England Cricket Team Thread

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Lord Rother
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby Lord Rother » 08 Jan 2018, 21:26

Forget that we’ve now lost more than we’ve won in that time, it’s just terrible news for Test Cricket that there is rarely a tight game these days.

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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby WG Kaspar » 08 Jan 2018, 22:41

Well there was an exciting one in South Africa today.
But I get what you're saying; there may be 1 in 10 series that are tightly contested. The last Ashes series that was really hard fought and tight was probably 2009 and even then apart from the Cardiff test the rest of the tests were 1 team clearly on top of the other. The last series that was tight that England was involved was the Sri Lanka 2 test series 3 years ago. I agree that it's terrible.
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby Penk! » 22 Jan 2018, 09:33

Nice to see us pumping the Aussies in the one-dayers, though it's a bit like the England football team winning their meaningless friendlies against Romania then crashing out of the World Cup in the group stage.

Strange that bowlers like Woakes and Ali who really struggled in the tests have come to life here.

And how has Aaron Finch made so many runs? I've only seen him two or three times but he always looked a hopeless, club-wielding caveman type. Surely these unrefined sloggers have died out now?
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby mentalist (slight return) » 22 Jan 2018, 21:20

Finch deserves a bit more credit than that! England have shown up Australia's old school thinking about how to win ODIs. Finally we're hearing words from Smith and the selectors suggesting we have to change our thinking. And it's taken these losses to finally hear this. So, thank you (and well played) England! Our ODI teams have often been an extension of the Test team with a few changes. And we've consistently not rated spinners. We have the cattle, plenty of high strike rate batsmen, smart quicks, decent wrist spinners, Nathan Lyon as well (why isn't he in the squad?). We're well be behind the eight ball come the World Cup next year.
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby WG Kaspar » 22 Jan 2018, 21:42

Finch has 10 ODI centuries. He's been very good for a long time now.
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby Nikki Gradual » 18 Feb 2018, 08:13

Blimey, Munro is on fire. Watch eng vs NZ now for an astonishing 20/20 innings.
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby Penk! » 22 Mar 2018, 05:07

:lol: We really are shit!
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby WG Kaspar » 22 Mar 2018, 06:58

PENK wrote::lol: We really are shit!

:shock:
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby The Write Profile » 22 Mar 2018, 21:11

True, England's batting was woeful, but that was an exceptional spell of swing bowling from Boult and Southee. Both, along with Wagner, are genuine international class bowlers and have won several test matches for NZ. On home soil, they're very competitive.

NZ''s real weakness is in the middle order. It's far too over reliant on Taylor and Williamson, some players, like Nichols, are clearly not up to test standard.

But what a crazy day of cricket. Pure mayhem for 90minutes and serene to the point of soporific for the rest of the day. Again, Williamson is going to be the key.
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby mentalist (slight return) » 22 Mar 2018, 21:36

Collapses are fascinating things when you have no skin in the game. Some weird psychology takes control. Meanwhile a terrific series continues down in South Africa.
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby The Write Profile » 23 Mar 2018, 04:15

It looks like rain might save England, but what a robust innings from Williamson. If you accept that Steven Smith is the best test batsman in the world, then Williamson would be (an admittedly distant) second. He's scored centuries in all sorts of conditions and situations. I considered Kohli, but as good as his record is, he's very much a hometown bully. Root would be fourth place, a fine batsman but occasionally prone to lapses in concentration when set.
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby The Write Profile » 24 Mar 2018, 06:51

Maybe it isn't a good idea to play test cricket in NZ in March. Much like how last year's test match against South Africa was rained out just when NZ was in a good position to win it, it looks like England will be saved by the elements in this match. They really don't deserve that luck, frankly. And paradoxically, I doubt they will be as woeful in the next match either. This was a golden opportunity for NZ to get one over England.

Ironically, if it were a day test match they would have got more play in.
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby WG Kaspar » 24 Mar 2018, 11:16

It's weird but it must be quite a while since England was involved in a match that may be washed out.
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby Penk! » 24 Mar 2018, 17:12

In other news, Australia have admitted pre-meditated ball-tampering and made an official complaint about abuse received from opposition fans in South Africa.

I would say ”and they wonder why no one likes them” but, well, surely it’s obvious even to them?
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby never/ever » 24 Mar 2018, 23:34

It is disgusting.
I do like watching things like the Big Bash 20/20-tournament and never really cared about the Tests but this disaster of a tour is the final nail for me.
I do like Steve Smith but if he doesn't step down over this he lost all my sympathy for good.
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby Lord Rother » 24 Mar 2018, 23:43

“I was obviously nervous about it - with hundreds of cameras around there's always a risk.” said Bancroft.

ALWAYS a risk eh? I think we can safely assume he’s done it before and got away with it then.

As the captain of the team Smith has to go.

As does Lehman who is instrumental in setting the culture of the team.

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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby mentalist (slight return) » 25 Mar 2018, 00:05

Crikey. The game is not on free to air TV so I haven't been watching it alas.

What makes this so different to other ball tampering situations is that they've admitted to it. If only Du Plessis and Philander did the same when they were caught, eh.

So yeah they'll (Smith, Bancroft, ??) get match bans and fines. But more importantly a massive damage to their reputations in this country. Maybe Smith will lose the captaincy. To admit that the "leadership group" premeditated this and to be so stupid as to think they wouldn't get caught, that's kind of mind boggling. They really do live in a bubble.

I do think the call for drumming people out of the game over the top. I even reckon some level of ball tampering should be allowed to help bowlers (shining the ball is just legal ball tampering). But what will be really interesting is how Cricket Australia respond to this. The Board can't meet until some member's flight arrives in Australia later today. But there'll be a CA presser in a few hours.

Lehmann needs to go. He sets the culture for this team. He conspired (it seems), so boofheadedly, to cover it up They need to bring a decent man like Gillespie in.
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby never/ever » 25 Mar 2018, 00:11

Bancroft and Smith's career are tainted forever though. Smith can amass a world record in runs but this will be his sword of Damocles forever.
I really feel like Bancroft has been thrown under the bus. So much for mateship and team spirit. Fuck them.
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby mentalist (slight return) » 25 Mar 2018, 00:19

The worst thing they'll have to deal with is the long term damage to their reputations in Australia. I'm not sure Bancroft was thrown under the bus. He conspired as well, it seems. Smith has also admitted guilt. Bancroft is an adult with his own sense of morality and didn't have to agree to any of this.
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Re: England Cricket Team Thread

Postby never/ever » 25 Mar 2018, 02:17

CA won't sack him yet, they are sending the heading the Integrity Committee today to Cape Town. Not a word of criticism of James Sutherland to Smith or Lehmann, just saying they will deal with the matter with 'appropriate urgency'.

Boy, the start of the 4th session is going to be interesting.
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