Flower & Strauss out!
― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Thursday, 19 January 2012 09:45 (twelve years ago) link
LOL times like these you hope they go for some sort of record defeat stat. I note another great performance from England's Best Batsman, Kevin Pietersen.
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Thursday, 19 January 2012 09:49 (twelve years ago) link
some stat about "when England lose, they lose big" has been bandied around- I think last 3 defeats were innings defeats. I think they'll bounce back, but a lot depends on whether they can get their heads round playing Ajmal.
― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Thursday, 19 January 2012 09:54 (twelve years ago) link
87-7
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Thursday, 19 January 2012 11:43 (twelve years ago) link
Swann double century. Come on Swanny!
― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Thursday, 19 January 2012 11:50 (twelve years ago) link
... came up 161 runs short :(
Pakistan need 15 to win.
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Thursday, 19 January 2012 13:10 (twelve years ago) link
Sterling stuff.
― Fizzles, Thursday, 19 January 2012 13:12 (twelve years ago) link
This is going... well, it's going really.
― Fizzles, Saturday, 28 January 2012 10:36 (twelve years ago) link
56-5.
― Fizzles, Saturday, 28 January 2012 11:22 (twelve years ago) link
lol so they let Zimbabwe play test cricket again
with unsurprising results
― Born To Meat Pie (King Boy Pato), Saturday, 28 January 2012 11:44 (twelve years ago) link
yes i saw that. only the fourth time a side has been bowled out twice in one day.
― Fizzles, Saturday, 28 January 2012 11:48 (twelve years ago) link
68-7. So, only 80 runs needed from the bowlers then.
― Aunt Acid and the Gaviscons (aldo), Saturday, 28 January 2012 11:54 (twelve years ago) link
What a shambles.
― oppet, Saturday, 28 January 2012 12:08 (twelve years ago) link
bodged it.
― Fizzles, Saturday, 28 January 2012 12:09 (twelve years ago) link
omg!
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 28 January 2012 12:10 (twelve years ago) link
what is this, 1995?!
brilliant result for Pakistan, who were probably behind all Test. But yes, it's hard not to look at the batting line-up - Pietersen! Morgan! - and just shake your head in embarrassment.
― Fizzles, Saturday, 28 January 2012 12:13 (twelve years ago) link
Yes, great result, and they must be delighted given the various er...brushes with the English media and law, but back in the mid-90s the middle order was made of paper (Graham Thorpe aside really). You'd expect better this time...
The whole technocratic flower set-up is now to be questioned.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 28 January 2012 12:18 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, i'm not sure about that. is the 'technocratic' problem that they rely less on experience and on-pitch nous and more on pre-arranged strategies built on stats for each opponent/bowling machine types etc? Is that even a thing? Flower himself I've got quite a lot of time for - he seems resilient, sensible. I think Pietersen and Morgan need to be dropped, although I do realise that means you haven't really got a player who can just take the game away from teams (although Broad did do something usefully similar two days ago).
― Fizzles, Saturday, 28 January 2012 12:29 (twelve years ago) link
Well following the ENGLAND NO 1 a lot seemed to be made about how not only we have v good players but that flower has built a bunch of pre-strategies based on computer modelling/statical analysis and that mumbo jumbo.
I agree that Pietersen hasn't cut it for a while is a bigger problem, but (again from what I read) Eng did seem to arrive under-prepared, and Pakistan are no mugs.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 28 January 2012 12:37 (twelve years ago) link
Yes that's true I think. I know teams are well prepared nowadays, but you I did get a slight sense of complacency coming into this (and a lack of match fitness). Right I'm off down the pub to watch the football.
― Fizzles, Saturday, 28 January 2012 12:41 (twelve years ago) link
Indeed! There is more to cricket :-)
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 28 January 2012 12:46 (twelve years ago) link
Well, the KARACHI GLOBETROTTERS have played true to form by producing a wonderfully wtf result. Hurrah!
And now the 2013 Ashes is looking even better.
― Born To Meat Pie (King Boy Pato), Sunday, 29 January 2012 04:41 (twelve years ago) link
Is that "there is more to cricket than life" xyzzzz__?!
I was thinking more about the technocratic thing. One thing you hear players say now, for instance, that you probably wouldn't have heard 20 years ago (when England were in their pomp of course) is talk about 'executing plans'. 'We'll be ok if we execute our plans'. It always strikes me as sensible, but also inflexible. Monty Panesar is the classic plan bowler, he doesn't even like setting his own fields, and doesn't show a lot of on-pitch flexibility. But really I've tended to find that's most used wrt bowlers and not batsmen, and clearly it's the batsmen that are the problem. I'm sure they also have their plans, but it's always going to be more reactive to bowlers, the situation, the pitch, the psychological need to get through the initial stages and 'get in'.
I hadn't realised that in fact Graham Gooch is at home, not in Dubai, because he's only retained on a consultancy basis by the ECB. That strikes me as a good detail to fill out that vague feeling of complacency.
KBP - yes, excited by Australia's bowling (always enjoy watching Clarke bat) - Hilfenhaus and Siddle looking dangerous and what's your opinion on Starc?
― Fizzles, Sunday, 29 January 2012 06:09 (twelve years ago) link
despite this: http://i44.tinypic.com/1581s8w.jpg
and this http://i44.tinypic.com/vy19oy.jpg
Siddle's still a (tentative) bro.
― yuoowemeone, Sunday, 29 January 2012 07:42 (twelve years ago) link
You won't see Starc around if Pattinson and Cummins are fit.
― Born To Meat Pie (King Boy Pato), Sunday, 29 January 2012 09:33 (twelve years ago) link
Siddle is a bloke that you want on your construction site.
― Born To Meat Pie (King Boy Pato), Sunday, 29 January 2012 09:34 (twelve years ago) link
sorry strauss but i dont think you should be going to india. You cant play stupid shots like that. you're a great captain but your forms not good enough and you and a few others shouldn't be going to India. KP youre in last chance saloon as far as im concerned.
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, 28 March 2012 10:26 (twelve years ago) link
KP yes. Strauss, I'd still like to have him in the side, he can pull out gritty innings (last test in UAE? in fact in all of those tests he was stronger than the meringue-like middle order iirc) and hold things together even when he's out of form, which is valuable esp in a side as prone to mental fragility as England.
― Fizzles, Wednesday, 28 March 2012 10:53 (twelve years ago) link
KP has done pretty well in the recent one dayers, but I agree he needs a score, and no hairbrained charging down the wicket or getting run out. England might have a chance if he and Trott can keep it going for a bit.
― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Wednesday, 28 March 2012 12:29 (twelve years ago) link
Yep, we all want him to succeed but he needs to prove he can play spin in the subcontinent (as do others)
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Wednesday, 28 March 2012 12:33 (twelve years ago) link
fuck off KP
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Thursday, 29 March 2012 05:07 (twelve years ago) link
we need to blood a few new batsmen this summer to take to India.
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Thursday, 29 March 2012 05:08 (twelve years ago) link
KP = Graeme Hick.
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Thursday, 29 March 2012 05:12 (twelve years ago) link
well played KP. Amazing knock.
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Thursday, 5 April 2012 09:10 (twelve years ago) link
A week's a long time in cricket obviously
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Thursday, 5 April 2012 11:12 (twelve years ago) link
Pietersen out!
― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Thursday, 5 April 2012 11:15 (twelve years ago) link
tom maynard has been killed :(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18492564
― it looks like something rupert the bear would wear (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 18 June 2012 11:09 (eleven years ago) link
that's horrible news.
― Arvo Pärt Chimp (Neil S), Monday, 18 June 2012 11:43 (eleven years ago) link
How would you rank these six players? NB I know nothing about cricket.
Adam GilchristImran KhanIan BothamDennis LilleeRichard HadleeSunil Gavaskar
― doglatting (jaymc), Saturday, 11 August 2012 15:39 (eleven years ago) link
It's pretty difficult as there's one wicket-keeper-batsman, one specialist batsman, one specialist bowler and three all-rounders. With personal bias i'd probably say:
KhanGilchristBothamGavaskarHadleeLillee
There's not a great deal between them, though.
― Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Saturday, 11 August 2012 16:21 (eleven years ago) link
You could put them in any order tbh. Gilchrist, Lillie, Khan, Botham, Gavaskar, Hadlee maybe. Why has this come up?
― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 11 August 2012 16:25 (eleven years ago) link
yeah we would all have different orders id have botham at the top
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Saturday, 11 August 2012 16:34 (eleven years ago) link
Gilchrist top three definitely, soft spot for Hadlee has him 3, 4 or 5 and Botham probably in the bottom two. But they could be in any order, as others have said.
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Saturday, 11 August 2012 20:15 (eleven years ago) link
i feel privileged to have been old enough to have seen all of them (later parts of career obviously)
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Saturday, 11 August 2012 20:20 (eleven years ago) link
and with the 3 or 4 greatest cricketers of the last 20 years missing from there then you know what a golden era we had
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Saturday, 11 August 2012 20:22 (eleven years ago) link
and of course a lot of west indians not mentioned either
― Algerian Goalkeeper, Saturday, 11 August 2012 20:23 (eleven years ago) link
Sanath Jayasuriya the obvious name missing from the list for me, without even going near Sachin. Or Murali, or Shane Warne. Or Allan Border, or the Waughs. I'l stop now.
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Saturday, 11 August 2012 20:43 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, I'm curious now. I mean it's clearly not a 'best of the last 40 years' list, so what is it?
― Ismael Klata, Saturday, 11 August 2012 20:46 (eleven years ago) link
Sorry to be cryptic, but it's for work!
― doglatting (jaymc), Monday, 13 August 2012 18:40 (eleven years ago) link