[Cricket] *** England v India *** 2nd Spicy Test at Lords 17th -21st SS2 11am

[The Wizard]

I suppose this is where we need our ridiculously long batting order. If the top order had done their job it might have been Chasable, unfortunately Cook/Bell/Robson got bogged down & gave away their wickets.

Still got Broad, Plunkett & Anderson to come I suppose... Straws clutching at.

 

[Simster]

An absolute object lesson on how to throw it all away.

 

[Bold Seagull]

This is again systematic of the total disarray in the dressing room…..

oh total b o l l o c k s, we've fallen into the most basic trap ever set. Lets all get out hooking and smashing it.

Here you go India, here's the win.

Absolute s h i t e.

 

[Titanic]

Stokes recent international innings... 0, 5, 5, 4, 4, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

This is a f**king shambles

 

[Mellotron]

An absolute object lesson on how to throw it all away.

 

[The Wizard]

Pathetic. Oh well.

Oh jimmy jimmy!

 

[Badger]

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Come on Matt show your worth as they say cometh the man cometh the hour or something like that.

Sadly, what he is worth these days is sweet FA.
His confidence is shot to ribbons. His bottle has gone and he is now a liability.

 

[The Wizard]

Ever since Strauss retired it's been a slow and painful downturn, culminating in this shambles. Changes needed now, I really cannot believe what I've just seen: 3 batsman get out playing almost exactly the same shot again the same bowler

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

Why does Prior get 12 off 11 balls, all he should be doing is creating singles to give Root strike and get some stability to the innings!

 

[spring hall convert]

Wow. What am amazingly naive way to chuck this one away.

We are hopeless. Outbowled in British conditions by Sri Lanka and India. Incapable of dealing with pressure when batting.

 

[Badger]

Extras is 31no, perhaps there's a case for moving him up the order

 

[The Wizard]

Plunkett & Broad are fairly handy batsman but I feel sorry for them, if they had 30/40 to chase you might back them but 120 odd is surely an impossibility.

 

[Simster]

Extras is 31no, perhaps there's a case for moving him up the order

I'd have him in at #6, to add a bit of stability after the 3 overs in which Bell, Prior and Cook all fall for 2 runs combined.

 

[crodonilson]

Plunkett & Broad are fairly handy batsman but I feel sorry for them, if they had 30/40 to chase you might back them but 120 odd is surely an impossibility.

Evwen if they did somehow miraculously scramble over the line it would probably a poor thing to happen to us long term. Cook/Prior would remain and we'd go onto Southampton for the next test unchanged and in the way we play would remain exactly the same.

 

[Simster]

Plunkett & Broad are fairly handy batsman but I feel sorry for them, if they had 30/40 to chase you might back them but 120 odd is surely an impossibility.

The worst thing is that you can see them adding a commendable 80 between them before tea, only to come straight out after another "inspirational" team talk and hand their wickets to India with a pretty pink bow. I'll plump for Broad out stumped trying to slog a spinner over his head, and Plunkett wafting at one MILES outside off stump.

 

[Titanic]

Broad gone... a 7th wicket for Ishant Sharma

216-9

 

[Bold Seagull]

Ever since Strauss retired it's been a slow and painful downturn, culminating in this shambles. Changes needed now, I really cannot believe what I've just seen: 3 batsman get out playing almost exactly the same shot again the same bowler

What is incredible though, is that this appears to clearly be a plan devised in the dressing room at lunch time.

Strauss is the cause of some of this though. He's reign instigated a period of attritional cricket for England, we wore sides down, strangled their runs, and often relied on outstanding batting performances rather than batting tactically. Yes, it bought success, but it bought about a particular way of playing. We've rested on our laurels thinking new players would just slip into this model. But, the model required outstanding performances from Cook, KP, Bell, Broad, Anderson and sometimes Swan, in that once Cook's form has left in, the house of cards has tumbled. We don't know any other way of playing. No more was this highlighted than on the first day.

Yes, all cricket teams rely on outstanding performances of course, but some also survive and win matches through being flexible, having good tactical awareness, and batting with purpose.

I thought we'd reached rock bottom in the winter, but clearly there is more falling still to be done…..

The frustrating thing is, is that we are better than this. There is something else at work here, whether the captain, the dressing room, the selectors. But we are failing to recognise a need to change and seem to be simply reliant on a belief that it's bound to get better. News flash is, it ain't.

 

[spring hall convert]

Dreadful performance.