English cricket thread

ArmchairCritic

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Shai Hope just played a forward defence down the ground to a 93mph ball but the lightmeter says it's too dark, what a stupid game this is sometimes.
 

NinjaFletch

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Shai Hope just played a forward defence down the ground to a 93mph ball but the lightmeter says it's too dark, what a stupid game this is sometimes.
Nope, they fecked up taking the players off too early yesterday and are now held slavishly to that reading because the regs weren't written for umpiring as incompetent as this.
 

ArmchairCritic

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Nope, they fecked up taking the players off too early yesterday and are now held slavishly to that reading because the regs weren't written for umpiring as incompetent as this.
Lost at least a whole session of cricket over the 2 days because of it.
 

paulscholes18

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With hindsight England may have been better of in these conditions with Broad & Woakes rather than the pace of Archer & Wood
 

ArmchairCritic

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With hindsight England may have been better of in these conditions with Broad & Woakes rather than the pace of Archer & Wood
Well, England have only had 19 overs in overcast conditions and it's going to be sunnier for the rest of the test. I think the decision to bat first is the big one when it comes to hindsight.
 

zing

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Extremely sunny.. hope it doesn't favour the batsmen too much. Was good to watch yesterday.
 

zing

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Can someone here explain the light roller vs heavy roller thing, and why you’d prefer one over other?
 

ArmchairCritic

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Can someone here explain the light roller vs heavy roller thing, and why you’d prefer one over other?
Mike Brearley reckoned over his entire career that he only saw a roller impact the behaviour of a pitch once. I would be inclined to listen to him ahead of Ian Ward. The theory is largely as @NinjaFletch described, a heavier mass will influence how the pitch behaves thereafter. On a dry pitch for instance, the theory is a heavy roller will help it break up on Day 4/5, which is why sometimes you see captains declare a bit into the first session of a day instead of before the close the day before.
 
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ArmchairCritic

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I thought Stokes underbowled himself as captain. After 20 mins with the second new ball I thought he should have bought himself on instead of Wood. I think where Archer and Wood can improve is how they use the crease, Wood has basically cut out the wide of the crease delivery in his armoury. It's an important part of Holder's success as a bowler and if my memory serves me correctly Stokes generally tends to bowl wider on the crease too. Pitches like this need subtle variations and discipline rather than brute pace and knuckle balls.
 

zing

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Why did sky get rid of Botham, Gowers and Lloyd ? I thought they wanted to do it for diversity but seemed to have replaced them with Nick Knight, Rob Key and Ward.

Lloyd was fantastic to listen to, and these 3 don’t really seem like an upgrade.

Isa Guha was also good to listen to and she’s gone as well.

Edit: Looks like Lloyd is being shielded due to covid.
 
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FlawlessThaw

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Why did sky get rid of Botham, Gowers and Lloyd ? I thought they wanted to do it for diversity but seemed to have replaced them with Nick Knight, Rob Key and Ward.

Lloyd was fantastic to listen to, and these 3 don’t really seem like an upgrade.

Isa Guha was also good to listen to and she’s gone as well.
Lloyd is still around, suspect he will be back for the Old Trafford test. Maybe coming down for the Southampton test is a big ask in the current climate.

Isa Guha got a job at the BBC presenting the highlights show there.

Gower and Botham had their farewell last summer.
 

zing

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Sibley needs to develop more than one shot against off spin. Has played almost everything through the onside. A better spinner would have him in trouble.

Burns looks very good. Could get a 100 here as conditions seem pretty benign. Ok he’s out right when I typed that.
 

ArmchairCritic

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I have always found it strange there's been a 100 years plus of test cricket but only in the last few years have quick bowlers en masse realised bowling around the wicket to left handers is quite effective.
 

ArmchairCritic

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Sibley needs to develop more than one shot against off spin. Has played almost everything through the onside. A better spinner would have him in trouble.

Burns looks very good. Could get a 100 here as conditions seem pretty benign. Ok he’s out right when I typed that.
Tall lad like him needs to have a sweep in his repetoire.
 

NinjaFletch

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Why did sky get rid of Botham, Gowers and Lloyd ? I thought they wanted to do it for diversity but seemed to have replaced them with Nick Knight, Rob Key and Ward.

Lloyd was fantastic to listen to, and these 3 don’t really seem like an upgrade.

Isa Guha was also good to listen to and she’s gone as well.

Edit: Looks like Lloyd is being shielded due to covid.
Botham was fecking insufferable. That was the main reason he went, he was an uninterested, drunk, bore by the the end of it.

Gower was unluckier, but he'd been doing it 20 years. They felt it was time to freshen it up.
 

NWRed

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Can someone here explain the light roller vs heavy roller thing, and why you’d prefer one over other?
As far as I know it's to do with the pitch surface. On a grassy pitch the heavy roller will flatten the pitch and make it easier for the batsmen against seam bowlers, but on a dry pitch the heavy roller could break up/damage the surface more than the light one making it harder for the batsmen against spin and make variable bounce more of an issue against the quicks.
 

NinjaFletch

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Not sure it's the worst wicket for England, mind. Time to put the foot down a bit (inevitable collapse incoming).
 

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I think we’ve fecked this match to be honest. We should have gotten a better first innings lead. That being said, our batting lineup right now is terrible, and is missing a few of our best batsmen. Best I’m hoping for from this match is a draw.
 

ArmchairCritic

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I do think Holder could have been a bit more aggressive in his captaincy today, even now England only have a 54 run lead. Feels like both teams are happy to let the game drift.
 

NinjaFletch

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Something lost in the Holder vs Stokes debate is how awful Holder's 'T' is. It's an utter disgrace.
 

paulscholes18

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Crawley impresses me more and more each time he puts on an England shirt. Hopefully he can/ has done enough to play in the next test match