England's Winter of Cricket 2022/23

First topic message reminder :

Of course we have the World T20 covered in a separate thread, but I thought we should have a new one for England's upcoming games this winter, which feature:

Three ODIs in Australia (17th-22nd November)
Three tests in Pakistan (1st-21st December)
Three ODIs in South Africa (27th January-1st February)
Two tests in New Zealand (16th-28th February)
Three ODIs in Bangladesh (March)

Looking forward to the tests, but I think the ODIs will be instantly forgettable!

For now, though the way England are playing test cricket these days it wouldn't surprise me if there are a few more attempts at it in the coming years

That record will be broken soon, it's been coming under constant threat recently. Remarkable that there's only been two sixes scored in an innings going at near enough seven an over.

I'm also going to assume that this is the first time a team have ever had four centurions on the first day of a test.

Brook gets to 100, just a few balls too slowly at the end. 4 centuries in the day - three of them being in England's top 10 fastest hundreds of all time.

England now with the most runs on the opening day of a Test match (and pass 500 in a day). Wonder how many overs were needed for the previous record - certainly will have been more than 75

Suspect taking 20 wickets to win this game will be an uphill task but a staggering days play for england

Stokes strike rate above 200, might not be safe yet

Stokes seems to be enjoying himself too...

506 in the 75th. Ridiculous.

Was once a time when you got a new ball at 200 . But we are off for bad light...

Decent day's work for England .

Boo!

Off for bad light, with England 3 runs short of a new record for runs in a Test match day.
Stokes on 34 off 15

Fastest 500 in test history
Biggest opening day score in test history
4 centurions (2 of them maiden centuries)
3rd fastest hundred by an Englishman

More happening today than most full matches

506/4, there's not much else to say, is there? Four centurions in a single innings for the first time for England since 2007. And if the full 90 had been played over 600 would have been scored.

This is why Pakistan were utterly daft to prepare this type of pitch ahead of the test, and why they should have prepared a turner. It's pretty dead and the outfield was lightning quick.

Going to be tough for England to win this with this type of pitch and the light drawing in quite early, so the best they can do is apply maximum scoreboard pressure - 850 or 900 declared should suffice, but if 1,000 is on they really should go for it just because.

If you prefer your cricket watching to be a little more sedate, Sky have got a game coming up from the Abu Dhabi T10 league.

Soul Requiem wrote:That record will be broken soon, it's been coming under constant threat recently. Remarkable that there's only been two sixes scored in an innings going at near enough seven an over.

I think this was my main takeaway - wasn’t mindless slogging, just aggressive well played shots to some admittedly poor bowling. Some of the strokes Brook has played have been sensational, what a talent he looks

England's run rate for the day = 6.74 runs per over...

Duckett's century is in England's 20 fastest of all time, and was the slowest of the day with the other 3 all in the top 9.

England do have James Anderson which could prove quite decisive, he's very good on the subcontinent and unlike the Pakistani bowlers will keep things very tight, that pressure should help the spinners. He'll now go at 9 an over.

Amazing scoring. Maybe 1066 would be a good total, Duty?

Need to be careful when the medications wear off though. They should keep taking whatever they're taking... with a dash of lemon juice.

Soul Requiem wrote:England do have James Anderson which could prove quite decisive, he's very good on the subcontinent and unlike the Pakistani bowlers will keep things very tight, that pressure should help the spinners. He'll now go at 9 an over.

I’m expecting Anderson and Robinson to keep things very tight to Soul. Relentless line and length, try find some nibble with the new ball if there is any, and come back for some reverse later.
Leach obviously a huge role to play too. Fancy there will be a little turn as the game wears on, nothing ridiculous though

https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/records/team/highest_innings_totals.html?class=1;id=1;type=team

England's highest ever total is 903. Highest total abroad 849. Highest total in the subcontinent is 652.

What a ludicrous days cricket!!

I'm particularly happy for Duckett. I've said a few times I felt he was discarded a bit soon after a tough introduction.

Of course we already knew Pope is very good on flat decks but another ton should do his confidence plenty of good. England really need him to settle in that middle order.

Brook looks a terrific talent. I'll hold my hands up and admit that when he was in the Lions averaging in the mid-twenties in F-C cricket I was extremely sceptical. Clearly the coaches were right to see something from the eye test though.

Stokes with absolutely no let up at the end either. He batted at nearly half that SR in his two significant World T20 knocks!

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

Soul Requiem wrote:England do have James Anderson which could prove quite decisive, he's very good on the subcontinent and unlike the Pakistani bowlers will keep things very tight, that pressure should help the spinners. He'll now go at 9 an over.

I’m expecting Anderson and Robinson to keep things very tight to Soul. Relentless line and length, try find some nibble with the new ball if there is any, and come back for some reverse later.
Leach obviously a huge role to play too. Fancy there will be a little turn as the game wears on, nothing ridiculous though

Anderson definitely should as that's his bread and butter these days.

This will be a very good test of Robinson's improved fitness though. There's no doubting his natural ability. That near Jamieson height release point and wrist that gives him such beautiful control of the wobble seam are perfect weapons for where seam bowling seems to be moving. His struggles with latter spells in Tests have been worrying though. Word is he's got a lot more professional with S&C and his diet. Hopefully that's right and he fulfils the clear talent there.

Leach will likely need to bowl some extremely long spells which will be a test too.

Definitely the time to try to maximise the runs scoring, as the wicket is likely to deteriorate a bit and also to exert maximum pressure from the match position. The conundrum for England is how long do they want to bat, given that it looks like each day will be curtailed by bad light before the scheduled close - likely to be more like 300 overs than the 360 notionally scheduled over the next 4 days.

At the rate they've been going and assuming no collapse, 700 should come up a bit after lunch tomorrow. Would give the equivalent of 3 normal Test days to take 20 wickets and perhaps knock off another 100-200 runs if required in the 3rd innings (enforcing a follow on is pretty much out of fashion unless after an epic collapse).

king_carlos wrote:

Stokes with absolutely no let up at the end either. He batted at nearly half that SR in his two significant World T20 knocks!

This was my takeaway from the day. Stokes scored 52 off 49 in the T20 final, starting slowly and never really reaching top gear, great innings in the context of the match. Next innings in a test match, 34 from 15, for whatever reason he starts quicker in the longer formats.

dummy_half wrote:Definitely the time to try to maximise the runs scoring, as the wicket is likely to deteriorate a bit and also to exert maximum pressure from the match position. The conundrum for England is how long do they want to bat, given that it looks like each day will be curtailed by bad light before the scheduled close - likely to be more like 300 overs than the 360 notionally scheduled over the next 4 days.

At the rate they've been going and assuming no collapse, 700 should come up a bit after lunch tomorrow. Would give the equivalent of 3 normal Test days to take 20 wickets and perhaps knock off another 100-200 runs if required in the 3rd innings (enforcing a follow on is pretty much out of fashion unless after an epic collapse).

Agree with this. If they can't force a win with 650-700 on the board they probably aren't doing so with 1000 !

Expect Stokes will go hard from the off again tomorrow and not worry too much if some wickets fall. Not going to be easy taking wickets as it seems bowled and lbw are the best chances of striking on this ; but in Anderson and Robinson they do have a couple of bowlers who might suit - especially if it starts to keep low a lot as it wears. Probably not a bad thing the two new spinners are going to come into a game with a lot of runs in the bank...

The score card suggests that the entire day would have been like a highlights package
6.75RPO...wow that's almost a T20ish RR.
Countless records would have been broken the most prominent of which is the runs in test match day and with 15 overs short...of a full days play

The most notable feature of Eng's scorecard would be Root missing the hundred.......lets see Stokes gets one tomm...and how big a score this bizarre McCullum / Stokes style take Eng to tomorrow.

Haven't seen the game but the pitch must be a Patta-strip...but even then how can Pak concede half a thousand runs in 75 overs ?
These type of score-lines are seen in mismatched club or school games played on 45m grounds

I don't see any sense in England declaring at lunch if they're something like 650/5. They should take as much out of the pitch as possible and go on until late afternoon if they can. Plus keeping Pakistan out in the field wears them down further in a series with short turn-around times. Of course England might collapse to the second new ball making such discussion academic!

Will they be starting 30 mins early on day two, owing to the early finish on day one? Hope so.

Yeah I'm kinda with just bat long. Condensed series, both Jimmy and Ollie Robinson have had to have their workload managed. Give the pitch as much time as possible to deteriorate

Batting too long negates the blistering first day, aim should be to get to 700 as quickly as possible then declare.

Bat long? How awfully 2021. I'm with Soul here. They've got 8 front line batsman with no's 7 & 8 masquerading as spinners.

Get to 700, very quickly, then have a bash at them. If they score 900 and put England under pressure the game is a draw. If they score 550, the game is still a draw unless they score at BazBall rates, which they almost certainly won't.

Post 700, have a bowl and see where you end up.

Clearly that was a ridiculous day. Yes, it's a road, but England teams past would be happy to ease into the series on something like 250-3. The Aussies are at home and made 600 in 150 overs on their own road, which would normally be a pretty good rate, but looks slow in comparison. So, yes it's a flat pitch but that was a serious performance

Been going backwards and forwards on it - as for some reason England have only picked four seamers to tour of which all have some degree of question mark over, so ideally you wouldn’t want to put too many miles in the legs. But if you are in the dirt for three days, then three and a half won’t make much difference when you will know by D5 whether you have a chance of a result and can just let Duckett bowl if it is not happening.

Plus, in age old tradition, Brook will be out in the first over and they’ll be 570 all out so any declaration speculation is mute.

And there have been a lot of Test matches on flat pitches against bad attacks over the years - and never has one been flayed for 500 in 75 overs before! It was stunning.

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:Post 700, have a bowl and see where you end up.

It’s mad that a sentence about England’s batting that begins ‘post 700’ at stumps on Day 1 has us nodding along asking ‘yeah but is 700 enough?’. Insanity.

English cricket is a wild ride. It has contained some truly unbelievable highs and lows since the start of 2015. Belting 500 on the opening day of a test is the latest high.

Eventful first over. Stokes opening with a first ball six but then getting out trying to nibble a slower ball away instead of smashing it...515/5

You could say this is quite a "nice" position for Livingstone to come in at. Or alternatively that he's going to be hard pressed to add much to what's come before him so will be under a bit of pressure not to fail

And I am very much with Soul and Tino in the belief that the quicker they get the optimal 700 and get Pakistan in the better. Australia a few months ago took just four wickets in a match here - and one of them was a run out ; so taking twenty is going to need as much time as possible. And as Stokes says , this lot don't do draws.

This two games at once is tricky...

Livingstone a short life but a merry one...nice early six , out shortly after trying for another. Might not be getting that 700 ; but I don't think they are going to waste much time just occupying the crease today.

35/2 in seven overs today : two for Naseem Shah and Pakistan will be feeling a bit better about life this afternoon...

Wickets falling haven't changed Brook's approach... He is dealing only in sixes and fours and having missed the "fastest hundred" yesterday he might be after the fastest double...

27 off one over !

Mahmood has his - unwanted - double ton : 2/208 off 27 overs ! Wild debut.

150 for Brook

Just 115 balls.

...and gone . Caught for 153 . Three for Naseem and it's 576/7.

Into the tail...

All slowed down now after the Brook exit... 593/7 off 88 at drinks. So that is just 87 added off 13.

Still a decent scoring rate

600 up at last... In some style with a straight six by Jacks . As it took these two nearly seven overs to add twenty three runs I'd been about to lament the absence of the Night Hawk

But all good now . 608/7.

This is still crazy scoring even if England are loosing wickets. I doubt very much that Pakistan will be able to score at this rate and I feel England's bowler will provide a lot more control and take wickets. Keep Pakistan under 350 and its game over.

I do not expect Pakistan to even attempt to score at this rate ! They will just want to bat long and big and make sure they don't get cleaned up early enough to give England time to force a win.

I think bowling them out will be hard work on this ; but we will see later today.

Jacks getting going now , after being somewhat out shadowed by Robinson for a while. Fifty stand in ten overs : not bad.

I think that England's bowling is vastly superior to that of Pakistan which is why i think we will see England take plenty of wickets.

eirebilly_01 wrote:I think that England's bowling is vastly superior to that of Pakistan which is why i think we will see England take plenty of wickets.

Hope you're right ! Certainly some more experienced bowlers , and scoreboard pressure will help. But I don't think it will be easy on this.

Find out soon enough as Jacks is gone...

Still need 59 for that 700

9 down now so the end of this spectacular innings is near.

Three wickets (at some cost !) for Mahmood...but the 650 is up and Jimmy is doubtless looking to have some fun with the bat

Doesn't look like 700 now but I reckon England will be happy to have kept scoring at a good rate and got a pretty imposing total.

All done...657. Four wickets for Mahmood . For some 235 runs (!) ; but full marks for perseverance .

Six and a half per over through the innings. Lively.

Now comes the hard work...

This is where we will see Jimmy Anderson shine, he is pretty good on these tracks

Duckett grasses an extremely hard chance at short leg offered by Shafique off Jimmy. Can't blame him but would say, without knowing anything about Duckett's fielding, am surprised Jacks isn't in that spot. Have seen him pull off some blinders there - and think Olly did once as well when he stood in for me at the Oval! 

bet365 lists draw as the most likely scenario...about two and a half times more likely than Eng win....and almost as likely as Eng win

That's no where close to accurate...Eng should be overwhelming favorites to win this unless there is rain forecast that I am not aware of

guildfordbat wrote:Duckett grasses an extremely hard chance at short leg offered by Shafique off Jimmy. Can't blame him but would say, without knowing anything about Duckett's fielding, am surprised Jacks isn't in that spot. Have seen him pull off some blinders there - and think Olly did once as well when he stood in for me at the Oval! 

Yes I don't think we can criticise Duckett for that one...those either stick - or pop up - or not. Can't possibly judge them that close and fast.

Not much help for the seamers here. Leach has started well . Looked like a missed chance by Pope there with a very fine edge though it might have been an "interesting" review if not given on field.

I really think getting twenty wickets on this will be a tough task. But it will be a good test for England's new four man spin squad

Didn't take long to go to spin both ends...

Jacks on for his first twirl at this level. Not the best start...those full tosses aren't going to turn much