Cricket

sri lanka won anyway. spoiled the series really as an extra 30 runs could have made it exciting. It will mask cooks shitty captaincy too

wonder what cook and moores brave new dawn will be. so far its same old minus kp. Wonder if buttler will get the nod over prior? Prior has done nothing to deserve a recall so far.

plus who will open? its just gonna be pretty much the same losers in the team from the ashes whitewash innit?

"Is it Right to Mankad?"

1. I accept that not all laws are perfect, but it seems necessary that the batsman isn't allowed to 'steal a base' without the risk of being run out.

2. "But Alt, he was only two inches out of his crease?"

Well, then he was run out by two inches. You never heard Inzamam say to the third umpire "I was only two inches out, I'll be quicker next time!"

3. The bowler was acting "against the Spirit of Cricket."

This is not true. It's such an absurd point, that if you truly believe this, just press that hard reset button in your cranium and try this again tomorrow.

Let's not forget that Senanayake warned Buttler TWICE, even though he wasn't obliged to do so. He was, in fact, overly polite.

4. Note that the strong anti-Senanayake opinions on this one seem to be emanating from English journalists. They like to stoke jingoistic fires, because it suits their agenda - stay chummy with Team England to get the insider leaks, and have an angle to write about in tomorrow's papers.

Nobody would have read a column about a comfortable chase of 220!

Many journalists are guilty of doing this for their respective countries (just look at the outrage generated by Broad's comments to Ajmal last week - it was played out as England bullying the colonies!)

5. Coverage has been 90% on Senanayake, 10% on Buttler. If Buttler hadn't dozed off, England would have likely reached close to 250, which might have been a winning score on this pitch.

Yet, at the end of the match, Cook was disdainful towards Angelo Mathews. Mate, you should be annoyed with your shitshow of a team!

***

As ever, I welcome your comments. First one to claim that I'm 'anti-English' wins a prize.

***

See previous post for full laws on Mankading.

He's anti-English, but some of those points see valid.

AG, Cook captained well last night with the bowlers, it was the selection and batting that was the problem.

I was either which way on the mankading but agnew's pompous attitude pissed me off so much that I'd laugh like a drain if it happened again in the tests or he periodically threatened to do it thus disrupting the flow of the game. the wounded outrage that the spirit of the game has been violated feels laughable.

tho a more sober analysis might say that cricket is partly entertaining by constantly edging notions of fairness against strict legality. we like fretting about such stuff and players partly define themselves by and against it.

so the brave new dawn of English cricket is Stokes dropped for not playing enough, matt prior is in despite only having kept once? (he certainly hasn't earned his place back) work that one out.
no spinners and instead 2 part time spinners.
Jordan & Robson is interesting though.

Alastair Cook (Essex), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), James Anderson (Lancashire), Gary Ballance (Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Chris Jordan (Sussex), Liam Plunkett (Yorkshire), Matt Prior (Sussex), Sam Robson (Middlesex), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire).

Plunkett seems like a good pick to me, though I will say again "Onions". I think they were always going to go for Prior, but I agree that his match fitness is a concern.

Onions has been injured. I'd have gone for the in-form Jack Brooks as reserve bowler.

Also a bit sad that Samit Patel's astounding form isn't enough.

Hope Robson gets out for 0 in every innings he plays for England (double-standards with KP? Yes. I make no apology)

ah I didn't realise that re. Onions. I agree about Samit, he could have had 5 centuries already this season and having him as a left arm spin option would be handy. Fated to only play on the subcontinent perhaps.

Why the Robson hate?

Robson has already played age-group cricket for Australia, and unlike, say, KP, he's not come over for (admittedly half-baked) ideological reasons, and he isn't a player of rare and explosive talent. He's a solid opener who's managed to get international cricket in the only side (of the two) which would have picked him. If the Australian selectors were in charge of the England team, I'm certain Lyth would be in right now

It's mostly because he's Australian, tbf

fair enough, though it's interesting that the other two new picks are "Empire" picks, Jordan and Moeen. Nationality is a slippery thing! I would probably have gone with Compton or Carberry myself, but then I'm a stick in the mud.

moeen ali was born in birmingham you fucking idiot

& compton was born and raised in south africa, arriving in england at more or less the same age as chris jordan

ffs

hey no need to go off on one, or to call me names. Compton proves the point I was trying to make- the England team has always been made up of people born all over the world, as well as people born in England

cf. http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/may/27/the-spin-england-cricket-history

no, I refuse to allow your appalling and racist insinuations about Moeen Ali's nationality to pass without rejoinder; you're lucky I wasn't harsher. I notice you didn't even climb down

I'm fully aware that English cricket is drawn from around the globe; colonialist vectors are still prominent in the sport today. It seems odd that Robson has moved against the contemporary gradient of cricketing osmosis, but look closer and you'll still see England cast as the old exploiter. See how Ireland has been denied a Test side!

I have nothing against those of other countries representing themselves in professional cricket in England; I welcome it. And on a personal level, I welcome their inclusion in Test cricket. But I also feel that a nation's Test side should represent and reflect its cricketing culture(s), its way of bringing up its young and its available talent. Young English players, growing up dreaming of Test representation, only to be usurped at the last by an Australian of all people? And an Australian who might not even be that much greater than them? It pains thinking about.

hold on a minute, there's nothing racist in stating that Moeen is English because of Britain's imperial history, which was what I was doing. What exactly do you want me to climb down from?

Moeen is English because he was born in England, raised in England and considers himself English. Everything else is reverse-projection bullshit. I'M only fucking English because my Cypriot grandparents moved here, after the British set up a colony in Cyprus! Imperialist history, you created me too! Wow, I'm an "Empire" ilxor! ISN'T NATIONALITY A SLIPPERY THING

Moeen is a Muslim and has dark skin and a beard. That's basically your argument.

Gonna leave this thread for a bit I think

no it's not my argument, I think you're reading a lot into that (ill-advised, as it turns out) post. to be clear: Moeen is English and is in the squad on merit, and I would never suggest otherwise, I'm sorry if I've given any impression to the contrary.

can we get back to the real issue

I think they were always going to go for Prior, but I agree that his match fitness is a concern.

not just fitness (tho its a double standard re stokes) but his form is why he was dropped. He was fucking rotten with both batting and keeping. He may have a century this season but he has kept ONCE. How is that earning his place back in the side?

don't recall him being bad at keeping over the winter, though his batting was indeed awful. Problem now is he seems to be able to bat okay, but can he keep properly over the 5 days? Cook has come out and said Buttler is not ready, but if not now then when?

his keeping was stinking. from his great form v nz in nz he had a poor home series against them and was awful in both ashes. His keeping got so bad they had to drop him, it wasnt just his batting.
I dont think buttler is ready for it either but it would do no harm in playing him in these 2 tests to find out. Sometimes the only way to find out if someones ready is to play them. Italso helps prior get proper match fit in the counties and get form for india.
it all smacks of prior being cooks mate tbh. Its just double standards.

no proper spinner and an unfit keeper plus how fit is Broad? Its a potential disaster waiting to happen. Tailoring wickets to suit england's pace attack wont do them any good in the long run. Look how out of touch jimmy was in oz. Green wickets that suit him wont tell us his true state of whether hes lost it or was "burnt out".

sri lanka and india grew up with spin. if they bat them out of attack jimmy and broad will be overbowled again and that was supposed to be why they were burnt out.

btw is woakes good enough to bowl at test level?

any of you tightwads bought this yet? 360 or ps3
http://i.imgur.com/NQek0JO.jpg

The pc version is out this week or next i think via steam but you need a controller i think.

I've had the 360 version since it came out. batting is really hard but bowing is easier.
career mode is awesome. I chose to be a left arm fast bowler and its fun working my way up.

was watching in the pub this evening when this happened

https://vine.co/v/MDJbqLnuzhh

yeah saw that. wondrous.

and to think I was tipping him for a Test call-up the other day upthread ;)

Pollard's from a fortnight ago was good too.

http://youtu.be/y_2otJ9wl-Y

sick, hadn't seen that before

yeah that's amazing

this was a good one if you ignore the fact he fell over first

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA0wgDvgwXo

that was some incredible catches

Jermaine Blackwood, WI's new batsman, just made me burst out laughing

On zero, in his first Test innings, he played a Trent Boult over as follows:

Ball 1: Defeated by massive inswing, rapped on pad, lbw appeal turned down

Ball 2: Ball holds line, edge through slips for four

Ball 3: Defeated by massive inswing, ball goes over stumps to keeper

Ball 4: Another big inswinger, on-driven for six

Ball 5: Beaten outside off on the drive

Ball 6: Leave

I approve tbh

yo sharivari, WI in with a chance of pulling off the ridiculous here

Can't see it happening but would be fantastic if it did.

I'm watching it and Holder is playing like a proper top-order player, doesn't look in trouble /jinx

Shillingford a bit ropier but if he stays in another half-hour this is a serious match

Southee with a new ball looms tho, yeah

sorry everyone

watching chanderpaul and brathwaite batting together is v soothing

a sublimer game has not yet been devised

ok now it's quite tense in a perfectly wonderful way. brathwaite, who is one of the most rock-solid batsmen i've ever seen but has no weight of shot to speak of, has been on 199 for 12 balls. he's never scored a FC double ton. the spinners are on. he keeps hitting it at the fielders. it's quite pantomimic by now

to add to the sense of liminal torture, the score is 399 and chanderpaul is on 49

brathwaite smashes a four! tbf it needed such a travesty, it was too deadlocked otherwise, too crystallised in perfect stasis

how many balls is that double off?

434. an opus

marvellous.

sulieman benn @suliebenn
It was an absolute pleasure watching the wizard @K_Brathwaite at work over the last two days https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v1/72x72/270c.png #205no #inspiration #BOOM

you know when praise is just a little too effusive

yes against bangladesh

even the bones of wg grace could get a lazy double century against bangladesh