The Cricket Thread 2016

[PaulWinch again]

That's an interesting idea.

[Villan For Life]

Great innings by Vince and Billings in the slogfest

[Villan For Life]

You have to question the Pakistan batting, some of the dismissals have been laughable. Real schoolboy stuff. It's a game that we all love and I sincerely hope that all of the dismissals are legit but the way that some of them have got does raise a few questions.

[spangley1812]

The mandatory coin toss is to be scrapped in the County Championship next season, the England and Wales Cricket Board has confirmed.

The change is effective in both divisions and aims to encourage better pitches for four-day cricket.

An ECB statement read: "The visiting captain will be offered the opportunity of bowling first.

"If he declines, the toss will take place as normal. But if he accepts, there will be no toss."

The recommendation came from the ECB's cricket committee, which includes ECB chief executive Tom Harrison, England team director Andrew Strauss and former England coach Andy Flower.

The committee's chairman, Peter Wright, said a decision on whether to extend the trial would be taken at the end of the 2016 season.

Wright also said the decision was partly motivated about concern over the development of English spin bowlers.

"There has been concern for some years about some Championship pitches," he said.

"But it is fair to say that the plight of spin bowling in this country brought things into focus.

"Figures showing spinners bowled only 21.5% of the overs in the 2015 Championship were presented to the committee and we have come to the conclusion that the only way to bring spin bowlers more into the game is to provide better pitches for them to bowl on."

Good or bad? Divided opinion

On Wednesday, England's limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan said the move may benefit the game long-term.

"If it's to improve the standard of wickets that we play on, and potentially produce a couple of wickets where spin might be conducive to that particular ground, I think absolutely," he said.

"The benefit in county cricket might not be at the very beginning, but potentially for younger guys coming through - they'll develop different skills which will in turn give them a greater base, if they do get picked for England, to play around the world and do it successfully."

But Andrew Gale, captain of County Champions Yorkshire, described the decision as "absolute madness".

He added on social media: "If the pitches are bad, why have no points been deducted in past few seasons?"

[Villan For Life]

I agree with Andrew Gale. If home-biased pitches are being produced, and the consensus is that they are, then why haven't point been deducted by the pitch inspectors?

[Whiney MacWhineface]

Pink ball cricket looking good so far - highly visible.

[Dave Cooper please]

I agree with Andrew Gale. If home-biased pitches are being produced, and the consensus is that they are, then why haven't point been deducted by the pitch inspectors?

But a home-biased pitch isn't necessarily a bad pitch, just one that is suited to the home teams line-up. It could be a perfectly good pitch if the home team is a bit weak on the seam front but is confident of knocking up 400+ with the bat or it could be a greentop (still not a bad pitch) if they have a couple of good pacemen who they fancy can rip open the opposition top order.

[Dave Cooper please]

Pink ball cricket looking good so far - highly visible.

Not sure the Kiwi batsmen agree!

[PaulWinch again]

Buttler on the charge again. I don't really like Kevin Howell's commentating on TMS.

[ACVilla]

Buttler on the charge again. I don't really like Kevin Howell's commentating on TMS.

Surely no worse than Charlie Dagnall.

[TopDeck113]

Pink ball cricket looking good so far - highly visible.

What do they have instead of lunch and tea? Is it tea and supper?

[Dave Cooper please]

It's Australia so it's barbie and tinnies.

[four fornicholl]

get the cricket on lads last over

[Villan For Life]

Boom Boom Afridi nearly won that for Pakistan with 24 off 8 balls. He really blitzed Woakes in his 3rd over, taking 22 off it. Credit to Woakes for holding his nerve in the last over though, he really pulled the game back to England's advantage.

Whisper it quietly, we're starting to look pretty impressive in both forms of limited overs Cricket.

[paul_e]

Boom Boom Afridi nearly won that for Pakistan with 24 off 8 balls. He really blitzed Woakes in his 3rd over, taking 22 off it. Credit to Woakes for holding his nerve in the last over though, he really pulled the game back to England's advantage.

Whisper it quietly, we're starting to look pretty impressive in both forms of limited overs Cricket.

I agree about Woakes, showed a lot of character in that last over after being spanked by afridi in the previous one.  I thought the 4 from it hitting the batsman had lost us the game.  I've also now made myself a bit of an oracle in my 7 year old son's eyes, with about 6 overs to go I told him it was all over but Afridi could make it uncomfortable with some big hitting, he insisted we were watching a recording for about 10 minutes it was that accurate.