England Cricket 2022

[marty21]

The highlights are well worth watching, astonishing knock from Johnny , useful knock from Lees as well , and carnage from Stokes , basically having to hit boundaries rather than run it

 

[Petcha]

The pessimist in me suggests this is a false dawn, although we've not even had one of those in years to be fair. But NZ were without their captain and best batsman, and had one of their strike bowlers pull up half way into England's first innings. And the pitch was a road.

But we'll see. I hope they're toasting each other on this. 17 matches without a win and now 2 in 2 under a captain with balls, and who probably should have been captain a long time ago. I cannot imagine sweet little Joe Root trying to shackle Stokes, must have been quite funny to watch in the dressing room.

 

[Mogden]

Interesting watching the highlights. Obviously editing changes things. Stokes being cautious disappeared, the intensity of Stokes and Bairstow hitting those boundaries was actually like watching highlights as they just came together over and over and over again.

Just after Foakes came in and Stokes hit the deck diving to stay in, he actually took quite some time to stand again hence my hesitation about him being fit for Headingley.

I wouldn't usually say all this but it was a very special match. It didn't have the tension and suspense of the World Cup or 2005 but it was blisteringly good and I reckon it made a few new cricket fans today.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I'm sure they'll be toasting each other. I would wager that Root's overwhelming feeling on not being captain any more is one of relief. Doesn't have to worry about captaining, wins matches, wins series, scores centuries, averages 100 in the series. Really, what's not to like.

I have to say Stokes looks like a natural captain. He has brilliant body language in the field and seems to be enjoying it. Easy to enjoy it when you're winning of course, but he doesn't know he's going to win when he's out there.

 

[pbsmooth]

Incredible from Bairstow. One of the great test innings (with thanks to 20/20). And some of the hits down the ground from Stokes were a thing of beauty.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Anyway, about this 'bad' innings people on here were talking about from Stokes in the first innings that moved the game on by about half a session, paving the way for this...

I asked the question. I genuinely didn't have the answer. Bracewell did similar last night for NZ to help set up today. I credit both teams for wanting to win. Yes NZ gifted a bunch of wickets yesterday but that was partly because they weren't out for drawing the match either. And fuck, NZ were quite big favourites when Lees got out. NZ probably still favourites at tea.

Amazing hitting from YJB. Feel a bit for the bowlers. Southee in particular bowled like a drain. Can he come back next week? As they pointed out in the highlights, his action fell apart. But the way Bairstow was hitting it, I don't think Jamieson being fit would have made any difference in that post-tea session.

 

[WhyLikeThis]

The choice of champions

 

[Cerberus]

Morning

Still buzzing from watching every ball mid-afternoon yesterday. Hope Test cricket has gained some new followers (particularly in the Nottingham area - great decision on ticketing ).

YJB’s innings will live long in the memory.

Yes, two swallows don’t make a summer but I think the new management team have recognised that the talent was always there and the problems were as much between the ears as anything else. The longer England play like this, the more other teams will begin to fear playing them. NZ must be fairly demoralised.

 

[Petcha]

A lot of comments on the Guardian threads calling for Crawley to be dropped given he's averaging 18 since his 267 innings and doesn't look comfortable at this level. McCullum has a policy of giving players a lot of rope though and has said he'll continue with this, so I assume he'll at least see out this series. The spinner issue also has to be sorted. There has to be an international quality guy there in the county system, surely. Even Bracewell looked a cut above Leach.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I'll be very surprised if Crawley doesn't get another go. Tbf in this match he got two good balls. Second innings he was out to an identical delivery to one that Pope got after him. Pope's edge was dropped, Crawley's wasn't. I also have doubts about Crawley, but he deserves one more go after this.

Leach is more of a headache. I agree that he didn't bowl well. Neither did Parkinson at Lord's. And we all know Bess's limitations. If Moeen wants to come back, he could come in. Perhaps even bat above Foakes. England have got away with it in these two matches in that they found partnerships for the fifth and sixth wickets in the run chases, but that tail is long and thin. Moeen would fix that. He would also be a good fit for 'bazball'.

 

[Petcha]

Oh didnt realise he'd reversed his decision. That's a no-brainer then.

Moeen 'would love' to play for McCullum

Moeen Ali says he "would love" to play under new England Test coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Be bringing the band back together with Bairstow, Stokes and Moeen as England's middle order. Sounds good to me.

After a dodgy tour of the Caribbean, Foakes is showing his worth as a keeper now. Would also clearly help Moeen or any other spinner to keep Foakes behind the stumps.

 

[Petcha]

He was smashing it about in the IPL. But not getting any younger. There has to be a succession plan.

Moeen said: "Brendon got the job and he messaged me the day after, during the IPL, and said 'are you in?'

"He said he would call me at the weekend. So we spoke and he said 'in the future if we need you, if there are injuries or a tour in the subcontinent etc, are you keen to play?'

"He's a very difficult person to say no to and I found that very, very hard. He's very convincing.

"To be honest, I'd love to play under him and Stokesy. Both of them have that character about them. They're very aggressive. I think I would suit their cricket a bit more and I think they feel I would suit them as well."

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I'm a firm believer that you should always pick your best team for each match. Development needs to happen of course, but not when it comes to selection for your first eleven. (As long as he's right mentally) Moeen gets into that team. I'd bring him in straight away.

 

[Petcha]

Oh dear... that's a fairly hefty fine. Plus 40% of their match fee. So they'll only get 8 grand each really.

England's Trent Bridge heroes lose two WTC points for a slow over rate

Ben Stokes' men performed heroics after chasing 299 in just 50 overs to seal their first Test series victory in 18 months, largely thanks to Jonny Bairstow's incredible 77-ball century.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[steeplejack]

A remarkable win & performance and a massively enjoyable 5 day test match. Astonishing that England wrestled their way into a position to win...the game looked totally dead for 4 of the 5 days with some great batting.

A test that will live long in the memory. Too early to draw conclusions or hype up the team- it's a good start, nothing more. But we have to hope that this is the start of a long road back for the England test team.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Michael Bracewell has covid now. Will be an anxious next four or five days for the kiwis as this could get ugly.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

After a dodgy tour of the Caribbean, Foakes is showing his worth as a keeper now. Would also clearly help Moeen or any other spinner to keep Foakes behind the stumps.

Contributing well with the bat as well which takes some pressure off his keeping. Moeen and Foakes would be a good 7/8 pairing to have.

 

[WhyLikeThis]

…then this winter Rashid @ 9 for a brisk 15-20 runs. But yea, I feel for Leach but Moeen would solve the problem with the tail and bring more joy to the side.

 

[WhyLikeThis]

I’m hoping for a bit of bloodlust at Edgbaston to spank India for their disrespect. They need a black eye.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Not as bad as England's disrespect towards Pakistan, pulling out of a tour at the last minute for no good reason after Pakistan had saved England's financial bacon in 2020 by coming here during Covid.

I can't get exercised about some supposed villainy by the Indians. Just pleased they're bringing a full-strength team. Should be good.

 

[Petcha]

It's worth remembering why India pulled out of the series, it was because the IPL was upon them, let's face it, and 'Baz' is/was a huge figure in that organisation. They're all mercenaries really. I'm sure at the time he was very much on India's side.

 

[planetgeli]

I think it's worth recording here, my favourite line from Stokes (and he had a few) was when he met Bairstow mid-wicket and Jonny noted NZ had three men on the hook now. Stokes reply was "Don't you dare think of hitting it down. Hit it further into the stands."

Though I think that's probably the cleaned up version.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

The new financing and planned expansion of the IPL are much more of a worry for me. Last year was exceptional because of covid. To a large extent, we need to forgive and forget. But if they expand the IPL in the way they plan to, that is a massive threat to world cricket.

 

[Petcha]

Personally I like the IPL. It's a lot of fun with all the best players in the world on show. The boards just have to accept that it's there, it's not going anywhere and they have to schedule reasonably around it. Covid was obv an unforeseen problem.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

They're planning on making it longer. That's the problem. Plus the more money there is in it, the more the game is distorted and test cricket in particular is devalued.

I agree that boards need to schedule around it, but there needs to be some compromise from both sides. The IPL needs to be limited in size, but it's now worth billions. Money like that wrecks sports. It's wrecked football.

 

[Petcha]

I get your point but you can't avoid basic facts. Capitalism. And the skills you saw on show yesterday from both Bairstow and Boult were straight out of their IPL playbooks. It's big and brash but it's 1000x more genuine than the fucking Hundred that the outgoing head of the ECB dreamed up.

And in terms of size, the IPL has 8 franchises. The Blast has 16 or something?

 

[WhyLikeThis]

Don’t sully this great win with nonsense about capitalism…and see me after class re: “1000x more genuine” wibble.

 

[WhyLikeThis]

Not as bad as England's disrespect towards Pakistan, pulling out of a tour at the last minute for no good reason after Pakistan had saved England's financial bacon in 2020 by coming here during Covid.

It wasn’t for no good reason, there was a specific security threat that stopped NZ from touring. NZ and the UK share intelligence so, they both would likely be given the same heads up (without specifics obvs). As a cricket team they have no clearance to access intel nor have the analysis chops to decide what is a risk too high. They would have been advised by Government officials and they would be twats to ignore that.

India decided to end a series once they were ahead. England were mugged off, spat on, as was test cricket. They deserve an absolute mauling and I hope this team can give it.

 

[WhyLikeThis]

…and in other news Root is now ranked No. 1