Cricket fred

[Digby]

It's not as odd as the choice on winning the toss, Charlie Sheen knows about winning and even he would have bowled first, but what are we doing picking six bowlers (and two keepers) and still giving a bowl to Jennings, okay if we'd been out there 140 overs, but for now it's weird

[fivepointer]

We came back pretty well today. Disappointing not to not wrap up the Indian innings a bit sooner, but restricting the lead to under 30 wasnt a bad effort.
Now can we bat well tomorrow?

[Mellsblue]

The decision to drop Curran looks better by the day.

Think I’ll do a Rosen with this. Also notable that Moeen once again does his best work when picked as the support act.

[Digby]

Ali promoted to bat at three and promptly fails as he's frankly not good enough to bat that high. He tried to play straight but was playing the wrong line

[Digby]

It's an excellent series win, but the batting remains a huge concern

[fivepointer]

Yep, winning was a very good all round effort but the top 5 is a real issue.

[Galfon]

A win's a win - against a reasonable team too.
Some decent young talent around Root, but somehow finding the best of an average set of top-order batsmen is proving a challenge.Cook appears to be close to his course-run, again..

[Mellsblue]

Cook to retire at the end of the series. Great servant and will go down as one of the best. I hope enjoys his time on the farm.

[Stom]

Well done to Cook. He's been era defining and now England have the task of finding 3 top order batsmen. No small ask. It's really tough to try and guess who they could be, no-one really stands out. Perhaps we could do worse than take the Aussie route and promote a journeyman 30 something to open the batting for a couple of years while we wait for a young talent to appear.

[fivepointer]

Perfect timing by Cook. He has been in decline for a while and could easily have been dropped for the winter.
He leaves with a very fine record.

[Digby]

What Cook looks like now is what he's always looked like to me, the oddity being the period he averaged 55+ with some very compliant bowling attacks feeding his scoring shots off his legs and cutting short wide balls, all the time ignoring his issues outside off stump. Still for as long as he was scoring runs he was a nailed on selection, the actual scoring being the most important part.

And it is a hell of a record he leaves

[Mellsblue]

http://cricviz.com/2018/09/to-treat-tho ... ssion=true

[Digby]

Frustrating to learn we're missing out on community investment to spend millions on promoting the 100 ball event nobody seems to want that's only going to get in the way of an already existing short ball format.

[Mellsblue]

Yep. Reinventing the wheel. It has all the hallmarks of an idea that most know is a bad one but is too far down the line to stop without too many egos being bruised.

[Digby]

The failure of the top order is as predictably unfunny as the Chuckle Brothers

[Galfon]

Well done to Cook - ton in his last innings, albeit dead rubber.
'Nothing left in the tank'.?.his still young & fit and class is permanent..but his drive & motovation will naturally be waning, and at least he was honest enough to admit it!
It's some record he has, all said.

[fivepointer]

Worked out perfectly. A ton to finish with. He's been an excellent player for England but he knows how demanding it is to keep getting up for each series.

Great mornings work by Cook & Root, who have taken the game away from India with their best batting of the series.

[Digby]

Jadeja must be out on his feet, from not playing to 70 odd overs, and he's been out in the middle most of the match

[Galfon]

Well done Wuss !...Blast trophy to the Beard-that's-feared.First KO silverware for a while.('94)
Good to see local lad wickie Ben Cox turn it on with 2 feisty knocks & 20 yr old quickie Brown doing good stuff.
Not a huge fan of the pyjama-game but it brings the crowds in for a good time.
( not for 1 minute suggesting a lottery-like nature of these contests, but 12 teams have now won the Blast final in 16 years, with 3 other teams reaching a final.
...Derby, Essex & Glam. the ones to have missed out so far)

[WaspInWales]

Bit late, but I thought the test series against India was superb.

We still had the expected top order collapses, but for entertainment value, it was right up there. A couple of tests were close, plus India hammered us, we hammered them.

Add-in Jimmy breaking McGrath's record, Cook's excellent swansong, Curran's performances, Kohli's knocks, Pant's valiant effort and Buttler's maiden century (I'm sure there were more talking points) which were all excellent.

[Digby]

Test cricket remains best with lower scores, but yep it was a good series, though I'd liked to have seen a fit Ashwin

[Digby]

Cricket in monsoon season, cricket administrators doing sterling work to be considered a joke

[Galfon]

Up to their tricks again - this time third man sprinkling gluey-stuff on the outfield just inside the boundary to slow tha ball up - result !

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/cricket/45900511

[Mellsblue]

Ffs

[Digby]

A massive recovery after yet another top order collapse