The International Cricket Thread

[Drummond]

They've made it through the first over!

[Gareth]

Didn’t take long though :-)

[tomd2103]

I don't get our media sometimes.  We've heard over the past year or so about the need to play proper test cricket, occupying the crease and building an innings.  When we do exactly that today, all I heard on the radio on the way home were commentators moaning at how slowly we we were scoring.  Just seems like muddled thinking which reflects our whole approach to test cricket really. 

Away from our game, that was some innings by Babar Azam to salvage a draw.

[PaulWinch again]

Root is having some 18 months.

Lawrence is looking really promising.

[Beard82]

Root is having some 18 months.

Lawrence is looking really promising.

Yeah Roots a great cricketer - if only we could find a couple of openers...

[Villan For Life]

So disappointing to lose Lawrence so close to stumps.  That sort of expansive shot isn’t needed in the last over of the day!

The pitch is a bit of a road again but I can’t help but think we will be all out for around 300. We never take advantage of strong positions.

[paul_e]

So disappointing to lose Lawrence so close to stumps.  That sort of expansive shot isn’t needed in the last over of the day!

The pitch is a bit of a road again but I can’t help but think we will be all out for around 300. We never take advantage of strong positions.

I disagree. Over the last few years the problem has bene that people like Stokes, Bairstow, Woakes, Buttler, Curran, Foakes, etc (it's a very long list) have been getting to the crease with an objective of saving the innings. By getting proper runs out of the top 4 as we have we're now in a position of asking thme to come in and win us the game instead, which is what you really want from 5-8. It's a shame Lawrence went because the perfect situation would've been for him and Root to see off the first few overs and then start the acceleration.

[Gareth]

I agree, you get 300-4 and batsmen 6-11 have a bit of freedom - we’ve seen it in the past with likes of Mo, Bairstow, Stokes, Prior & even Swann - if they had a good base they had the ability & attitude to take opposition out of games in a session.  This has happened so rarely recently that you hope today we’ll cash in on the batsmen playing properly yesterday, been a long time coming.

[manic-road]

Ben Stokes accelerating the run rate.

[LeeB]

Handy session, let's pile 500 runs and see what the performances of the bowlers looks like from that position for a change.

[Whiney MacWhineface]

Watching Stokes in this mode does way more for my mental health than a lorry load of medication.

[paul_e]

I agree, you get 300-4 and batsmen 6-11 have a bit of freedom - we’ve seen it in the past with likes of Mo, Bairstow, Stokes, Prior & even Swann - if they had a good base they had the ability & attitude to take opposition out of games in a session.  This has happened so rarely recently that you hope today we’ll cash in on the batsmen playing properly yesterday, been a long time coming.

Worked out exactly as we hoped with particularly impressive knocks from Stokes and Woakes to hurry the game along. We really need another wicket or 2 tonight though to create a bit of scoreboard pressure tomorrow.

[PaulWinch again]

Stokes was magnificent, and Foakes and Woakes did a good job.

Having never seen Fisher bowl before I was impressed. He looks skilful and has some good variety.

Mahmood is a really good older ball bowler and it’s nice to have that. It brings some balance throughout the innings.

[tomd2103]

This kind of pitch does absolutely nothing for test cricket. 

[Gareth]

It doesn’t-let’s hope opening up an end might see a few wickets now