The Cricket Thread 2013

[LeeB]

What we saying then? All out by tea?

[KevinGage]

350/375 on this wicket. 

[KevinGage]

Clarke gone!   Knock over the big Ken doll at the other end and it's game on.

[Villan For Life]

Woakes seems to have overcome his nerves. He's bowling a much tighter line.

[taylorsworkrate]

This is the issue with the oft repeated call to give x young player and y young player a go, it's quite possible they'll get taken to the cleaners. 

I'm as guilty of it as anyone, but it does illustrate that the squad depth isn't as deep as we might have thought. 

In fairness, Monty is clearly a much better bowler than Kerrigan, and would be easily ahead of him if not for personal issues. Tredwell also looks a far better spinner.

Finn, Onions and Tremlett are all much better bowlers than Woakes, so the depth in the bowling is definitely strong, its just odd selection from England

[taylorsworkrate]

350/375 on this wicket. 

I think that would be a result for England. There's very little spin and nothing happening at all for the seamers.

[taylorsworkrate]

Regardless of nerves, Kerrigan just doesn't look like an International bowler. His slow walk up to the wicket and quite roundarm action means he's not going to get much spin

[taylorsworkrate]

I really don't like this selection from England. I'd much prefer us to be ruthless and pick Finn or Tremlett and go all out to win the match, rather than picking two players to merely see what they can do.

We now have effectively a 3 man bowling attack.

[eastie]

I really don't like this selection from England. I'd much prefer us to be ruthless and pick Finn or Tremlett and go all out to win the match, rather than picking two players to merely see what they can do.

We now have effectively a 3 man bowling attack.

The Aussies will not take 20 english wickets here , Lyon is not a good enough spinner - already at this stage i would fancy a draw to be the result .
If England get the Aussies out for less than 300 England win - over 300 draw.

Woakes and Kerrigan are not good enough at this level in my view - tremlett and monty much better quality.

[taylorsworkrate]

I really don't like this selection from England. I'd much prefer us to be ruthless and pick Finn or Tremlett and go all out to win the match, rather than picking two players to merely see what they can do.

We now have effectively a 3 man bowling attack.

The Aussies will not take 20 english wickets here , Lyon is not a good enough spinner - already at this stage i would fancy a draw to be the result .
If England get the Aussies out for less than 300 England win - over 300 draw.

Woakes and Kerrigan are not good enough at this level in my view - tremlett and monty much better quality.

Its the mindset from England that's worrying though. Can you imagine the Aussies of the late nineties/early 2000's picking two players for the last game of a won series to see what they could do?

They just appear to be going through the motions at the moment

[eastie]

I really don't like this selection from England. I'd much prefer us to be ruthless and pick Finn or Tremlett and go all out to win the match, rather than picking two players to merely see what they can do.

We now have effectively a 3 man bowling attack.

The Aussies will not take 20 english wickets here , Lyon is not a good enough spinner - already at this stage i would fancy a draw to be the result .
If England get the Aussies out for less than 300 England win - over 300 draw.

Woakes and Kerrigan are not good enough at this level in my view - tremlett and monty much better quality.

Its the mindset from England that's worrying though. Can you imagine the Aussies of the late nineties/early 2000's picking two players for the last game of a won series to see what they could do?

They just appear to be going through the motions at the moment

I agree, should really be rubbing the Aussie noses in it - lacking the killer touch  of the great teams .

[taylorsworkrate]

Well that's Australia's day, but not by much considering how easily the pitch has played. England can point to the policy of dry pitches having worked, but it has alienated our high quality seam bowlers at times this series.

I've thought for a long time that Woakes is not an international cricketer, and he's shown nothing today to suggest otherwise. He may have added a little pace, but not one of his balls went 1cm of the straight. As a bowler he looks as placid as Watson at this level, but not as economical.

Kerrigan was obviously shitting himself, but he doesn't look to have the action of a quality spinner. I think the selectors need to be a little wary of picking players based on 2nd division form. There's quite clearly a sizeable gap now between the divisions. Panesar really needs to sort himself out, as the back up spinners beyond him don't look test class.

[KevinGage]

Was Tredwell injured? 

With his form on the sub continent and in ODI's I'd have thought he'd have been next cab off the rank.

It's a shame that Ajmal Shahzad is out of the picture too, the kind of bowler who can get something out of drier pitches with a bit of reverse swing. Plenty of aggression too. It looked a bit too sedate out there for long stretches without the opening bowlers.  Watson hasn't looked in too much trouble.  Even a shithouse like Smith has looked like a test batsmen at times.   But Shahzad has  been released by Yorkshire recently, so his star seems to be on the wane.

[eastie]

Looks a nailed on draw this game - the Aussies wont bowl us out twice on this wicket with Nathan Lyon their best hope of wickets but a pretty average spinner .

[PGW]

Siddle b Anderson 23
320-5