England v Sri Lanka, Test Series (June 2014)

[IceAgeComing]

On Sky's thing earlier on: Giles said that once Stokes was fit: he'd play him at 6; Prior at seven and Moenn Ali - batsman, part time spinner and Worcestershire number three - at eight as a specialist spinner.

Thank the world he didn't get the England coaching job.

 

[SpitfiresKent]

Apparently hes bowling 90mph consistently

I doubt this. I remember watching him bowl in that televised 4day game and he was bowling high 80's at best, never saw him touch 90mph. But we shall see.

Once he's ready, Steve Finn is the way to go.

 

[Lebanna]

There are a lot of positives for England to take from yesterday's play. Not least that one of the d?butantes did reasonably well. Really good to see both Root and Prior in the runs again, and Bell looks like the number 4 that teams will fear similar to KP.

People keep talking about "oh but this is a weakened attack" etc but remember, England's players (barring 1 or 2) either fall into the "completely/relatively new to test cricket" or the "Hopelessly out of form" categories and so this gives them a chance to regain some form and fit into test cricket. If you had thrown this team at the likes of SA (I would say Aus but we've already seen that..) then their confidence would be shot before they'd even gotten started in this new era.

From SL perspective, I get why they bowled at the toss but I think that was a mistake. Time will tell of course and as the old saying goes "don't judge a pitch till both teams have batted" because if England's battering ram of a bowling attack don't get more out of this pitch than SL then SL have a chance to try and go towards 500+ and bat once.

Going to be an absorbing weekend, much more interesting than that other thing happening somewhere quite a bit hotter...

Edit: Adding to this: We have scored quickly and Root is making the "Daddy" hundred that Gooch preached and was the backbone of our success in the rise to number one. We just need to keep it up.

 

[War]

Yeah, I must say I'm hanging out to watch him. There was an article on cricinfo a couple of days ago that was all hype so it will be interesting see if he can live up to it. Apparently hes bowling 90mph consistently and is the quickest bowler in county cricket which I did not know.

Heard the sky commentators he has been timed as the 2nd quickest in county cricket this season behind Tymal Mills.

 

[Aislabie]

That Sri Lankan bowling attack looked like utter tripe, to be completely honest. Yes, the pitch was flat and doing nothing, but that's no excuse for a lack of discipline. If I was Atapattu, I'd be making changes.

For the next Test, I'd go with an attack of Dilruwan Perera, Rangana Herath, Chanaka Welegedara and Dhammika Prasad. I don't think any of the seamers has done anything worthy of retaining their place in the side, and whatever the track is doing, there's no point having the right kind of attack if they aren't your best bowlers.

Also, I think that Shaminda Eranga has what you might call
"a touch of the Senanayakes"

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

the pitch is ridiculously flat and sub continental attacks struggle with an old ball in england, no reverse and little spin. england were 120-4, which is a fair bit worse than sri lanka making 140-1 so far.

I think dropping Pradeep would be more than harsh.

 

[MUFC1987]

I haven't seen much of this match so far, so can't really comment, but good to see Jordan getting a wicket early.

Joe Root showing his talent there. Great knock from him especially as there have been some doubts over his place in the Test team which I could never quite get my head around. This young lad scored a century in the West Indies with a broken thumb for crying out loud!

On this though, I was one for sure, saying that he didn't look good enough as a Test opener, which lets face it, the England management seem to agree with, hence him batting at 5.

 

[ParkedTheBus]

It is amazing how underrated Sanga is. I would call him the best batsman of this generation, barring the holy trio of Lara, Sachin and Kallis ofc. He has been insanely good ever since he gave up the gloves in test matches.

 

[MUFC1987]

This is a great pitch for batting, pretty rubbish for anything else though. Saying that, Herath will probably have a field day when England bat again.

Re: Sanga, his stats are very impressive without taking into account that they're simply brilliant when you look at the games where he hasn't kept wicket.

 

[barmyarmy]

These kind of pitches are a far bigger threat to test cricket than T20 in my opinion. Only chance of a result is England getting bowled out third innings cos Cook won't be declaring with a lead of fewer than 600...

 

[MUFC1987]

Agreed, it's great to see a master batsman at work and nice to see Mathews come in and be a bit more aggressive, but it's pretty dull really.

 

[Lebanna]

These kind of pitches are a far bigger threat to test cricket than T20 in my opinion. Only chance of a result is England getting bowled out third innings cos Cook won't be declaring with a lead of fewer than 600...

I was thinking the same thing. Pitches for test cricket should create a contest between bat and ball. This is anything but unfortunately.

I saw comments on cricinfo from people saying that Cook presumed SL batting isn't as good as it is hence the timing of his declaration, but if he had declared around 400/450 then England would probably be under a lot of pressure in the 3rd innings. Now at least, we have a shot of bowling them out with a 100 run lead or so taking the pressure off the batsman giving them a chance at gaining some form.

 

[ferg512]

Another joke of a pitch, I suppose as long as they get their five days in the administrators are happy though.

 

[lion100lion]

Another joke of a pitch, I suppose as long as they get their five days in the administrators are happy though.

I feel pity for the bowlers here. They are working just like labourers (with no wage).
Why don't they just use a bowling machine ?

 

[Chewie]

https://vine.co/v/MIe5UhBzqpH