Casual Observer
enough
I'd give Denly a go, wearing a sunhat and comedy bins to put the batsmen off.
England cricket, 2019-20 winter tours
- Thread starter Santino
- Start date
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Not watching live atm, but Elgar is a classical opener - leaves good balls alone, scores off bad balls. The fact he's scoring so quickly suggests that both England seamers have bowled badly so far. Is that correct?
eta: and as I write, a wicket!
eta: and as I write, a wicket!
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
I'm really bad at bump balls but even i half cut could see that wasn't one.
Pretty much spot on. Just putting away bad balls and not half volleys, just down leg side dross.
I agree with you, It looked out in real time. Soft dismissal really but its that sort of pitch.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Wood pretty fast here.
Different game with him and the spinner bowling. Should be a blueprint for tomorrow. Mix up the seamers by using Wood and Stokes in short bursts whilst operating a spinner continually. Fuck all in the pitch so keep asking questions.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
I hope they don't show a side on vid of his front foot landing again though. I don't ever want to see that again.
As i speak bess gets elgar
Aye. You feel Wood is here for a good time not a long time. I guess we should enjoy him the few times they can get him out there.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
And as you write! Wood will get wickets at the other end, too, the way he's going.
Bad light. Boo.
So good bonus wickets at the end, but you've got to think England got that a bit wrong. Totally agree with you about tomorrow - Bess one end, Wood and Stokes asked to steam in at the other end, Curran possibly not to bowl again. I guess that's why Philander didn't bowl much - just nothing there for that kind of bowler.
ETA: I have to say, though, that for the kind of bowler he is, Curran bowls bad balls more often than he should. Philander may not have taken wickets or posed that much of a threat, but at least he kept things tight.
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planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
I didn't have it. Which is good for me because I'm not £109 down, and good for you because I might have thought you were a bit of a cunt for that post if I had lost £109.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Nasser Hussain pretty passionate about the Rabada incident. I totally agree with him. There was no contact, it's not even a direct confrontation. I don't actually see anything wrong with it at all tbh. And what Buttler did was way, way worse, a different kind of worse, perhaps meriting a one-match ban in and of itself. Yet the two are given equal weight.
Nas and Holding get heated over Rabada!
Nas and Holding get heated over Rabada!
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Hmmm. I don't rate him tbh. I think his stats thus far in tests flatter him a little bit, as stats can do at the start of your career, but one revealing stat is wickets per match, which currently stands at just over two. He's a bits-and-pieces all-rounder who is worth little with the ball without helpful conditions, precisely because he doesn't offer control. He's a fourth seamer, not a third seamer, and England already have a fourth seamer. tbh if Moeen Ali were still around, I don't think Curran would be getting so many games. He's a little fortunate imo that England at the moment have worries about the length of the tail.
Yeah, I get what you're saying. I just see youth and the making of a team for the future being built here, and I see Curran as being integral to that I agree he bowls too many four balls for the pace he bowls but he swings it. What happened to Anderson when he was Curran's age (rhetorical)?
I think England are right to trust in youth and hopefully it will pay off in a few years time.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
He was dropped.
It's a decent comparison, though, cos it was a case of which Jimmy would turn up for the first five years of his career - Good Jimmy or Bad Jimmy. He swung it both ways at pace in those days, though, which is one point of difference. Curran's mostly under 80 mph. He's mf rather than fm, and bordering on m. Got to be Philanderesque or later Andersonesque with your control at that pace.
tbh the tail thing is a bit of a problem atm post-Moeen, post-Broad-having-his-face-rearranged. Woakes is the other one who would take the Curran place, but if they're all fit, you really would rather be choosing between Archer, Wood, Broad and Anderson for your three specialist quicks.
a_chap
When the world came apart, where were you?
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
That's not a reason to leave curran on for two too long though. We could have had them 35-2 or something. Or 3, as wood was on the verge.
Casual Observer
enough
Wickets per match is a meaningless statistic in this instance. If Curren is playing but isn't bowling much, then he's unlikely to take wickets. A more useful statistic here would be strike rate - going into this match he has a better strike rate than Jimmy Anderson (54.8 for Curran vs 56.13 for Anderson).
Like all but the fastest English swing and seam merchants, he can look innocuous overseas when the pitch and conditions don't offer anything. It'll be worse in Sri Lanka.
New ball should have gone to Wood, though.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
I totally disagree. Wickets per match is an important measure of a bowler's value to a team, in addition to the average. As is runs per match for a batsman. If Curran is playing but isn't bowling much, that has to be because other bowlers have been considered to be better options than him. That matters - and it can potentially massage figures such as strike rate as well if, like Curran, you are a bit expensive and are not suitable to bowl the donkey overs. Anderson has nearly four wickets per match, Curran just over two. A front-line bowler would normally want to have at least three wickets per match. Curran isn't quite a front-line bowler. That's kind of the problem, as he isn't a front-line batsman either (around 40 runs per match). I agree with Richie Benaud on that score - an allrounder need to be able to justify his place in the side with either bowling or batting. I don't think Curran does that currently.
The counter-example to give to illustrate this would be someone like Shane Watson. Just on the averages, he appears to have been a very fine allrounder, averaging 35 with the bat, just over 30 with the ball. But he took just over one wicket per match. He was only just an allrounder, and he needs to be judged primarily on his batting in test cricket. Digging a little deeper, his record is ok, but not spectacular.
You're right about certain bowlers being ineffective in certain conditions, but Curran has fewer than three wickets a match in England as well. He played in Sri Lanka last time and that was a strange selection tbh as he hardly bowled. It would be strange if he were to play in the upcoming tour. Wood and Archer are the way to go in Sri Lankan conditions - Starc has had great success there.
The counter-example to give to illustrate this would be someone like Shane Watson. Just on the averages, he appears to have been a very fine allrounder, averaging 35 with the bat, just over 30 with the ball. But he took just over one wicket per match. He was only just an allrounder, and he needs to be judged primarily on his batting in test cricket. Digging a little deeper, his record is ok, but not spectacular.
You're right about certain bowlers being ineffective in certain conditions, but Curran has fewer than three wickets a match in England as well. He played in Sri Lanka last time and that was a strange selection tbh as he hardly bowled. It would be strange if he were to play in the upcoming tour. Wood and Archer are the way to go in Sri Lankan conditions - Starc has had great success there.
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planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
Bit weird on Pope's breakthrough day you guys devote the vast majority of the posts to talking about the non-entity that is Curran but hey ho.
Fine day's cricket and really happy to be proved wrong with my own posts yesterday. Where were those runs coming from? A world class all-rounder at the top of his game.
And a Pope.
Loving this Test.
Fine day's cricket and really happy to be proved wrong with my own posts yesterday. Where were those runs coming from? A world class all-rounder at the top of his game.
And a Pope.
Loving this Test.
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
Yeah, is a bit weird, realised that. Not much to say about Pope, except that he looks like the real deal. Just looks classy and like he'll score a lot of runs.
I'm thrilled to see Mark Wood back and looking forward to seeing him bowl tomorrow. Think SA are fucked in this test.
I'm thrilled to see Mark Wood back and looking forward to seeing him bowl tomorrow. Think SA are fucked in this test.
Zapp Brannigan
Built like a steakhouse, handles like a bistro
Jim Laker, Dom Bess is coming for your record...
Mumbles274
running from law and the press and the parents
Simply the Bess
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
Bess 5-41. What is going on? Only rain can stop us now...probably.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
I liked a quote on the Cricinfo commentary: "Fast bowler holding up one end allowing the spinners to attack ... "
The writers/commentators on Cricinfo are quite often brilliant with observation and clever quotes. If only the website itself held up to the same standards. Yesterday it was jumping about all over the place with technical issues. Something the commentators also turned into comedy.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
And here’s another Cricinfo comment, this time on the Rabada ban.
“It’s a crying shame he’ll be unavailable for the match at the Wanderers (the most anticipated ground for lovers of fast bowling). How many will turn up now? This is Test cricket, not some local town council playing with its speed camera.”
“It’s a crying shame he’ll be unavailable for the match at the Wanderers (the most anticipated ground for lovers of fast bowling). How many will turn up now? This is Test cricket, not some local town council playing with its speed camera.”
