The International Cricket Thread

[Woofles The Wonder Dog]

And what the heck have Dukes done to their balls? Bashed out of shape regularly and after a few overs have all the solidity of suet dumplings.

[Chris Smith]

There is far too much nonsense talked about different formats of cricket. Too much talk of specialist this and specialist that. Too much talk about colour of the ball and length of the uniform. This can't be done because it's Test match conditions and that can be done because it's limited overs. All of this leads to barriers being built, mental barriers in players minds. Great players with good techniques will not succeed in any format if their mental approach is not right. It's not the format of cricket that defeats them it's the format of their conditioning. Great Test cricketer of the past who never played a single limited over game will no doubt still excel in that format.  Despite Bairstow's wonderful knock the record for England's fastest Test century is still held by one of those greats. If England needed 299 in 50 overs to win a match no one would have bet against them so it was totally right that the coach and players adapted the correct approach and got the job done. Remove all shackles and play the game in the most positive way you can whatever format it is. It's still about hitting a ball with the bat and uprooting 3 stumps at the other end. SIMPLE!

The brilliance of yesterday could not have happened without the accumulation of runs in the first innings with Pope and Root each batting for almost 6 hours. That’s not a skill you can develop in the short form of the game. The domestic game needs to give a higher priority to the County Championship to ensure that others can develop that level of application.

[UK Redsox]

TalkCrap have the radio rights for the game against the Dutch team from Holland in the Netherlands.

Good job that I've booked this afternoon off work and can watch on TV

[UK Redsox]

England could get well over 400 here

[paul_e]

England could get well over 400 here

under 400 would be a poor score from position with this team.

[paul_e]

27 ball half century for Buttler, he's a machine, best white ball batsman in the world by a very long way right now.

[PaulWinch again]

Think the Dutch are a touch outmatched here.

[Nev]

It's a stretch to describe this as first class cricket really.

[paul_e]

True but Buttler specifically has just done this to a bunch of world class players in the IPL and is just carrying his form over, once he gets going his quick hands and range of shots make it very difficult to find any consistent way to slow him down.

[paul_e]

If ever there's a bad time to get back-to-back wickets it's when it leaves you with Buttler and Livingstone in the middle swinging at everything.

[Villa Lew]

Morgan out first ball, shocking display from the captain.

[Villan For Life]

Livingstone 54 off 17 balls, missed the white ball fastest 50 by 1 ball.

I reckon that Livingstone’s hitting has stopped Buttler from getting a double century

[paul_e]

Livingstone 54 off 17 balls, missed the white ball fastest 50 by 1 ball.

I reckon that Livingstone’s hitting has stopped Buttler from getting a double century

Agreed, I love the fact that Livingstone was disappointed it took 17 balls.

[Villan For Life]

498-4, so close to getting 500, remarkably the Dutch seemed to bowl better in the final 3 or 4 overs so it could have been much more.

[UK Redsox]

It's a stretch to describe this as first class cricket really.

It’s not first class cricket, it’s List A


England finish with 498 to set the new ODI record

If one of those waist high full tosses had been no-balled, we could have seen 500