***Official*** England in Sri Lanka

[JASON]

From Cricinfo-
"He's big, he's bad, he's better than his dad. Stuart Bro-oad, Stuart Broad" Those are the words of the latest Barmy Army song. They never fail.

Expect Harmy to replace Broad - now that Dar has warned him...

 

[Richard]

Cracking catch from Prior to get rid of Tharanga!

 

[wpdavid]

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.

Although that doesn't wholly explain the difference in economy rate between Broad & SB.

tbh I struggle to work out the business of bowlers running on the wicket. Either Broad's chosen his test debut to start doing this, or other umpires haven't been worried.

And a wicket for SB, which won't do his confidence any harm at all.

 

[Fiery]

I thought they were ODI-only figures.

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

And of course, I would be the first to ever dream up such a far-fetched concept

 

[Laurrz]

'The umpire is having another word with Stuart Broad about running on the pitch' eek, he ahs to watch out... it's only the start of the innings!

 

[tooextracool]

Quite surprised that, according to cricinfo, Stuart Broad is an inch taller than Harmison and Sidebottom at 6'5. His spell so far has been better than Sidebottom's as well, despite not having a wicket, been right on the money since ball 1.

 

[Laurrz]

Quite surprised that, according to cricinfo, Stuart Broad is an inch taller than Harmison and Sidebottom at 6'5. His spell so far has been better than Sidebottom's as well, despite not having a wicket, been right on the money since ball 1.

****!!

 

[Richard]

2nd wicket for Sidebottom.

 

[Speersy]

boooooooooo

 

[Richard]

And of course, I would be the first to ever dream up such a far-fetched concept

Yeah, you would. Never seen anyone to add one set of stats to another.

 

[Flem274*]

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 could argue that he's hopeless with any ball.

No I'm not aspiring to be the SP of NZ.

Broad playing a test? Isn't he a bit young? I thought they were giving him a few years in the OD side to get ready first?

 

[wpdavid]

2nd wicket for Sidebottom.

And it's the big one.

 

[tooextracool]

That is quite a delivery from Sidebottom. Think Broad might prefer bowling to Jayawardhene.

 

[Richard]

Broad gets his 2nd warning.

 

[wpdavid]

That is quite a delivery from Sidebottom. Think Broad might prefer bowling to Jayawardhene.

Might the 3 left handers at the top of SL's order be why he's been running on the pitch today?

EDIT
Apparently not. It still puzzles me why Dar's spotted something that has apparently not been an issue in Broad's career until now.

 

[Richard]

tbh I struggle to work out the business of bowlers running on the wicket. Either Broad's chosen his test debut to start doing this, or other umpires haven't been worried.

There's no doubt he's encroaching, no doubt at all. I never tend to take any notice of this unless Umpires start looking, though, so I've never known what he was like before now.

Aleem Dar isn't a fussy Darrell Hair-style type to make something out of not-much on this issue, anyway.

Broad now bowling wider of the crease.

 

[Laurrz]

ohhh...good bowling by sidebottom

just kept it simple.. i was wondering if he should bowl bouncers/yorkers but he kept it simple and was rewarded with the scalp of the #1 batsman in the world

 

[Fiery]

Yeah, you would. Never seen anyone to add one set of stats to another.

Knock yourself out

 

[Stapel]

As for Prior, some of us are going to have to reconsider our opinions of him after these last 2 innings, which have been as impressive as anything we've seen from an England keeper in a very long time. Possibly only Jones' innings at Trent bridge in 2005 has been better in recent memory. Of course, if he now goes on to drop a few then I'll change my tune immediately.

Well, right after that very positive innings, he took 2 good catches (and if I have to believe the BBC-radio, the first one was brilliant).


Good to see both Broad and Harmison (i.e. not Anderson). Broad is really bowling tight on his debute spell. What about the warnings? Is he really doing something nasty? I'm a bit surprised and Cricinfo doesn't say anything about it. Just mentioning the warnings....

 

[wpdavid]

There's no doubt he's encroaching, no doubt at all. I never tend to take any notice of this unless Umpires start looking, though, so I've never known what he was like before now.

Fair enough. In which case, it begs the question why no-one in England has sorted this out before now.