The Cricket Thread 2016

[Proposition Joe]

Anyone who thinks this match is done and dusted has never watched the England cricket team before.  I hope a refreshed bowling attack gets the last three wickets double quick, but let's say the tailenders throw the bat at it and put on another 100, it will be a really tense chase.

[Villan For Life]

Presumably (hopefully) will wrap this test up before lunch today. It's good that the next test is at Trent Bridge where another typically English pitch should suit our attack with or without Jimmy.

I thought the Aussies bowled badly yesterday. Johnson's first over was as hostile as I've seen since the days of the West Indian pace attacks. He got wickets with two snorters in three balls but then hardly bowled another bouncer all day. They are really missing Ryan Harris, he'd have been a handful on typically English pitches. Clarke is woefully out of form and the knives will be out for him in the media back home.

What a turn around from Lords!

[PaulWinch again]

Let's hope we wrap this up nice and quick and Jimmy's injury isn't too bad. Finn finally being back to his best is great.

[paul_e]

Absolutely. The right conditions and pitch and he is unplayable.

but this isn't an Anderson wicket, he is, at his very best, a swing bowler and this is a seaming wicket, he did well because he's very good at scrambled seam deliveries (which isn't a standard part of swing bowling) and he hit good spots on the pitch.  This goes back to the discussion about him a couple of months ago, lots of people see him as only having delivered on pitches that suit him but whenever he bowls well they just says it's his type of pitch without watching what he's done.

Where he really struggles is on dead pitches where his lack of express pace is exposed, like Lords last week but for me he has that as a weakness rather than having a reliance on swinging conditions which is the criticism he regularly gets.

I don't know if that's what you were getting at but I just find it frustrating that English cricket fans feel the need to say 'look at Jimmy's stats, must've been a pitch that suited him' rather than 'look at Jimmy's stats, he must've had a brilliant day' I can't think of many other top bowlers where that happens.

[PaulWinch again]

Jimmy is an absolutely brilliant bowler full stop.

[PaulWinch again]

We don't want to be chasing anything over 120 here, so let's hope we knock them over quick.

[taylorsworkrate]

Jimmy is an absolutely brilliant bowler full stop.

Absolutely

[olaftab]

Well in my seat in Raglan. For the amount of cricket £66 steep but to sit here and watch Aussies humiliation PRICELESS!
Wooooooo....bring them on!

[paul_e]

If Broad gets a wicket he'll have 2000 runs and 300 wickets in test cricket and be just the 13th player to get there, with Johnson becoming the 12th player to get there earlier in the match.

[Proposition Joe]

Gah, runs coming too easily.

[PaulWinch again]

Come on England knock these over. Jimmy out of next Test is a big blow. Hopefully Wood will be fit, but I wonder if Rushworth is a shout. I reckon he could be very good on a ground that swings.

[taylorsworkrate]

Aussies having an obscene amount of luck this morning.

[olaftab]

England boys look as though they can straight here from a night out at Bushwackers!

[paul_e]

Come on England knock these over. Jimmy out of next Test is a big blow. Hopefully Wood will be fit, but I wonder if Rushworth is a shout. I reckon he could be very good on a ground that swings.

Surely Woakes is first in line if Jimmy is out, he's been in the team and done well enough to keep his place and has good figures since he came back.

[Proposition Joe]

Come on England knock these over. Jimmy out of next Test is a big blow. Hopefully Wood will be fit, but I wonder if Rushworth is a shout. I reckon he could be very good on a ground that swings.

What about Onions?