The England Cricket Thread

Lmao what an utter joke SA are, that was vintage England batting collapse from them.

Stunning bowling from England though and more amazingly a series win in SA.

SA just lol absolute lol.
 
That was a terribly flat performance by England. It was like they'd just given up. I'm pleased for us, we put in a great performance at the end, taking 7 wickets for just 49 runs. I know England won the series but they didn't really win it convincingly, and I think that loss will do a lot more bad than the series win will do good. It was the usual spectacular batting collapse from them :(

I also think that things would have been different if the rains hadn't come in the second Test making that a draw.

South Africa have a lot of youth and inexperience in their team (but Rabada really matured toward the end and proved right to be in the team) so they have lots to work with, and hopefully Steyn will be back soon. Can you imagine an opening bowling attack of Steyn and Rabada, followed by Morkel and Abbot? That would be a special pace attack! AB De Villiers needs to decide what he wants to do because I think the indecision of it all and being handed the Captaincy hasn't helped his game at all, but I'm sure he'll be able to work through it, especially with this win. I think Amla showed that he belongs amongst the greatest batsmen in the world. He's truly amazing to watch, he has such grace and technique. He has so much class. Stepping down as Captain has clearly been a good thing for him.

All-in-all it was an enjoyable series and I look forward to the ODIs and T20s :)
 
rickjames said:
Are you sure about that? Because those two we did win were rather convincing...
Click to expand...

I am sure. The first test they won with a very high margin, I certainly won't argue with that so that's theirs. The second was a draw, and let's be frank, there was a lot of relief that it ended when it did because SA came back fighting until the rains came down. Stokes was amazing in that Test but Amla steadied the SA ship and it was very close. The third Test was a bit of an anomaly because Stuart Broad had one of the best bowling spells of recent years, much like he did last year to power through Australia. But that was a one-man show at the time. The England batting order collapsed in that Test as well and aside from Root, and a bit of Stokes, no other batsmen put on a proper stand. There were a lot of questions that needed to be answered in this series and they simply haven't been. Things like the usual batting collapse that we've come to expect from England. The farce surrounding the opening batting which still has no stability or consistency. Team selection is another. Players not playing to the conditions (as shown in this last test).

I'm not bitter so please don't take it as such at the next bit. If SA had a fit squad of their proper, experienced players, and the team wasn't marred by such terrible politics, England would probably not have won the two games they won. I'm happy for them that they won the series. I support both SA and England (SA a little more obviously because I was born there). Hopefully this will enable them to grow as a team, and there has definitely been some improvement but the fact is they just collapsed and gave up in the last test and it was such a shame to see. I don't know if it was complacency or just because they weren't bothered because they'd already won the series, but it was such a shame. They did the exact same thing last year as well.
 
robfosters said:
Butler is among the greatest ODI batsmen of all time IMO.

Yet another day of saffer bashing :D
Click to expand...

If that was the other day, what was yesterday? :p I thought England got off to an amazing start until Roy stupidly ran himself out. It was an unnecessary risk for barely anything. But then Root came in and as per usual stabilised the innings beautifully. He's such a consistently reliable player for England and a major asset to the team. He's great to watch as well. I honestly thought that South Africa were done for, but De Kock and Amla's brilliance fired at just the right moment in the series and they put on one of the most outstanding opening partnerships you'll ever see in an ODI. It was spectacular to watch, and De Kock is absolutely amazing, he's going to be such a great player.

It must have been an amazing match to watch. I only caught the highlights last night but I wish I'd have seen it all from the beginning.
 
So, we are just under 3 weeks from the first test of the summer against Sri Lanka...

Guess the main questions so far are who opens with Cook and who bats at 3 and 5. Currently imagine it'll still be Hales that gets the nod despite some shoddy form.

3/5 though there's a load of players; Compton, Ballance, Bell, Vince can all play in both slots, then if they were feeling ballsy the selectors could take a punt on Roy at 5. Going off county form so far I'd say Bell will get his recall, getting dropped for the South Africa tour has done him some good.
 
Here we go again:

vuozkPU.jpg
Click to expand...


England:

Alastair Cook (c), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Stuart Broad, Nick Compton, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Vince.


Sri Lanka:

Angelo Mathews (c), Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka, Dhammika Prasad, Dilruwan Perera, Dimuth Karunaratne, Dinesh Chandimal, Dushmantha Chameera, Kaushal Silva, Kusal Mendis, Lahiru Thirimanne, Milinda Siriwardana, Niroshan Dickwella, Nuwan Pradeep, Rangana Herath, Shaminda Eranga, Suranga Lakma


Cooky on the way to a few records:

Alastair Cook is 36 runs shy of becoming only the 12th batsman ever to reach 10,000 Test runs; the first player to do so for England

Cook is 83 runs away from becoming only the second man to record 5,000 Test runs in England and Wales (Gooch, 5,917)

Cook (13,229) needs 102 runs to leapfrog Ian Bell (13,331) into second spot for most runs for England in all formats

The England skipper is two centuries away from 30 in Tests; only 12 men have ever managed to record that many

Cook is 65 runs away from becoming England’s all-time highest run-scorer as Test captain (Atherton – 3815); he’s currently 249 shy from becoming only the eighth man ever to reach 4,000 as a Test skipper
Click to expand...

Play starts at 11:00
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom