally this has been an excellent start from England - i hope Pietersen reins it in a little otherwise his likely to get to 30ish and get out. I'm not listening to TSM but watching pictures on Sky - pundits on here saying a score of 350 on here will be a great total on this wicket i think due to the moisture under a dry surface - we are well on the way to achieving that. Shame to lose Trott as he was going so well...

I ought to be on friggin telly!!!! - Brilliant batsman but such a tosser!!!!

[taylorsworkrate]

Well I suppose our batsmen are failing in a different way at least.

[taylorsworkrate]

Really poor again from the batsmen. This pitch has done nowhere near what people, including myself thought. I seriously doubt we'll get 400 for the rest of this or the series in Australia.

Gooch's head must be on the chopping block.

[taylorsworkrate]

I actually can't remember the last good, collective innings our batsmen have put together.

[taylorsworkrate]

Lyon, a really shit spinner now has 3 wickets on a pitch that is not spinning, and England are inexplicably 5 wickets down. This is beyond a joke. These batsmen obviously think they are bulletproof in terms of selection, otherwise they wouldn't continually play so pathetically.

[PaulWinch again]

Top order fails again, how many times before someone is dropped? If no other reason than they need see their places are not guaranteed. It's not good enough at all, and once again it's up to the middle and lower order to dig us out of a hole. Our batsmen get starts and then get out, it's very poor.

[PaulWinch again]

I also wonder what our record is like since Graham Gooch became our full time batting coach? Not great I imagine.

[PaulWinch again]

We're also letting Australia bowl at us too much, if you don't rotate the strike and score runs it's so easy to build pressure and when you lose a wicket you've gone nowhere.

[andyaston]

This is like watching Boycott and Tavarae at their finest. The last ten overs have yielded six runs!

[PaulWinch again]

Like I said we've got completely stuck and now Prior is gone.

[PaulWinch again]

It's time for this batting line up to be changed.

[andyaston]

What a load of crap. We have been awful and our scoring rate is the worst i've known in the modern period. Bairstow hasn't scored a run since about half four, the guy on the scoreboard will fall asleep at this rate.

[PaulWinch again]

Short of a miracle we've failed to get 400 again when we've elected to bat first, and it's not good enough.