Cricket

Interesting point, we won’t have the Barmy Army to deal with.

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Archer for Curran, Pakistan unchanged.

England win toss and bat. V windy day but forecast is reasonable today, maybe some showers and again Mon/Tues but good at weekend. In theory plenty of time for a result.

Bruce

I’ve just come in and haven’t seen the score and this is the news I dread :grinning:

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Burns gone for his usual early shower but a very positive and good combination since. Not a lot happening for the bowlers.

This should be the opening pair I think.

Pakistan a team that thrive when it is all going well but under pressure might be a bit different. We shall see.

Interesting with Archer for Curran on what looks to be a pudding of a wicket. Thankfully, Yasir doesn’t seem to have been much on the money today bar Sibley missing one on the stumps, enabling Crawley to canter along nicely.

Crawley looks like a shoo-in for a tour involving slower pitches.

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Root gets a beauty, and Pope gets out playing the same wrong shot on the back foot to Shah as he did in the last match. Buttler, Bess, Woakes need to support Crawley who looks pretty serene. 127-4

Bruce

I like Crawley’s approach in this game, as we’ve seen from him before. If it’s a bad ball, it gets punished and the good ball is respected. Kind of an anti-Sibley, as Crawley plays all-around the wicket and goes at a good clip.

201-4 now and the wicket looks very unthreatening, with very little pace and not much spin - a typical Ageas Bowl wicket of late.

You 'd like to think it’s a wicket you can stick around on.

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Crawley looking the business, and good to watch. Looks a proper player. Getting his nose ahead of Burns perhaps.

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Crawley has a scoring shots all round the wicket too, front and back foot. Very good to watch.

Burns is ugly but his technique is actually contributing to dismissals. Looks like it might be hard to fix with so many things on the move as he sets up.

Buttler playing calmly, apart from dumping Shah over his head for two sixes in one over.

Still have to remember that one wicket brings in the bowlers. New ball later important.

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332-4 day one, you’ve got to be happy with that.

Pete - oh, yes. And achieved with thought, pleasing shots and tempo albeit the wicket looks a right pudding, being very easy paced with minimal spin at this time. The jury was out at ~126-4 but Crawley & Buttler marched on well and, from what I saw live, were quite circumspect in not chasing anything ‘dangerous’ (e.g. balls well outside off-stump which invited a higher-risk drive).

I must say I’m struggling to see this as a proper Test wicket given the absence of pace, noting how many edges fell far short of the slips. I just hope it doesn’t turn in to a case of England batting and getting a big score, with Pakistan batting on a late D2/D3 wicket where ‘Bakerloo Line’ balls emerge - e.g. likes of Archer pitching half way down and hitting the bottom/halfway up the stumps. This happened at Lord’s last year IIRC and made a mockery of the game.

The above said, it’s great the cricket is being played, very much in good spirit it seems by the reactions of the Pakistan players to Crawley’s knock. I just hope it’s a fair contest. I also admire Michael Gough for giving Sibley out yesterday when he was some way down the track…a straight ball on the stumps is what it is.

It’s also good to see big boundaries, I assume enabled by the absence of any stewarding/PA speaker area.

…bring on the Aussie quicks on a pudding wicket :upside_down_face:

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Unfortunately didn’t get see any play last night and probably won’t get to see any tonight to after lunch (local football first).

I always look forward to the Aussies touring the UK.

The wicket must have suffered in the bad weather last week, playing consecutive matches at the same venue would have hindered preparations so maybe we should not be too harsh on the groundsman (curator to you, Pete).

I guess it may quicken a bit but looks like it could be a struggle to get twenty wickets for anyone. Naseem Shah bowed quickly enough but did not hurry anyone.

Crawley was pure class yesterday, a pleasure to watch.

Bruce

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Groundskeeper Willy?

Will we get any play today.

Excellent forecast next two days. Warne uses the word curator I noted.

Both work for us.

Bruce - I agree (i.e. not a groundstaff matter), in that the weather across the UK these past 6m’s or so has been highly changeable and, I understand, even the Met Office are struggling to figure out the seasonal changes (not so much seasonal as either very wet or hot & arid). The ODI strips against Ireland were also slow and I know the AB has seen some very good strips in previous years, which have helped the venue in enjoying Test and ODI status, noting it took a few years for the square to ‘settle’.

The days of the late Summer baked strips appears to have gone for now.

The guys are just fixing the wickets in preparation of the ODI against the Aussies. You know we’re on to you guys.

Apparently your excellent and mine are 2 completely different things, flicked over at quarter time in the Aussie Rules to see the super sopper and no play.

I’ll get my coat.

Short sharp local showers not in the forecast but good to hear they are being a lot more flexible with session times.

Same in N Yorks, First and Second team games off due to wet grounds but lovely and sunny now. :frowning:

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