The summer of cricket 2020

First topic message reminder :

Great ton from Morgan. Came in at 44/3 - now victory looks assured for England after this partnership.

(Spoiler: It wasn't.)

If England do roll over Pakistan when the restart finally happens, they will be under the cosh themselves with this Pakistan bowling line up under the clouds...

eirebilly wrote:If England do roll over Pakistan when the restart finally happens, they will be under the cosh themselves with this Pakistan bowling line up under the clouds...

Possibly, I don't think the Pakistan bowlers are the type to really benefit from cloud cover, even Abbas gets most of his movement off the pitch rather than through the air.

Soul Requiem wrote:

eirebilly wrote:If England do roll over Pakistan when the restart finally happens, they will be under the cosh themselves with this Pakistan bowling line up under the clouds...

Possibly, I don't think the Pakistan bowlers are the type to really benefit from cloud cover, even Abbas gets most of his movement off the pitch rather than through the air.

Also one less seamer for them, you'd figure if we do get any sort of normal session then Yasir is going to have to do some bowling...think it is key England take a risk, and look to be aggressive against him. He can leak runs quickly (As we saw in Manchester), and him going for a few will pose Azhar some real questions

Play starting at 12:30.

Lunch at 13:30.

Cricket being cricket - 12:30 start, then they're gonna take lunch at 13:30. What a f*cking ludicrous situation.

was just coming on to complain about lunch being taken. seems im not on my own. crickets its own worse enemy at times

ICC have got to sort that issue out. No reason why they can't aim for a two and a half hour session before retiring for an interval.

Some good balls beating the bat interspersed with some leg-side garbage so far. Pakistan will be delighted with 220 from here; the key to that is of course Babar Azam.

Doesn't make a big difference though does it ? If they are having a "lunch" break at all there is 40 minutes gone so what does it matter how you break the playing time up ?

What I'd suggest they do is say we have had enough rest already : just have two shorter breaks . Something like : play 12-30 to 14-30. Twenty minute break. 15-00 to 17.00 . Tea break ...then resume at 17.20 and see how long you can go after that. Shouldn't kill anyone.

But I don't imagine the playing conditions allow for that.

Anyway Pakistan so far avoiding trouble. Babar has left well, just taken the runs on offer. Ball a bit old now so they'll be a little more comfortable. Runs not exactly racing though so one wicket will still see them struggling to make this into a reasonable total.

Broad might be the most likely to get something out of this pitch at this stage. Otherwise we might see Bess shortly...

ive changed my mind, the way the Pakistan batsman are looking i think taking lunch is a great idea

I think the main point of contention is that we've got playable conditions now, so why take a 40-minute break when we know a mixture of rain/bad light will shorten play later on?

We can go on until 19:30, but obviously play will have finished well before then. Common sense needs to be implemented.

They should also consider starting tests in England about an hour earlier.

Anyway, Babar and Rizwan very watchful so far. The whole test match has a sleepy feel of something that won't reach a conclusion.

15 overs 29 runs No wickets. Pakistan will take that.

We will see what happens after lunch.

Couldn't they have eaten lunch early? Before starting play for 1 hour and going off again

AlciG wrote:Couldn't they have eaten lunch early? Before starting play for 1 hour and going off again

thats my main objection lunch usually taken at 1.00, play didnt start till 12.30. take a early lunch before play starts and play a longer early session. if your worried about players fatigue, slightly move tea earlier but still so we get more cricket played while the conditions are good to do so. lots of rain forecast all test. in this situation im just glad there are no fans

Bit of swing in the air, but there really doesn't appear to be any demons in the pitch at this point (Pakistan rightly choosing to bat first still, I think). Try to get 1, maybe two more before the new ball, and then clean up from there hopefully...albeit Babar looks in good nick.

Got the one...and it was Babar , so the break they needed.  Nice bowling from Broad

Now how quickly can they clean up the tail ?

Lovely ball from Broad to get Babar - and Jimmy nearly cleans up Rizwan there!

Don't fancy the last three to hang around at all here...

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Lovely ball from Broad to get Babar - and Jimmy nearly cleans up Rizwan there!

Don't fancy the last three to hang around at all here...

England might feel they've been a bit unlucky today not to have more wickets ...rather a lot of play and miss : almost as if the bowling has been too good for these fellows to get an edge...

Yasir will throw the bat a bit I'd imagine. If they can get to 200 they've done well. 171/6 is probably more than they might have expected this morning.

And there goes Yasir...Jimmy deserved that.

Credit to Shaheen , he's resisting well so far... Has seen Anderson and Broad off.

Only eight overs to the new ball though so Rizwan probably needs to do some scoring while he can.

alfie wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Lovely ball from Broad to get Babar - and Jimmy nearly cleans up Rizwan there!

Don't fancy the last three to hang around at all here...

England might feel they've been a bit unlucky today not to have more wickets ...rather a lot of play and miss : almost as if the bowling has been too good for these fellows to get an edge...

Yasir will throw the bat a bit I'd imagine. If they can get to 200 they've done well. 171/6 is probably more than they might have expected this morning.

And there goes Yasir...Jimmy deserved that.

Certainly the case with Shaheen here - dude isn't good enough to edge it!

Not a clean catch

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

alfie wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Lovely ball from Broad to get Babar - and Jimmy nearly cleans up Rizwan there!

Don't fancy the last three to hang around at all here...

England might feel they've been a bit unlucky today not to have more wickets ...rather a lot of play and miss : almost as if the bowling has been too good for these fellows to get an edge...

Yasir will throw the bat a bit I'd imagine. If they can get to 200 they've done well. 171/6 is probably more than they might have expected this morning.

And there goes Yasir...Jimmy deserved that.

Certainly the case with Shaheen here - dude isn't good enough to edge it!

Inability to get an edge can be a handy skill for a rabbit

Run out ! Good work by Sibley.

Shaheen can at least say he was undefeated by the bowlers

Bad time to get a run out but understandable they were chasing quick runs

Silly from Shaheen

Seems to be a bit of a problem that Pakistan have to start rejecting runs when they get to 7 down...

Rizwan tees off now... 180/8 He's actually played pretty well , but that's his first bit of aggression.

They won't get many more I think.

Rizwan adding useful runs here... Three boundaries since he's been left with the bunnies. The 200 is back in his sights now and this will annoy England.
Need to wrap this up...batting against Abbas & co will be no picnic on this...

Sloppy over from Curran, probably his last of the innings.

Gooseberry wrote:Sloppy over from Curran, probably his last of the innings.

Yes. Broad on for the eightieth.

Slightly disappointed in England these last few overs. Not quite there...soon as they put the field back for Rizwan I feel a little pep went out of the bowling ; as it often does. I don't like giving a useful number seven (but hardly a Gilchrist ) free singles .

And it doesn't seem to have saved any runs. 198/8 now represents a good effort for Pakistan today.

New ball...

Atrocious over from Woakes that

Why are they not trying to get Rizwan out, he's hardly a class batsmen.

Hope Rizwan gets his 50... Good job by him here

Very useful 0 runs sofar for Abbas

Warne agreeing with me again. The moment you signal you aren't trying to get the main batsman out , and try to wait to just get at the rabbit ; you lose the initiative. It seems to cost far too many , far too often.

Have never seen statistical data but I'm betting the policy fails at least 75% of the time.

Root did well last match but I think he's messed it up here. Partnership worth 29 now...might be vital later on. Make that 31.

Bring Jimmy back on.

England could and should have got Rizwan out for no more than about 25, just bowl to get him out.

alfie wrote:Warne agreeing with me again. The moment you signal you aren't trying to get the main batsman out , and try to wait to just get at the rabbit ; you lose the initiative. It seems to cost far too many , far too often.

Have never seen statistical data but I'm betting the policy fails at least 75% of the time.

Root did well last match but I think he's messed it up here. Partnership worth 29 now...might be vital later on. Make that 31.

The stupid thing is, every team does it! We saw it in the winter in SA, with Paine last summer too...

And while Root cops some flak - Woakes has bowled some utter filth here. Where is Anderson?

England have fallen into that trap that so many teams do in FC cricket. There's a recognised batsman and a tailender at the crease - all effort is put into getting the tailender on strike and then getting him out. Nil effort is put into getting the recognised batter out.

A trap that costs many runs. It's not like Rizwan is Steve Smith!

Excellent fifty for Rizwan anyway

This might be close...was close , but not out.

211 now. Never saw a 35 stand from these two coming...

Runs for Abbas

Thank god we used up 40 minutes of playable conditions earlier to have a few sandwiches after an hour of play.

If there's no more play today, do Pakistan declare overnight to try and force a win? Or do they bat on for as long as possible?

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

alfie wrote:Warne agreeing with me again. The moment you signal you aren't trying to get the main batsman out , and try to wait to just get at the rabbit ; you lose the initiative. It seems to cost far too many , far too often.

Have never seen statistical data but I'm betting the policy fails at least 75% of the time.

Root did well last match but I think he's messed it up here. Partnership worth 29 now...might be vital later on. Make that 31.

The stupid thing is, every team does it! We saw it in the winter in SA, with Paine last summer too...

And while Root cops some flak - Woakes has bowled some utter filth here. Where is Anderson?

Woakes has been excellent this summer , but this hasn't been his best day. I imagine Root doesn't want to totally exhaust Jimmy , who has bowled 24 overs already.

Great mini session there for Pakistan. 215/8 , could yet get 230 , which might be a par score on this.

Light has taken us off . Might be best for England if they don't get back on ? They certainly don't want to get bowled out quickly this time as all the seamers have worked hard and two of them are backing up from three Tests in a row. If they were to be forced back out with little rest I doubt they'd be bowling Pakistan out cheaply this time.

Still have to get these last two anyway. Hope they re -think attack plans ...

Maybe they can switch to the practice ground beside the main ground...light seems good enough there for the Pakistan white ball warm up to still be going on.

Have 3 left, might aswell waste one

Very useful 2 runs by Abbas there, and time at the crease

Broad does the trick on resumption

Needed that. One to go...

And off again ! Hate those light meters...

I like Tuffers' idea : sneak into the umpires room and take the batteries out

Should have taken an early lunch before play started... That was 40 minutes wasted for nothing.