***Official*** England in Sri Lanka

[tooextracool]

So Tuffey, Martin, Cairns, Vettori and Styris are bowlers "of a much inferior quality" than this Sri Lankan attack? Granted, Murali > Vettori and Vaas > any of our seamers in that game but Malinga and Fernando > Tuffey, Martin or Cairns is very debatable given their career stats. Both Cairns and Tuffey have better stats than either of those guys and Martin isn't far off

Tuffey, Martin and Vettori were all nothing short of rubbish on the tour, for differing reasons. Vettori was still struggling with his persistent back injury and he struggled to have any effect all tour. Martin, as some pointed out back then, had problems with the use of Duke balls and was struggling to swing or control the ball. Tuffey in fact was even worse, not only was he struggling to swing or control the ball, he was unable to even bowl with the seam upright which was quite atrocious. That leaves Cairns who was the only moderately decent bowler on tour and even he was well past his prime. The fact that Geraint actually managed a 100 against that bowling attack, despite demonstrating the flaws that he possessed throughout his entire career, more than contradicts your whole argument.

 

[Fiery]

Given that Tuffey was bowling awfully in that series (and mostly around that time) I'd say he < Maaalinga. Martin's crap full-stop, and Cairns had been doing nothing for a long time at that point, before having a last-hurrah in his final Test the next game.

So yes, SL's attack the last 2 games > NZ's in that Test, comfortably.

Martin's not "crap" in tests ya plonker. He's now the 8th highest wickt-taker in NZ test history. Try telling the SA batsmen he's "crap".

Granted, he's crap personified in ODIs

 

[JASON]

this game is completely even for mine

hope the poms get some luck when they bowl coz they certainly didnt get any when they batted....they'll need it for Kumar lol

I would agree its pretty even ATM...To seize the advantage SL has to secure a 150 run lead on first innings as they will be batting last and run scoring will be difficult ...And England would need to bowl SL under 250.

So the equation is simple SL need to go past 350 and get 500 to bag this Test...

England need to bowl SL under 250 ....Given this pitch is more conducive to batting than Kandy 350 is gettable on last innings but will take 4 sessions at least....

Realistically I can see this Test heading for a draw...

 

[Fiery]

Tuffey, Martin and Vettori were all nothing short of rubbish on the tour, for differing reasons. Vettori was still struggling with his persistent back injury and he struggled to have any effect all tour. Martin, as some pointed out back then, had problems with the use of Duke balls and was struggling to swing or control the ball. Tuffey in fact was even worse, not only was he struggling to swing or control the ball, he was unable to even bowl with the seam upright which was quite atrocious. That leaves Cairns who was the only moderately decent bowler on tour and even he was well past his prime. The fact that Geraint actually managed a 100 against that bowling attack, despite demonstrating the flaws that he possessed throughout his entire career, more than contradicts your whole argument.

So we had a bad series

 

[Richard]

Martin's not "crap" in tests ya plonker. He's now the 8th highest wickt-taker in NZ test history. Try telling the SA batsmen he's "crap"

Try telling anyone other than SAfricans he isn't though.

They're the only team he's been successful against.

 

[Fiery]

Try telling anyone other than SAfricans he isn't though.

They're the only team he's been successful against.

Not a bad team to make your bunnies though is it? He averages 25 against Sri Lanka too btw, 22 against Bangladesh and 18 against Zimbabwe (but of course...."they dont count"

 

[tooextracool]

I have to confess I know very little about the guy apart from the fact he has got lot of wickets in domestic Cricket and appears to be moderately fast (by SL standards) and has impressed some ex Test players not to mention the selectors....Vaas's replacement from what I can see can come from any one of several ie Sujeewa De Silva, Amerasinghe, Welagedera and few others...who ever does well when given the opportunity and puts their hand up... ATM one feels Sujeewa De Silva has the edge....more because he has had some success against touring teams and in the 2 tests he played(even if it were Bangladesh)...and because he is identical like for like replacement for Vaas being a left armer...

I believe Welegedera is also a left armer

 

[Richard]

Not a bad team to make your bunnies though is it?

But making one good line-up your bunnies doesn't make one a good bowler, given that Martin has bowled awfully against Australia, England, Pakistan and West Indies. And has never faced India.

Well Broad gets the new-ball, ITSTL. Probably better than Harmison though.

 

[Fiery]

But making one good line-up your bunnies doesn't make one a good bowler, given that Martin has bowled awfully against Australia, England, Pakistan and West Indies. And has never faced India.

Well Broad gets the new-ball, ITSTL. Probably better than Harmison though.

The only teams he has bowled "awfully" against are Australia and probably England but he has only played them 6 and 4 times respectively

 

[Richard]

The only teams he has bowled "awfully" against are Australia and probably England but he has only played them 6 and 4 times respectively

The only team he's played many games against has been, conveniently enough, South Africa. He's been poor against everyone else bar Sri Lanka, who again he's not played many times against.

Annnnnnnnyway, Broad's 1st Test over is without disaster for either party.

 

[Fiery]

Will Broad open the bowling with Harmison or will it be Sidebottom, Rich?

I presume it'll be Harmison with Sidebottom, taking the new-ball on Test debut isn't exactly commonplace.

Not that Harmison's any use with the new-ball, Broad at least hasn't proven useless yet. Though I don't see either of them getting anything much with it as they're not swing-bowlers, because they pitch too short.

If Broad opens the bowling ahead of Sidebottom, i will lose a lot of respect for Vaughan's captaincy. I highly doubt it will happen though.

As an aside Jayasuriya happens to be the most boring commentator I have ever had to listen to. I guess Sky managed to find another one to add to their band of Willis, Botham, Knight and Fernando.

I guess we were wrong

 

[Fiery]

The only team he's played many games against has been, conveniently enough, South Africa. He's been poor against everyone else bar Sri Lanka, who again he's not played many times against.

Exactly, so it's hard to write him off as "crap" on such little evidence. As far as we're concerned he's a pretty decent test bowler and I object to the term "crap". (You can call him worse in ODIs though )

 

[Richard]

I guess we were wrong

Well tec wasn't wrong as such, 'cos he didn't predict Harmison to, and TBF on me I said I reckoned Broad would be a lesser evil than Harmison.

But I don't think anyone was expecting Broad to open.

 

[Fiery]

Well tec wasn't wrong as such, 'cos he didn't predict Harmison to, and TBF on me I said I reckoned Broad would be a lesser evil than Harmison.

But I don't think anyone was expecting Broad to open.

Never been one to admit you're wrong though have ya Rich

 

[Richard]

So England take a leaf out of the Lankans' book with abysmal early ground-fielding, missing what should be simple stops aplenty.

 

[Richard]

Never been one to admit you're wrong though have ya Rich

Well I don't mind on such trivial matters as who's going to open the bowling. As I said - I was wrong to guess that Harmison would open, but as I said - if it'd been me, I'd have gone for Broad, as Harmison is proven hopeless with the new-ball, Broad is merely unproven.

 

[Richard]

Broad gets a warning for running on the pitch.

 

[Fiery]

Well I don't mind on such trivial matters as who's going to open the bowling. As I said - I was wrong to guess that Harmison would open, but as I said - if it'd been me, I'd have gone for Broad, as Harmison is proven hopeless with the new-ball, Broad is merely unproven.

You were wrong about my combined bowling stats earlier (re econ rates) though weren't ya? C'mon, let me hear ya say it !

 

[Richard]

I thought they were ODI-only figures.

I never dreamed anyone'd be mad enough to combine the two game-forms.

 

[Richard]

So England take a leaf out of the Lankans' book with abysmal early ground-fielding, missing what should be simple stops aplenty.

It does irritate me when all the misfields come off one bowler and the other has a couple of excellent stops off him too, as has been the case with Sidebottom and Broad so far.