Cricket

[Exiled_Rover]

Just now, Gav said:

I never want to see England lose, but this has been 2 days of enthralling cricket.

Its not test match cricket, I'm sure we all agree, but its been great entertainment. 

I haven't been entertained.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

I knew who would win (see earlier post today) I did not think it would be within 2 days.

Pathetic by England and embarrassingly so.

Decent bowling, poor wicket, timid and technically shit batsmen

Years of not producing top class spin bowlers at home has led to a complete inability to play spin. Use your feet. I batted as a kid against Tommy Greenhalgh ( remember him ? ) and that was his advice - get to the pitch of the ball if you can.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

2 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I haven't been entertained.

No, I agree, the ball shouldn't dominate the bat to that degree !

[jim mk2]

Just now, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Years of not producing top class spin bowlers at home has led to a complete inability to play spin. Use your feet. I batted as a kid against Tommy Greenhalgh ( remember him ? ) and that was his advice - get to the pitch of the ball if you can.

Get out to the pitch or let it come to you. Either way you’re playing it under your nose. 

[den]

4 minutes ago, Gav said:

I never want to see England lose, but this has been 2 days of enthralling cricket.

Its not test match cricket, I'm sure we all agree, but its been great entertainment. 

Much better than that cr@p last night....

There have been more posts on this cricket thread today, than there has been all the time it’s been running.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

8 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

India to win by 10 wickets? 

I would imagine we'll open with Root and Leech bowling. They should get 40 odd without a massive amount of troble. There's preparing a wicket help your bowlers and then there's the last two test wickets. That was a smart move playing with Andeson, Broad, Archer and Stokes and one regular spinner. I suspect we misjudged the wicket a bit there !

[jim mk2]

This isn’t “entertainment” it’s a travesty of test cricket  He might be out quickly but Rohit will show how to play spin 

[grinder]

1 minute ago, jim mk2 said:

Get out to the pitch or let it come to you. Either way you’re playing it under your nose. 

I coach that mantra too but here there are a couple of other factors - Ashwin has more variation than most and can go both ways

the indian spinners are bowling quicker which makes coming down harder - root bowls quicker too and flatter which allows him to go past both edges

the pink ball does behave differently - its harder and when it lands off the seam it comes through and bounces more - we saw that earlier

[jim mk2]

Two misfields in the first over. As one journalist said they can’t bat, they can’t bowl and they can’t field. Bring em home 

[Gav]

12 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

I haven't been entertained.

Have you checked your pulse Exiled 😃

[jim mk2]

1 hour ago, jim mk2 said:

India to win by 10 wickets? 

Well there it is. England batting beaten before the start. Mindset all wrong and poor techniques exposed 

[only2garners]

Undoubtedly the state of the pitch made all the discussion pre-match about what effect the pink ball and day/night games have. There was some suggestion that playing as the dew came down has helped seam and hindered spin in the limited evidence we have had so far, but the game never got to that stage. That was presumably why England went with 3 seamers and 1.5 spinners.

I imagine there are distraught managers at Channel 4. They bought the test package on the assumption that this test would give them good ratings on the Saturday and Sunday with play times at 9am to 4.30pm and all that's now gone. There can't be a lot of ad money to be made in games starting at 4am UK time. Hopefully they insured themselves.

I see that Sky have snapped up the one dayers and 20/20 games. They should have good viewing numbers with the 20/20 games starting at 1.30pm and the one day games at 8am/9am.

[AllRoverAsia]

5 hours ago, den said:

There have been more posts on this cricket thread today, than there has been all the time it’s been running.

There have been more posts on this cricket thread today, than runs scored by England in their 2nd innings.

[matt83]

Fairly unimpressed by that as a spectacle. Bit of a circus all told  

That pink ball retains its lacquer or something so that if the ball hit the seam it turned and jumped but if it hit the shiny side it skidded on. If Root can take 5 for 8 you can tell that there is something wrong. In fact it turned so much that there were hardly any edges. That doesn’t excuse some rank bad shots from England.

Both Patel and Ashton were very much on target so that there were no free hits. The problem with Leach is that there are too many balls that are short or over pitched.

Once again we were screwed over by the third umpire.

 

[DeeCee]

I thought the wicket looked well 🙄

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Too many were expecting to get out before they took strike. You can't allow slow bowlers to pin you to the crease. We didn't make their bowlers have to think about anything other than bowling line and length. Supine performance.

[den]

Ian Bell’s thoughts on England’s squad rotation. I think he makes good points, especially about form.

 

[Gav]

4th Test starts in the early hours of Thursday morning from Ahmedabad, coverage from 3.50am.....

England need a win to draw the series.

[Mattyblue]

I get the rotation due to bubbles, quarantines and the like, poor Chris Woakes had been in bio secure bubbles in South Africa, Sri Lanka and India since December and hadn’t played a single match of any format!

But resting players so they can play IPL? Those that pay the piper call the tune, I suppose, but then you can wave goodbye to winning Test series in India when you have players, with no games under their belt, flying in and out and then chucked in to the side against a top team and expecting them to immediately perform on bloody tough pitches.
 

[AllRoverAsia]

13 hours ago, Gav said:

4th Test starts in the early hours of Thursday morning from Ahmedabad, coverage from 3.50am.....

England need a win to draw the series.

That's 10.50 am here which is just about perfect.

It's a shame it will only be for 2 or 3 days.

[den]

Have we all given up hope of getting anything other than another defeat? 
I have. 

[jim mk2]

England will need one player to play an extraordinary innings - like Root's in the first Test - to break the bunker mentality and mindset.

I think defeat is inevitable. Which is more depressing at the moment - England cricket, England rugby or Rovers? 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

11 minutes ago, jim mk2 said:

England will need one player to play an extraordinary innings - like Root's in the first Test - to break the bunker mentality and mindset.

I think defeat is inevitable. Which is more depressing at the moment - England cricket, England rugby or Rovers? 

Hard one to call Jim. There are days when I wish I'd never got interested in sport as a lad. My drinking chum is blissfully unaware of anything sporting at all.

Edited March 3, 2021 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[only2garners]

There has been a sickness outbreak in the England camp. It's not clear who has been affected and whether anyone will be ruled out of tomorrow's game but I guess that's quite possible.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

46 minutes ago, only2garners said:

There has been a sickness outbreak in the England camp. It's not clear who has been affected and whether anyone will be ruled out of tomorrow's game but I guess that's quite possible.

It's not as bad as the sickness outbreak on this board. We're all sick  !