Eng v Lanka...first test

First topic message reminder :

Eng lose debutant Robson......on seemingly a seaming pitch inserted in after lanka won toss

How are Kerigan and Panesar doing?

Still a pulse in it then...

Odds on a draw , but IF they could somehow shift Sangakkara (dynamite ?) there might be a chance to rattle through the rest . Might stay up for half an hour...

25 miles or so south of the ground it's just starting to rain. Might put the game out of its misery.

Mahela certainly looked like a walking wicket throughout his innings today. Plunkett and Jordan had him hopping all over with the short ball and Anderson does the needful exploiting his perennial weakness against the moving delivery by pitching one up. Rather poor technique but he did show a fair amount of grit in both the innings.


Sangakkara though, is just class and is showing it again. Brilliant, brilliant batsman (hope I haven't jinxed him as I don't want England to win and Cook's awful tactics being vindicated).

Can't see Thirimanne lasting too long against Anderson. Utterly clueless.

The Sri Lankan selectors left him out of the XI at the start of the WT20 for Chandimal (who was the captain then in that format with a T20I average of 13!) but the latter can't now find a place in a format he averages 51.... Nice to see that its not just the selectors who are bunch of muppets.

C'mon

now then, now then, ball reversing just a bit, and that does open the door for England.

Jimmy ! Bowls Sangakkara !

Game on .

Well played Sangakkara   

if England can get Matthews early... Jayawardene's got a dodgy digit, Thirimane looks short of form and confidence, and after that it's the bowlers.

ShankyCricket wrote:Mahela certainly looked like a walking wicket throughout his innings today. Plunkett and Jordan had him hopping all over with the short ball and Anderson does the needful exploiting his perennial weakness against the moving delivery by pitching one up. Rather poor technique but he did show a fair amount of grit in both the innings.


Sangakkara though, is just class and is showing it again. Brilliant, brilliant batsman (hope I haven't jinxed him as I don't want England to win and Cook's awful tactics being vindicated).

Jinxed!   

OH JIMMY JIMMY!

Anderson gets Thirimane, again! Thirimane needs to be put out of his misery, but this is superb from Jimmy

Anderson on fire !

Wonder where Gerry is   

Good news everybody - I've rediscovered my hatred for jimmy Anderson.

Must review this ! If he didn't hit it ...

Rats ! Jayawardene survives by a millimetre of umpires call...

Great bowling Jimmy   

ach, that was close! ball definitely reversing now, SL into survival only mode.

Cooks gonna come for heavy criticism now - if Sri Lanka make it to, 255/8... everyone will ask why he didn't declare with a lead of 270.

kingraf wrote:Cooks gonna come for heavy criticism now - if Sri Lanka make it to, 255/8... everyone will ask why he didn't declare with a lead of 270.

The real criticism should be the over rates

Only bowling 80 odd overs in a day is unacceptable. Also not good for the paying public, you don't go to a football game and watch them only play 83 minutes

kingraf wrote:Cooks gonna come for heavy criticism now - if Sri Lanka make it to, 255/8... everyone will ask why he didn't declare with a lead of 270.

Cook will be criticized even if England bowl them out in the next forty minutes...

Whatever else I think Cook has handled his bowlers well today. Keeping them all fresh , not letting the batsmen settle for long
.
Now he has to see how long he keeps Anderson going. May need him for a new ball for the coup de grace...

Really feel if this partnership is broken soon the rest might fold.

Olly wrote:

kingraf wrote:Cooks gonna come for heavy criticism now - if Sri Lanka make it to, 255/8... everyone will ask why he didn't declare with a lead of 270.

The real criticism should be the over rates

Only bowling 80 odd overs in a day is unacceptable. Also not good for the paying public, you don't go to a football game and watch them only play 83 minutes

to be fair there's usually significantly less than 83 minutes of actual play in a football match, but I agree. 17 overs lost in this match (over the first 4 days) to poor over rates is simply unacceptable.

Ironic , really. Seventeen overs lost to tardiness - and none to the weather - in a Test in England in early June...

Hope the rain stays away now though

Curiously Herath walks on first ball of last over, even though replay apparently shows he was not out.  Last over, last wicket partnership.

What an end to an absolute dog turd of a test match, that's why cricket is great!

Herath - that is why you don't walk in cricket

ach, great effort from the England seam bowlers on a dead pitch, but just not enough in the end

What a beautiful game test cricket is!!!!.

Cook's timidity turned into a thrilling draw what would have been a comfortable win.
How long can Eng afford him in the side ?...he is liability multiplied by FOUR

Credit to James Anderson and Stuart Broad, credit to Kumar Sangakkara, Kaushal Silva and Angelo Mathews!. Credit to Eranga and Pradeep as well!. Herath wasn't out and he shouldn't have walked, but credit to him for all the balls he survived!!.

KP_fan wrote:Cook's timidity turned into a thrilling draw what would have been a comfortable win.
How long can Eng afford him in the side ?...he is liability multiplied by FOUR

 

I know some people think loard Alastair can do no wrong!. But Cook now has enough time to ponder over all the what if scenarios, the 6 overs they failed to bowl on day 3, the approach in the last hour of play yesterday!!........

Captain Cook cost us.

Only in cricket can match be dog's breakfast for four days and two sessions, and finish as a match of the year candidate. Credit to Cook, captained the team magnificently in the last session, although I don't think there was any merit in batting past 350.

The England team has struggled to replace Compton... Are we really going to discuss the merits of dropping one of England's greatest ever batsmen?

msp83 wrote:I know some people think loard Alastair can do no wrong!. But Cook now has enough time to ponder over all the what if scenarios, the 6 overs they failed to bowl on day 3, the approach in the last hour of play yesterday!!........

Cook has been incorrigibly and irreversibly corrupted by Flower.

He was the biggest reason for the debacle in Aus.....they saved him and "scapegoated" KP

Unfortunately there is no KP to blame for the debacles in WI, in T20 world cup, SL odis and now this amazing display of timidity

KP_fan wrote:

msp83 wrote:I know some people think loard Alastair can do no wrong!. But Cook now has enough time to ponder over all the what if scenarios, the 6 overs they failed to bowl on day 3, the approach in the last hour of play yesterday!!........

Cook has been incorrigibly and irreversibly corrupted by Flower.

He was the biggest reason for the debacle in Aus.....they saved him and "scapegoated" KP

Unfortunately there is no KP to blame for the debacles in WI, in T20 world cup, SL odis and now this amazing display of timidity

Says who? KP has been writing columns and demanding over twitter that England should play positive and entertaining cricket and that has been a disruptive build up to the test match!!!.

Cook predictably copping some stick.

Only fair to declare my viewpoint up front. I don't like him as a captain - he comes across to me as uninspiring and lacking imagination. Reacting to situation rather than trying to create them.

However, I don't feel it's right for him to get that much blame for England's failure to win this Test. In particular, he and his bowlers were always at the mercy of a flat road of a wicket. It's enormously to the bowlers' credit that they got so close to victory. If they hadn't done so very well, Sri Lanka would have ended with only 4 or 5 down and everyone would now be slating the groundsman.

Also, the decision to go in without a frontline spinner was understandable but was always likely to result in lost overs (as happened on Saturday).

Still obviously some way to go and some questions remaining unanswered (in particular, Robson) but certainly some positives from this Test. Prior's successful return was a real bonus as was Jordan's ''can do'' approach.

watching highlights  on channel 5...and must say Anderson is one of the best "users" of the new ball...as well as old ball......when in rythm

Superb ending.

Best argument for DRS as well; today showed why it should be made mandatory.

Duty281 wrote:Superb ending.

Best argument for DRS as well; today showed why it should be made mandatory.

umpire would not have dared given that lbw had there been no DRS or no referral left for lanka.

when in doubt give the benefit of doubt to the batsman mantra of old.........has these days turned into....when in doubt let me as field umpire invoke the TV umpire and get the monkey off my back.

the only but a big good move by Eng was to play 4 seamers.......non eof whom were trundling at 126kph like Tremlett and Bresnan.

That also kept Anderson fresher.......lets see how long does this last until they tinker with this combo

DRS should be mandatory for sure, but yet again the issues of benefit of doubt to umpire also came up. Matt Prior was saved by micro meters in the first innings on umpire's call. Had he been given out on field, England would have been 209-6....... Prasanna Jayawardene survived likewise, and batted on for another 15 overs after that. Kulasekhara would have survived his 2nd innings LBW had the original decision was not out. You can't have the benefit of doubt going to the umpire like that, there needs to be greater consistency and clarity about it.

Liam Plunkett hit speeds of 91 MPH and Chris Jordan was rapid as wll. Anderson was closer to his older self, and Broad, though not at his best, upped his game when it mattered.
Now hold on for that goldan moment when Plunkett is dropped for The Economaster for greater control!.

msp83 wrote:Liam Plunkett hit speeds of 91 MPH and Chris Jordan was rapid as wll. Anderson was closer to his older self, and Broad, though not at his best, upped his game when it mattered.
Now hold on for that goldan moment when Plunkett is dropped for The Economaster for greater control!.

the impending return of the greatest trundler ever...the mighty Bresnan   

msp83 wrote:Credit to James Anderson and Stuart Broad, credit to Kumar Sangakkara, Kaushal Silva and Angelo Mathews!. Credit to Eranga and Pradeep as well!. Herath wasn't out and he shouldn't have walked, but credit to him for all the balls he survived!!.

A player 'walking' after being dismissed by Stuart Broad when he wasn't actually out..... Irony died a bit there, didn't it?

Test cricket once again showed why its the greatest sport in the world. What a remarkable end to what had been quite a feeble game. Only Test cricket can produce such ebbs and flows.

My thoughts on Cook's captaincy were made pretty clear yesterday and nothing has changed with hindsight and that would've been the case even if England had won the Test.

Oh, and at the end of it all, the DRS was the real winner!!!

ShankyCricket wrote:

msp83 wrote:Credit to James Anderson and Stuart Broad, credit to Kumar Sangakkara, Kaushal Silva and Angelo Mathews!. Credit to Eranga and Pradeep as well!. Herath wasn't out and he shouldn't have walked, but credit to him for all the balls he survived!!.

A player 'walking' after being dismissed by Stuart Broad when he wasn't actually out..... Irony died a bit there, didn't it?

Test cricket once again showed why its the greatest sport in the world. What a remarkable end to what had been quite a feeble game. Only Test cricket can produce such ebbs and flows.

My thoughts on Cook's captaincy were made pretty clear yesterday and nothing has changed with hindsight and that would've been the case even if England had won the Test.

Oh, and at the end of it all, the DRS was the real winner!!!

Think Herath was not aware of the rules there or may be he would not have realized he didn't have contact with the bat at the time of gloving the ball. Absolutely no need to walk there though.

Just seen the highlights on C5.

The commentary team hailed James Anderson as 'world class' nearly fell of my seat in laughter.

'World class' bowlers aren't one dimensional home town bullies like Anderson. Who's a clubbie at best.

re the Herath dismissal, would he have known his hand was off the bat? things happened quickly... I could never blame an umpire for giving that out, it's impossible to tell in real time his hand is off the bat; Had Herath reviewed it though, he'd have got away with it.

re DRS, it's had a great game here you'd have to say (and a great day today, three decisions overturned). I would like to see the margins for error reduced though, hawkeye is more accurate than that really. Unlike msp, I don't mind the "umpire's call" bit, if you take that away we'll see a lot more speculative reviews I feel. Do you decide that a ball clipping by the merest millimetre is out? that'll upset a lot of batsmen and gets rid of the "benefit of the doubt" bit altogether. But if you want to get rid of umpire's call, that's surely the only way to go? otherwise you get landed with the somewhat ludicrous situation of hawkeye showing a ball hitting the stumps, the umpire giving it out, but the batsman reviewing and getting it overturned!!!

I would leave it as it is, I think with snicko we've now got to a point where it all works pretty well. I would as I previously said reduce the margins for the umpire, I think you could certainly make a case for 25% of the ball hitting the stumps to be enough (maybe reduced to the 50% if the batsman is sufficiently far down the track). The other thing I'd look at is process. Right now they go: check the no-ball, then replay, then hotspot, then snicko, then pitchmap (for LBWs). I think the third ump could communicate more with the on-field. If on-field says he gave it not out because it pitched outside leg, go straight to pitchmap, then check the rest. Would save time...

MFC, its a question of consistency....... A situation where 1 batsman gets dismissed and the other survives with the ball predicted to hit the stumps in exactly the same way, if the 2 are from opposing sides, then that could also upset a lot of batsmen/teams/cricket lovers......

Gerry SA wrote:

'World class' bowlers aren't one dimensional home town bullies like Anderson. Who's a clubbie at best.

You are just being plain silly.

msp83 wrote:MFC, its a question of consistency....... A situation where 1 batsman gets dismissed and the other survives with the ball predicted to hit the stumps in exactly the same way, if the 2 are from opposing sides, then that could also upset a lot of batsmen/teams/cricket lovers......

while I understand your point, what would be your proposed solution? any ball hawkeye shows to be hitting the stumps to be given out? I think that makes the umpires job tough, and removes the whole benefit of the doubt idea completely. It would also result in (IMO) a lot more speculative reviews. At the moment you see teams thinking "it might just be hitting, it might be missing" and deciding against reviewing, you wouldn't see that anymore.

let's not forget DRS was originally intended to remove the howler. It's moved on a little since then, it's more about removing mistakes, but I'm not comfortable with calling an umpire who gives a batsman not out when the ball is just clipping the stumps by a millimetre a mistake.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:

msp83 wrote:MFC, its a question of consistency....... A situation where 1 batsman gets dismissed and the other survives with the ball predicted to hit the stumps in exactly the same way, if the 2 are from opposing sides, then that could also upset a lot of batsmen/teams/cricket lovers......

while I understand your point, what would be your proposed solution? any ball hawkeye shows to be hitting the stumps to be given out? I think that makes the umpires job tough, and removes the whole benefit of the doubt idea completely. It would also result in (IMO) a lot more speculative reviews. At the moment you see teams thinking "it might just be hitting, it might be missing" and deciding against reviewing, you wouldn't see that anymore.

let's not forget DRS was originally intended to remove the howler. It's moved on a little since then, it's more about removing mistakes, but I'm not comfortable with calling an umpire who gives a batsman not out when the ball is just clipping the stumps by a millimetre a mistake.

One way would be to set a standard margin, say 25 %, if not then you have to give a batsman out if the ball is hitting, and not out if it is missing.