Eng v SL, 2nd Test

Post by John Hall
You'd have got long odds against Atkinson being the highest scorer of
the four Surrey players in the England side. Indeed he made more than
the other three added together. SL looked well placed when England were
216-6 soon after tea, but really let things slip after that, thanks
primarily to Root and Atkinson.

i was amazed SL put england in but when woakes was out it looked
inspired, but a lot of soft dismissals really. root played some lovely
shots and was very patient but he had quite a bit of luck and then got
himself out like the rest, and struggled almost to the point of
incoherence to explain why he did it afterwards. but england were in
trouble until atkinson came in and played smiths role and rescued the
situation. pitch looks fine as does weather, and as englands record at
lords is so poor i think we need 450+ becos i suspect the Lankans will
also enjoy batting on this wkt.

mike

John Hall

2024-08-30 09:03:35 UTC

I think 450 would be asking a lot, especially as the SL bowlers should
be fresh this morning and will have a nearly new ball.

The pitch seems disappointingly slow. You could understand it at Old
Trafford, as they'd had lots of rain, but there hasn't been much in SE
England in recent weeks. I was a little surprised that there didn't seem
to be any sign of reverse swing yesterday, as the pitch and outfield
both seem to be pretty dry. Perhaps the England bowlers might be able to
get some today.

--
John Hall
"Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people
from coughing."
Sir Ralph Richardson (1902-83)

miked

2024-08-30 22:45:58 UTC

I think 450 would be asking a lot, especially as the SL bowlers should
be fresh this morning and will have a nearly new ball.

Gus nearly made it achievable. Remarkable innings as good as a botham, i
spose everyone will expect him to do it again when england are trouble,
but woakes who has 10 FC 100s, has yet to repeat his feat 8 years ago.

Post by John Hall
The pitch seems disappointingly slow. You could understand it at Old
Trafford, as they'd had lots of rain, but there hasn't been much in SE
England in recent weeks. I was a little surprised that there didn't seem
to be any sign of reverse swing yesterday, as the pitch and outfield
both seem to be pretty dry. Perhaps the England bowlers might be able to
get some today.

I thought Woakes did a good impress of Anderson out there, on another
day he could have easily had a 5fer,
potts did well too, stone started dramatically but suffered when chosen
to bowl the bazball barrage which might have worked if Root hadnt
dropped a sitter. Kamindu is batting way too low, luckily for england.
Also pitch is beginning to give some uneven/low bounce, but the weather
seems set fair so for once this summer there shouldnt be any
interruptions or need for the floodlights. Despite this only 76.3 overs
today, although i'm sure the england fans there wernt too unhappy.

mike

John Hall

2024-08-31 09:02:20 UTC

I think 450 would be asking a lot, especially as the SL bowlers should
be fresh this morning and will have a nearly new ball.

Gus nearly made it achievable. Remarkable innings as good as a botham,

The remarkable thing was the quality and variety of his strokes. There
was no wild slogging.

Post by miked
i
spose everyone will expect him to do it again when england are trouble,
but woakes who has 10 FC 100s, has yet to repeat his feat 8 years ago.

I suppose Woakes has mostly batted at number 8 (though at 7 in this
Test), and it's pretty hard to score a hundred from there. If it's a
good pitch, you may not even get to bat or at best only briefly to set
up a declaration, and if it's a poor pitch then it's unlikely that the
tail will stick around long enough for you to reach three figures.

All agreed.

Post by miked
Also pitch is beginning to give some uneven/low bounce, but the weather
seems set fair so for once this summer there shouldnt be any
interruptions or need for the floodlights.

Not sure about that. The MO seems to be forecasting a deterioration on
days 4 and 5, with showers or longer spells of perhaps thundery rain.

Post by miked
Despite this only 76.3 overs
today, although i'm sure the england fans there wernt too unhappy.
mike

That's pretty poor, even adding on 3 overs (is it?) for the interval
between innings. And the spinners bowled a reasonable number of overs.
My impression is that in this match SL have been even more dilatory in
the field than England.

--
John Hall
"Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people
from coughing."
Sir Ralph Richardson (1902-83)

David North

2024-08-31 15:36:09 UTC

I think 450 would be asking a lot, especially as the SL bowlers should
be fresh this morning and will have a nearly new ball.

Gus nearly made it achievable. Remarkable innings as good as a botham,

The remarkable thing was the quality and variety of his strokes. There
was no wild slogging.

Post by miked
i
spose everyone will expect him to do it again when england are trouble,
but woakes who has 10 FC 100s, has yet to repeat his feat 8 years ago.

6 years ago

Post by John Hall
I suppose Woakes has mostly batted at number 8 (though at 7 in this
Test), and it's pretty hard to score a hundred from there.

Yes, 55 innings out of 87 at #8. He has batted at #9 more often (18
times) than he has higher than #8 (10 times at #7, including his 100,
and 4 times at #6). His highest score at #8 (or #9) is 66.

Post by John Hall
That's pretty poor, even adding on 3 overs (is it?) for the interval
between innings.

The intervals are 10 minutes, which would account for 5 overs at 15
overs per hour given that there were two changes of innings yesterday,
but 2 overs (x2) would have been deducted from the "minimum" number of
overs in the day.

And the spinners bowled a reasonable number of overs.

Post by John Hall
My impression is that in this match SL have been even more dilatory in
the field than England.

Judging by the minutes column, England's 1st innings of 102 overs took
452 minutes (13.54 oph), SL's 1st innings of 55.3 overs took 249.5
minutes (13.35 oph) and England's 2nd innings of 54.3 overs took 240.5
minutes (13.60 oph).

The difference is less than I would have expected given that SL bowled
32 overs of spin in the 1st innings and 20 in the 2nd, whereas England
only bowled 10 in SL's first innings.

Of course, the shorter an all-out innings is, the lower the over-rate is
likely to be, because a higher proportion of time is taken waiting for
new batters to come out.

--
David North

miked

2024-08-31 20:24:31 UTC

Post by miked
Also pitch is beginning to give some uneven/low bounce, but the weather
seems set fair so for once this summer there shouldnt be any
interruptions or need for the floodlights.

Not sure about that. The MO seems to be forecasting a deterioration on
days 4 and 5, with showers or longer spells of perhaps thundery rain.

yes it turned out that way today. i saw a BBC forcast on friday for
lords area which at that time suggested fine weather through sunday but
now it looks a bit more uncertain for sunday and monday, with a warning
about thunderstorms and 'a small chance of flooding in some areas'! But
i didnt expect they would lose most of the evening session to bad light.
I didnt count the overs but it was even less than yesterday.

Anyway Roots 2nd 100 was i think better than the 1st as they had to get
a move on, batting wasnt easy amd wkts kept falling at the other end.
But all the top 3 need a score at the oval.

mike

John Hall

2024-09-01 07:24:21 UTC

Post by miked
Also pitch is beginning to give some uneven/low bounce, but the weather
seems set fair so for once this summer there shouldnt be any
interruptions or need for the floodlights.

Not sure about that. The MO seems to be forecasting a deterioration on
days 4 and 5, with showers or longer spells of perhaps thundery rain.

yes it turned out that way today. i saw a BBC forcast on friday for
lords area which at that time suggested fine weather through sunday but
now it looks a bit more uncertain for sunday and monday, with a warning
about thunderstorms and 'a small chance of flooding in some areas'! But
i didnt expect they would lose most of the evening session to bad light.
I didnt count the overs but it was even less than yesterday.
Anyway Roots 2nd 100 was i think better than the 1st as they had to get
a move on, batting wasnt easy amd wkts kept falling at the other end.

Apparently it was his fastest Test hundred. It came at almost a run a
ball, and yet he never seemed to be unduly hurrying until England were 8
or 9 wickets down and he understandably started swiping at every ball -
which actually resulted in his scoring more slowly than he had up till
then.

Post by miked
But all the top 3 need a score at the oval.
mike

Yep, especially Lawrence, who has done nothing to advance his case to
remain in the squad once Crawley is fit again.

--
John Hall
"Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people
from coughing."
Sir Ralph Richardson (1902-83)

David North

2024-09-01 12:13:41 UTC

Post by miked
But all the top 3 need a score at the oval.
mike

Yep, especially Lawrence, who has done nothing to advance his case to
remain in the squad once Crawley is fit again.

Well he hasn't been the weakest link, but I don't suppose they'll drop
Pope instead.

--
David North

miked

2024-09-01 20:35:10 UTC

Post by David North

Post by miked
But all the top 3 need a score at the oval.
mike

Yep, especially Lawrence, who has done nothing to advance his case to
remain in the squad once Crawley is fit again.

Well he hasn't been the weakest link, but I don't suppose they'll drop
Pope instead.

No i think its unlikely unless he get a pair at the oval but prob not
even then. his captaincy has been quite impressive i dunno why it seems
to attracted so much criticism, the only area is that his referrals have
been poor [but so often are stokes] he burned 2 in the first 10 overs.
But whether its down to him the bowling has been straighter, fuller and
more on the stumps and there was abit of leg theory tried with both the
seamers and bash. Stone had a good return, would have been better if he
hadnt had to bowl the short stuff which was duly dispatched, but i
notice he delivers from some way behind the line, maybe hes had probs
with no balls, but he was quicker 2 years ago.

It looked to me as if the 3rd ump [?Gaffney] made a serious error in
overturning chandimals lbw to woakes, didnt cost england much in the
end, but even though there was a slight noise before the ball passed the
bat to hit the pad, the ump should have noticed the clear daylight which
was easy to see on the tv replay.

Anyway another win for england, 5 outof 5 so far, might seem everything
is rosy but except for root the top order is a bit iffy ATM. Another
honor for Gus 100 and a 5fer, weather forcast turned out completly wrong
may have put off many people coming, shame the ground was pretty empty.

mike

miked

2024-09-01 21:28:41 UTC