The Cricket Thread 2016

[Villan For Life]

We staged a recovery of sorts until lunch. Ali survived two appeals in the first over after the restart that were overturned on referral then Root was out in the next over. 81-4.

We need Stokes to play calmly now.

[PaulWinch again]

Not looking great to be honest. It doesn't look a particularly difficult pitch a lot of the time, but then there will be the odd ball that turns square. It will be interesting to see how Bangladesh go.

I really am not sure what Ballance did to warrant his recall in the summer and I haven't seen anything from him since to justify his selection.

[Villan For Life]

That was a disappointing day for England. 258-7 is a recovery of sorts from 21-3 and this side is very resilient. We never seem to learn our lesson against spinners and as a result we struggle against them. It's a big ask, but if the remaining three wickets can get us up to 300 then I suspect that could well be a competitive total. Batty will come in to his own on this pitch and could prove to be an inspired selection.

[paul_e]

That was a disappointing day for England. 258-7 is a recovery of sorts from 21-3 and this side is very resilient. We never seem to learn our lesson against spinners and as a result we struggle against them. It's a big ask, but if the remaining three wickets can get us up to 300 then I suspect that could well be a competitive total. Batty will come in to his own on this pitch and could prove to be an inspired selection.

Have you seen any of the play from today?  I watched the last half hour before lunch and about 20 minutes in the last session.  On the basis of that I reckon this is pushing on a competitive total, add another 30-40 tomorrow and I'd say we're slightly ahead.  Now whether Ali, Rashid and Batty can make the most of that with the ball is another matter but I think 500-550 over the 2 innings is enough to win this.  This goes back to my belief that people have let ODI and t20 blind them to what a competitive score is in test matches so suddenly less than 400 feels like you've come up short almost irrespective of the conditions/pitch.

[Chris Jameson]

ITV 4 are showing highlights at 7.00pm.

[paul_e]

Just to clarify because reading back that post doesn't necessarily come across as I intended it to.  Without seeing any of the game I'd agree with you that it looks like we've let ourselves down a little but that's not the impression I got watching it, it looked really hard to get the ball away so the score for the day is about par, I certainly wouldn't think either side sees it as their day.

[Dave Cooper please]

Cook's wicket was probably the only one of the 7 that was a genuinely poor shot, the rest were due to good bowling and a pitch which is difficult to score on and likely to produce exaggerated and unpredictable turn. When a team opens the bowling with a spinner you know what sort of pitch they have prepared.

[adrenachrome]

Cook's wicket was probably the only one of the 7 that was a genuinely poor shot, the rest were due to good bowling and a pitch which is difficult to score on and likely to produce exaggerated and unpredictable turn. When a team opens the bowling with a spinner you know what sort of pitch they have prepared.

Also, they have picked 5 spinners and there is very uneven bounce. Nonetheless, our batsmen are going to have to start using their feet a lot more against spin on this sort of pitch, so it could be a very good preparation for India. 

[Villan For Life]

Moeen Ali Is involved in everything in this game!

Top scorer, a unique DRS record and now two wickets in three balls. That's almost Bothamesque boy's own stuff!

[paul_e]

That first wicket is a thing of real beauty, the batsmans reaction was priceless.

[OzVilla]

They've picked 5 spinners!!??  Wow, can't think of that happening before, 3 yes but 5.  Must be an absolute Bunsen.

[paul_e]

They've picked 5 spinners!!??  Wow, can't think of that happening before, 3 yes but 5.  Must be an absolute Bunsen.

Try to catch some highlights, it's quite fun watching a match with this much turn and bounce.  There's been shitloads of reviews where a wicket has been overturned because the ball did way too much.  The one that rashid got looked, to the naked eye, like a decent shout but hawkeye had it 3-4 inches high and wide of leg.  Must be an absolute nightmare for the umpires on this.

[Villan For Life]

Finally the BCCI have agreed to introduce DRS for the test series against England. It's been a long time coming. This current test shows how valuable it is.

[paul_e]

Interesting game now this one.  Tamim is key here, if he sticks around then they can push on but the concentration needed is huge and Mo showed that if you let it drop for a few seconds the pitch will catch you out.

[paul_e]

I really like watching Mo bowl to left handers, you can tell that he's used to bowling at our top order and he's much more comfortable with those angles.