English cricket 2015 - NZ, The Ashes, Pak and SA

NinjaFletch

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Fantastic from England.

To win a test match when you were 30-4 and 3 down and 100 behind is an unbelievable effort.
 

TwoSheds

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I think the 50% of the ball hitting the stumps thing is too much. Should be 33%.
 

NinjaFletch

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Stokes MOTM for me.
Yeah, match saving knock on the first day. Match winning knock on the 4th day and match winning performance with the ball on the 5th day.

1600 runs and 40 wickets in 5 days, terrific entertainment.
 

DOTA

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Well done, England. Fighting back from 30-4 in first innings and from the troubled situation again in 2nd innings. Great show of character. Almost every player contributed over whole test. Sad for New Zealand. Played very well overall.
Thought they were a bit poor. Twice failed to push home an advantage with the ball and then collapsing on the final day. Expect them to be much better in the next match.
 

Ole's_toe_poke

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So many heroes. Stokes, Cook, Root, Broad with supporting roles form Moeen, Wood and Buttler.

Almost everyone played well. Very positive.
 

The Man Himself

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Thought they were a bit poor. Twice failed to push home an advantage with the ball and then collapsing on the final day. Expect them to be much better in the next match.
Agree to an extent though I think they lacked cutting edge than not playing well. I couldn't see whole match but throughout the game, NZ didn't seem to do much wrong. Probably it was case of England being very resilient when NZ bowlers were on top and then pushing advantage when they got in.

Southee I feel goes for too many runs for a strike bowler. Was case in world cup too except the England match. He needs to be more tighter economy wise.
 

Kazi

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Yeah great game. Also proves that the pitch can be batsman friendly and still provide a competitive game with a result at the end of the five days.
 

zing

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Stokes pretty much prevented defeat, ensured draw and then won it -- first, third and fourth innings.
 

Sassy Colin

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I was fortunate enough to be at Lords yesterday, great day out and a full day's entertainment for £20, although a takeaway burger & chips for over £9 was a bit painful.

I haven't been to Lords since I was 8 or something, so it was great to go back finally.
 

ChrisNelson

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Fantastic effort from the boys over the 5 days. Really promising signs that Cook is returning to form, Root goes from strength to strength, Stokes may finally be fulfilling his promise and we look like we've found a gem in Wood. All we need is Bell and Ballance back on form, the rest of the bowling attack are fine (though could maybe do with finding the new Swann). I'm not saying we're going to waltz through the Ashes, but a lot of people thought NZ would win this series and now they can't, so we should go to the Australia series with at least some confidence.
 

Ayush_reddevil

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Nz are a good team and they actually played some decent cricket in this match but Australia are a completely different beast
 

Samid

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Someone needs to tell the English players that they are professionals, they can't drop a guy three times in two overs.
 

Tommy

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So now Jimmy's passed the 400 mark, where do you think he'll end up on the all time list?

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/93276.html

34 more wickets takes him past Kapil Dev, and 6th on the all time list. I can't see him getting anywhere near Courtney Walsh's 519, but we'll see. Steyn, though... 5 wickets less than Jimmy having played 26 less games. 25 5fers and 5 10fers - He can go higher than any seam bowler in that list, in my opinion.
 

NinjaFletch

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Its taken him 2 years to go form 300 to 400.

I'm not sure about England's home fixtures in 2016 but I think we're playing India and Bangladesh away. He did very well in India last time and Bangladesh are always good for some stat padding.

No real reason why he can't make 500 injury permitting which would take him to the same sort of age Rhino is now and without the injury problems and from there he may still have a bit of life in him to have a look at Walsh.
 

Tommy

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And adding those wickets with those daft 2/3 test series is worth noting, too. It still annoys me that we only got a three test series between us and South Africa when we were the best two teams in the world.
 

The Man Himself

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Cook just 5 runs away from becoming England's all time leading run scorer in tests. If he gets them, it will be quite symbolic that it will happen in same match Anderson got past 400 test wickets. Two legend of England's in modern time and definitely sealing spot by now among England's all time greats.
 

Rolandofgilead

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This is shaping up to be a good second day for England, Cook and Lyth are both batting confidently and nicely paced.
 

Tommy

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Lyth was amazing in CC last year, so I'm glad to see him getting a call up & playing well alongside the cap. Great stuff from the openers!
 

NinjaFletch

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Think its NZ's to lose, England would have to bat very well from here to get any sort of lead and with 3 days left in the game and New Zealand bowling last the chances of an England win look small.
 

Insanity

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Bit late, and may be it has already been discussed but would it be outrageous to suggest that while Steyn has all the hype, and some of it rightly so, Anderson has been (overall) the best fast/swing bowler in the world since McGrath retired?