Thread: Cricket scores around the world

Gallian had been an Australian under-19 captain. When he went to England, he had 15 years of first class cricket for three different counties. When captaining Nottinghamshire, teammate Kevin Pietersen put a restraining order on him to prevent Gallian talking about their differences.

Gallian had allegedly thrown Pieterson’s kit off the Trent Bridge balcony, breaking his bat. During this time he played three Tests and was another example of unfulfilled talent.

Ha! It sounds like KP's wife deserves the MBE more than he does

smellies v India - 2nd test

India 15/1 (8.1 ov)

Lot more life in this pitch, but barbie & angry jimmy serving nothing but pies

Captain clueless is perched on his usual barstool in slips - doing nothing again..

Warne is commentating on Sky giving Cook some very good captaincy advice - with Gower agreeing with him 150%! Shut the fuck up Shane! Don't tell him nuffin' !

42/1

Not at all, but you are become a bit tedious lately....bit of a one trick pony.

I'm just waiting for you to up your fucking game.....

Well atleast I got a bite from you Bob. There are slim pickings these days here with yourself and cyrille being the only poms left.

Perhaps my game is down too, but it's just become so easy to make fun of you guys

English cricket fans really are pathetic.

I know the soccer was on, but you sucked in that too so I'm wondering just what sport you are watching. Something like fox hunting, where you have to be a pom to play I suppose.

Stokes gets a wicket by bowling at the wickets! Jeezus bled!

India 7 down just after tea on the first day of a test match and still you look for reasons to whinge.....

Christ it's just a habit to you.

Lack of commentary killing this series for me.... Anyone got any, even test match sofa won't work for me at the moment......

Oh yeah 7 down despite Cook, be all out if Clarke was captain.... Before lunch..... For 30....

Well perhaps the lack of commentary is keeping you blissfully ignorant of what's going on in the middle Bob. But don't listen to me....

England v India, 2nd Investec Test, Lord's, 1st day

England squander golden opportunity

They wasted the new ball, they dropped chances and they reverted to the type of tactics that made little use of the sort of pitch of which England seamers should dream

George Dobell at Lord's
July 17, 2014
Comments: 2 |

#politeenquiries: England's tactics to tailenders?

Statistics are, very often, misleading. Just as the average person has one breast and one testicle, so scorecards can provide an inaccurate picture of a day's play.

A glance at the scorecard from the first day of the second Investec Test might lead you to conclude that England had bowled pretty well. You might conclude that James Anderson had been tight, that Stuart Broad had been probing and that Liam Plunkett and Ben Stokes had lent disciplined support.

But the truth is England squandered a golden opportunity. They wasted the new ball, they dropped chances and they reverted to the type of tactics that made little use of the sort of pitch of which England seamers should dream. They bowled substantially worse than they had at Trent Bridge.

They had, at last, a green pitch offering carry. They had, at last, an opportunity to test an Indian batting line-up who have questions to answer against the moving ball. And they had a muggy morning on which to bowl. They could - should - have seized this series by the neck and bowled out India for under 200. As it is, India have already recorded their highest first innings total in a Test at Lord's and built a challenging platform.



England were once again ruing dropped chances from wicketkeeper Matt Prior © Getty Images

England wasted their chance. With conditions at their most helpful, England's most experienced seamers bowled too short and too wide. Only one delivery in the first 10 overs would have hit the stumps and, though James Anderson's first five overs were maidens, not a single delivery in them would have bowled a batsman. The Indians were, on the whole, delighted to leave them and see the danger subside.

England's tactics were, at times, baffling. If the sight of Plunkett, on a green surface, banging in the ball with three men out for the hook was frustrating, the sight of Anderson, the man who has taken more Test wickets in England than anyone in history, the man who has the most Test wickets at Lord's, the man who had the second new ball, bowling to India's No. 10 with six - yes, six - men out on the boundary was utterly baffling.

In such helpful conditions - the conditions England have said they wanted for weeks - all the bowlers needed to do was pitch the ball up, bowl at the stumps and allow the swing and the tentative Indian batting to do the rest. But, perhaps through impatience, perhaps through a lack of confidence, perhaps unable to adapt to the conditions after a succession of slow, low surfaces, England bowled short and wide and failed to make the Indian batsmen play at enough deliveries.

There can be no excuses. England's attack leaders have more than 600 Test wickets and 150 Test caps between them. They have, in David Saker, an experienced bowling coach who must surely have suggested they target the stumps more frequently. They were brought up on pitches like this and have the experience to adapt. And, if weariness is a legitimate excuse in the final session, they might reflect that, had they bowled better in the first two hours, they might have had their feet up by tea.

The frustration was that, when they did pitch the ball up, the wickets soon followed. Virat Kohli was the victim of a fine delivery that forced a stroke but then left him to take the edge, while MS Dhoni pushed at a ball he could have left and Murali Vijay played across one. Indeed, when Stuart Binny was the unfortunate victim of an umpiring error, it reduced India to 145 for 7 and left England on the brink of a decent result despite their own modest performance.

Evidence is mounting that Matt Prior is no longer able to do what he could before. His misses are no longer aberrations. They are occurring too often and costing England too much

But they failed to take advantage. Plunkett was inexplicably instructed to bowl around the wicket and test the batsmen with short bowling - deliveries that were later dismissed as "a little bit easy" by Ajinkya Rahane - and Broad, despite the trouble he caused when he hit a good length, also banged in far too many deliveries. Rahane, leaving well but brutal on anything short, responded with a masterful century that may yet prove the defining contribution in this game.

"There is a bit of frustration," Stokes admitted afterwards. "The last session has turned things around a bit. We were extremely unlucky.

"We were pretty happy with our lengths, but our lines could have been better. We talked about it and corrected it. And we had them 140 for 7. So, on the positive side, we keep knocking over their top order."

If such words seem somewhat delusional, the fault was not all England's bowlers. They also suffered, once again, from poor support from their wicketkeeper, Matt Prior, who put down two chances and conceded his 50th bye of the Test summer in the evening session. Such a number includes, inevitably, some deliveries speared down the leg side which no keeper could prevent, but that by no means accounts for all of them.

Prior has enjoyed an illustrious career. He was a key part of the team that rose to No. 1 in the Test rankings and nobody doubts his commitment to the cause. To see him struggling, through no lack of good intentions or hard work, to maintain the standards he once set brings no pleasure.

But cricket can be brutal. And the evidence is mounting that he is no longer able to do what he could before. His misses are no longer aberrations. They are occurring too often and costing England too much. If Jos Buttler is not ready for Test cricket - and it would be asking a lot of a man who has been a first choice wicketkeeper at his county for less than four months - England may well have to turn to James Foster or Chris Read as an interim.

The first chance Prior missed here - Murali Vijay before he had scored - was familiar: it was low and it was to his right. It was, by a generous assessment, the fifth such chance he has failed to take this summer (there have been two other chances which have been closer to his body), with the suspicion mounting that his creaking frame is unable to move quickly enough to low chances to sustain a career at this level.

It might seem that neither chance - the second one a straightforward outside edge offered by Kohli in Moeen Ali's first over - cost England. But in conditions that eased, reprieving Vijay and Kohli allowed Rahane and the lower order to come in against tiring bowlers and a softer ball.

England may also have squandered the best time to bat. By the close of play, a few balls appeared to be keeping low and, if the sun continues to bake this pitch, uneven bounce may become a serious impediment. If they find themselves chasing a challenging fourth innings target, they will only have themselves to blame.

George Dobell is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo
Feeds: George Dobell © ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

^^I hear there is a new app out that allows you to use flash player on an iphone/ipad, which means you can stream the cricket - sorry, don't remember what it's called.

Have you tried livestream for the cricket? It works great for the rugby..

Achhh... I don't have time to sit and watch, radio works better for me.

My success in streaming has been pitiful to say the least on all occasions............

Good to see that Anderson and Broad still have the necessary bowling skills at the highest level.

All that England need now is a decent Captain and Wicket Keeper and things may start going their way.

Originally Posted by Bobcock

Achhh... I don't have time to sit and watch, radio works better for me.

My success in streaming has been pitiful to say the least on all occasions............

You don't have to watch. If you get a Sky stream Gower, Hussain, Atherton and even Warne are commentating.

I've been getting good streams on wiziwig or hitcric.info

I have heard photon is the app to get. You have to pay for it though
5 Flash Player apps for iPhone - TechShout

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

Good to see that Anderson and Broad still have the necessary bowling skills at the highest level.

All that England need now is a decent Captain and Wicket Keeper and things may start going their way.

Mate, if things don't go their way in a home series against SL & IND then things are looking pretty grim. Both teams have appalling test records away from home, with pedestrian bowling attacks.

Mitch and Harris will destroy them next time around - and if they bowl like they have been, you can expect some big scores from the likes of Warner.

Bring It On Ocker!

Cook fails again.

So what to do with him Bob?

Can't get a run, can't captain properly. How long are you going to keep backing him?

India 295
England 51/2 (23.2 ov)

Originally Posted by Wally Dorian Raffles

Gower, Hussain, Atherton and even Warne are commentating.

Croft, Bumbles, Beefy, etc. .... they are all there..the lunch time shows are good too .. I quite often just listen to the audio..

The fact that neither ENG or IND have any bowlers who can bowl over 135kph consistently is making this one another yawn fest too

Kumar gets Bell. Stock standard captaincy from Dohni gets the wicket by bringing him on after lunch!

England 70/3 (31.4 ov)

Shane Warne talking up Joe Root as captain for England on commentary now......

And he's gone!!!

46.3
Jadeja to Root, OUT, forward, this skids on, strikes the pad, huge appeal for lbw and given out! There's been no spin but plenty of skid and this has done for Root, Bruce Oxenford thought about it before raising the finger. Ooo immediately shot of Hot Spot and it shows a big inside edge!


JE Root lbw b Jadeja 13 (50b 0x4 0x6) SR: 26.00

Looks like we'll need another 80 from Anderson to settle them down.

Seems not everyone thinks Cook should be less 'boring' as a captain...

The mistakes Cook made on Thursday were, I think, because he was captaining for the commentators. They have given him a lot of criticism about how he has been boring and hasn't got the game moving along. But 145-7 on a flat track, that is when you needed to be boring. Bowl line and length and wait for the nick.

D'ya reckon he knows what he's talking about, wally?