England cricket, 2019-20 winter tours

[littlebabyjesus]

As in the whole series, really, a strong all-round team effort, with no obvious weak links. (And credit where it's due to Curran - he bowled well today.)

What's happening?

SA meanwhile are in a complete mess. I doubt England will enforce the follow-on, so they'll suffer the slow death of having to bowl again in hopeless circumstances before they're skittled one final time.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Chuffed for Mark Wood as well. He may not have played if Archer had been fit, which would have been a great pity. Can we keep him together long enough for the next Ashes in two years? I dearly hope so.

 

[planetgeli]

England getting early practise in for 4 day Tests here.

 

[Idaho]

Just seen the du plessis diving catch. That must be the best catch we've had for a while.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Just seen the du plessis diving catch. That must be the best catch we've had for a while.

Sums up his series. Amazing catch that matters not one tiny bit. Props to England for the approach today. Good confident stuff

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Nah. In a four dayer they'd have enforced the follow on.

As it is, they didn't, which was right, particularly as they're up in the series, but they batted with abandon after setting a base. Totally right, and it could have gone better, but how it went was good enough. And will probably result in a four-day win where one might have been in doubt had there not been a fifth day. SA start tomorrrow in properly hopeless position. I'll be surprised if England don't win by more than 200 runs.

 

[butchersapron]

How/why is Ravi B only 34?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Problem of part-time spinners exposed here. Both have been hit out of the attack after three overs, going at seven an over between them.

Good fight from SA.

 

[butchersapron]

Cheers then vern. See you in a few months.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Weakened SA, but a great win nonetheless. Bowling's never really been the problem and it continues to look pretty positive. Difference going forwards is finding new batsmen - contributions from everyone in the top six this series. Even the old battler Denly did his bit.

SA may be weakened for a while. Hope not. Hope they find players going forwards. It is painful to think that at least as good a team as the one here could be made out of the players who've defected to England. English County Cricket not operating in the wider interests of world cricket at the moment.

 

[planetgeli]

Weakened SA, but a great win nonetheless. Bowling's never really been the problem and it continues to look pretty positive. Difference going forwards is finding new batsmen - contributions from everyone in the top six this series. Even the old battler Denly did his bit.

SA may be weakened for a while. Hope not. Hope they find players going forwards. It is painful to think that at least as good a team as the one here could be made out of the players who've defected to England. English County Cricket not operating in the wider interests of world cricket at the moment.

Christ. You used 'going forwards' not once but twice in that single post. There should be some sort of tax/forfeit for that.

Tougher tests ahead. But SL isn't one of them. Let's see who gets found out in India in a year from now.

 

[paulhackett]

Weakened SA, but a great win nonetheless. Bowling's never really been the problem and it continues to look pretty positive. Difference going forwards is finding new batsmen - contributions from everyone in the top six this series. Even the old battler Denly did his bit.

SA may be weakened for a while. Hope not. Hope they find players going forwards. It is painful to think that at least as good a team as the one here could be made out of the players who've defected to England. English County Cricket not operating in the wider interests of world cricket at the moment.

You could argue England were weakened as well. How many of Burns, Jennings, Vince, Bairstow, Malan, Ali, Foakes, Rashid, Archer, Overton, Anderson (Bess and Leach twelfth men) would get into a first choice side? Could put an argument in for 6 of them, more if in Sri Lanka. So the winter is going well.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

You could argue England were weakened as well. How many of Burns, Jennings, Vince, Bairstow, Malan, Ali, Foakes, Rashid, Archer, Overton, Anderson (Bess and Leach twelfth men) would get into a first choice side? Could put an argument in for 6 of them, more if in Sri Lanka. So the winter is going well.

Moeen made himself unselectable tbf. I'd love him to come back if he can rediscover his mojo, but he was dropped before he exiled himself.
Bairstow's had a shocking last two years.
Jennings? lol
Vince? lol
Malan? lol
Overton? He's still in the mix, I suppose, not sure England need another fast-medium atm though.
Anderson is near the end, may have reached the end - injured in three of the last four first class games he's played in.

Burns comes back in, but I wouldn't overstate his importance. He's done just enough to be in the side.
Archer back in.
Leach back in.
Foakes would be my first choice keeper of the three available.

But tbh England are only really weakened by the absence of Archer, and if Archer had been fit for the last test, England were going to rest Wood, so even then not so much really.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

It's not really the same is it. England had a few players who were injured but you expect that, it's just part of the game. South Africa are systematically disadvantaged because they have players unavailable. It's not talking down England's performances to say that that (and similar in WI) weakens the game.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

It's not really the same is it. England had a few players who were injured but you expect that, it's just part of the game. South Africa are systematically disadvantaged because they have players unavailable. It's not talking down England's performances to say that that (and similar in WI) weakens the game.

The comparison is with England winning the Ashes v Aus during the World Series years. There was a better Aus team playing WS than in the Ashes that year.

WS players could at least legitimately say that their national orgs were taking the piss by not paying them. That's not true about Kolpakers.

Firdose Moonda wrote a good piece about Kolpak the other day in cricinfo. She's usually very measured writing about these issues, but couldn't hide her sense of betrayal here.

She's pissed off with KP, that's for sure. Like this jibe in particular:

Though not a Kolpak player (Pietersen was eligible to play as a local in England because of his mother's British passport), KP is undoubtedly the most annoying of our cricketing expats. He claimed he left the country because the quota system denied him opportunities, but failed to mention he was a mediocre offspinner at the time.

'I left cos of quotas' is usually not really true, or certainly not the whole truth.

 

[paulhackett]

You could argue England were weakened as well. How many of Burns, Jennings, Vince, Bairstow, Malan, Ali, Foakes, Rashid, Archer, Overton, Anderson (Bess and Leach twelfth men) would get into a first choice side? Could put an argument in for 6 of them, more if in Sri Lanka. So the winter is going well.

Moeen made himself unselectable tbf. I'd love him to come back if he can rediscover his mojo, but he was dropped before he exiled himself.
Bairstow's had a shocking last two years.
Jennings? lol
Vince? lol
Malan? lol
Overton? He's still in the mix, I suppose, not sure England need another fast-medium atm though.
Anderson is near the end, may have reached the end - injured in three of the last four first class games he's played in.

Burns comes back in, but I wouldn't overstate his importance. He's done just enough to be in the side.
Archer back in.
Leach back in.
Foakes would be my first choice keeper of the three available.

But tbh England are only really weakened by the absence of Archer, and if Archer had been fit for the last test, England were going to rest Wood, so even then not so much really.

Not saying they should be picked but if you were looking ahead, Jennings and Bairstow both scored tons on the last tour of SL. Jennings other ton was in India. Malan averaged over 40 on the last tour of Oz. If you have Buttler then why not Bairstow instead? Although I think it should be Foakes.. Anderson is near the end but they just picked him when fit over the others so you'd expect him to come back in. Ditto Archer.

It's not the same as SA but a year-round cycle of matches for England players can be attritional.

 

[paulhackett]

It's not really the same is it. England had a few players who were injured but you expect that, it's just part of the game. South Africa are systematically disadvantaged because they have players unavailable. It's not talking down England's performances to say that that (and similar in WI) weakens the game.

Absolutely. The finances are fucked.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Much harder back in the day, when you had to turn out for your county the day after a test finished. Anderson attributes credit for his longevity to central contracts.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Absolutely. The finances are fucked.

There's more money in the game than ever before, but yes its distribution is fucked. That said, Duanne Olivier was offered a two-year SA contract worth £100k (plus match fees on top, and he'd still be able to do IPL, County Cricket etc). These aren't pennies.

 

[butchersapron]

Banton in at 6 today, Parkinson selected as well. We've been put in.

 

[Santino]

Do you think they call Banton 'Bantz'?

 

[butchersapron]

King Bantz i believe.

He is actually pretty funny from the interviews i've seen on somerset ccc tv. Looks like he'll be in soon enough anyway. Messing my plan up for the next hour.

 

[butchersapron]

Yep, here we go.

 

[souljacker]

Do you think they call Banton 'Bantz'?

They should call him Buju

 

[littlebabyjesus]

England do collapse in a heap occasionally the way they play odis.

Or is this a bit of a dodgy wicket?

 

[butchersapron]

Everything slow and dead.

Root getting bowled before parkinson. That the way to build team spirit.

 

[paulhackett]

Test squad for SL announced - Joe Root (Yorkshire) captain, Dominic Bess (Somerset), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Jos Buttler (Lancashire), Zak Crawley (Kent), Sam Curran (Surrey), Joe Denly (Kent), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Keaton Jennings (Lancashire), Jack Leach (Somerset), Matthew Parkinson (Lancashire), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Dominic Sibley (Warwickshire), Ben Stokes (Durham) vice-captain, Chris Woakes (Warwickshire), Mark Wood (Durham)

Foakes and Jennings back in but Bairstow out. Otherwise, as strong as availability allows?

 

[Teaboy]

Foakes and Jennings look like real horses for courses. I don't really have a problem with that. If someone has proven to be successful in certain conditions why not play to their strengths.

A bit surprised they've not taken 3 front line spinners.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

No Mo? Must have said no. Shame both Moeen and Rashid have made themselves unavailable. Parkinson is a front line spinner, so there are three, one of each as it were. I'd rather have Rashid, though. Wood might be a key player - Mitch Starc has done well in SL, extreme pace to neutralise dead pitches.

Jennings is an absurd selection, imo. He had a totally shit season with Lancs last year.

 

[Teaboy]

No Mo? Must have said no. Shame both Moeen and Rashid have made themselves unavailable. Parkinson is a front line spinner, so there are three, one of each as it were. I'd rather have Rashid, though. Wood might be a key player - Mitch Starc has done well in SL, extreme pace to neutralise dead pitches.

Jennings is an absurd selection, imo. He had a totally shit season with Lancs last year.

Yeah , Ali is still unavailable for red ball cricket. Jennings is an odd one but signals perhaps a new strategy of flexibility with selection depending on conditions. It might be a good idea as its always seemed a bit odd to insist a player must perform in all conditions. Some players are just better suited to certain conditions. We wouldn't take 3 spinners on other tours so why not bring a batsman who has a decent record in these conditions. Not that he'll get a game I reckon, not without a repeat of illness and football madness.