Cricket

Just to er, end this one from last night...never said he bowls 30% trash balls. He just isn't Murali, either, which is fine for me.

Christ, what do you want from Monty? He's won several test matches for England, including one this summer. He IS prone to the odd lacklustre match, but overall has been excellent since he came in. Orthodox finger spinners are always going to rely on subtleties of flight, length and spin to get wickets rather in comparison with the likes of Murali, Warne and Mendis who can produce enough freakish deliveries to do the job.

Those of us who watched the likes of Emburey and Miller toiling away ineffectually for England in the past surely appreciate what a good bowler Monty is.

Also - the one sure way for Monty to mess up his whole career would be to change his nicely grooved action in search of a 'doosra'. The only orthodox finger spinner who has had one was probably Saqlain (Murali is a wrist spinner, whichever way his stock delivery turns). I would say that Monty's arm-ball isn't used often enough and when it is, doesn't seem to have enough dip to decieve batsmen and get lbw. Maybe he should work on that, rather than a doosra.

Dr C OTM.

As they keep saying on TMS, Monty needs to vary his pace more, his bowling still shows a lack of confidence.

Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

When exactly was Michael Vaughan's last decent batting performance again?

Answering my own question, he has the sort of knock you'd expect from a number 3 about once every 6 months.

Dr. C - I don't have a problem with Monty's results, by and large; my difficulties with him are on points of spin-bowling principle, namely that he doesn't seem to think batsmen out, rather "hits the right areas" until they get themselves out. It's an attitude thing. A doosra or well-grooved arm-ball would be great, but the main thing I'd like to see would be a mastery of pace, a dominating mindset, and setting his own fields rather than letting Uncle Mike do it for him.

Although Uncle Mike won't be the top boss for long if this continues.

Cook, Strauss, Vaughan, Pietersen, Bell, Collingwood.

Who goes and why?

Vaughan and Collingwood because they're woefully out of form and they irritate the tits off me with their interview conduct.

Given that the capt is the worst performer getting rid of the others on form seems wrong.

Strauss recently redeemed, but seems to have stuttered again.

Cook, scores 40-50 a lot is "one for the future" but doesn't seem to be good enough yet, do we chuck him out and get someone new to do it all again?

KP, is a genius but needs to get in to show it, very likely to get out early on.

Bell, scored 199 on a good pitch which according to the press cemented his international credentials but I still have doubts.

Collingwood, cant cope in tests, but is one day captain so should be able to.

SA are showing they are incredibly strong in both batting and bowling, them against Australia will be very interesting.

Cook and Bell are the two men I'd trust the most at the moment. Hopefully we won't see too many more SA celebrations this afternoon.

cook gone :(

As seen on TMS:

"As a Yorkshire fan I am backing Vaughan to remain England captain - purely because I don't want him back in the Tykes' batting line up."

Pretty gruesome stuff at the moment by the sound of it.

Collingwood playing like a man who knows his place is under intense scrutiny.

Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!! Beautiful timing. GET THIS MAN AWAY FROM OUR TEAM

Still to score 100 1st class runs this season, apparently.

10 first class innings so far this year, 96 runs between them. Utter rubbish. xposted

Broad would have scored more than that, then taken a few wickets.

Sidebottom out too. Freddie may as well throw the bat now. Dismal day for England.

lol completely pathetic

I want to cry.

"Those of us who watched the likes of Emburey and Miller toiling away ineffectually for England in the past surely appreciate what a good bowler Monty is."

See, you're right, I wonder if we are over-appreciating Monty bcz Eng hasn't had a decent spinner since who the fuck knows when...I don't think I had ever seen one since Monty came on the scene (Tufnell def wasn't it). Anyway, totally otm. The 'doosra' stuff is v funny now.

Eng's batting is straight out of a horror novel at the moment.

Also, who is to blame for this match starting on Wednesday -- can we actually give up on the one day game altogether and space out test matches and get them starting on Thursday.

Louis pulling out the stops on this thread: I Like Geoffrey Boycott; Monty Is Stupid and Shit etc. Tuffers was a good bowler, couldn't do anything else mind you.

Also, fuck a doosra

Monty isn't shit per se, he just doesn't appeal to me on an aesthetic or intellectual level, and I doubt his bowling has much penetration against the very best. Doosra or no doosra. That was just an example. Now you mention it, incidentally, Tuffers was jusy slightly more useful in the other two departments than Monty is.

No no, however shit Monty is at batting and fielding there is no way he is as bad as Tufnell!

Thing about Tufnell is he actually had batting talent, opened the innings at school, just didn't have the bottle against quick bowling. His batting against spin was often pretty classy, but he rarely had a chance to show this. :D

"lend us a brain Tufnell, I'm building an idiot!" = best sledge ever!

oh just bring Monty on already :D

Vikram Solanki with a blinding hundred before lunch at Cheltenham, btw.

Bit of a fightback going on here

Yeah I know!

why isn't Monty on?

Vaughan's been reading ILX. 21 leg byes in a score of 140-odd? Is there anything Tim Ambrose actually can do?

LOL @ England pioneering the three man bowling attack

LOL @ you blaming the keeper for leg-byes

Ha ha, I'll blame Ambrose for anything, him and Thatcher

I don't like the fact that the most quintessentially English position in our team is taken by an Aussie, and a Warwickshire Aussie at that, but he hasn't been THAT bad with the gloves.

Fred's 200th test wicket

Wait until South Africa are less than 50 runs behind England and then bring on Monty, nice one Vaughannynynyyny

A friend and I were making this exact same point on MSN, Panesar shudda been on as soon as that 4th wicket fell.

That could be crucial. England and Flintoff denied by what was according to more or less everyone the worst not-out lbw decision ever.

England are cricket's answer to Gordon Brown at the moment

:D I'd like to see Gordon Brown bowl one of those! Justice.

Brilliant, bye bye Fatso!

Sounds like it's all going off at Edgbaston. Good batting perfomance needed now, I'll believe it when I see it though...

Well played Paul Collingwood!

it's becoming a classic!