England in Sri Lanka March-April 2011/12

[barmyarmy]

Boycott article is worth reading. He may be an arse but he understands the game.

 

[angryangy]

The trouble is that they did have a real problem adapting to the first pitch where the ball skidded through low and beat them when they were expecting to be able to punish anything short. It wasn't just spin, as Umar Gul also reaped the rewards of that. But since then, they've gone reactive and while they would have had their weaknesses, some have deviated too far from the textbook and the fundamentals that enable them to play to their strengths. They tried to wait for the spin more, but it turned out to be a huge negative, so they tried to mix it up. I'm sure 'release shot' was written on a whiteboard somewhere after the second Test.

 

[Sureshot]

Despite his two failures with the bat in Galle, would people really drop Patel after that one showing? Might as well give him both games, y'know, lets not try and destroy another cricketers career after one game like we have with so many others over the years.

I'd go attacking and go in with Finn for Broad, unchanged otherwise. 3 seamers and a spinner is insane for a flat track in the sub-continent.

 

[puddleduck]

Boycott article is worth reading. He may be an arse but he understands the game.

Actually is a good article from Boycs, normally chats a bit of rubbish in amongst his more salient points, but pretty accurate there.

But then I've thought Strauss was an average captain for a while and have always thought he was an average batsman at best.

To average 41 these days puts him barely in the bracket of top class international batsmen. When you consider he averaged almost 50 over his first two years, it just shows that he has been a sub-standard opening batsman for a while now. Oh, and it's easy to captain when your seamers are ripping through teams at home.

----------

Despite his two failures with the bat in Galle, would people really drop Patel after that one showing? Might as well give him both games, y'know, lets not try and destroy another cricketers career after one game like we have with so many others over the years.

I'd go attacking and go in with Finn for Broad, unchanged otherwise. 3 seamers and a spinner is insane for a flat track in the sub-continent.

I've already said I'd play 3 seamers, Swann and Patel. Patel actually outbowled Monty in the first test, but people love Monty and can't ever really accept that he's not actually very good.

 

[Themer]

I'd go;

Strauss
Cook
Trott
Pietersen
Bell
Prior
Patel
Bresnan
Swann
Finn
Anderson

 

[puddleduck]

Yeah me too. It might get horribly exposed, but that would hardly be any different to our last 4 test matches playing 2 spinners, so meh, Pakistan are notorious for not being great players of spin as sub-continental teams go, but Sri Lankan batsman are generally very good players of spin.

I'd probably back Bresnan tailing a couple back in with an abrasive ball to nip out 2 or 3 in quick succession ahead of Monty waiting for Chandimal to have a brain explosion or a tail ender to miss a straight one.

 

[angryangy]

We saw Australia bowl four seamers in Sri Lanka and get away with it. In fact one of them was Johnson. The bar wasn't set that high.

Strategy is most dangerous when you can actually afford not pick to your best team, because it snowballs. Your earliest assumptions influence the data. At the moment it's really something like 'we went with Panesar and it didn't make the shortlist for the worst decisions we made on tour'. He has done okay, but someone could do better. However, it now looks like a risk and an unnecessary disturbance, even though the last successful England team was somewhat different. Even in context, Bresnan and Finn each make good candidates for subcontinental bowlers. In theory England have a great strength in their pace attack, but being that they have already predisposed towards the spinners, we'll most likely only see one of them come in.

 

[puddleduck]

Indeed Angry. I know the batsman have consistently failed, but let's not ignore that we've also lost games in the field as well. Strauss has been outcaptained throughout the winter.

On pitches where spinners have been taking wickets, where on earth does starting with men back on the fence to middle/lower order batsmen make sense? Where every team has put the pressure on your players early into their innings England have bizarely let players get settled. They've not actually fielded that well either, having put down far more chances than is acceptable in tight matches (which despite the defeats a few of them have been).

 

[Mike23]

I still dont get why we persist with Dhammika Prasad, the guy is completely and utterly atrocious. He's prolly the panesar of SL (only a lot quicker, but bowls more or less alike). Hope they'd play Eranga instead of this sh*tbag. My XI for the game would be -

1.T.Dilshan
2.A.Mathews (worth a shot)
3.K.Sangakkara
4.D.Chandimal
5.M.Jayawardene
6.T.Samaraweera
7.P.Jayawardene
8.S.Randiv
9.R.Herath
10.S.Eranga
11.S.Lakmal

 

[puddleduck]

Oh well, England lose the toss.

They'll appreciate the extra seamer now, but this is already going to be an uphill struggle. Standard subcontinental wicket... win toss, bat for 2 days. Can Sri Lanka manage it? Be interesting to see how Finn does on his return to test cricket.

Hotter than Galle apparently. Still, if it's a road, Monty would have been useless anyway.

I can't wait to watch some proper cricket when they get back to England (even if they get spanked, I've missed pitches where you can bowl on both halves of the track )

Hmm bounce isn't that consistent, and a bit of movement off the pitch early. Might be something for the seamers for the first 10-20minutes... Hopefully it stays a bit uneven all the way through and keeps things interesting.

 

[barmyarmy]

No real surprises in the selection. It was predictable that Patel would get a run in the side.

 

[puddleduck]

Also can't wait for pitches where first over edges actually carry to slip...

Yeah I think they had to give Patel the 2nd test really after picking him for the 1st one. Don't think he's good enough at either batting or bowling, but meh

----------

Good lord, I know it might sound like moaning but the amount of 'umpires calls' that England seem to be given out on and not get when they're bowling on this tour has been ridiculous...

I blame the BCCI of course

----------

Lovely catch... that just carried with a brand new ball haha

If Dilshan can't score runs on these pitches opening up, then he shouldn't be playing test cricket as an opener

 

[barmyarmy]

Consensus on twitter is that this isn't an easy pitch to time the ball on.

 

[puddleduck]

Yeah I think it'll stick in the pitch a bit, certainly what Botham was saying.

Top delivery from Jimmy. Sanga with two goldens in a series? Wowzers. Good thing they've got the extra seamer to keep the pressure on early. Oh, and Strauss nearly made a big mess of a relative dolly at slip

Still... this seems somewhat like deja-vu haha

We need Jaya and Sama... oh and we need them all-out before 100

----------

It's easy to see why Mahela averages 63+ at home and under 40 in England. Barely has any backlift, just lets the ball come onto the bat and uses his wrists so well when he wants to find gaps. So effortless when he scores runs

----------

That looks as plumb as anything ha.

How good is Jimmy now? Really has become one of the finest seamers in world cricket.

 

[puddleduck]

I would have liked them to give Swann a random over or two when Jaya was new to the crease. Oh well, he'll be on soon enough for a long bowl I'm sure

----------

I'm sure I've already watched this match...

----------

So Samit comes on before Swann... We've gone back to letting batsman get as settled as possible before Swann gets a bowl.

I love how Jaya pulls out the paddle sweep from middle stump with no issues whatsoever