Hope they play Pope. Unbeaten 221 so in form unlike Roy.
Inspiring stuff from the ECB. They really let their imagination run wild with the schedule.
Six tests, six odis, six t20s. No odis at all against the touring test teams. t20 internationals seem to me the most pointless thing of all. Sachin Tendulkar had the right idea. They should be scrapped.
It should just be scrapped. It's not played very much anyway, and when it is played, half the established players are rested. It's shite. And in England at least, it serves no purpose. Three odis against Pakistan would sell out. There's no reason to play t20 instead.
August Bank Holiday weekend always hosted The Oval Test until they started messing around with the traditional calendar and milking cash cow of international cricket by squeezing in as many fixtures as possible, and the forecast for South London is unrelenting sunshine right through into next week.
When the previous match ended with Australia holding out for the draw with 6 wickets down the floodlights were casting four shadows for each player, so artificial light had clearly superseded natural light as opposed to merely enhancing it. Why therefore isn't play continuing under similar conditions today? Given the amount of money people pay to watch Test cricket there's no real excuse to go off for bad light during normal playing hours when floodlights are available.And now bad light. Very bad precedent for the rest of the match (and series). Batsmen are seeing it fine.
I totally agree, as long as it isn't dangerous, which it certainly didn't look to be. Just luck of the draw if you have to play through a period of gloom, as it is when you have to play in cloudy swinging conditions instead of sunlight.
I'm guessing that Leach and possibly another spinner were bowling in bad light on the last day at Lords whereas the quicks were bowling when the light deteriorated here. Atherton (I think) reckoned Root was given the chance to put spinners on here but said no and they came off.
He wanted Woakes and Stokes on instead.
I can understand Root's decision. Doubt it would turn much after 20 overs (or whatever it was) on a day 1 pitch. Root should have offered Archer's left arm medium pacers (as opposed to Archer's left arm spinners or right arm tracer bullets).He wanted Woakes and Stokes on instead.
tbf it did start raining soon after. I'm worried about the precedent, though.
He rode his luck and is now cashing in. You do need that as a batsman - every genuine play and miss is a mini-life, sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't. Got to make the most of it when it's your day.
