Slitherine

guthroth wrote:

countadam wrote:
Go the forces of darkness..

Paul from Sydney

The Forces of Light seem to have the whip hand this morning ...

Pete from London

Now, now, lets be fair - the Aussies clearly bowled twice as well as they did on day 4 in the last test as they managed to take twice as many wickets today

Worth noting that in our last 2 innings we are 834-3 so far ...

nikgaukroger wrote:Worth noting that in our last 2 innings we are 834-3 so far ...

A statistic worthy of a television commentator

guthroth wrote:

countadam wrote:
Go the forces of darkness..

Paul from Sydney

The Forces of Light seem to have the whip hand this morning ...

Pete from London

Without a doubt.

I for one am looking forward to a close series decided in the last test.

I for one am looking for the last test to be a dead rubber, England being 3-0 up at that stage. Want to see the reception Ricky gets when he comes out to bat...

nikgaukroger wrote:Worth noting that in our last 2 innings we are 834-3 so far ...

And Alistair Cook is 371 not out

I found Aggers comment that everyone was expecting Ian Bell to be the dominant batsman rather funny. Poor chap has't even been close to the crease with a bat for what must seem like an age.

hammy wrote: And Alistair Cook is 371 not out

If he keeps going he will single-handedly outscore the Aussies

Shows the selectoral wisdom of pick an Essex boy.

timmy1 wrote:Shows the selectoral wisdom of pick an Essex boy.

Cook played in the same team as Ravi Bopara as a youngster. You can imagine somebody reporting back after watching the two of them bat:

"You need to come along and see this lad Bopara, superb player, all flair, can play all the shots, excellent temperament, destroys bowling attacks, really looks the business. Oh, by the way, there's some lad called Cook who accumulates loads of runs"

Another silly stat.

Cook has now batted for 1022 minutes without being out

Everybody seems to have forgotten how much talk there was about Cook whilst England were winning the Ashes in 2005. The fact that he scored 200+ against the Australia in the middle of that series, and in pretty quick time too IIRC, might have had something to do with that. He might even have contributed to England's win, there was some feeling that being destroyed by a county batting line-up dented confidence of a supposedly fearsome Oz bowling attack, whilst increasing confidence amongst those preparing to face them - and showed they could be rattled if you attacked them rather than treating them with "respect".

Bopara...well, he does look like a talented batsman, still plenty of time for him to get another chance and make good at test level....we'll see.

ShrubMiK wrote: Bopara...well, he does look like a talented batsman, still plenty of time for him to get another chance and make good at test level....we'll see.

No chance now.

will you starta criquet fantasy league?

Bopara is Like H. Gibbs of South Africa but with less of a big game mentality... (nearly wrote that Ravi bats like he is off his head most of the time but in light of Mr Gibbs recent tome decided those words might be open to interpretation...)

Jilu, no fantasy cricket league can ever be as exciting as retaining The Ashes (think of it like the Hundred Years War but without the chivalric niceties)...

i once tried to learn the rules of cricket.....well it reminded me of that P. Barker language....so i stopped....



(i do respect M. Barker a lot thanks to him i play miniature wargames and learned english)

I thought it was Bell that had no big-game mentality?

Or was it Cook?

ShrubMiK wrote:I thought it was Bell that had no big-game mentality?

Or was it Cook?

Jimmy Andersen, Ian Bell and Alistair Cook.

According to the Australians anyway.

Bopara? Who's he?

Great to see Cook getting the runs. A proper gentlemen unlike Bopara. Bat through to tea, declare on 580 and put the aussies back in for the last session. Watching the current Aussie team reminds me of England not so long ago.

I've no idea whether Cook is a gentleman, and not sure I'd want to go and try to find out

I will say that I saw him in Guildford a few years back, signing some book or other for a queue of (largely female) admirers just inside one of the bookshops. It took me a little while to realise who he was...he had a strange sort of glow to him, he really stood out amongst the members of Joe Q Public.

Clearly he's an alien of some sort, but hey I'm not complaining.

Anderson is a good point. So let's see who of the current England team would be playing if the selectors had heeded massed public calls to bin them after one bad series.

Hmmm. Finn, who's not been around long enough for that. Swann. And that I reckon is about it.

And quite a few of the others have been dropped but forced themselves back into the frame.

So, back to Bopara...we'll see