The Cricket Thread

[GTFCfish]

Cracking recovery by England this, 130 partnership off 126 balls.
We must be infuriating to play against as every time we seem on the ropes there’s always a partnership that comes along from somewhere to drag us out of the shit.

 

[kieran_vale]

Picked a cracking time to be on night shifts to allow me to watch this. What a days cricket this has been. Stunning knock from Brook and I think England really have something in Brydon Carse with the ball. Brilliant spell of fast bowling and a great catch thrown in too. Over 350 runs and 15 wickets in a day isn’t bad entertainment.

 

[Super_horns]

Just another classic day of Bazball unpredictably really .

Well played Harry Brook and Ollie Pope in particular.

And Carse backing them up .

 

[Super_horns]

NZ all out and Atkinson gets a hat trick!

 

[kieran_vale]

What a session for England again. Huge first innings lead and Atkinson with a hat-trick. Carse picked up where he left off the other end.

Go big with the bat now, normally in NZ these pitches flatten out significantly day 3 and 4.

 

[kieran_vale]

The most dominant performance can remember against a decent quality test nation. Brilliant job with the batters even if Crawley did his usual couple of nice drives before getting out. Bethell great knock from him, shame he couldn’t get the 100 milestone but even so getting 96 isn’t too shabby. Reckon carry on batting until lunch and get it above 600.

Last time we played there NZ got a huge total 2nd innings to win it from following on so don’t give them even a slight sniff. So much time left don’t need to worry about that.

 

[Super_horns]

When we get going we really can go big.

Another player coming in and quickly settling into the side like duck to water.

Travis Head has put the Aussies in a strong position and India already 2 down.

Mitch Marsh with a shocker of a non review though!

 

[Jimmy Anderson]

With 3 days left we may aswell carry on batting till we all out. It's possible we could get bowled out in the first session anyway with the way we play. Would be nice if root could get a hundred and stokes a fifty but we are in such a strong position with 3 days to go which could declare now and still win.

 

[kieran_vale]

Ton up for Root. Fantastic knock and sealing it with a reverse scoop for 4. England then declare leaving NZ a target of 583.

 

[Jimmy Anderson]

Very good win for England and the series is wrapped up 2 nil. One more game to play so will be interesting if they keep the same team and rest as few of the last match.

 

[Super_horns]

A real team effort.

After the fine form of the newer players it's Root, Woakes and Stokes stepping up taking us over the line.

 

[kieran_vale]

Nice evenly poised test match after day 1. Potts came in and done a nice job as did Atkinson and Carse especially when NZ got away to a good start. Only thing that really bugs me when watching England bowling is our approach to the tail, hate this almost default to short pitched bowling. Surely against lower order batsmen challenging the stumps is the best approach but guess I must be missing something.

 

[Super_horns]

Potts seems to be ok when call upon as back up.

Classic bit of tail wagging as ever !

Let’s see how we do with the bat.

 

[kieran_vale]

Turning into the usual shitter of an England performance in dead rubbers. Feel for the bowlers, it’s an impossible task when the batting folds like that in such quick time. They are unsurprisingly worn out.

 

[Super_horns]

Bad Bazball turns up.

Maybe just lost some focus after winning the series (some on the BBC comments page do need to remember that) and I notice we struggled against spin again with Santner taking 3 wickets.

 

[Jimmy Anderson]

New Zealand finally turned up and England put in there normal times ne of the series poor display. The fact they only batted 35 overs aswell means the bowlers haven't had sufficient rest either so new Zealand will set England 500 to 600 to win now.

 

[kieran_vale]

640 more runs to win with 2 wickets down already. I think England might just struggle to win this test. Stokes with a hammy as well so not sure yet if he’ll bat. Personally I wouldn’t risk it with the game situation.

Crawley should be on thin ice with the run he’s had. He barely averages more than a lower order player in Atkinson.

 

[Super_horns]

New Zealand probably rue not playing the in form Will Young in the first two games.


Williamson was at his best I presume.


Crawley had a bad series so usually might come under pressure but cannot see it with these guys.

 

[Jimmy Anderson]

They keep picking Crawley no matter how he performs because he's capable of producing them match winning knocks, which in over 50 tests he's only done 2 or 3 times. His performance in this series is worse than what Dan Lawrence did in the summer and they discarded Lawrence after that. An average of 30 after 50 odd tests isn't good enough for a test match opener and it's unlikely that the average will increase as it's always around that 30 to 33 mark which isn't good enough.

Regarding this match it's been poor,no point stokes batting with the position we are in and very likely heavy defeat. We have still however won this series so it's not all doom and gloom. Atkinson, root and brook have had very good years.

 

[kieran_vale]

Lost by 423 runs in the end. Great they’ve won the series and that’s the ultimate goal but that’s a horrific margin. It’s the kind of one you’d get from one who have just gained test status. On the plus side another 50 for Bethell. Him Root and Brook as the 3, 4 and 5 with Smith as the keeper-batsman is a pretty exceptional batting order.

Looks like India and Australia will end in a draw thanks to rain and India just about avoiding the follow-on.

 

[Super_horns]

Read somewhere Nathan McSweeney who has now been dropped was the only player Aussie under 30 in the last 3 tests.

Must be a few others to break through if required ?