England vs Sri Lanka 2nd test debate

First topic message reminder :

So the 2nd test is upon us,Will England make another tremendous win or will Sri Lanka fight back to win the 2nd test? All will be known in 5 days time.

The 12 man teams are as follow:

England
Andrew Strauss (C)
Alistair Cook
Jonathan Trott
Kevin Pietersen
Ian Bell
Eoin Morgan
Matt Prior (W-K)
Stuart Broad
Graeme Swann
Chris Tremlett
Steve Finn
Jade Dernbach

Sri Lanka (Can't find the 12 man squad anywhere)

Tillakaratne Dilshan (C)
Tharanga Paranavithana (Spell check!)
Lahiru Thirimanne
Kumar Sangakkara
Mahela Jayawardene
Thilan Samaraweera
Dinesh Chandimal
Prasanna Jaywardene (W-K)
Thissara Perera
Suraj Randiv
Ajantha Mendis
Rangana Herath
Dilhara Fernanado
Chanka Welegedara
Suranga Lakmal
Farveez Maharoof

Once again like the 1st feel free to discuss the action

And updates of the match will be up on the thread.

If these two put on anything from 70/80 up i would be disappointed if we didnt reach 400.

Cook is surely the greatest English batsman .by the time he retires he will have atleast 12000 test runs to his name and more than 7000 ODI runs surely.
never knew a better english batting line up.....it must be the greatest english batting line up ,post war anyway.

Well, that was a decent knock by Bell. Shame about the way he got out.

On a positive note, its good to see Morgan looking watchful and not looking to smack everything to the boundary. Cookie still looking good for another ton.

Tom Fordyce reckons 350 is the minimum for a decent score. Think I'd agree with him. Sri Lanka's batsmen will probably be a tad nervous against our bowlers after the 1st Test and if Tremlett, Broad and Swann can maintain their momentum from that game, we could knock them over for a bit less than that.

I really hope that Cook gets his ton and that Mogs has a good score as well. How many runs has Cook scored in the last 12 months? He must be up there as the leading run scorer.

I wouldn't get too carried away with the line-up , India

Their figures are good but that has to be set against the generally benign pitches and some fairly ordinary current bowling attacks.

I fancy the likes of May, Dexter, Barrington, Compton, Hutton might be good for a few runs against these chaps...

alfie wrote:Wow !

That was a brief "retirement" trebell



Welcome aboard ...

Cheers Alfie. Yep, i missed the banter from you guys for sure.

Dangerous 15 mins for England now. The runs have dried up and its getting close to the end of the session. England dont want to lose a wicket now.

Good session for England.

Pity Bell didn't go on with it but Morgan has settled in pretty well , and Cook is just a run machine.

He must be averaging a hundred plus since...well since everyone was saying he had a fatal technical flaw and should be dropped...about 9 Test matches ago

Whoops, i thought the session finished at 4pm...

7th fifty in his last 9 innings, great work!

Yes it is good to see you back , trebell

Earlier today I thought we were in desperate need of your reverse cursing...and Billy thought for a moment that another poster , of somewhat pessimistic mood , might have been you in disguise

But there's only one...

yeah, poor old cwshot had no idea what i was talking about.... You were missed trebell

Only one Alfie. Who's me little doppleganger then?

cowshot was showing some of your pessimistic traits trebell but there can be only one lol

Indeed , it was cowshot...must confess I was thinking the same thing ,Billy

Oke, back underway. Lets see what this session brings Cook, Mogs and England.

Good to see trebell, our "reverse-jinx specialist" is back in the line-up. I'd be worried about the ability of our banter to influence the action on the field, without him

It was a bit scary there for a bit dyre lol

Really slow going out there right now. I get scared when the run rate slows this much

It's early in the season, i'm very rusty and not really performing at the mo peeps, sorry.

Thanks Cookie

Dont worry trebs, just use this as a warm up for the India series

Bit edgey from Cook there

Lakmal has bowled pretty well today.

Over rate is lousy though - will be some overtime.

That's a better shot for three...

178-4 looks a lot sounder than 30 odd for 3 that's for sure.

Sri Lanka read the pitch well and did the right thing. Word seems to be that it'll flatten so they must be confident of a good score if England don't get amonst them.

I fancy Finn to have a good one here.

It is getting very tense out there right now. Come on Cook get your ton

Liam_Main wrote:

chrisyeah wrote:

Liam_Main wrote:KP will likely have the series to score big runs if he doesn't he'll be gone.

It's far more likely that he'll get until the end of the India series, considering there's only one more match in the Sri Lanka series. And anyway, last summer I seem to remember the majority of people on the old 606 calling for Cook to be dropped...

It's a vital series for England can they fully rely on KP to score runs?

The thing with KP is that he has been misfiring for far longer than Cook was. So, the answer to the question is NO, he can't be relied on any more.
A great touch player who just happens to need everything in the right groove to score big. As time goes on he is finding those days are getting far fewer. He doesn't have a solid technique to fall back on when the magic is missing and his once great eye no longer compensates for his across the line and excessive front foot method.
Long ago his progress was slowed in SA because of these imperfections. He has confounded the selectors there by his career so far but they weren't completely wrong in their assessment. The flaws have caught up with him now, which is a shame because he can be great to watch.

chuckle. I'm glad we've agreed I'm me.

"Good" for me opening on this pitch is 500+

"Par" is about 450

"Umm" is under 400

Poor is anything under 350.

Still hoping for "Good".

Cook moves into the nervous 90's

Come on Cookie. Mogs is doing quite well there too.

I will be happy with anything over 400.

Pitch is good but Swann plus the three tall bowlers should be able to keep pressure on Sri Lanka in a way they are just not able to manage with their rather limited attack.

In truth pitch looks good enough to suggest a draw is favourite , but after Cardiff...

A 9 ball over and 15 runs off it. Good over for England. That will take the pressure off a bit.

200 up for England, would have taken that after being 22-3

Oh no. Cook falls short of his ton

Cook must have thought it was Christmas - he's been swatting Fernando's short balls to the boundary all day but oh dear...straight up in the air

Totally unexpected.

Work for Morgan now...

That's a massive shame. Deserved a ton, saved his team from a very low total.

Probably need a ton more really to make it competitive.

Having said that , SL won't be massively confident of a big one.

He must be gutted to fall 4 short off his century.

Morgan,Prior,Broad and Swann have gotta make some hefty runs now.

Nice six Morgan

Makes it look effortless...

And 50 for Morgan

Great 50 for Mogs

well played Moggy. Really good.

Had KP, Strauss and Trott not had bad days we'd have been on a good score here.

The only genuine worry there is KP.. bit of a bunny at the mo.

Some lovely shots by Morgan in his 50.

So far in this series,Sri Lanka haven't got Morgan out.

Mogs really is looking in good form as well isnt he

Morgan playing very nicely.

One might say pitch and bowling are in his favour , but after seeing several class players fail today I'd reckon a big score here would set him up for the summer...

He certainly gives a fielding captain something to think about when he gets going. Feet moving very well.

And Prior is playing some nice shots too.

In reality, these two should see England past 350 tomorrow. I think that will be a decent score here.

Love those Prior cover drives

"Meaty" is the expression , I think.

He times them so well alfie that they fly off the bat dont they. I have been really impressed with Mogs today. I am a huge fan but always thought that he would be a better ODI/T20 player than a test player. He really is proving me wrong.

I reckon England won't be too disappointed if they get 350...not after being 22-3.

Real shame about Cook - quite surprising he got out that way...within touching distance of yet another fine ton too.

Still, Morgan's kicked on brilliantly and Prior seems to have settled in nicely. Hopefully they'll see us to 300-350, then the tail can have a biff and just grab as many runs as they can.

Beautiful placement from Prior.

I have said it before and i will say it again, this England side is very good. In days gone by whenever early wickets were lost, England would fold. Now there are always players that put their hand up when others have failed. That is the sign of a good team in my books.

Provided these two don't get out today, England could still be looking at something around 400.