The Cricket Thread

[hodge]

Billings also impressing behind the stumps, Bairstow may have to settle for fighting with Buttler for a test place.

 

[hodge]

Well you could hardly drop Parry, Billings or Vince after this performance could you? Really like the look of Vince. Pakistan losing 3 wickets in an over, one with another terrible piece of running between Maqsood and Akmal.

Vince looks quality, wouldn't be opposed to see him playing ODI's

 

[Saddlerrad]

I'd be tempted to keep Root for ODI and test cricket and play him at 3 judging by what I've seen today. Root is a fantastic player, one of the best in the world, but he's better at rotating the strike than power hitting, whereas Vince hit some big blows.

 

[Matt_]

Morgan indicated the intention is to rotate in these T20 games so I expect there will be changes for the other two games.

It's no surprise Billings has looked tidy with the gloves as he's very much a proper keeper.

 

[Super_horns]

Billings very impressive in his knock and match winning bowling from Topley, Plunkett and Parry.

 

[TomPNE94]

Not sure anyone suggested discarding Buttler. He's clearly the best keeper we've got for the T20 form and probably ODI too

on a separate note, get Jos Buttler the fuck away from this England side - forget the fact he's shite and a walking wicket, it's not doing him any good either now.

Hmmm

 

[RavenBish]

Yeah, context isn't important or anything Tom. Dropping him from Test cricket for a bit and discarding him completely is slightly different.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Good win that. I have actually looked forward to watching our last few ODI's, which is a far cry from previous years.....decades....sorry, forever.

 

[TomPNE94]

Yeah, context isn't important or anything Tom. Dropping him from Test cricket for a bit and discarding him completely is slightly different.

The 2nd quote was after the first ODI. So the context was drop him from the ODI squad.

 

[RavenBish]

Calling for someone to get dropped from the England set-up entirely after one game? It was a comment about his Test form and how it was affecting his ODI game. But whatever you want I guess...He's a very good limited overs slogger, albeit a bit too inconsistent at it and a fairly shite Test cricketer, that's been my opinion on him for the last year, anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that.

 

[lordofthepies]

Good to see Stephen Parry back in the side. A bowler that I always thought looked to have a huge amount of potential in all forms of the game.

He's never gonna play much first class cricket (although he actually has a fairly decent record in it), especially as he's signed a new contract with Lancashire and Kerrigan, Lilley and possibly even Parkinson are well ahead of him in the queue there. He's so reliable in limited overs stuff and as long as you don't expect him to actually get much in the way of turn, he'll always be fine.

 

[Saddlerrad]

As a more negative side note. Can anyone tell me how Chris Jordan is still getting a game? Other than some brilliant slip catching, I'm yet to see him look an international cricketer in any form.

 

[lordofthepies]

Jordan has looked good in patches, but he's yet to fully convince. I like Woakes and I quite like Jordan - I'd probably take one of them to South Africa, but I cannot understand why both of them are going when Plunkett isn't.

 

[JJH]

Jordan is a rythym bowler, I think with a decent run in the side he'd find form, but you can't afford for that much leighway at international level, especially in test cricket. Think he'll be a potentially decent Cricketer in the short format of the game, as he's decent with the bat as well, but he looked exposed in Test Cricket, bowls far too many bad balls to make it at that level.

 

[Bobbin']

Jordan is a rythym bowler, I think with a decent run in the side he'd find form, but you can't afford for that much leighway at international level, especially in test cricket. Think he'll be a potentially decent Cricketer in the short format of the game, as he's decent with the bat as well, but he looked exposed in Test Cricket, bowls far too many bad balls to make it at that level.

He's a soul companion, he can bowl it everywhere.

 

[Super_horns]

Anyone see the day/night test - what did it look like?

 

[hodge]

Jordan isn't international standard for me, enough good players for England who should a place infront of him.

 

[JJH]

172 a fantastic score, but threw away an outstanding position at the end there. Still - I think that should be more than enough to see us through. Some good contributions all round, Vince, Buttler, Root, Billings etc.

 

[RavenBish]

Jordan is international standard when he bowls well. Fast, can swing it, has a good Yorker and variation - he's just far too erratic, you can see why they persevere with him - they just can't afford to for much longer considering some of the brilliant young seamers knocking about. The Overton lads deserve their shot soon.

Solid score, Buttler could have got is a big score but he played that daft shot when he could have just walloped it on that pitch, no need to get cute. Will be a tight second innings I suspect

 

[Luke_1884]

Well that was close, fantastic win.

 

[TomPNE94]

Cracking end to that game. Very tense stuff.

 

[JJH]

Jordan is international standard when he bowls well. Fast, can swing it, has a good Yorker and variation - he's just far too erratic, you can see why they persevere with him - they just can't afford to for much longer considering some of the brilliant young seamers knocking about. The Overton lads deserve their shot soon.

Solid score, Buttler could have got is a big score but he played that daft shot when he could have just walloped it on that pitch, no need to get cute. Will be a tight second innings I suspect

Why do you describe it as a 'daft' shot? I've seen Buttler and many other modern players play it, and more often than not it pays off.

There's a risk in any shot, and with the new fielding restrictions, it's actually quite pleasing to see such improvisation and nous from players, and playing the field.

It's a risky shot, but when it pays off, which in Buttler's case is more often than not, it looks a superb piece of batting.

 

[Ciderhead]

Cracking game and another great performance. Amazing how quick the turnaround is that suddenly we look a very good one day side. Still think death bowling is our achilles heel that will keep us from winning the World t20 but we'll definitely give a good account of ourselves after the embarassment of the World Cup.

Such a vast depth of young talent coming through, it's tough to think what our best XI is. Love to see Buttler and Billings in the same team but the problem is that leaves us with just 5 bowlers (don't really see Root as an option in t20). Would like to fit Ali in there just to give a bit of breathing room if someone's having a shocker, but who to give way?

One possibility, given Willey opens regularly for Northants, could be to move him up the order at the expense of Roy maybe? Would be incredibly harsh on him but then there's going to be a few who can count themselves very hard done by not to be in the side come March. Worth experimenting with in either the last game or the two in SA I'd say. A good and refreshing problem to have.

Then Saddler raises a good point that you could well consider Vince over Root. He's done very well this series and shown a real maturity belying his lack of experience. However Root's been such a class act and is such a good character, real good influence to have in the dressing room, that I'd keep him in.

So I'm thinking a batting line-up of:

Hales
Willey
Root
Morgan
Buttler
Billings
Ali

With Rashid and Parry (another great find) as the spinners and then one of Woakes/Topley for your control/death bowler and Plunkett/Finn as a pacey, wicket-taking option.

Thoughts?

 

[Saddlerrad]

Missed it due to work, but HOW isn't Plunkett going to South Africa? Now that Wood and Finn aren't fit, he would probably be my next choice to start the test series behind Anderson and Broad? Well strange. Wonder if he moped about whilst he wasn't playing in the UAE and Bayliss isn't happy.

 

[Pyeman]

Cracking game and another great performance. Amazing how quick the turnaround is that suddenly we look a very good one day side. Still think death bowling is our achilles heel that will keep us from winning the World t20 but we'll definitely give a good account of ourselves after the embarassment of the World Cup.

Such a vast depth of young talent coming through, it's tough to think what our best XI is. Love to see Buttler and Billings in the same team but the problem is that leaves us with just 5 bowlers (don't really see Root as an option in t20). Would like to fit Ali in there just to give a bit of breathing room if someone's having a shocker, but who to give way?

One possibility, given Willey opens regularly for Northants, could be to move him up the order at the expense of Roy maybe? Would be incredibly harsh on him but then there's going to be a few who can count themselves very hard done by not to be in the side come March. Worth experimenting with in either the last game or the two in SA I'd say. A good and refreshing problem to have.

Then Saddler raises a good point that you could well consider Vince over Root. He's done very well this series and shown a real maturity belying his lack of experience. However Root's been such a class act and is such a good character, real good influence to have in the dressing room, that I'd keep him in.

So I'm thinking a batting line-up of:

Hales
Willey
Root
Morgan
Buttler
Billings
Ali

With Rashid and Parry (another great find) as the spinners and then one of Woakes/Topley for your control/death bowler and Plunkett/Finn as a pacey, wicket-taking option.

Thoughts?

I see the logic behind moving Willey to open, but he hasn't looked too convincing in international T20 with the bat this far. Is he up to the standard of opening in international cricket?

And come to think of it, I think I'd rather ditch Hales than Roy in this format. Roy might not always come off, but when he dos he's our most destructive player alongside Buttler.

 

[Aber gas]

Missed it due to work, but HOW isn't Plunkett going to South Africa? Now that Wood and Finn aren't fit, he would probably be my next choice to start the test series behind Anderson and Broad? Well strange. Wonder if he moped about whilst he wasn't playing in the UAE and Bayliss isn't happy.

Plunket has had his chance ( several times ) he's got a terrible attitude and there are younger options out there. I don't want to see plunkett picked for England over the Overtons for example.

 

[hodge]

Wouldn't take the Overton's personally, would rather experience against South Africa over youth and potential. However if we were to go for potential seam bowler I think Topley could potentially be an option.

 

[Aber gas]

Wouldn't take the Overton's personally, would rather experience against South Africa over youth and potential. However if we were to go for potential seam bowler I think Topley could potentially be an option.

Traitor

 

[hodge]

Don't think they're ready yet is all, Jamie definitely isn't same as Jordan for being too inconsistent, Craig would be close but Plunkett over him would be my choice on experience then Topley as a left armer vs right armer.

*nothing to do with them being fresh and if they did well potentially being picked for the summer taking them away from Somerset

 

[Saddlerrad]

Obviously they aren't ready anytime yet, but from all the talk and the glimpses I've seen, both the Curran brothers could turn out to be very good cricketers. Whatever happened to Stuart Meaker?