England posted 328, and have Pakistan one down.
West Indies v India was a washout on Day 3 making a draw a very likely outcome now.
World #1 beckons, doesn’t it?
We decided not to do a Day 1 report so that Andy’s excellent post on over rates could be highlighted a day after the word dilatory barely does justice to the pace of the overs bowled. I think we’ll come back to this after the series finishes, so if you haven’t done so already, read Andy’s post.
Comments on Day 2, below. Hopefully this post doesn’t appear until 10 am on Friday, but you never can trust WordPress!
Being Outside Cricket 
I see Dmitri is already off on the most shocking thing I’ve seen this morning. Seeing as it has obvious parallels for most of us and what we do here:
(I even barged into a place I wouldn’t normally touch with a bargepole, i.e. a Premier League preview thread on the Guardian, to demand that they cover this as soon as humanly possible)
LikeLike
Gives a pretty good insight on how they work with the media already. Write nasty things and you don’t get granted interviews, Jarrod Kimber’s media accreditation mysteriously going missing when doing DOAG etc, etc. This is just a logical extension of it.
This is rather obviously counterproductive, which they never seem to grasp.
LikeLike
Just another example of football clubs becoming corporate constructs. It’s a customer model as apposed to a fan model. Well, good luck with that. Customers tend to have no loyalty and walk away if they are treated badly.
I believe that West Ham donated money to the Tory party? Not the owner, or the management out of their private pockets, (although they may have done that as well.) but the clubs funds. It was in the official accounts I think? Then again they may have thought they needed to do it as thanks to the terrible deal for the tax payer the govt got in handing over the Olympic stadium to West Ham for a paltry rent for 99 years. Football clubs are now no different from Kentucky fried chicken, or Starbucks, or Amazon. Man Utd is now listed on Wall Street, and registered in the Cayman islands. It’s locality is the only thing English about it.
LikeLike
The only consolation I can offer is that any organisation that tries to control social media usually ends up with egg on its face. Trying to control a football fan’s opinion on social media is surely just pissing into the wind.
LikeLike
Posted without comment. Mark, you might need a stiff drink before you click – http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/video_audio/1044929.html
LikeLike
Thanks for that Sean.
I won’t even dignify it by replying. Although in fairness to Cook he is a better batsman.
LikeLike
One from the G today. There is only one occasion where you can cheer use of the C-word!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/12/judge-c-word-swore-defendant-mental-health-prison
LikeLike
From BBC: ” Alex Hales fined for dissent …. 15% of his match fee by the ICC for showing dissent at an umpire’s decision yesterday. The ICC said Hales “visited the third umpire’s room and questioned the decision. He also made some inappropriate comments as he was leaving the room.”
They are a nice mature bunch of chaps are they not, this England team…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Did he do this with or without the team’s blessing? Sorry. That’s bang out of order.
LikeLike
Dobell: “Hales’ mood will not have been improved after he dropped a relatively straightforward chance offered by Yasir to gully on the second morning of the Test. Later in the session he was seen to mock Azhar Ali – Hales feigned crying – after it appeared the batsman had complained to the on-field umpires over comments made to him by the England fielders”
http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-v-pakistan-2016/content/story/1045195.html
LikeLike
Doubtless this was all a bit of ‘banter’. At least it’ll keep that thick-eared clot from the Metro happy
LikeLike
maybe thats why he was moved into slips instead of Vince. He is now one of ‘the boys’ cause he has had a go at the umpire.
This has left a(nother) sour taste in the mouth. I did quite like Hales and wanted him to succed, but if the above is true (and no reason to believe it is not) then it’s another reason to not particularly like someone on the England team.
LikeLike
Was anything done about Jimmy’s behaviour at Edgbaston (reprimand or fine?) or did he just get off scot-free? Didn’t hear or read anything. Thought his conduct was pretty awful (if it wasn’t dissent what the hell was it?). Second test on the trot that Hales is out of pocket!
LikeLike
Jimmy got of scot free. What did you expect?
LikeLike
The last thing I could find was being reprimanded in the SL series…
LikeLike
Quelle surprise!!
LikeLike
Perhaps his best friend had a quiet word on his behalf👌👌
LikeLike
Alas, Alex Hales, wither ye succeed or fail
Now anointed by the MSM vultures uncultured
To become the new ‘Compdog’ to flog
You may not even yet have secured your team place
Yet, somehow, fit not does your unshaved face
So, from Etheridge to expected laughingStock and soon, unsubtle Selfry
With Newman assuming the part of the bat in the belfry
You are now found to be having your Test grave ready dug
Only a big ton will prevent you from being the next ECB/MSM mug…
LikeLike
Pretty smart move by Hales I would say.
His place is under threat ,and this team have shown that not “fitting in” is dynamite to your career. However, acting like a lout to officials seems to be part of the culture. He may have just helped his cause with those that matter in the team.
LikeLike
WTF!! Azhar goes off field for comfort break! That’ll speed up the over-rate.
LikeLike
Why? Pissing on the Oval wicket is de rigueur is it not?
LikeLike
Another gem BTL from the G
‘I was pilloried the other day.
More proof that England are the real deal.
A really frightening team. Barely a weakness there.’
Can’t make it up!
LikeLike
Not directly about cricket although the central issue is clearly relevant to the game:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2016/aug/12/cycling-danger-olympics-rio-2016-crashes
For sheer ruddy cluelessness mixed with pseudy pretentiousness, it takes some beating. Not for the first time, I’m left wondering if the Guardian has a sports’ editor at all – of if so-called (bythemselves) star columnists are considered above such things.
The evisceration it’s receiving BTL gives one some hope that there are still some decent commenters about (starting with Gary Naylor who’s written a superb comment).
LikeLike
…….”But a world without unreasonable risks, and the chance to admire the people willing to take them, would seem a less appealing place to be.”
Ok, I look forward to The author becoming a war correspondent!
LikeLike
I see your Williams and raise you the miserable narrow-minded wretch that is Barry Glendenning, complete with hilarious BTL interaction where he describes his own article as “accurate and informative” and triggers Selveyesque moderation in the process.
Actually felt sorry for Selvey – imagine sacking him and keeping godawful bored with negative self-awareness like Glendenning.
LikeLike
Different sport of course, but Liew is pretty much spot on here. Same applies to so many different things, match fixing in cricket for a start.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And Hales tweeted a picture of the catch to prove his point (Sorry don’t know how to link it…:(
@StuartBroad8 @CricketMirror bit blurry to be fair!
Will he get rebuked like some others that used social media to critisize Sky reporters were?
LikeLike
Hopefully, this’ll do it:
https://twitter.com/AlexHales1/status/763796262365884420
LikeLike
And the crybaby thing:
LikeLike
Best of many good replies:
https://twitter.com/WesRichardson27/status/764126089581064193
LikeLike
Geez, you would have thought that an opening batsman who has not done much all series has something else to focus on – namely his batting. Or does a second series out of three in which Hales struggles to average 20 really signify that your spot is secure?
Does Hales think that mediocre returns against decent opposition will keep him in the side indefinitely? Or does he think that “well, my batting can’t keep me in the side, so I have to act like a complete and utter moron to buy me some extra time” will charm those who have doubts about him?
LikeLike
Wow!
Do footballers go on Twitter within hours of a match ending and put up pictures of refereeing mistakes? And that is in a sport with a culture of attacking refs.
LikeLike
There is a tweet from Lovejoy on the subject.
Don’t all rush at once.
LikeLike
Meanwhile in the West Indies, the hosts have collapsed from 202/3 to 225 all out. Weather will probably save them (again).
LikeLike
Once again there’s no indication that the captain did anything to try to ensure that his player behaved appropriately. I don’t think he has the management skills needed to do that part of his job and worryingly he doesn’t even seem to consider it to be part of his job.
And so we go on…
LikeLiked by 3 people
Damn, it was only a day or two ago I was saying how the boorish unpleasant attitude of the previous English team had passed, and the new lot were alot better. And now this from Hales. Not just on the field, but with the third umpire after the game? Very average.
And how did Anderson get away with no penalty from his tantrums last week?
But how is it that when Hales, of all people, dropped Shah, of all people, Shah said nothing to him? He’s a better man than I.
Despite all that, good cricket today. Not sure what will happen next but nice to see some good test batting from PAK.
LikeLike
Cricinfo article reporting Farbrace’s comments on Hales:
“We can’t support any player going in and having a crack at third umpire…
Going into the match referee’s office was the wrong thing to do. We would not have advised him to go and share his thoughts. It was not the brightest thing to do…
The last thing you need to do is go in and kick the door off its hinges and tell the third umpire he’s made a mistake…”
People used to have a go at Ponting for his overenthusiastic demeanour, and some of that criticism may have been justified, but it was heat of the moment emotion, coming from a pretty straightforward guy (Ponting was never as calculated as someone like Warne, or Waugh). Ponting would never have “shared his thoughts” with the third umpire after the game. Unless it was with a smile on his face and and beer in his hand.
It’s time we put to bed this myth about uncouth Australians and well behaved English. England has been probably the worst behaved team on the circut in the last decade.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hales. The case for the defense. Firstly, I’m not too impressed by Farbrace throwing him under the bus. If a player is so clearly in that state of mind, isn’t it Farbrace’s job to get to him quickly and put an arm around him and get him sorted out a bit? I’d say yes. Secondly, Hales was right. It seems to have gone unnoticed that the fielder claimed a catch that they knew wasn;t clean. This wasn’t one of those fingers under the ball uncertainties. The ball was to the side of the hands and grassed. Hales was pissed off that it was claimed and that no one apart from him seemed to see it. He had a point.
He’s also in the heat of battle (blah blah) and to be honest, there’s a internal voice telling me I’m quite pleased at his anger. It wasn’t petulance. It was anger. Quite right.
Of course, it gives the likes of Fred a chance to bemoan how Aussie cricketers are regarded, but you know what? Fred should get over the fact that lots of people talk a lot of shit pretty much most of the time. I have never had a problem with Aussie cricket (as he well knows) but some people just like to talk – and Aussie cricketers have had their share of that talk. Then again, they’ve done their share on the field (Watson to Gayle? Johnson after every wicket of the last Ashes?). But still, I’m with Fred about Punter – combative on the field, but a decent man, and always decent once he’d crossed the white line leaving the field. Well, there was that Gary Pratt thing, but I like to think Punter was just trying to give me a good laugh.
Anyway, Hales. Grow the fuck up. Score a ton in the second innings. You’re 27. Shit happens. Get to the changing room and break something, and then sit there until you’ve calmed down.
P.S. I hate those cry baby tweet pics. The worse of internet anonymity mixed with wanker humour. If the poster had been in the corridor as Hales was walking by, 6’4, bat in hand, face like a storm cloud, yeah, sure they’d have called him a cry baby. Wouldn’t they?
LikeLike
I agree with a lot of what you said, q, but not the bit about Farbrace. It’s refreshing that the England management aren’t coming over all Fergie and battening down the hatches against media criticism. That red-nosed fellow did a lot of damage to the idea of what a sports team should be, and Farbrace appears to have shown a more grown-up attitude (though the quote above is all I’ve seen). When someone does something wrong, they need to be told off, and hopefully in stronger terms to their face than the mild rebuke that seems to have been released to the media.
LikeLike
Not a lot of moral indignation from my fave journo…
Seems as though he’s not too bothered at what is dissent towards an umpire.
And this. Anyone would think he’s never seen Younus before..
I’m being picky.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No you are not being picky.
Spirit of cricket Dmitri, spirit of cricket. Always remember the fake spirit of cricket pushed by clowns like the journalist you quote. What does spirit of cricket mean to these bone heads?
It means England can act like morons and yobs, and this journalist will turn a blind eye. That’s is why spirit of cricket as pushed by her majesty’s finest cricket writers is drivel.
As I said yesterday this yob like behaviour by Hales will play well within the England dressing room, the management, and their media chums. His face fits in the dressing room. See the defence of his behaviour by Broad. This will give him a pass on his failire with the bat. Unlike others who are “odd, and strange” yobishness always plays well in this set up.
LikeLike
Then there is this…
That’s rather a damning indictment of the on-the-field captain isn’t it? You know, the one being spoken in the same breath as Brearley by some eejits.
LikeLike
Great spot Dmitri! And yes, what an indictment of the captain. But it’s the nearest you will get from the media.
Perhaps Professor Smith will write a piece (using his historic knowledge of history gained while visiting a Munich beer festival) to tell us of the litte acknowledged advantages of the thug like behaviour of the German SS, and how this can be translated into modern sporting teams?
LikeLike
Quite a good effort from Quebecer, there are actually some good points mixed in there with all the dross.
The main mystery is how we seem to “know” both that the catch wasn’t clean, and that the fielder “knew” it wasn’t clean. Perhaps you’re God, that would explain it, otherwise it was just another of those great imponderables which crop up regularly, a borderline catch. No one “knows” anything, it was an estimate of probabilities and in this case it went against Hales.
If it was heat of the moment anger, it’s strange he carried on later with the third umpire. It suggests a bit more than on the spot anger. It suggests immaturity and a sense of entitlement. Retrospectively making me wonder if the fans refund he provided last match was well intentioned or rather a sarcastic dismissal of an important issue).
Quebecer’s right that I shouldn’t listen to the nonsense people speak, it’s why I stopped reading the Guardian cricket pages. Trash-talking Australia is just part of crickets cultural landscape.
Breaking something in the changing room might be good advice, or might not. I seem to remember Ponting got into all sorts of trouble because a thrown piece of equipment rebounded onto a TV screen and broke it, and Stokes might have something to say about it too.
The bigger point was entirely missed of couse, my comment wasn’t about Hales, it was about whether the culture of the English team had improved, I thought it had but between Hales and Anderson, I’m not so sure now. Their cricket has improved though, I’ll give them that.
I was watching when Shah edged to Hales and he dropped it. Not only did Shah not comment, or even smile, he didn’t even change his expression. Not a muscle in his face moved. Now that is focus, that is maturity.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, I posted the crybaby pic.
I wasn’t watching the session of play where it happened (I was watching Olympic golf) but as it was reported, Hales made the gesture at Azhar Ali, not at Yasir – so It’s not directly about his disputed dismissal. If the picture had been saying Hales was a crybaby just for being unhappy with his dismissal, I wouldn’t have posted it.
Hales made the gesture so it’s fair enough to throw it back at him in my book. I’m quite a fan of Hales and have defended him repeatedly (mostly at TFT). I understand his place is under pressure and this doesn’t always bring out the best in people. However it’s poor conduct on his part and whether I’d say that to his face when he’s bigger than me and armed with a weapon doesn’t change it.
LikeLike
Well, I wouldn’t exactly say ‘God’, as such…
LikeLike
“Hales made the gesture so it’s fair enough to throw it back at him in my book”
Well, hmmm, yes. You have a point there.
LikeLike