The Cricket Thread

[Ciderhead]

Finn picked up a side injury, I do hope they give Mark Footitt a chance and don't go for the safe option in Woakes.

Now confirmed out for the tour.

I too hope they go for Footitt. Out of him, Woakes and Jordan he's the most like for like replacement, plus offers that little something different with being a left armer.

And with it now being a dead rubber surely it's an ideal chance to give him a shot

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

Now confirmed out for the tour.

I too hope they go for Footitt. Out of him, Woakes and Jordan he's the most like for like replacement, plus offers that little something different with being a left armer.

And with it now being a dead rubber surely it's an ideal chance to give him a shot

Exactly.
I totally understood why Woakes was picked to replace Anderson in the first test but it would be nonsensical to pick Woakes to replace Finn. Give Footitt some experience at test level now rather than throw him into a crunch test further down the line.

 

[Matt_]

I'd also like to see Footitt given a chance at Centurion. I'm a fan of Woakes but Footitt looks the best replacement for Finn from those in the original squad.

That said I notice that Plunkett has been added to the squad as Finn's replacement, not only for the ODI/T20 games, but also for the fourth test. It would be rather ironic should he play at Centurion at the expense of Footitt, Woakes and Jordan after being overlooked so many times in the UAE.

 

[slaphead]

SA win the toss and bat, one change for England, Woakes in for Finn. Boring, and unimaginative, if Footitt doesn't play now, he never will.

 

[silvergull]

Broad called up to the ODI squad. With another 17 or so tests in 2016 I don't agree with that at all. Let him and Anderson just play red ball cricket

 

[Bobbin']

James Taylor

 

[Saddlerrad]

Woakes for Finn is such a traditional selection. No offence to the bloke but he's not a test quality bowler currently. He's a straight up and down holding line bowler.

That leaves us looking very steady - but very one dimensional if it's flat. Perfect chance to see what Footitt had in the bank in this test. But we give the 'good hard working yes man' a go instead..because he's waited a while.

That being said, I hope he goes on to prove everyone wrong.

 

[mowgli]

James Taylor

It looked like the ball came out of his arse Unusual to say the least!

 

[RavenBish]

7 wickets in 6 tests for Woakes. Even Chris Jordan has 31 in 8.

I've not got a huge issue with not giving Footitt 'a go', it'd have been nice but I'm comfortable with not going in that direction and giving younger prospects a chance (rumour this week is that Footitt's been appalling in net sessions too). In a country that is producing some serious young fast bowlers though, I don't see why Woakes is one worth persevering with.

 

[hodge]

Their solution is to dump something no the leaking area

 

[kieran_vale]

Good disciplined effort from the England bowlers to drag this back in the evening session. Vast improvement on the first two sessions anyway where England didn't seem to have their minds on the job.

Amla batted brilliantly for them though, was very enjoyable to watch.

 

[JJH]

Decent evening session for England.

 

[Super_horns]

Came back into that well after the Alma and Cook show..

 

[Super_horns]

Always seems to be wickets early - certainly do take advantage of the conditions.

Amongst some very ordinary West Indies players in the modern era one of the best and durable has retired.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/story/964587.html

 

[Aber gas]

Always seems to be wickets early - certainly do take advantage of the conditions.

Amongst some very ordinary West Indies players in the modern era one of the best and durable has retired.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/content/story/964587.html

Great player. I would rather do almost anything else than watch him bat mind.

 

[slaphead]

Just heard that Jack Bannister has passed away.

I think I probably saw his last season with Warwickshire, but don't remember him particularly, but grew up listening to his commentary on the BBC. Also enjoyed some of the stuff he did for Talksport, he was never shy in expressing an opinion.

RIP Jack.

 

[hodge]

Umpire giving a wide for one about a foot inside the tramlines on the off side, given you often see ones just inside the tramlines not given in tests was a bit harsh.

 

[kieran_vale]

Pretty horrible dismissal from Hales there. Should have just gone full whack at it instead of the caught in two minds kind of shot he played.

 

[Bobbin']

Yeah poor shot from Hales, not a lot Compton could have done with that one.

 

[Matt_]

Alex Hales is not doing himself any favours with the manner of his dismissals in this series, but it's not really any surprise to see him getting out in the ways he has. That said the bloke deserves a proper run so I'd persevere with him for the home tests unless his early season form is so poor as to make him difficult to select. He needs to show that he is learning and improving in order to retain his place longer term and not continually repeat the same mistakes, as Adam Lyth did last summer.

Longer term my feeling is that Alex Lees is the likely answer to the opening batsman problem, but ideally he needs to score more runs than he did last season. The talent is definitely there in abundance and, as with the likes of Vaughan and Trescothick in the past, the selectors may look beyond the figures and take a chance on him sooner rather than later.

 

[silvergull]

The pitch is really starting to misbehave already as the cracks open up. Going to take a monumental effort to get anywhere near south Africa's score as surely it'll only play worse.

Punishment for 4 sessions of terrible bowling I'm afraid. SA should have 150 less on the board

 

[Bobbin']

Morkel starting to get the ball to do things now.

Agree with Silvergull, going to have to dig deep to get anywhere near 400.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Hales needs to come out and play his game. Better innings from Cook, eventually taken by just about the only snorter Morkel had bowled. England need to adopt the 'score' quickly mindsight again or else they will find themselves eventually 'getting a good one' as with the previous match. Let's hope Stokes gets in at some point.

I hope Taylor and Hales stick around, just looking into the rest of this year...it's a potentially 'smooth' run (or certainly as smooth as you would want) when it comes to tests in the early part of this year.

- 3 at home to Sri Lanka
- 4 at home to Pakistan
- 2 away in Bangladesh

We do have a 5 test winter tour to India, but as far as test match periods go, add a weather related draw in and a bad performance draw, I'd expect us to win at least 7 of those 9 tests and go unbeaten in all of them. Be interesting to see how we treat Bangladesh, didn't we rest a few players last time we toured there years back? If we really want to aim for number 1, then we need to go there and win 2-0.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Root out for 76. Caught behind. Not a criticism as such but just occasionally he is slightly lazy outside the off stump, he needs to be careful playing out there all the time. However, you wouldn't want him to put that shot away as it's one of the reasons he scores with such tempo.

Big struggle to get anywhere near them now with the track just starting to mis-behave. Stokes will either go big, or go early looking a plonker.

 

[.V.]

Root out for 76. Caught behind. Not a criticism as such but just occasionally he is slightly lazy outside the off stump, he needs to be careful playing out there all the time. However, you wouldn't want him to put that shot away as it's one of the reasons he scores with such tempo.

Big struggle to get anywhere near them now with the track just starting to mis-behave. Stokes will either go big, or go early looking a plonker.

A bit harsh on Root that, thought he got a beauty.

 

[Bobbin']

Poor from Taylor that.

 

[Saddlerrad]

A bit harsh on Root that, thought he got a beauty.

Oh yeah, no disputing. Just discussing the point that they were discussing on commentary...40% of Root's dismissals are caught behind by the keeper..but what does he do about it? He gets out a lot there, but I'd rather he kept making 70 odd at good pace and keep getting out that way.

Stupid shot from Taylor, big trouble now.

I hope we don't crumble, 1-2 sounds much more flattering to them.

 

[Bobbin']

A collapse just before lunch, perfect. To be fair other than Taylor, think the others have all been beaten by a good ball.

Just avoiding the follow-on is the aim now.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Bairstow gone second ball. Capitulation button pressed. Will we bat another session? Stokes is going to run out of partners. I apologise for jinxing us again. I missed half of Stokes's amazing 250 odd, I missed the South African collapse in the last test, I missed the final session when we won the first test.

I'm currently up early to watch today...so blame this on me.

 

[slaphead]

What was a good session for England 15 minutes ago has turned into a disaster.

Brilliant spell from Rabada, credit where it's due.