The Cricket Thread 2013

[KevinGage]

Much better today.  First of all to wrap up the Aussie tail in decent time, and then to overcome a patchy start second time around.  Impeccable from Bell. 

Compare and contrast with Buck's streaky ton, when the jammy so and so could have been out 7/8 times. 

England's day, for the first time in a while.  Genuinely not sure what a good score would be from this point onwards.  Even 220  might be enough. It's runs on the board, and the Aussies have had a tendancy to fold in these kind of situations recently.

[taylorsworkrate]

The way Bell has played in this series shows that on top form he's as good as any batsman in world cricket. He is such a delight to watch as he makes it look so easy at times.

As for the game, I think a lead of 250 would put us as slight favourites, especially with the expected cloud cover over the next couple of days. Hopefully we can go on to a lead of at least 300 though, with Bell turning it into a daddy hundred and Prior finally contributing with the bat.

[Dave Cooper please]

Of course they do. If they went 8 down with an hour to go they'd send Jimmy Anderson in to shore things up.

The nightwatchman has always struck me as daft. It sends the wrong message to the opposition, that we're worried about losing wickets. It also hurts the following morning if the nightwatchman stays in and slows the run rate down.

My viewpoint has always been that the recognised batsman should be mentally strong enough to go and see out the last 10 minutes. You never see nightwatchmen for the openers when there's only 4 or 5 overs to bat

Bresnan isn't your typical night watchman though, he isn't far off being an all-rounder, he can score quickly enough.

[PaulWinch again]

I'm happy enough for Bres to go in when he did, he's meant to be there to bat. Overall our day thanks to Bell, who played a wonderful innings. Worryingly the top 3 failed once again, and it's time for a change. I reckon we need to set 250-300 and Jimmy to turn up.

[Monty]

Bell's innings was so good. Not only is he our easiest-on-the-eye batsman, he's now the best digger-out-of-holes as well.

[PaulWinch again]

Bell's innings was so good. Not only is he our easiest-on-the-eye batsman, he's now the best digger-out-of-holes as well.

Well essentially he stands alone at the moment, although KP and Bairstow made valuable contributions

[olaftab]

We've done well in the end to limit the lead now we need to bat well. Another shocking decision by umpire initially.

Par for the course this series. If the ICC are unmovable on neutral umpires, then they'll have to start making some changes in their elite panel. These 4 have been an utter disgrace all summer

I disagree. The neutral umpires appointment is in line  with other international sports. I hope no one thinks that best Umpires only come from England as that is not the case. TV and video replays are making umpires look a little short but that is no different from football referees week in week out. Main thing is that there is NO bias in decision making right or wrong.

[PaulWinch again]

We've done well in the end to limit the lead now we need to bat well. Another shocking decision by umpire initially.

Par for the course this series. If the ICC are unmovable on neutral umpires, then they'll have to start making some changes in their elite panel. These 4 have been an utter disgrace all summer

I disagree. The neutral umpires appointment is in line  with other international sports. I hope no one thinks that best Umpires only come from England as that is not the case. TV and video replays are making umpires look a little short but that is no different from football referees week in week out. Main thing is that there is NO bias in decision making right or wrong.

Aleem Dar is normally excellent, but other than that the best are from England and Australia. You'd hope they'd be professional enough not to be biased. All elite umpires should be available for all series.

[PaulWinch again]

Oh and KP and Bairstow shouldn't be criticised today, they contributed to vital partnerships and have helped give us a chance.

[olaftab]

Aleem Dar is normally excellent, but other than that the best are from England and Australia. You'd hope they'd be professional enough not to be biased. All elite umpires should be available for all series.

What do you base that on Paul? The only way to judge is to watch lot of test cricket not involving England and Australia IMO.

[PaulWinch again]

I watch a fair bit of cricket in NZ and the umpiring tends to be very good from Steve Davies. I think Aleem Dar other than this series is normally probably the best, Erasmus is ok but Tony Hill and Dharmesena aren't particularly good. Hill in particular has been desperately poor throughout the series.

[PaulWinch again]

Additionally Paul Reiffel looks very promising and I think Oxenford and Illingworth are very good.

[olaftab]

In that ICC need to step up selection process for Elite panel.

[taylorsworkrate]

8 of the 12 elite panel umpires are from England and Australia. As it stands they can only use the other 4. Dar is way off his usual decent form, so I'd possibly keep him. However the other 3 just look abysmal so they all need replacing.

It's a shame, because the poor umpiring and the faulty/poor use of technology had blotted this series.

[paul_e]

We've done well in the end to limit the lead now we need to bat well. Another shocking decision by umpire initially.

Par for the course this series. If the ICC are unmovable on neutral umpires, then they'll have to start making some changes in their elite panel. These 4 have been an utter disgrace all summer

I disagree. The neutral umpires appointment is in line  with other international sports. I hope no one thinks that best Umpires only come from England as that is not the case. TV and video replays are making umpires look a little short but that is no different from football referees week in week out. Main thing is that there is NO bias in decision making right or wrong.

I agree, all this series has shown is a need for much clearer guidelines about what to do, the one earlier to the series where the tv umpire overturned a decision despite no evidence on hotspot was particularly harsh.