The Cricket Thread 2016

[PaulWinch again]

Mental game and superb effort from England regardless.

[four fornicholl]

so the villa boy is gonna win it for us?

[manic-road]

All over because of the light, good effort from England and not surprised the Pakistanis used ridiculous time wasting so that it would be a draw.

[PaulWinch again]

Daft rules cost England. Great effort though.

[olaftab]

Umpires have been consistent. Today they played about 15 minutes longer than first four days .... Oh ok may be not consistent but they allowed more time today. Good effort all around and a good test match.

[olaftab]

Very pleased for Rashid. Well done lad.

[Villan For Life]

To be fair I don't think the timewasting affected the result and it wasn't as bad as in previous tests against Pakistan.

If the tables were turned we'd have slowed the over rate right down and used similar tactics.

[cdbearsfan]

There's no sport that cares so little about the paying/TV audience as cricket.

No match should ever stop for bad light. All Test grounds have floodlights. Use them.

[Chris Smith]

There's no sport that cares so little about the paying/TV audience as cricket.

No match should ever stop for bad light. All Test grounds have floodlights. Use them.

The lights were on.

[Chris Jameson]

Good effort all around and a good test match.

Apart from the first four days of tedium.

[Dave Cooper please]

If there's one rule that needs to be reviewed after this it's the bad light rule.
Previously the umpires offered it to the batsmen and if they didn't want to play on, off they went. This worked well for England when they won in the dark in India a few years back.
Now the umpires agree on a reading, and if it drops below that, off they go, no leeway, no chance for the bowling team to bring on spinners if they have a chance to win, no chance for a batting team to take the risks of not seeing the ball if they can win. And as cd says, it's just plain daft on a floodlit ground, it may be slightly dark but it won't be dangerous, and England would have been perfectly happy to face pace bowlers because they were going to win.

Cricket doesn't help itself at times does it?

[Dave Cooper please]

Oh and while I'm on a whinge, India and Pakistan should be forced to employ ALL available technology, not just the ones they like.

[Chris Jameson]

Cricket doesn't help itself at times does it?

It's bloody difficult to explain what was going on to somebody who likes cricket but doesn't understand a lot of the ludicrous things that go on. My partner was understandably asking what the point of floodlights are if they are going to stop playing when the batsmen who are surely most at risk want to carry on playing? I love cricket but can understand why people can't be arsed with it!

[paul_e]

Isn't it to do with the ball though?  As the stands get darker in the background the ball is harder to see, even with the lights on. I'm pretty sure that was the main reason that they switched to a white ball for limited overs so they could play under floodlights easier.  There's a pink ball day-night test scheduled soon (next month I think) and a few companies have been working on yellow/yellow-green balls as well.  If one of those can show that it ages similarly to the red ball (white balls most definitely do not) then I can foresee that change coming in for tests where the end of play and the end of natural daylight are about the same time or where overcast conditions are expected.  Not using red balls will be a shame but if it resolves the problem of tests like this ending early (in terms of overs bowled) when a result was clearly on the cards then so be it.

[Dr Butler]

greeny yellow balls are a possibility for bad light....

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/cricket/article4589666.ece

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