With Dmitri back in the UK, and the summer of international cricket upon us in England, here is the traditional thread for you to comment on the day’s play and anything else that takes your fancy in the cricket world.
Don’t forget to read thelegglance’s column below on the series and his views on matters at the moment.
This is it. A new era. Moving forward. Fresh and exciting. Open and honest. Trust and honour. Go forth with new England, a team we can all get behind! Ra Ra!
Oh. Comments below!
Being Outside Cricket 
Sky on message. Warne’s unable to construct a coherent argument.
Unless it’s about greasy pizzas.
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Strauss interview on Sky at lunch.
Gower has tried to talk about what’s been being going on. Botham having none of it (“it’s all about one PR company versus another PR company”, “I’m finding it all quite boring”, “there have always been disagreements about who’s in the team and who’s out the team”, “let’s move forward”). Warne called it a “shambles” but I was too distracted by his latest new look to concentrate on much else.
Strauss presented new caps to Lyth and Wood so they both play.
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Strauss did? Is he the captain again? Why didn’t anyone tell us?
Let’s face it, he’d probably get more runs than the Dear Leader.
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Presumably the other Skip-X’s they normal roll out for this duty decided to keep themselves at arms length?
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Oh god, the poor players having their debut ruined by Strauss photobombing it. Weren’t any respected former players prepared to be associated with the team?
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are there any left – respected former players, that is…
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Is Dimitri referring to Dimitri as Dimitri in the 3rd person again? do we need to stage an intervention?
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That’s not a relevant question for this forum.
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Just the two I s in Dmitri.
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Don’t actually know why I spelt it that way… Can I blame the spell checker….
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Speechless. Once you’ve got past the delights of the guest speakers, you might spot a potential problem with the space-time continuum thing…
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NZ won toss and bowl. Cook evaded the question what he’d have done if he’d won toss (which is being taken as meaning he’d have batted).
Teams as expected – Guptill and Henry (debut) in for NZ; Jordan out for England (Botham made a good point that while Jordan has a better bowling average than Stokes, 35 to 39, Stokes has the better SR, 64 to 72).
Atherton’s pitch report said it has a tinge of green but nowhere near like the pitch for India last year.
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Thank heavens I haven’t got Sky!!! Pass round the bucket I think we will all need it before the day is out. I now follow cricket but don’t feel like a supporter anymore. Cricket has been stolen from us all by these idiots who couldn’t lead a bank robber to a safe. Well happy watching boys and girls. I’m off in the garden.
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Cook under 21.5 runs @ 2.37.
Christmas has come early.
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Did you go for that bet?
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Defining session of the summer, right here, right now?
It’s Lord’s. the sun is shining (well, here in Haggerston which is only a few miles away). NZ are, more or less, straight off the plane (I’d have played Wagner – he’s got overs under his belt and some wickets too).
England, and Cook, can dominate today, set the tone for a strong series win, and put the KP stories to bed.
NZ, on the other hand, have a chance to put their feet on English throats and not let go.
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Interesting stat on Lyth – averaged 37 before Gillespie (4 centuries), averages 52 under Gillespie (11 centuries).
Nasser Hussain made the good point that Boult is an excellent bowler at left-handers and England have three left-handers at the top of the order. Boult got Sangakkara for single figures in three of the four innings in their last series (the other was a double century!). Left-armers who bowl well at left-handers is a strangely under-analysed area. Zaheer Khan was outstanding at it.
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Nice clip on Sky of people wishing Lythe well. Bresnan’s sounded especially heartfelt, and he looks much better with a beard and a beanie.
There, that’s my positive comment for the summer.
At least Cook didn’t tell Athers his question about the toss was not relevant.
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So, er, Mark Wood.
He’s played very little FC cricket (got 80 wickets at a very respectable 25).
He’s quick but not that quick? He seems like a typical English seamer, a bit quicker than average, perhaps?
Starting in this Test suggests that, bar a miraculous return to form for Finn, he’s in line for a start against the Aussies.
Am I being unfair on him when I say I’m underwealmed? He doesn’t shout out to me as someone who demands a Test call-up, though I’m struggling to think of anyone else who does.
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I haven’t seen enough of him – but a friend said he’s in the “quicker than he looks”/”hurries the ball on to you a bit surprisingly” – which is a reasonable call for a bowler to come in for Jordan. Our real problem is that we never replaced Tremlett and so we’re stuck with Broad who blows hot and cold… If Jimmy is a cert. then 2nd strike should be fast… and Broad isn’t…
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Cook escapes a pretty decent LBW shout.
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Lyth less lucky. Tickled through to the keeper. Given. Did not review it. Southee takes the first.
17/1
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He talked a good game though
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Ballance looked totally out of nick in that short innings.
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Gary ballance, Gary Ballance, Gary Ballance… gone
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Yooooooooorkshiiiiiiiiire
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Ballance now perishes, talked a less good game, since he only made 1, compared to the 7 made by Lyth.
25/2 after ten overs, Bell just coming in now.
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cook is still there, having scored a massive 40 percent of the runs scored. phew!
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64%, in fact. Charles Bannerman probably quaking in his grave as we speak.
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Or maybe not. I can relax and enjoy the day now.
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damn, its 64 percent not 40. even more. OMG.
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spoke too soon… hahahaha
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Cook gone for 16. So that is 20 quid gone for Clive?
25/3
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cook gone?
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That was an embarrassing dismissal, Cook.
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It’s the way he plays though.
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it’s alright – everyone else is failing around him so he’s not at fault
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Nice!
Note the near silence as he walked off?
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No, it was a good bouncer and he was just late on the shot.
(I’m not being contrary, I’m at work, I’m quoting someone from Twitter…)
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That isn’t how I expected Cook to go.
I wonder what Ed Smith thinks of that.
I’m not watching. Commenary suggests his boundaries were all streaky. Is that fair?
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Yes. One was a decent clip off his hip that was a bit dangerous, the rest of the time his scoring shorts were in the air and uncontrolled drives.
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Yep, a flurry of streaky boundaries, a very, very close LBW and finally put out of his misery.
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Yes, the boundaries were streaky and uppish, plus he survived a “hawkeye LBW”, if Vian will allow the term — given benefit of the doubt, fairly enough, but hawkeye presents it, in effect, as an umpire error i.e. hitting). In any case beaten all ends up in front and couldn’t have complained if he had have been given out.
Two proper batsmen in now, Bell and Root.
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16 eh? Does that count as a ‘daddy ten’? Good call by BMac to put ECB/Sky/Waitrose Franchise XI in to bat. Still at least they’ve signed a new sponsorship deal with Toyota so all is tickety-boo.
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Maybe it was to do with the ball swinging a bit, but Cook was driving across the ball a lot – the bat coming down from third slip area, which is why he was slicing at it.
Never seen him have that particular problem before.
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I see Cook’s back to his best.
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Bell gone for 1
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Bell lost a stump.
30/4
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30/4
bowled by Henry
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30-4.
But at least we can trust them.
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Confession: before the game I thought of writing “I want the first morning of Edgbaston 1997 in reverse”, but decided it was perhaps too nasty a thing to say.
Well….
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Christ, 30 on the board and Stokes is in. WTF???
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From cricinfo:
“Ben Stokes is out at No. 6, up a place from the Caribbean… Interesting. Ah, there;’s Mooen Ali, walking around the boundary with his kit bag over his shoulder. Looks like a hurried recall from the nets”.
What a shambles.
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Worth a look at the Guardian OBO, for the five/six overs, for some good contributions on ‘why are England unlikeable?’.
Someone attributes the rot setting in to the departure of Collingwood, I wouldn’t disagree with that. I suspect he was very good at coping with Pietersen.
Personally I think things haven’t been the same since they started wearing horrible synthetic-looking detergent-advert-white kit instead of proper cream (not to mention some of the ODI abominations – dayglo orange, anyone?). Seems they’ve now got some sort of ersatz knitted tank top, possibly to try and look more like real cricketers. I know, I know, it’s just clothes.
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it is the Ted Dexter look ….
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/may/19/ted-dexter-england-kevin-pietersen-michael-atherton-jonathan-trott-mike-selvey
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Ah, but Dexter’s cable-knit would have been in fine hand-knitted wool. Or possibly hand-picked cotton. And it would have been cream.
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Thing is, that was a really lovely article. What the hell is the matter with him writing the endless bile when he can do something like that.
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agree… with you both
PS like the “fluffs” on the arms, really organic…
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They seem to be have a new stylist….
http://liveblog.espncricinfo.com/Event/LV_County_Championship_Thursday_May_21_2015
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Gower in full Lord Haw-Haw mode banging on about the four times in history England have won from 30-4.
Two were in the C19th. One was on the Bodyline tour. The last was in 1979 (against the Australian 2nd XI when they were minus their Packer players).
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KP’s 355* the other day was 2 more than Cook and Prior combined scored in the last Ashes. Different opposition obviously, but 16 fewer dismissals and only needed a day and a bit to do it.
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Smell the team spirit, lads
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Root and Stokes are going to pull Cook’s fat out of the fire here.
I think the NZ bowlers bowled really well to start, but now are in danger of letting it slip a bit.
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For all the stick Warne is getting, he’s right about the need to put the bowlers under pressure – which is what these two are doing. England so often hunker down and become strokeless.
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Absolutely – 80-4 (while still not good) is very different psychologically to 47-4…
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I’ve followed a fair number of NZ home tests over the last couple years and this is how the pitches have seemed to play down there. 3-4 wickets in the first session, then it’s very hard to get anyone out. Usually it was Wagner who got a wicket out of nowhere.
So, from the New Zealand point of view the pacing of the game so far is very familar.
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According to TMS Cook was the only one that was unlucky. So in their view if your out to a good ball its your fault but if you play a loose, shit shot off a long hop your unlucky. Cant stand it.
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I knew it was coming. As soon as I looked at Twitter and saw virtually everyone calling Cook’s shot “irresponsible”, except for Agnew and Selvey. What exactly could Bell have done, I wonder.
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Didn’t have that big a problem with Cook’s dismissal in terms of the shot. Short, went for it, got out – it happens. It’s when you get the excuses coming out that it’s so transparent.
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It was a wild hook at a good short ball.
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@TLG
You can imagine the roasting KP would have gotten for getting out hooking to a short ball after a clatter of wickets at the other end…
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Absolutely I can. Which was also nonsense. For some reason (usually – not with Cook) people have a problem with a batsman being out to an attacking shot, but not a defensive one.
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Stop worrying.
Either it was a one-off and Cook can be forgiven.
Or he really is in shit form, and will get eaten alive this summer.
They can’t defend him if he can’t score any runs.
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This is why I have come to loathe the cricket media. Reading their drivel you get a sense of living in a totalitarian regime. This is where you are lied to constantly,,and dear leader is promoted and fawned over. Over time you either begin to believe it or you just laugh at the stupidity of the propaganda.
I used to like Gower as a player. A free spirit. But in old age he has become an establishment tart. And a crap broadcaster. Charles Coleville is a much better front man. David you would not have fitted in with the Strauss era of trust, and utilitarianism. Your flight in a Tiger moth would not have gone down well with this Puritan cabal.
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Gower has sarcastically expressed his opinions on the way England manage players often enough. Usually quite subtly.
I don’t want to get to the situation whereby we pounce on every word someone says.
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Counter-attacking middle order batsmen. They’ll never catch on.
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That annoys me. That was bloody obviously out. It looked out live. Part of the ball hit in line, it’s hitting middle and leg. It makes cricket look stupid when things like that are given not out.
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Was it even clear why Erasmus gave it not out? It didn’t look like it was cleared up whether or not Erasmus found the impact ok but thought it wasn’t hitting.
Oh god, Strauss in on now. Gower tells him to be objective and asks what he thinks of the performance: “Well the game’s gone forward.” There’s no point talking to this guy at all if all he’s going to do is hedge and evade and say it’s not a relevant question.
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He probably thought it hit him outside the line. He didn’t look interested in the appeal at all.
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Guess what? he’s started banging on about team environments. I’ve left the room!
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Blimey, Root is fortunate there.
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This is bad news:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2015/content/story/879411.html
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and how sad that Mills expects this kind of criticism just because he’ll only be able to play T20:
“I just hope nobody portrays me as a mercenary,” Mills said. “This isn’t a case of me not wanting to bowl; it’s a case of me having a medical condition would could affect my future. It’s all been pretty hard to take.”
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Agree with you there Leggy, very sad.
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Last 3 innings for the first 4 wickets: 95 runs in total, avge 7.9 per wicket.
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well played root and stokes. well played indeed. punchy innings.
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@TheLegGlance I would respectfully disagree on the Cook shot (having just seen it on highlights). I agree it happens, but the state of the game meant that the ball should have just been ignored. It was reminiscent of 2nd innings dismissal in Adelaide (I think, or it may have been 2nd innings Brisbane) on the last Ashes tour, when we needed a solid start and he tried to hook it out of the ground.
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The measurement for me is whether everyone would have said “good shot” if it has whistled to the boundary for four. And with that one, everyone would have done. So criticising him playing the shot becomes based on outcome, not action.
Had no problem him playing it. At all. He just didn’t play it very well.
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I don’t disagree, but I just think at 25/2 sometimes discretion is the better part of valour.
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Then you end up with the terrified, strokeless, panic stricken England who are petrified of getting out.
Players have to try and score, and do what Stokes and Root are doing now. And that involves a bit of risk.
My problem with all this is that they forgive Cook for what they’d slaughter other players over.
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I agree. It’s an English disease that needs to be eradicated. It’s seen as acceptable to get out caught slip playing a forward defense but a heinous crime to be out when playing an attacking shot. Until they change their attitude at all levels of the game, England will never again be an exciting, attacking, Michael Vaughan-style side.
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This is culture eats every thing else for breakfast Flower speak from Strauss. I agree about it’s relevance in business, but not in international sport.
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Absolutely! Team culture my f*cking arse! There is this quasi-military approach to sport in some middle-class, officer-class, public school circles that I just cannot stand. It’s why I can’t abide English rugby union and it’s no surprise to hear people at the ECB always going on about rugby cos they’re all part of the same set. I reckon they genuinely believe that administrators are more important than players.
It’s amazing isn’t it how the great England players of the past were able to score runs and take wickets without Head Coaches and ‘Directors, Cricket’.
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Alec Stewart on TMS saying how the D,EC job was explained to him…. no freedom to select who he wanted. Not enough ‘clarity of accountability’.
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Fascinating to read things like that when Strauss is waffling on Sky.
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Stewart saying KP no trouble at all at Surrey, Graves shouldn’t have opened the door.
Strauss now waffling on TMS. It’s all Graves’s fault, it seems. It all needed to be sorted out. Funny that nobody sorted it out in the previous two months.
Agnew says Strauss was dumped in it. Strauss says things had to be cleared up. Players weren’t involved.
Still a complete assumption that KP being out of the side is the status quo that should be preserved. The phrase ‘total waste of talent’ doesn’t seem to cross anyone’s mind.
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How many times has Agnew blamed Graves, out of interest?
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Strauss “beating a very strong India team last year”
Very strong!?! F*ck me!
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I don’t suppose any of them know what New Zealand did to that India team just afterward…?
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Sky’s entire lunchtime interval seems to be a pro-ECB advert. Lots of on-message management waffle from Dictator, Cricket and Gower fawning at him. Surprised he didn’t end the interview humping his leg.
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Gower to Strauss, “lots of people agreed with your decision – including me”.
Colvile/Downton is looking like Frost/Nixon compared to this.
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Oh for fuck’s sake, even Gower? Of all people, a man who was permanently dumped so a bloody apartheid tourist with an average nine runs below his could be recalled!
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Which only reinforces my point above about Gower as an ECB tool.
“Oh please Andrew , let me shine your shoes Andrew, I think your marvellous Andrew.” Vomit inducing.
Charles Colville is like Robin Day compared to this ECB in house shite.
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Gower of all people should know better given the shabby treatment meted out to him to facilitate an Essex batsman’s greed for glory.
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Strauss on TMS now – Stewart just left. Sounded like he was trying to be diplomatic. I know why now as Strauss was lurking
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Iam not pouncing on one Gower word. I am watching his descent into establishment cheerleader over a few years. As a former England captain he will see things from the captains point of view. Which is fair enough. But the ECB cheerleading over many years is not the same thing.
His free spirit as a player would not fit in with this regime. I think he should examine that a bit more than just trotting out ECB talking points.
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That interview from him was extremely weak, I’ll concur completely.
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Strauss talking about the need for confidentiality re the next coach….
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Pity he didn’t have the same discretion about sacking Moores.
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Some paraphrasing of key bits I can get for you –
Strauss – Eng coach one of the 3 big jobs in cricket (Aus and India other two)
Talking about the challenge being the draw of the job (re series & WC coming up). Doesn’t mention the challenge of working with the ECB….
Says he is close enough to retirement that he has not lost track of teh game, but that he has moved on/away enough so he has some perspective.
Ha – we are ‘slightly behind the curve’ with regards IPL etc…..
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Got this from Twitter:
Strauss on TMS “I’ve spent enough time away from the dressing room to be dispassionate about selection”.
Is he taking the piss, or does he think English cricket supporters have the collective IQ of Chris Martin’s Test batting aggregate?
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Wasn’t it one of the top 2 jobs just last week? What a c**t. Sorry, leading director, of is generation.
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Aggers – is there some disillusioned fans out there
Strauss – always short termism. Its about getting people watching and playing cricket. It’s about culture & being proud of the team winning and winning the right way.
Doesn’t say what the right way is….
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A lot of clarity going forward…….
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I was pretty happy to see Cook and Bell knocked on their respective arses.. Well. I never claimed to be Mother Theresa..
I am enjoying immensely the NZ fielding, and Mc Cullums field placements..
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Strauss telling Agnew off for being negative when all he did was mildly suggest it would be a tough summer.
Deary me.
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“unbelievably negative” (Twitter) – is this a direct quote?
“Doos” was being kind.
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Yes, that’s exactly what he said. Quite cross, he sounded. Agnew taken aback and laughing about it afterwards with Vaughan (who said Strauss is now talking like someone who works for the ECB).
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Discussion between Vaughan and Stewart, both demonstrating that they would have been better choices.
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Someone should punch the vicar.
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Stewart just said that basically Sky run english cricket re schedule
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Vaughan basically said they need to find a new captain, then backtracked slightly by saying it was going to be a very difficult summer!!
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Vaughan said they should consider players like Root missing the May Tests and play IPL to prepare for the World Cup… and Aggers said something like “…what an interesting idea…”
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Well that was very revealing. Not from Strauss, but the toadies that served up one soft ball after another and then gave him a round of applause after each answer.
Strauss could have dropped his trousers in the the Sky studio and Taken a giant dump and he would have got a standing ovation. Shocking standard of jounalism. But we can see now how rotten the whole system is and why nothing will change for the better.
The ECB have got the right man for the job. An ECB yes man who will answer to the the servile ECB journalists in the media. A giant circle jerk of self serving, back slapping, and self congratulations. Players like KP are probably better off well out of it.
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The good thing for KP out of all this is that he went back to Surrey and has had a good time and been appreciated and made a stunning big score. Ideally he should sort out some way of doing the same each summer.
Frankly it would probably be worth doing the ‘work for nothing’ deal again because he’d be getting that psychological income of feeling valued and wanted and making himself useful helping the young players. He’d have a base and not just be a wandering T20 star.
If he could do that for the next few years, screw England. He’d have a good life and be away from all that rubbish. Who needs it?
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I agree entirely. whether he wants to play 4 day cricket without the possibility of International cricket who knows?
But the England set up is infested with hyenas. with fake smiling faces, who will tear you apart given half a chance. Stay well clear.
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Best thing KP can do is play the summer and score big. Just show the fans what they are missing & let the bat do the talking. Next year he can make a decision re County Champs, but this year just stick a big middle finger up at the ECB and score the runs.
If the ECB come crawling I would be tempted to tell them where to stuff it, but maybe KP just has that desire/need to play.
I also agree with the above with having surry as a base to help the kids etc, if he is not playing full time. It’s almost what th ECB were trying to buy him off with, but this would be on his terms and I’m sure he would actually get more from it
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I think KP gets enjoyment and motivation out of the challenge – that is why he hated the warmup matches. The challenge for him in County was exactly to score big to prove a point. Without any goal in sight, I think he will struggle…
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Boer may be right. Gower wasn’t remotely interested in CC, didn’t get his competitive juices flowing. I fear Pietersen may feel the same if the door remains firmly shut.
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Just thinking that if KP simply likes playing cricket and he’s starting to age a bit now, playing for Surrey ain’t a bad number and I’ll be delighted to pop along to the Oval and watch him. If he fancies overtaking Hick’s 400, I’d like to be there. No-one else has the ability to do it.
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Sort of ironic, but NZ are suffering in the same way England did in the Caribbean at times – good opening seam spell, but then the pitch/ball loses venom and their spin option isn’t quite threatening enough…
Even more ironic, probably the right thing for them to do right now tactically is bowl dry for a bit…
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Precisely! They keep coming at Root and Stokes. Big mistake.
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Metatone, true to some extent although it is more the NZ seamers who have been going for the runs than their spinner. And nobody ever said bowling dry isn’t the right tactic in some circumstances.
I’m also reminded of the SL match at Lord’s last year. Then Prior had a massive slice of luck when an umpire (Reiffel) didn’t give an LBW early when the spinner came on and when England got away with it on ‘Umpire’s call’ they cashed in. Same again here from Erasmus – possibly the only umpire on the elite panel worse than Reiffel.
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@SimonH
I was trying not to get into the Erasmus thing – he drives me up the wall in just about every game I’ve seen where he’s officiating.
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Dammit what a shame. That was a fantastic knock from Stokes. From 30-4 to counter-attack like that was outstanding.
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I’m genuinely upset. Must be going soft. Could hardly have cared less about the top four, but really wanted Stokes to get a hundred.
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I love his “stuff you” attitude. I just fear for what the ECB will do to him when he steps out of line – and he will, he’s that kind of character.
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Only following on Cricinfo, but he seemed to slow dramatically after the drinks break. Did it upset his momentum or do NZ deserve credit for restraining him?
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That is why I wont stop attacking the ECB and the Flower/Strauss model. They think it is all about KP but it ain’t. He is a symptom of the regime they want to run. Which is about structure and not about players. Cook will take Stokes innings today because it has saved his skin, but should he step out of line they will punish players like him.
Selvey has criticised him in the past while praising every Cook failure.
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“Cook will take Stokes innings today because it has saved his skin”.
Cook laid the platform.
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Bet he’s been magnificent in the dressing room as well.
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Yes, I’m sure his lunch time speech turned it all around.
A CD will be coming out exclusive to Waitrose. All his greatest speeches on one CD.
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A CD? Come now, they’re focusing on reaching out to the youth now you know. They’ve bound to have reached the levels of a podcast by now.
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“All his greatest speeches on one CD.”
Accompanied by John Cage. Or possibly the Crash Test Dummies.
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The wit and wisdom of Alastair Cook…
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numpty…
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Buttler in ahead of Ali
Giving Buttler a bit more to play with, or did the sight of Ali having to scurry back pee off Cook so he demoted him….
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Bugger me this Root chap is good.
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Currently, Joe Root averages 57.52 in Tests, and Jos Buttler 67.00.
England are well awesome, innit.
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Nice of both Root and Stokes to get out in the 90s. No century watch for me to do.
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90 is the new 100. Strauss has spoken.
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Third ‘umpire’s call’ LBW not gone NZ’s way.
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Whatever i may think of Strauss and Cook (and that’s not charitable), I can’t grudge stokes and root their runs today. Well played boys. It looks like England might actually score 300 in a day.
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Getting a bit self indulgent here Bogfather 🙂
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That remark is not relevant 🙂
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This reminds me of a story about when Bob Monkhouse reported the theft of his joke book to the police. The reply was how will we know if it’s your joke book?.
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Moeen Ali is absolutely gorgeous to watch. I can’t make my mind up whether he’s going to be good enough or not, and have a horrible feeling both batting and bowling will be just below the level needed – but when he’s in touch, there’s a hint of Gower about him.
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I am actually pleased that they played Stokes, Buttler and Ali in that order. I thought for a while that this was the ideal order for them. I more get the feeling that Mo’s batting is not quite up to the mark to be a middle order player due to his weakness against the short ball and outside off stump, but I do have hopes for his bowling. Not necessarily as an outstanding offie at the level of Swann but good enough. It is not as though there is any other spin options that give you confidence.
That said he’s playing a lovely innings at the moment.
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If he can average around 35 with the ball, that’s not bad for an orthodox finger spinner, especially one who plays half his matches in England. Anything below that is going to be pretty good. And if he can do that, and can average also around 35 with the bat, then he’s a very valuable all rounder indeed.
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Great to see Buttler playing as a batsman instead of someone to scrape together what runs he can with the tail. Maybe Farbrace is quite switched on
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In another part of the world – “Coach Simmons opens door for IPL quintet” goes the cricinfo headline. No team has been ravaged as bad as the WI because they lost quite a few to IPL. And, here’s a new coach, willing to engage the players that were not part of the previous one’s plans because they wanted to participate in IPL.
Can he please help ECB evolve as well?
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Good start to the day for NZ, but England’s young guns delivered in spades.
Only two questions remain about this match and we won’t know about either of them until NZ bat:
1) Is the pitch in fact a bit of a batsman’s pitch? (Lords can be that way.)
2) If you bat this deep, does that mean your bowling isn’t as strong as it could be?
(Or crucially, as strong as it needs to be to force a win?)
Still, really hard to see how England lose from here.
350 on the board, couple of players you would expect to do better 2nd innings (Ballance, Lyth), couple of players who may do better against all expectations (Cook, Bell) and a brace who look in good touch (Root, Stokes, Buttler, Ali).
The pressure is on NZ now.
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Against which, England had good first days v SA in 2012 and Aus in 2013/14, leading to a lot of premature crowing. Some people (not you) will not be able to resist falling into that trap tonight, I bet.
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If I had to bet at this moment, I’d be putting money on a draw.
I don’t think this is an easy pitch to take 20 wickets on – although the forecast atmospheric conditions do look good for swing every day of the match.
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Premature crowing? It hasn’t taken long –
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/may/21/england-new-zealand-first-test-match-report#comment-52564430
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Also no need to go back as far as 2013/14. England made 575-9d in the first innings against SL and lost the series.
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and this day of cricket, whatever our moans and groans re ECB etc, just shows why Test cricket will always be the prime version, despite what the geedy moneymakers/TVexecs/MSM luvvies tell us – long may it continue
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I’ve read Strauss said on TMS, “”We have had a great run. The last decade has been phenomenal. Let’s not forget that”.
“The last decade”? Improved? Yes. Good? Yes. Very good? Possibly. Phenomenal? Yet more solid achievements soured by ridiculous over-hyping.
England are third in the last decade in Tests in W/L ratio terms. Australia are top with 2.03, SA second with 1.96, England are third with 1.42, India fourth with 1.38, SL fifth with 1.31. “We’ve been good in the last decade – just a bit better than India” would be nearer to the truth. That’s without considering the one-day record of the last decade which is none too pretty.
Agnew no doubt pointed this out.
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Oh well, pity for NZ that they couldn’t keep it going. But excellent day for English cricket. Captain Mopey-Socks fails and demonstrates his technical problems are still functioning as before; 4/30 was enough to make Strauss look like an absolute corporate wanker for refusing to say it was crap (because that might damage product loyalty or force him to introduce the thorny issue of merit) but the popular guys got runs.
I hope NZ can get some runs tomorrow.
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Oh gawd no, I forgot Hughes was on Channel 5!
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