The Cricket Thread 2016

[paul_e]

You have to say, the batting might be fragile but this bowling attack must be the best currently playing in Test cricket.

Broad and Jimmy are currently 1st and 5th in the test bowling rankings, as a pair they can blow teams away very quickly and then Finn, Ali and Stokes are all good options if things aren't working as well.

[DaveD]

You have to say, the batting might be fragile but this bowling attack must be the best currently playing in Test cricket.

Best pace attack certainly, and probably the best all round package. Just lacking a mystery spinner for the sub-continent.

[UK Redsox]

Bloody hell, Jimmy has just become unplayable!

Did you see that one ball from Vince before tea ?

That pitch has turned into how the one in our local park use to play. Pitch the ball on a length and watch it fly over the slips

[UK Redsox]

That's all folks.

Jimmy brought back on to castle a tail ended for a ten wicket hall

[UK Redsox]

It's not often that a team wins by an innings and 88 runs when they didn't even score 300 themselves

[paul_e]

I watched the bit before the rain and thought SL had got themselves together and would make us bat then got distracted by the rugby and flicked it back on in time to see the end.  Sounds like Jimmy and Finn have had a bit of fun there.

[Monty]

You have to say, the batting might be fragile but this bowling attack must be the best currently playing in Test cricket.

Best pace attack certainly, and probably the best all round package. Just lacking a mystery spinner for the sub-continent.

Agreed, and frustrations surrounding Rashid prolong this situation. However, you'd imagine that for other countries' batsmen there's no tour they look forward to less - when it's swinging for Broad and Anderson, they're just horrible to play against.

[PaulWinch again]

Poor from Sri Lanka, but brilliant from Jimmy and Jonny. Broad and Hales did really well as well.

[paul_e]

You have to say, the batting might be fragile but this bowling attack must be the best currently playing in Test cricket.

Best pace attack certainly, and probably the best all round package. Just lacking a mystery spinner for the sub-continent.

Agreed, and frustrations surrounding Rashid prolong this situation. However, you'd imagine that for other countries' batsmen there's no tour they look forward to less - when it's swinging for Broad and Anderson, they're just horrible to play against.

Don't forget that Mo has a bit of a golden arm though, he's not on the level of Swann yet but he does have a knack of coming on and taking wickets in his first over or 2.  His record of 1 for 2 from 1 in this test underlines this, it won't get any headlines but it means he is a nice change bowler to have in your pocket.  I think Stokes falls into the same bracket as well, with the 3 main bowlers being Jimmy, Broad and Finn who will all take wickets fairly regularly.

[tomd2103]

You have to say, the batting might be fragile but this bowling attack must be the best currently playing in Test cricket.

Broad and Jimmy are currently 1st and 5th in the test bowling rankings, as a pair they can blow teams away very quickly and then Finn, Ali and Stokes are all good options if things aren't working as well.

In overcast English conditions, Anderson and Broad are pretty much unplayable at times.  The Sri Lankans are in a period of transition, but to lose by an innings and 88 runs when the first innings s ore is 298 is pretty poor really.

[DaveD]

As Sir Geoff just said, men against boys and if conditions are in any way similar in Durham, there's only one result.

I'm going to second day at Lord's, looking likely to be a dead rubber.

[taylorsworkrate]

Sri Lanka clearly don't have the batsmen to be able to cope with Anderson and Broad at the moment.

However, lets not forget that both Australia and SA have been bowled out for less than 100 by England in the last year.

[Monty]

Sri Lanka clearly don't have the batsmen to be able to cope with Anderson and Broad at the moment.

However, lets not forget that both Australia and SA have been bowled out for less than 100 by England in the last year.

That's what I was thinking. A pattern is emerging here.

[OCD]

You have to say, the batting might be fragile but this bowling attack must be the best currently playing in Test cricket.

Best pace attack certainly, and probably the best all round package. Just lacking a mystery spinner for the sub-continent.

Agreed, and frustrations surrounding Rashid prolong this situation. However, you'd imagine that for other countries' batsmen there's no tour they look forward to less - when it's swinging for Broad and Anderson, they're just horrible to play against.

Don't forget that Mo has a bit of a golden arm though, he's not on the level of Swann yet but he does have a knack of coming on and taking wickets in his first over or 2.  His record of 1 for 2 from 1 in this test underlines this, it won't get any headlines but it means he is a nice change bowler to have in your pocket.  I think Stokes falls into the same bracket as well, with the 3 main bowlers being Jimmy, Broad and Finn who will all take wickets fairly regularly.

Joe Root tends to take a wicket on the odd occasion that he bowls too.

[adrenachrome]

Torygraph

England vs Sri Lanka: Chris Woakes returns in place of injured Ben Stokes

Nick Hoult, Cricket News Correspondent

26 May 2016 • 1:11pm

Chris Woakes will return to the England side in place of the injured Ben Stokes for the second Test against Sri Lanka tomorrow in Chester-le-Street.

Alastair Cook, the England captain, confirmed Woakes will play forcing Jake Ball of Nottinghamshire to wait for his first Test cap.

Woakes has regained his Test place on the back of taking nine for 36 for Warwickshire earlier this week just hours after learning of his call up to the squad for the second Test.

Cook also said that Jonny Bairstow will move up to six in the batting order and Moeen Ali to seven with Woakes slotting in at eight.

“We enjoy playing with a balance and this gives Chris another opportunity to play for England,” said Cook. “I don’t think we’ve seen the best of him yet in an England shirt, but he’s in fine form for Warwickshire – a nine-for and a hundred in the last two weeks. We know Ben balances our side really well, but we need competition for the all-rounder place.

“Certainly a lot of people want to come and watch him play, so he’s going to be a big loss for us, but injuries are part and parcel of a side and we need to learn how to play without him, and this gives Chris the opportunity to fill that all-rounder role. Mo goes up  a spot and Jonny as well, so that gives them an opportunity.”

This will be Woakes’s seventh Test for England in three years and despite adding pace to his bowling he has struggled to take wickets at international level. He has eight wickets at 63.75 but bowling to Sri Lanka at the Riverside is a golden opportunity to improve that record.

England have liked Ball’s bowling but they have a series to win this week and do not want to gamble on a longer tail despite the hammering meted out to Sri Lanka at Headingley.

Nick Compton admitted yesterday that he is playing for his England place in this match and at Lord’s next week and Cook backed him to come good.

“Naturally that’s the nature of the beast. It’s quite refreshing that he’s come out and said it in one way,” he said. “You’re always under pressure when you’re playing for England because of the standard of competition for places. People want to take his place. He’s got another opportunity here. He’s practised really well. We know he’s a good player, there’s no doubt about that.

“Look at his record over the past five years, he’s been right at the top of the run-scoring chart. He played some good innings in South Africa, certainly at the start of the tour – that 80-odd, he battled hard and set up a good win. And he’s scored two hundreds already. So he can play at this level. Like all of us, he’s only a score away, and he needs a score, but he’s in a really good place to do that.”