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Cricket - Summer 2020 games


robf

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As you may have noticed, I do like a bit of cricket and I'm looking forward to the Test series against the Windies.

If you're a real nerd, you can watch England's warm-up game (Team Stokes vs Team Buttler) on the ECB website here - https://www.ecb.co.uk/england/men/news/1703010/watch-live-england-men-intra-squad-match

At time of writing, James Bracey is doing himself no harm of getting a debut at number 3 or 4...

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I watched the start of the Test match yesterday. 

Prior to the game starting there was typical portentous Sky stuff - weirdly equating cricketers with key workers, dramatic music, one of those "over hyping sport" intros they often do. You know the stuff - "live sport is back, it's REALLY important" was the message...

Then Sky did something I have never seen before.

Before the game started they completely changed focus and talked about Black Lives Matter. It was immensely powerful, moving stuff and made a mockery of the "sport is back, this is important" stuff that had happened before.

The black lives matter segment was two people (Michael Holding and Ebony Rainford-Brent) taking movingly about how racism had affected them. If you haven't seen it, watch it:

And while you're at it - watch this follow-up interview with the truly wonderful Michael Holding, Nasser Hussain and Ebony Rainford-Brent:

I am by no means a Sky Sports fan - but this was one of their finest hours.

If you missed it and even if you don't like cricket, I really urge you to watch these two clips.

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  • 1 month later...

Just wondering if anyone else has been watching the cricket. For me, it's far more watchable without the crowds than football.

I wonder what England will do for the next game. For me, Leach in for Bess should be the first move. 

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I've been watching the cricket and agree leach should play ahead of bess but bess is in the squad again so is likely to play unless no spinner plays. Stokes is out so I'm expecting Crawley to play for him. I would have put curran in instead of anderson but root has said Anderson will be playing. 

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20 minutes ago, Andy Proctor said:

I've been watching the cricket and agree leach should play ahead of bess but bess is in the squad again so is likely to play unless no spinner plays. Stokes is out so I'm expecting Crawley to play for him. I would have put curran in instead of anderson but root has said Anderson will be playing. 

I think Leach is in there as one of the reserves.

Another interesting one is Bracey who is also a reserve. He did really well in the warm-ups and must be putting some pressure on the openers. I doubt they will drop him yet but if Burns continues with his run of scores, it may be that Bracey comes into the equation too.

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11 hours ago, robf said:

Just wondering if anyone else has been watching the cricket. For me, it's far more watchable without the crowds than football.

I wonder what England will do for the next game. For me, Leach in for Bess should be the first move. 

I think on that previous Old Trafford wicket Leach would have been more threatening. Bess still seems to be a ‘hold an end up’ bowler. Yasir showed that a leggie who puts plenty of revs on the ball with a bit of pace is still unplayable. 

Have you seen much of Parkinson? Could he be worth a go at some point to give us some variety? 
 

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Stokes is such a huge loss all round - batting, bowling (5th seamer...!), fielding, leadership. Someone that can win the game by himself in a session. You can't possibly replace that.

I'd like to find a place for Curran - he offers something a bit different with left arm, and some punchy batting, although I can understand why he can't get in. He is just the kind of cricketer that 'makes things happen'.

While I don't advocate chopping and changing, I don't yet feel comfortable with the opening partnership. Left/right hand combo is good, but with both not fluent scorers, the pressure is increased not to lose a wicket early. They might provide a stable early platform, but 30-1 off 15 is still 30-1. I know that those players don't grow on trees, I'd like ideally to have someone that can move the scoreboard on a bit quicker, put some pressure on the bowlers and the opposition captain early. The Roy experiment failed, but the idea behind it was sound.

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I tend to agree with you. We are still searching for a solid, balanced top 4-5. It's early days and these lads are largely new kids on the block and deserve an extended opportunity to see if they've got what it takes. But teams like India and Australia are better than this summer's opponents and we'll have to go up a notch or two very quickly to compete with them.

That said, Pakistan are decent, talented, good to watch and full value.

Yes, I know he's a match winning one day batsman and his partnership with Woakes was excellent the other day but Buttler is not a test match keeper. So there's a problem there in a five day game.

Spinner? We've been scratching around for a few years now. It seems ages since we had Swan as a shoe in. I don't think Bess is a great spin bowler but I don't know if we've got anyone any better to be frank.

Looking forward to see how we cope without Stokes in the next test.

I'm a Curran fan too. He has a terrific attitude and gives us something different. A pity he can't bowl at top speed but he's a combative lad and often seems to produce something for us.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The cricket has been keeping me sane while trying to sort out the OVF technical stuff.

A great knock by Crawley and although I think Foakes should be Wicket, that was also a brill knock by Buttler.

Loved the Spitfire flypast too!

🛩️

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