Pakistan vs England test series

[Murph7355]

Taking up where we left off from...

There tomorrow. Hopefully it won't rain so I can at least have a beer in nice weather.

[Wilksy288]

Maybe this mornings session will be good for our bowlers what with the conditions today. Need at least 3 or 4 before lunch.

[LivingTheDream]

Jimmy, Jimmy....

[Murph7355]

Devoid of ideas. We are going to get beat heavily.

[SydneyBridge]

It could be a very long summer..

[Wilksy288]

as much as i love the sun, i'm thinking of doing a rain dance!

[Murph7355]

Rain isn't going to save us. Our bowling is very weak.

The Pakistani batsmen are doing what ours couldn't... But we should be beating this side.

We don't seem to have any approach to get these guys out.

[spikeyhead]

We'd be bowling far better if we'd have put a decent total on the board. Puts them under some pressure before they even walk out. When you get skittled in the first innings they know they can relax, and not worry about scoring quickly.

We tried pushing too hard with bowling, rather than being patient and so went downhill from there. Partially that's poor captaincy, but Root hasn't got that much experience, but really the senior bowlers should have provided a lot of guidance, and bowled with more intelligence to guide the others, but instead we started off bowling back of a length, again, and then too full...

[Wilksy288]

Do we put the blame on root for choosing the wrong decision at the toss or just our batsman for poor batting? Or both?

[Murph7355]

Wilksy288 said:

Do we put the blame on root for choosing the wrong decision at the toss or just our batsman for poor batting? Or both?

Both.

I'd also say our fielding positions looked very poorly set (Root's issue) and Cook was awful at slips (not talking "dropped" catches, but just leaking runs).

Am quite gin and cider soaked but I'd like to see how many boundaries Pakistan got today. It felt like a lot.

I'm still pretty sure Root shouldn't be captain. We still have nobody for 2 & 3 batting position, nobody to replace or come close to Broad or Anderson (neither of whom had a stellar day today) etc etc.

The next few years are going to be tough as an England follower IMO.

[VEX]

I listened to it on the drive home, but actually decided not to go today (had a ticket)

Combination of atrocious playing, overcast cold weather and not drinking ( drove in to do some work this morning) made it very unappealing.

Not sure we can dig ourselves out of this hole.

[spikeyhead]

It really is a case of how badly we lose.

Cook lost the ability to catch in the slips a year ago and I doubt that will ever come back. Glad he's found some batting form but he should be on the boundary from now on.

[Murph7355]

spikeyhead said:

It really is a case of how badly we lose.

Cook lost the ability to catch in the slips a year ago and I doubt that will ever come back. Glad he's found some batting form but he should be on the boundary from now on.

With the field setting they had I'm surprised they didn't put him in the gents toilet behind the Mound!

As for his batting, one swallow doth not a summer make.

This Pakistan side do not look great to me. They did the basics well yesterday, but that's about it. That they have soundly beaten us with both bat and ball is not good at all.

We have serious problems with this side IMO, problems that have actually gone unaddressed for a few years - who should be captain, who should partner Cook, who can replace Cook, what the batting order should be as a result, who is going to replace Anderson (and Broad), who can bring something different/more guile to our bowling attack.

I'm starting to think I'd make Stokes captain. Harness his gingerness. The rest I'm less sure on.

[Wilksy288]

I think we dropped 3 or 4 chances yesterday! As they say catches win matches. Had we taken them we may have been batting this morning!
On the root choosing the wrong decision surely he would of had some help from say cook since he has been there before no?

[spikeyhead]

I don't think that toss made much difference, batting was probably harder yesterday than on the first day. It was application and nous that made the difference

[SydneyBridge]

All out at last, 179 ahead.
Bumble reckons it's a great day for batting..

[Wilksy288]

That could of been worse. Now it's the real test. Let's hope our batsman have learned their lesson from the first innings.

[Downward]

You would have thought after Australia they would have learned their lesson about preperation.

A few players played county and a few ipl since New Zealand. Nothing as a team at all, no warm up games or anything.

[Wilksy288]

Could be over today!

[Baron Greenback]

Thought with all the cricket we should be playing in county matches our players should be match/cricket fit but these guys look like still hang over from new year break! Sad showing!