A day of sporting contrast.

[Mo Gosfield]

Splendid effort v Serbia in the Davis Cup. No Murray but the lads dug deep and showed what spirit and passion can achieve. Stenson v Mickelson was just magnificent and captivating sport at its finest. And then we had the Test Match v Pakistan....I thought we had had our fill of national sporting ineptitude with the England football team but no, the cricketers more than matched them. Nearly two days to try and get 280 odd on a good pitch. Plenty of time to play yourself in, not take any chances, play quietly and sensibly. A tough but gettable target, if approached properly....famous last words.
There was no innings management. They started chasing wide deliveries from the outset and proceeded to play some of the worst shots I have ever seen at Test level. Root, on whom much depends, chucked his wicket away in both innings. Hales and Vince chased balls they didn't have to play. Cook and Ballance showed poor footwork and positioning. Bairstow played a horrible swipe and Ali, with all the time in the world, charged down the wicket like a schoolboy. Our tail is hopeless and Pakistan couldn't believe how we handed it to them on a plate.
Where was the leadership, on and off the pitch? Players had a chance to take their time and build innings but instead just played loosely and poorly. No excuse. Just poor, poor cricket on every level. Whilst sporting excellence can be seen in other areas, our two main national sports continue to get it wrong, in attitude and application.

 

[Gwylan]

Pretty harsh on Bairstow who stuck around for half the day, reining in his natural instincts. And Ballance got a pretty decent ball, one that would have beaten most people but too many of the others played brainless cricket.

I've seen a lot worse from England though

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Pretty harsh on Bairstow who stuck around for half the day, reining in his natural instincts. And Ballance got a pretty decent ball, one that would have beaten most people but too many of the others played brainless cricket.

I've seen a lot worse from England though

Yes me too. Admittedly not a good day at the crease. But by and large our lads have performed pretty well recently.

 

[essbee]

Given up on the England cricket and football teams.

Losers. Waste of time and space - particularly the footie team.

 

[studio150]

So at 195-6 with only 98 required to win with 4 wickets left and 2 batsman set at the cease who was not believing.

The loss of Bairstow obviously assisted Pakistan as they then believed that they could mop up the tail quickly which they did,

however this is only the first test match and England do have a habit of bouncing back, so lets wait and see before writing them off.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

So at 195-6 with only 98 required to win with 4 wickets left and 2 batsman set at the cease who was not believing.

The loss of Bairstow obviously assisted Pakistan as they then believed that they could mop up the tail quickly which they did,

however this is only the first test match and England do have a habit of bouncing back, so lets wait and see before writing them off.

Too much damage done too early. Pressure on Bairstow, as usual, to bail them out and eventually he played a poor shot. At 195-6, everyone knew that one more wicket was game over and so it proved. It shouldn't have depended on Bairstow to try and keep them in the hunt. The top order were irresponsible and made Pakistan look like world beaters..
I want to see a bit of consistency, not this..." oh well, we didn't play very well, I'm sure well be better next Test "

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Given up on the England cricket and football teams.

Losers. Waste of time and space - particularly the footie team.

In fairness, the English cricket team are doing pretty well – although I'll admit there are some issues with the batting lineup. Beat this Pakistan team in the series and they will have beaten every major cricket-playing nation at the last attempt – something that's never been done before, apparently.

The football 'team'? Totally with you. Zero interest in that lot. I genuinely don't think it will be long before some big star player decides to turn down playing for his country to concentrate on the PL...

 

[Saturn]

Regards the cricket, JB and Woakes hung around for a long, long time to try and repair the damage our upper order had again inflicted on its own team. Cook simply got a very good delivery as well so I wouldn't blame him too much. The rest absolutely gave their wickets away. Lord's despite being the home of cricket is probably our worst ground in terms of results in modern times, yet we continue to play there.

It's also worth consideration that we still came very close without our best bowler in Anderson. I'm looking forward to seeing how Pakistan deal with Jimmy, Broad, Stokes and the in-form (practically on fire) Chris Woakes in the 2nd test.

Moeen's position should be under massive scrutiny.

 

[Badger]

Pretty harsh on Bairstow who stuck around for half the day, reining in his natural instincts. And Ballance got a pretty decent ball, one that would have beaten most people but too many of the others played brainless cricket.

I've seen a lot worse from England though

That was Bairstow's undoing. If he'd been playing his natural game he would have dispatched that delivery into the stands. Instead, it was a pretty tame dismissal. We've got a lot of batsmen who naturally try and score at a fast pace. It's very difficult to strike that balance between playing your natural game and digging in for the long haul.

I agree, I'm not too disappointed with the result TBH. The England team has become very watchable over the last year or so.

 

[KingKev]

Selection was haphazard and didn't play the percentages. Bairstow at 6 behind two blokes struggling for form / with adjusting to test cricket and Root new at 3 made us look brittle, and guess what? We were. 150 short of par in first innings after a decent start. Once we conceded a sizeable lead there was only one likely outcome - our only hope was Broad and Woakes (if Cook had given him the new ball) ripping through them early doors.

Live and learn. Stokes and Jimmy back for the next one, Bairstow back to 7 and Root to 4. Vince won't make it so tell Ballance he's #3 for the series and blood Borthwick (or whoever the next cab off the rank is) at 6. Stokes at 5. Drop Finn, he has seriously lost it, and Ball as we don't need him with Jimmy, Broad, Woakes and Stokes. The key to the series is that both sides' long suit is bowling; to go in with only 5 frontline batters plus the keeper was not the right call....

 

[TheDuke]

Selection was haphazard and didn't play the percentages. Bairstow at 6 behind two blokes struggling for form / with adjusting to test cricket and Root new at 3 made us look brittle, and guess what? We were. 150 short of par in first innings after a decent start. Once we conceded a sizeable lead there was only one likely outcome - our only hope was Broad and Woakes (if Cook had given him the new ball) ripping through them early doors.

Live and learn. Stokes and Jimmy back for the next one, Bairstow back to 7 and Root to 4. Vince won't make it so tell Ballance he's #3 for the series and blood Borthwick (or whoever the next cab off the rank is) at 6. Stokes at 5. Drop Finn, he has seriously lost it, and Ball as we don't need him with Jimmy, Broad, Woakes and Stokes. The key to the series is that both sides' long suit is bowling; to go in with only 5 frontline batters plus the keeper was not the right call....

Mostly spot on but Rashid for Moeen

 

[Eeyore]

In fairness, the English cricket team are doing pretty well – although I'll admit there are some issues with the batting lineup. Beat this Pakistan team in the series and they will have beaten every major cricket-playing nation at the last attempt – something that's never been done before, apparently.

The football 'team'? Totally with you. Zero interest in that lot. I genuinely don't think it will be long before some big star player decides to turn down playing for his country to concentrate on the PL...

Not even by the great West Indies side ?

Last series against New Zealand was a draw (I think the last two, in fact). Although I think the stat is true of matches against all the other Test playing nations.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Not even by the great West Indies side ?

Last series against New Zealand was a draw (I think the last two, in fact). Although I think the stat is true of matches against all the other Test playing nations.

You might be right. I'm going on the word of the cricket dude from Talkshite who normally knows his stuff, but he could be wrong...

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[Eeyore]

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The price:

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[KingKev]

Mostly spot on but Rashid for Moeen

Good shout. I like Mo' very much but he is too rarely showing his class or enough grit at #7 or 8 and he needs helpful pitches to be a real threat with the ball. Rashid deserves a run in the side now.
Actually I suspect that both will play at the Oval and OT, but that may largely be a knee-jerk reaction to Yasir's bowling figures in the 1st test rather than a well thought out selection.

 

[Gwylan]

... Actually I suspect that both will play at the Oval and OT...

And who will be dropped? Assuming Anderson and Stokes come in for Ball and Finn, are they really going to drop Woakes, our best player at Lord's? The other option is Vince, but that's going back to the old days of not giving players a fair crack in the team.

We rarely play two spinners at home these days: was the last time Monty and Swann at Cardiff in 2009? And the time before that? I don't know but it wasn't recent

 

[big nuts]

Harsh thread considering the recent upturn in fortunes since Bayliss took charge.

The ODI & 20/20 team is consistently winning and putting in strong displays.

The test team has just won away in South Africa and pushed Pakistan all the way in the UAE. I still expect us to comeback in this series, although if the weather stays decent 2-2 is my prediction.

The England top order is brittle and too often we are reliant on our lower middle order to get us out of jail.

We've not found a top class number 3 since Trott packed it in. I wouldn't be too upset to see Bell given another chance if his form is good with Warwickshire. A break from international cricket may have done him some good and there is no doubting his quality when on song.

 

[dazzer6666]

So at 195-6 with only 98 required to win with 4 wickets left and 2 batsman set at the cease who was not believing.

The loss of Bairstow obviously assisted Pakistan as they then believed that they could mop up the tail quickly which they did,

however this is only the first test match and England do have a habit of bouncing back, so lets wait and see before writing them off.

How many times has a team scored that many in a 4th innings to win a test?

 

[knocky1]

Pakistan has the highest winning percentage in cricket over the past 22 months.

Pakistan (64.29%) 14 Tests: 9 wins, 3 draws, 2 losses
Pakistan have now moved second in ICC rankings.
Pakistan are resurgent and play as a team under are under good old leadership. I expect the serious to continue to be Competitive. A good challenge.
Win this and it will be aspicey Australia v Pakistan Series this winter.

 

[Gwylan]

... Pakistan are resurgent and play as a team under good old leadership...

This is a good point, Pakistan are very good team now and that's entirely due to Misbah.

There's a case to be made for saying that he's one of the best test captains of all time given that he's taken a disorganised, disgraced rabble to near the top of the rankings. There can't be many captains who have picked up a team so near the bottom and made them world beaters