Cricket

1 wicket away from whitewash.

All over, India lamentably poor, England excellent though.

well that was easy. england in england are sirius bizness.

it was the pieterson/bell partnership on Friday what done it; 350 runs without india ever even looking like taking a wicket.

think there may have been one appeal, possibly two in five hours of batting.

i wonder if the zaheer khan injury was a factor of any sort in the series

i mean a factor of any great size

Was there on Friday. Watching Bell and Pietersen bat was the best batting I have seen. Certainly with Zaheer Khan they lost a good bowler, and also put pressure on less good bowlers. The batting's been pisspoor as well though, Dravid aside. England looked very strong throughout in all areas, apart from some poor slip fielding at Trent Bridge, was it?

Lord's they dropped a few, catching got better and better IMO. I was at Trent Bridge on the Sunday, it was a whipping, never seen a Test team look so ragged.

I was there on Friday as well and couldn't have hoped for a better day's cricket. Bell clipping himself two consecutive, identical sixes to the same guy in the crowd was brilliant. Mishra had a torrid time and couldn't penetrate the attack at all. 170 runs for 0 must be painful.

Something like the 8th worst figures ever in Tests for Mishra.

it's very satisfying to see England actually good at cricket, plenty of false starts (nassers side, the ashes team getting injured and losing focus) but this team should hopefully be great for years to come.

haha the swanny & jimmy show on sky again is hilarious

jesus, look at the size of the Test Mace!

hahahahaha never seen that before

Patel's bat broke as he hit the ball to cover and he was left holding the handle

oh man that was funny

Fantastic finish to the Championship. Looks like Lancashire might just do it, but it's certainly going to be tight if wickets fall.

They need 170 odd runs by the close of play... could be done?

They're ahead of the rate at the moment, certainly. Looking good for it. Not sure what fields Somerset are setting. Out of Warwickshire's hands unless someone goes berserk with ball and bat.

I imagine that is what LJ is hoping for.

He'll have to go and piss on the Rose Bowl pitch pretty quickly. Dead as a dodo.

Lancs 104 from 14 overs. Need another 107 from 14.

Think that's right.

Make that from 18. Should do it. All wickets in hand.

in a one day match, you'd back the batting side IMO. Depends on the fields Somerset are setting, as you say above- they have nothing to play for, but you'd expect them to give it a go fielding wise?

Yep, definitely. Any worth in Somerset putting everyone on the boundary? At the moment, Lancs are hitting boundaries galore, and Somerset aren't taking any wickets. Can understand Somerset setting attacking fields at the beginning, as Lancs have to play shots, but that hasn't worked.

Wicket at Taunton. 130-1. Need another 81. Still cruising.

Come on you Nothern bastards

First outright title in 77 years if they do it.

they split it one year IIRC?

Yep. Apparently shared with Surrey in '55, oh wikipedia says '50.

2 down now, suddenly looking a lot more difficult. First time I can remember hitting F5 repeatedly on a county championship scorecard!

Yeah, did wonder if they lost a wicket or two whether the new starters would get bogged down, run rate goes up sharply. Fascinating.

Run a ball will do it for Lancashire. Both new batsmen doing ok. Couple of wickets gone down in the space of two balls at the Rose Bowl, but any chance for Warks. next to impossible.

Match drawn at Rose Bowl, dropped catch at Taunton. Lancs cruising.

so well done Lancs, a great victory considering they have no Test players in the current team. Amazing they never did it in the 90s/ 00s, considering the likes of Murali, Wasim, Crawley, Athers, Fairbrother etc. were playing for them.

wonder if that helps tbh - losing players to international players or even having them come in for a short while in these days of central contracts can seem quite disruptive.

yeah settled team FTW, I suppose Durham in the last few years are an example of that.

most one-sided tour by a top side in england since....?

aww man RIP Graham Dilley. One of my alltime favourite England cricketers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/15185575.stm

Great swing bowler and underrated batsman. Who will ever forget his heroics at Headingley 1981 backing up Botham and finishing 50 n.o.

RIP

we were just talking about him at work. great bowler on his day (and of course his batting at Headingly as you say).

That dreadful phrase 'after a short illness' as well.

That'll be cancer then?

i assume so.
he wasn't 50 n.o. obv btw botham was n.o.

someone said on the other thread that sporting heroes from when you were young shouldnt die so soon is otm.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/55844000/jpg/_55844219_dill.jpg

Guilty

'"The West just wants to destroy the image of Pakistan," says Zahim, a cricket fan eating at a restaurant outside Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium.'

It's a shame, particularly for Amir who had enormous potential.

I can't really hold it against them, tbh. Cricket gambling in Pakistan is run by some of the most ruthless gangsters in the world. They might have been making stacks of money but the supposed alternative of simply saying 'no' is never going to be that easy.

Amir will be back, he's still young plus he admitted his guilt, I reckon he'll be around for a long time and play a lot of international cricket

Interesting scorecard from Newlands -

1st Innings - Australia 284 (of which Clarke got 151 - from 176 balls too, must have been an incredible innings). South Africa 96.

2nd Innings - Australia are currently 21-8.

21-9 now.