The Cricket Thread 2016

[PaulWinch again]

Forgot about Stokes!

[simon ward 50]

Alastair Cook has now batted longer than the combined total match time of England at the rugby and football world cups #bbccricket #PAKvENG

[Villan For Life]

Cook's innings is the longest by an Englishman in test history.

[Villan For Life]

Kiss of death....sorry skipper! Out to a tired sweep. He must be knackered.

[paul_e]

Is it just me or have a few started to bounce a bit 'odd' in the last 6-7 overs?  Maybe the pitch is starting to do something eventually.

Aww, and there goes Cook, brilliant innings and it seemed to be a top edge so maybe there is something in the bounce now.

[PaulWinch again]

Buttler needs an innings of substance here.

[PaulWinch again]

Well played Cook that was a great knock.

[Proposition Joe]

This is why I love Cook. He is the only batsman we have with the mentality and patience to score the proper big hundreds that other country's top batters tend to get.

And it's also great to see we handled the scoreboard pressure.

Let's see how close Cook can get to Lara, nothing else to play for in this match. There can't have been many tests without even two completed innings in 5 days, so maybe that to play for if the tail can hang around!

[Villan For Life]

This is why I love Cook. He is the only batsman we have with the mentality and patience to score the proper big hundreds that other country's top batters tend to get.

And it's also great to see we handled the scoreboard pressure.

Let's see how close Cook can get to Lara, nothing else to play for in this match. There can't have been many tests without even two completed innings in 5 days, so maybe that to play for if the tail can hang around!

He's out so Lara's record remains intact.

[paul_e]

Looks like it was a no ball that got him though, was certainly very close.

[PaulWinch again]

Buttler out when he needed runs, but he's trying to speed up the game and that was the right thing to do.

[paul_e]

Buttler out when he needed runs, but he's trying to speed up the game and that was the right thing to do.

I'll actually give him a lot of credit, he tried to do what the game (and England) needed rather than trying to scratch around into some form.  The chances of a result in this game are incredibly slim but for it to even be a possibility England need to get as big a lead as possible tonight and then try to bowl them out cheap tomorrow with enough time left for a slog at the end, a flurry of boundaries this evening helps towards that.

I think the tactic was probably "stick around and support the skipper but if he goes it's shackles off get as many as we can".

[Villan For Life]

Looks like it was a no ball that got him though, was certainly very close.

That was a strange one. Shoaib Malik certainly seemed to overstep, but his action is such that he drags his foot back over the line, thus giving the impression that it's a legal delivery. I think the law is based upon where the foot lands in relation to the popping crease and not where it is when you release the ball. So it was a no ball.

[DaveD]

That was a strange one. Shoaib Malik certainly seemed to overstep, but his action is such that he drags his foot back over the line, thus giving the impression that it's a legal delivery. I think the law is based upon where the foot lands in relation to the popping crease and not where it is when you release the ball. So it was a no ball.

Correct

5. Fair delivery - the feet

For a delivery to be fair in respect of the feet, in the delivery stride,

(a) the bowler’s back foot must land within and not touching the return crease appertaining to his stated mode of delivery.

(b) the bowler’s front foot must land with some part of the foot, whether grounded or raised

(i) on the same side of the imaginary line joining the two middle stumps as the return crease described in (a) above and (ii) behind the popping crease.

If the bowler’s end umpire is not satisfied that all of these three conditions have been met, he shall call and signal No ball.

[peter w]

I am not sure pitches in UAE are necessarily doctored. This is harsh landscape and unless someone is willing to spend lot of money to replace the entire square about a meter deep with soil imported from somewhere else it's always going to be flat and lifeless.

This is Abu Dhabi. They've built a city in a desert. They play on lush football pitches. They have created man made water parks. They have a grand prix. They can bloody well spend money on a pitch if they wanted to.