Cricket fred

[Banquo]

very soft after lunch again. Let all the pressure off- poor captaincy. Pakistan are getting the game back through our slipshod thinking. Buttler also owes us a lot of runs

[Banquo]

very soft after lunch again. Let all the pressure off- poor captaincy. Pakistan are getting the game back through our slipshod thinking. Buttler also owes us a lot of runs

let me rephrase, utter shoite since lunch. Its absolutely poor tactics and captaincy- if you were going to say what would Pakistan want us to do, this would be it- Woakes now trying to bounce them out, with Bess at the other end bowling with a nearly new ball.

[Stom]

very soft after lunch again. Let all the pressure off- poor captaincy. Pakistan are getting the game back through our slipshod thinking. Buttler also owes us a lot of runs

let me rephrase, utter shoite since lunch. Its absolutely poor tactics and captaincy- if you were going to say what would Pakistan want us to do, this would be it- Woakes now trying to bounce them out, with Bess at the other end bowling with a nearly new ball.

Shit, they keep telling me not to overbowl Archer. Anderson's in a strop, Broad is shagged...What do I do? I know, Bess and bounce. Who can bounce? Archer! Oh, wait, I shouldn't overbowl him...OK, Woakes will bounce them out.

[Banquo]

Great call bringing Bess on, obvs . reverse jinx works

[Banquo]

very soft after lunch again. Let all the pressure off- poor captaincy. Pakistan are getting the game back through our slipshod thinking. Buttler also owes us a lot of runs

let me rephrase, utter shoite since lunch. Its absolutely poor tactics and captaincy- if you were going to say what would Pakistan want us to do, this would be it- Woakes now trying to bounce them out, with Bess at the other end bowling with a nearly new ball.

Shit, they keep telling me not to overbowl Archer. Anderson's in a strop, Broad is shagged...What do I do? I know, Bess and bounce. Who can bounce? Archer! Oh, wait, I shouldn't overbowl him...OK, Woakes will bounce them out.

I think Archer needs to get some miles in his legs tbh and Buttler's mare continues. Think he will have to get a truck load of runs here.

[Stom]

let me rephrase, utter shoite since lunch. Its absolutely poor tactics and captaincy- if you were going to say what would Pakistan want us to do, this would be it- Woakes now trying to bounce them out, with Bess at the other end bowling with a nearly new ball.

Shit, they keep telling me not to overbowl Archer. Anderson's in a strop, Broad is shagged...What do I do? I know, Bess and bounce. Who can bounce? Archer! Oh, wait, I shouldn't overbowl him...OK, Woakes will bounce them out.

I think Archer needs to get some miles in his legs tbh

I actually agree in this instance. I don't think Root is actually a very good captain. But I fail to see who else could do it. I mean...Stokes was pretty terrible and in the ODIs, Moeen was even worse!!!

Buttler is having a 'mare. So why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone, bring in Foakes and make him captain :p

[Banquo]

Shit, they keep telling me not to overbowl Archer. Anderson's in a strop, Broad is shagged...What do I do? I know, Bess and bounce. Who can bounce? Archer! Oh, wait, I shouldn't overbowl him...OK, Woakes will bounce them out.

I think Archer needs to get some miles in his legs tbh

I actually agree in this instance. I don't think Root is actually a very good captain. But I fail to see who else could do it. I mean...Stokes was pretty terrible and in the ODIs, Moeen was even worse!!!

Buttler is having a 'mare. So why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone, bring in Foakes and make him captain :p

I reckon we have to bite the Root bullet somehow, but not easy, We need his runs at the level he wasn;t captain. Bring Morgan in and let him fail at 3

[Stom]

I think Archer needs to get some miles in his legs tbh

I actually agree in this instance. I don't think Root is actually a very good captain. But I fail to see who else could do it. I mean...Stokes was pretty terrible and in the ODIs, Moeen was even worse!!!

Buttler is having a 'mare. So why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone, bring in Foakes and make him captain :p

I reckon we have to bite the Root bullet somehow, but not easy, We need his runs at the level he wasn;t captain. Bring Morgan in and let him fail at 3

lol.

Pope is meant to be a future #3, so why not bring Morgan in at 5, Stokes down to 6, and we have balance. But I doubt that'll happen, tbh. Morgan has specialised too much.

[Banquo]

I actually agree in this instance. I don't think Root is actually a very good captain. But I fail to see who else could do it. I mean...Stokes was pretty terrible and in the ODIs, Moeen was even worse!!!

Buttler is having a 'mare. So why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone, bring in Foakes and make him captain :p

I reckon we have to bite the Root bullet somehow, but not easy, We need his runs at the level he wasn;t captain. Bring Morgan in and let him fail at 3

lol.

Pope is meant to be a future #3, so why not bring Morgan in at 5, Stokes down to 6, and we have balance. But I doubt that'll happen, tbh. Morgan has specialised too much.

not the worst idea tbh, and Morgan only specialised as he was dropped from tests.

Lo and behold, Archer comes on and gets 2 in 2,....and Root keeps Bess on, despite it being obvious what will happen....

[Stom]

I reckon we have to bite the Root bullet somehow, but not easy, We need his runs at the level he wasn;t captain. Bring Morgan in and let him fail at 3

lol.

Pope is meant to be a future #3, so why not bring Morgan in at 5, Stokes down to 6, and we have balance. But I doubt that'll happen, tbh. Morgan has specialised too much.

not the worst idea tbh, and Morgan only specialised as he was dropped from tests.

Lo and behold, Archer comes on and gets 2 in 2,....and Root keeps Bess on, despite it being obvious what will happen....

I really feel like Root has mixed concepts in his head over what he should do. And so he messes it up.

Ponting, as an example, always knew exactly what he wanted: to win by an innings.

Root seems to want to make sure he doesn't lose by an innings and also he wants to bed in new players, and also he wants to get runs...

[fivepointer]

Lost the plot this afternoon after a good morning session. Dull stuff from the outset, allowing Pakistan to get going and build a good partnership.

Buttler having a game with the gloves to forget. He's been poor.

[Banquo]

Lost the plot this afternoon after a good morning session. Dull stuff from the outset, allowing Pakistan to get going and build a good partnership.

Buttler having a game with the gloves to forget. He's been poor.

They did exactly the same yesterday, though this was a huge tactical misfire by opening up with Bess (he was getting turn to be fair) and worse Root. They'd probably been happy with 312-8 given the overnight score, but opportunity and opportunities missed. This is a seamer and spin friendly pitch, so has to be a worry.

[Big D]

I actually agree in this instance. I don't think Root is actually a very good captain. But I fail to see who else could do it. I mean...Stokes was pretty terrible and in the ODIs, Moeen was even worse!!!

Buttler is having a 'mare. So why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone, bring in Foakes and make him captain :p

I reckon we have to bite the Root bullet somehow, but not easy, We need his runs at the level he wasn;t captain. Bring Morgan in and let him fail at 3

lol.

Pope is meant to be a future #3, so why not bring Morgan in at 5, Stokes down to 6, and we have balance. But I doubt that'll happen, tbh. Morgan has specialised too much.

I don't think Stokes was that bad tbh bar the big decision at the toss. The decision to rotate bowlers and keep his best option on the bench would not have been his call.

Morgan hasn't played red ball cricket for too long and there are far better red ball batsmen out there.

[Digby]

Would Morgan have to show he's got an actual defence at any level? Or that he can captain in the longer format?

Also how are we still in this game? We've gone out of our way to put this match beyond us, but whilst we need a big innings from someone all three results are possible (all four for the pedants)

[Banquo]

I reckon we have to bite the Root bullet somehow, but not easy, We need his runs at the level he wasn;t captain. Bring Morgan in and let him fail at 3

lol.

Pope is meant to be a future #3, so why not bring Morgan in at 5, Stokes down to 6, and we have balance. But I doubt that'll happen, tbh. Morgan has specialised too much.

I don't think Stokes was that bad tbh bar the big decision at the toss. The decision to rotate bowlers and keep his best option on the bench would not have been his call.

Morgan hasn't played red ball cricket for too long and there are far better red ball batsmen out there.

It was mostly a joke, fairly obviously. That said Root is a problem as skipper, (lack of big runs being obvious) and Stokes already has too much on his plate.

Not sure how I feel about 326 all out- at two points it looked like it would be worse, but for a long time looked like it'd be better.

[Digby]

Sometimes you just have to laugh

[Banquo]

FFS

[Mellsblue]

This could get ugly. Classic England.

[Banquo]

They always say, wait until the other side has batted........

[Stom]

They always say, wait until the other side has batted........

We don't need to when it's the first game of a season in England. We should probably just start awarding it to the visitors.

It's like we're incapable of playing well against "new" opponents, and need a match to get into it.

[Banquo]

They always say, wait until the other side has batted........

We don't need to when it's the first game of a season in England. We should probably just start awarding it to the visitors.

It's like we're incapable of playing well against "new" opponents, and need a match to get into it.

bloody daft given we have three tests under our belt already, and Pakistan....don't. Its almost like we are surprised that teams have some very good players and we don't do our homework (and I think we do, just the dog eats it). These two have serious gas and skill, but its hardly a surprise.

This is going to be very bad, St Ben goes.

[Stom]

They always say, wait until the other side has batted........

We don't need to when it's the first game of a season in England. We should probably just start awarding it to the visitors.

It's like we're incapable of playing well against "new" opponents, and need a match to get into it.

bloody daft given we have three tests under our belt already, and Pakistan....don't. Its almost like we are surprised that teams have some very good players and we don't do our homework (and I think we do, just the dog eats it)

I know I gave Eddie grief for trying to install some of "that Aussie dog" to England rugby, and thought we should play more like England...

Well, this England cricket team needs dog. There is none. Well, Stokes has some, but that's it. I mean, even Ian Bell had dog, ffs. And he was surrounded by players who could lift the team.

Meanwhile, we're 3 down against a very good Pakistan attack, bowling well in helpful conditions. And, yes, I know we collapse and it's the batsmen who should take the flak, but I really do feel like our lack of incision when bowling puts extra pressure on our batting. We regularly concede 50-100 more runs than we should and I don't think you can blame the individual bowlers: it's coming from the captain and the team.

[Digby]

luckily we've got good history against leg spinners

[Digby]

Also our batters are chasing 300 in the 1st innings, just how much less pressure would they like?

[Banquo]

We don't need to when it's the first game of a season in England. We should probably just start awarding it to the visitors.

It's like we're incapable of playing well against "new" opponents, and need a match to get into it.

bloody daft given we have three tests under our belt already, and Pakistan....don't. Its almost like we are surprised that teams have some very good players and we don't do our homework (and I think we do, just the dog eats it)

I know I gave Eddie grief for trying to install some of "that Aussie dog" to England rugby, and thought we should play more like England...

Well, this England cricket team needs dog. There is none. Well, Stokes has some, but that's it. I mean, even Ian Bell had dog, ffs. And he was surrounded by players who could lift the team.

Meanwhile, we're 3 down against a very good Pakistan attack, bowling well in helpful conditions. And, yes, I know we collapse and it's the batsmen who should take the flak, but I really do feel like our lack of incision when bowling puts extra pressure on our batting. We regularly concede 50-100 more runs than we should and I don't think you can blame the individual bowlers: it's coming from the captain and the team.

We don't have a 'lack of incision'. We have some periods where we seem to lose focus, and that's really the skipper dozing off.