The Cricket Thread 2016

[PaulWinch again]

Really positive match for England. We've got four of our main batsmen getting centuries, Hameed having a great debut, Rashid performing and just a great team effort.

[paul_e]

Now that we've drawn a game that we'd have won with another 15-20 overs to play with can the comments about Vaughan being a c**t for suggesting we were on for a whitewash be revisited.  As I said, he was being a dick because he was either trying to be controversial or he hasn't watched any cricket in India for the last 7-8 years.  India were always going to try to bat us out the games because it's what they do, they try to take 200ish overs out of the game for 600-650 and then hope they can sneak some big wickets and put pressure on the visitors, that's how they play because the game in India is so focused on batters getting big centuries. Bangladesh relied on their bowlers because they knew they couldn't compete with the bat and made pitches to suit that approach.  I think the series will be very close, I suspect 2-1(either way) or 1-1 and pretty much every meaningful commentator saw it similar.

[PaulWinch again]

Well I don't know look at India's recent record at home. Vaughan's comment was fine, he said we might get whitewashed if we were consistently 30-3, 40-4 and I think that was a valid point. In this game we bucked our recent trend for losing a cluster of early wickets and we had success.

[paul_e]

Well I don't know look at India's recent record at home. Vaughan's comment was fine, he said we might get whitewashed if we were consistently 30-3, 40-4 and I think that was a valid point. In this game we bucked our recent trend for losing a cluster of early wickets and we had success.

But it was always ignoring the fact that England have 2 of the best batsmen in the world in that top 4 and the best 5-8 they've had in my lifetime.  The idea that weaknesses at 2 and 3 could lead to the situation yu describe is, at best, far-fetched and certianly not something I'd expect to see from a serious pundit.

In all honesty it's a suggestion that I've only seen treated with anything but distain by people on here who I think have been beaten down by villa performances and have forgotten what positivity feels like.

[steffo]

The toss will be an important factor in all the tests. If England can win them and bat first and post totals in excess of 300 in their first innings then India having to bat last won't fancy it. The pitches will be dust bowls from now on.

[PaulWinch again]

Well I don't know look at India's recent record at home. Vaughan's comment was fine, he said we might get whitewashed if we were consistently 30-3, 40-4 and I think that was a valid point. In this game we bucked our recent trend for losing a cluster of early wickets and we had success.

But it was always ignoring the fact that England have 2 of the best batsmen in the world in that top 4 and the best 5-8 they've had in my lifetime.  The idea that weaknesses at 2 and 3 could lead to the situation yu describe is, at best, far-fetched and certianly not something I'd expect to see from a serious pundit.

In all honesty it's a suggestion that I've only seen treated with anything but distain by people on here who I think have been beaten down by villa performances and have forgotten what positivity feels like.

I didn't think we'd lose 5-0, but if you look at England's recent performances the top order had not performed as a unit. His argument was that if that continued then it would be far harder for the middle and lower order to dig us out against spin. I think that was a reasonable assertion to make. The way the quote was taken out of context was the issue.

Hopefully now though the batting line up will be full of confidence and we'll be in with a decent shout.

[paul_e]

but it's not about being taken out of context, whatever he meant he decided to use the term 'whitewash' fully aware that the chances of it were incredibly slim.  He's tried to suggest he was making a point about the top order but I'm afraid it's bullshit.  If he didn't have precious for talking bullshit I'd give him the benefit of the doubt but in the context of the nonsense he's said about various things relating to England since he left it's pretty clear that he's put being controversial before being a measured pundit.

Everyone knows we needed to find an opener and a 3 but comments like that put a unnecessary extra pressure on those choices.

[Ads]

I was listening to the show and they were talking about Ballance and the consistent digging our middle order has had to do over recent years to steady an innings. I think his point was fair; you do that every test on the tour and you'll lose every time against a quality side.

He didn't say he thought we'd lose 5-0.

[Chris Jameson]

Michael Vaughan is a gobshite. And a massive c*nt, always worth repeating.

[PaulWinch again]

I was listening to the show and they were talking about Ballance and the consistent digging our middle order has had to do over recent years to steady an innings. I think his point was fair; you do that every test on the tour and you'll lose every time against a quality side.

He didn't say he thought we'd lose 5-0.

Agree completely. The show as a whole needs to be listened to understand what he was saying.

[paul_e]

I'm not even talking about his radio comments, I'm talking about his telegraph columns where he consistently moans about us having no world class spinners and the batting being shit and too aggressive.  In there he mentioned a few times during the Bangladesh series that we were going to get hammered if things didn't change.  It's not that he's wrong about that, it's that he might as well saying that if the sun doesn't come up it will be dark.  That's the problem, for every useful insight he offers there are 5-6 pointless observations and lots of meaningless drivel.

As I say, there are fans on here who do the same about Villa where everything is shit and there can be no silver linings, it's a win-win approach, get it right and you can claim to be really good at knowing what to think and you should've been listened to, get it wrong and most people forget about it and everyone is happy because we've won stuff.  I'm not saying that you should ignore the bad stuff, just that when you're 4th in the world and were within touching distance of first during the summer then there's got to be more good than bad, but vaughan doesn't seem to want to acknowledge it.

[Villan For Life]

Sad to see that the Crims have lost another test. I think that's 6 on the bounce. Long may that rub continue!

[KevinGage]

Odd to see Pakistan second in the world rankings.  Not a bad side at all, as their performance (in patches) during the England tour demonstrated.  But second best in the world?

Weird to see a very good NZ team down amongst the deadmen again (7th).

[paul_e]

Odd to see Pakistan second in the world rankings.  Not a bad side at all, as their performance (in patches) during the England tour demonstrated.  But second best in the world?

Weird to see a very good NZ team down amongst the deadmen again (7th).

That's the benefit of having a great bowling attack.

[Villan For Life]

Odd to see Pakistan second in the world rankings.  Not a bad side at all, as their performance (in patches) during the England tour demonstrated.  But second best in the world?

Weird to see a very good NZ team down amongst the deadmen again (7th).

That's the benefit of having a great bowling attack.

I agree. The top sides all have excellent bowling units whereas there are very few world class batsmen in any of the sides.