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England Cricket 2015

littlebabyjesus said:
Would just prefer to be England right now. Good hard test cricket. Still not convinced by Woakes.

Meanwhile in Melbourne the disintegration of West Indian cricket continues apace. Sad to see and hard to see any positives. A composite team out of them and aus would be the aus team. :(
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Agree on both of points. The WI situation is really sad.
 
Impressive stuff from Broad. Innings-savings knock followed by taking four of the top 6 SA batsmen for fuck-all runs.
 
He's a classic tory, in avoiding mentioning politics. Although to be fair, in South Africa, he was probably avoiding allowing his interviewee saying something dodgy.
 
He crossed the BBC picket line and did a hilarious long winded social media defence of himself as self-employed. The idea of him as short of a few bob - he must have got a fair bit from the BBC as it goes as an apartheid tours expert - is laughable.
 
r
Idaho said:
He's a classic tory, in avoiding mentioning politics. Although to be fair, in South Africa, he was probably avoiding allowing his interviewee saying something dodgy.
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It was Nick compton's dad. He was asked about Hashim Amla (who went to school with Nick) and said how Nick liked 'them', going on to mention Imran Khan (no, not that one). Not a nasty racist by the sounds of him, and he played multi-racial cricket under Apartheid (rather than the official white-only version), but clearly very used to seeing anyone not white as 'other'.

But the waxing lyrical over the tests just before the boycott, and the fond memories of the rebel tours, are pretty hard to hear.
 
Didn't hear that - sounds like my auntie olive who went to SA 60s apartheid and came back as it ended - bringing me gifts of zulu 'shields' and stabby stuff. Of course she never saw any racism over there.
 
Is it me or are keepers really bad at stumpings nowadays? Jack Russell wouldn't have missed that.

Add that to the drop first innings. And all de Villiers' drops. Been a stinker for both keepers, neither of whom looks very good, tbh.
 
littlebabyjesus said:
Bairstow than Russell? Marginally. Russell averaged 27 - he was a better batsman than some gave him credit for, because he looked so awful, I guess.
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Across the board i mean. I'm not saying that's a worthwhile pay-off in test cricket but it's decision that's been made. The best keeper in the country (Michael Bates) can't bat and can't get a contract. We had him for a rolling contract but...
 
I just had a little look and cricinfo don't record drops, so it's hard to quantify without a lot of work.

But I'm pretty sure a really good keeper can go a whole series without any drop/missed stumping that counts as 'straightforward'. Perhaps a whole season. It's that old thing that you don't notice good keepers, only bad ones.

In this match, Bairstow and de Villiers I think have had two clangers each. You'd hope only to be making one or two of those a year, I would estimate, but that's not calculated from stats.
 
butchersapron said:
Across the board i mean. I'm not saying that's a worthwhile pay-off in test cricket but it's decision that's been made. The best keeper in the country (Michael Bates) can't bat and can't get a contract. We had him for a rolling contract but...
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The irony with this particular England team is that you could happily slot Bob Taylor into it at number 10. Ali, Woakes, Broad is a perfectly respectable 7,8,9.

I was always an advocate of Russell over Stewart, not least because Stewart's batting was pretty badly affected by keeping. Now, I don't really know. I think Buttler is generally thought of as the better keeper between him and Bairstow. I like Bairstow, but another match with the gloves like this one and you've got to ask questions.

I get why the likes of Knott were picked above Taylor, but I think the keeper needs to be at least good at keeping. For me the balance would be that he should be a wicketkeeper-batsman, rather than what I think both Bairstow and de Villiers are, which is batsmen-wicketkeepers.

tbh I think Gilchrist changed expectations, but not in a good way. You can't just conjure up an equivalent to him if he isn't there. A bit like England for a while seeking out the 'next Botham' and ending up with Ealham or Lewis instead.
 
littlebabyjesus said:
Is it me or are keepers really bad at stumpings nowadays? Jack Russell wouldn't have missed that.

Add that to the drop first innings. And all de Villiers' drops. Been a stinker for both keepers, neither of whom looks very good, tbh.
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...maybe Bairstow was reading this thread last night?
 
And another for Ali. Woakes going wicketless so far, he's been economical but he does seem to be a a bit of an anti-Finn, just doesn't have that knack of getting people out.
 
Man of the match contenders?

Broad -- glued together the first innings at a crucial time and then put SA on a back foot they never recovered from with an amazing spell of bowling, taking four of the top six wickets of the SA first innings for 20-odd.

Compton -- take Compton out and England's innings don't look so clever. Gave England the platform that the bowlers could build on.

Moeen -- consistent excellent bowling, 4 in the first innings, 3 so far in the second.

Finn -- similarly consistent excellent bowling, 2 in the first innings, 4 so far in the second.
 
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