Balls to the Aussies the cricket thread (Read 359723 times)

Jaspersharpe · August 07, 2015, 10:58:10 am

Have a great day rich d. Should be brilliant!

andy_e · August 07, 2015, 11:01:15 am

Yeah, should be a good day to watch England win the ashes on the second day of the fourth test!

DaveC · August 07, 2015, 11:30:35 am

I think it will make it to day three...but no way am I putting money on that! :-)

andy_e · August 07, 2015, 11:31:31 am

Shame about Root but the night watchman is smacking Australia's most intimidating bowler for fours all over the place!

remus · August 07, 2015, 02:57:28 pm

Tempted to go and put £20 on australia. This is just the sort of 'Surely they can't lose it from here?' position England love to fumble.

Jaspersharpe · August 07, 2015, 03:14:46 pm

Two dropped catches and a wicket off a no ball. FFS.

Richie Crouch · August 07, 2015, 03:36:59 pm

Great spell of getting the ball to move around by Stokes

Jaspersharpe · August 07, 2015, 03:37:10 pm

Three quick wickets for Stokes and Australia are in serious trouble.

Jaspersharpe · August 07, 2015, 03:37:40 pm

And Smith gone!

andy_e · August 07, 2015, 03:38:02 pm

And another! Big spell!

GraemeA · August 07, 2015, 06:22:37 pm

5fer for Stokes.Could be over tonight.

Jaspersharpe · August 08, 2015, 06:13:56 pm

#cans Hope everyone saw Joe Root's Bob Willis impersonation before he and Ian Ward were soaked in champagne by Stokes. Genius! #cans

Root up to number one in the batting rankings too!

Jaspersharpe · August 08, 2015, 06:29:04 pm

If you missed it.....

http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/cricket/9941158/bob-willis-or-joe-root

rich d · August 08, 2015, 08:10:36 pm

What an amazing day yesterday, easily the best and most fun I've ever had at a test. Great cricket, amazing atmosphere and put the result beyond doubt. Love the ground at Trent bridge, had some beers with the Aussies in the TBI, including ray bright ex Aussie spinner. Pretty much everything you could wish for. Then today dusted off the hangover and walked down to the ground with the kids, the stewards let us all in for free to watch the interviews and presentations, welled up when both Clarke and Cook spoke.
What an amazing couple of days...

butters · December 30, 2015, 03:11:48 pm

Well that was a really rather pleasant five days spent watching the cricket in Durban. Excellent all round performance by the England team who are looking a pretty solid unit at the minute which is more than can be said for the opposition after the first test. There errr moments when I thought Morkel was likely to combust on the pitch late in the second session yesterday after two catches went down in quick succession. I will admit to some reservations about Hales in the position of opener but Compton is looking very good at one down so wouldn't want to move him from there. Off to cape town tomorrow, need to try and get tickets for the first two days, after this performance they may be hard to get hold of.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

tomtom · December 30, 2015, 03:25:34 pm

Nice one Butters. Enjoy!

rich d · January 06, 2016, 12:25:24 pm

aaarrrrggg! suddenly this is looking very tricky

butters · January 06, 2016, 04:34:26 pm

It wasn't what I expected to be honest but the cloud cover came in and for the first time in the test match the ball started doing something off the wicket. Stokes also tried to go big again and paid the price but in retrospect it was an important 28 that he made - got the scoreboard ticking over again after it had stagnated a bit. Taylor got a decent ball after that and then it was some good work by Bairstow and Ali to see it out without too many worries until bad light stopped play. The game had pretty much gone by then though with the run rate at something like 4+ and in conditions that would have suited Anderson et al a lot more (though how much they would have wanted to bowl again after over two days in the field is debateable).

Overall it wasn't the test that I was hoping for (seeing cricket in Cape Town was the reason behind my SA sojourn) but seeing Stokes absolutely smash the ball around the park on the second day was something truly special and I can say that I was there. I suspect in a few days Bavuma's 100 and Amla's 200 will also mean more but it was awful cricket to watch at the time (the third day was truly grim spectating) but I can't blame SA for that - they did what they needed to do and well done for it.

SA Chris · January 06, 2016, 05:32:38 pm

Enjoy Newlands if you can get a ticket the view is amazing. Last time I was there was watching Paul Adams confound the England batsmen (and a few bowlers!)

butters · January 06, 2016, 08:24:02 pm

Quote from: SA Chris on January 06, 2016, 05:32:38 pm

Enjoy Newlands if you can get a ticket the view is amazing. Last time I was there was watching Paul Adams confound the England batsmen (and a few bowlers!)

I did - all 5 days of it (with the caveats given in my last post)!

Managed to get tickets for all 5 days - got one in the Snake Pit (grass section roughly opposite the Oaks section) first day, Railway Stand on the second, two hard days baking in the sun in the temp stand behind the snake pit on days three and four (which in all honesty didn't help my appreciation of SA's rear guard action) and Railway stand again today. Didn't get the view that I was really hoping for with Table Mountain in the back ground but it is a lovely cricket ground all the same.

Paul Adams - now that name takes me back - IIRC he was the bowler who was compared to a frog in a blender by some commentator. If he wasn't he should have been given his quite unique bowling action. The only other thing I can think of in a comparable analogy was a golfer whose swing off the tee was compared to an octopus falling out of a tree.

butters · May 22, 2016, 10:37:26 pm

Well this thread has been a bit dead of late! Awake thread with some truly outstanding writing by Lord Selvey himself.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/may/21/jimmy-anderson-headingley-england-sri-lanka

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Jaspersharpe · May 26, 2016, 01:24:22 pm

Good read that butters. My life seems to revolve around cricket at the moment (no bad thing) as the sprog is playing for U9 and U11 teams for his club and South Yorkshire U9s with the odd representative U11s match thrown in for good measure.

And we went to the test on Saturday.

Jaspersharpe · July 26, 2016, 12:44:57 pm

Nice piece on cricinfo about Pakistan fans at the Test.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/1039367.html

Jaspersharpe · August 07, 2016, 03:22:15 pm

This England Pakistan test is the perfect example of why test cricket is so bloody good. It's ebbed and flowed either way and every time today I've thought "we've blown it, it's a draw" we've taken a wicket. A couple more and the win is still on......

butters · August 07, 2016, 10:08:49 pm

And the win was duly delivered - spent the last 5 days listening to the test while revising and it has ebbed remarkably from an under par score for England to an excellent containing of Pakistan as the pitch eased up in their respective first innings. Second innings was where the difference was made though - England have had Shah under the cosh since a great performance by him at Lords and with only a four man bowling attack and the pitch flattening out England got a foot back in the game initially and then pushed on to a position where they could not lose the game and just maybe win it. Looking at the scores when Lunch was taken it was unlikely but the English bowlers put in a bloody good effort and won the test.

Really pleased to see Ali get a couple of wickets and gain some confidence back (how Cook sets fields to him is a source of constant scorn from both Vaughan and Swann in the commentary box) but even more so Finn who has had a tough time lately. He was bloody magnificent in SA when I saw him and it is great to see him finally get a couple in the bag - good effort that man and bag a few more at the Oval.