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***Official*** England in Sri Lanka

BoyBrumby

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Man, heroic ineptness from England. A minor classic of direitude.

TMS reckons KP got a snorter, Cook sawed off Bell with a rank bad call (good fielding from Dilshan tho) & Prior was bowled with one that kept reeeeally low. Vaughan's misjudgement is supposedly quite humourous tho.

"Should Ramps have gone?" Was the topic discussed during the break for rain (typical that with no Yesterday in Parliament for Radio 4 LW to bugger off to at 8.30 due to the Xmas recess we also had no cricket, but I digress...) with Fraser saying no (interesting as he's an old county mate of Ramprakash) and Selvey and CMJ saying aye. I personally think there's always something to be said for selecting the best XI without an eye on some vapourous "future". Thoughts anyone?
 
Neil Pickup

Neil Pickup

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I think he should quite probably be on the plane to New Zealand in February. And you've no idea how dirty I feel typing that sentence.
 
Prince EWS

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
BoyBrumby said:
Man, heroic ineptness from England. A minor classic of direitude.

TMS reckons KP got a snorter, Cook sawed off Bell with a rank bad call (good fielding from Dilshan tho) & Prior was bowled with one that kept reeeeally low. Vaughan's misjudgement is supposedly quite humourous tho.

"Should Ramps have gone?" Was the topic discussed during the break for rain (typical that with no Yesterday in Parliament for Radio 4 LW to bugger off to at 8.30 due to the Xmas recess we also had no cricket, but I digress...) with Fraser saying no (interesting as he's an old county mate of Ramprakash) and Selvey and CMJ saying aye. I personally think there's always something to be said for selecting the best XI without an eye on some vapourous "future". Thoughts anyone?
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Couldn't have done much worse than Bopara. Easy to say in hindsight though. In reality, Shah should have played.
 
wpdavid

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Prince EWS said:
Couldn't have done much worse than Bopara. Easy to say in hindsight though. In reality, Shah should have played.
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Yes. IIRC Bopara leapfrogged Shah on the basis of looking more confident in the warmup games, which was no reason to ignore their FC records. There's been too much of that sort of thing this year - the Broad/Tremlett/Broad again selection is another example of selections being made on some sort of whim rather than anything substantial.

The big winner out of all of this will probably be Andrew Strauss, whose standing will have risen simply by missing this debacle, irrespective whether he'd have done any better.

and fwiw I still wouldn't take Ramps to NZ.
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
BoyBrumby said:
Man, heroic ineptness from England. A minor classic of direitude.

TMS reckons KP got a snorter, Cook sawed off Bell with a rank bad call (good fielding from Dilshan tho) & Prior was bowled with one that kept reeeeally low. Vaughan's misjudgement is supposedly quite humourous tho.
Click to expand...
All pretty accurate other than the Vaughan one - was a brilliant piece of bowling, pitched outside off as a left-armer from over-the-wicket and would have hit middle.
"Should Ramps have gone?" Was the topic discussed during the break for rain (typical that with no Yesterday in Parliament for Radio 4 LW to bugger off to at 8.30 due to the Xmas recess we also had no cricket, but I digress...) with Fraser saying no (interesting as he's an old county mate of Ramprakash) and Selvey and CMJ saying aye. I personally think there's always something to be said for selecting the best XI without an eye on some vapourous "future". Thoughts anyone?
Click to expand...
Basically, the outcome was always going to be "if Shah\Bopara succeeded, not picking Ramprakash was always going to be a masterstroke, if they didn't it was always going to be WTF didn't they pick him".

The only decent question is not whether you look to the future - the problem is various people seem to be making the simple assumption that had Ramparkash been picked, he'd have scored. While I'd love him to have done so, I really don't know whether or not he would have. Shah has every bit as good a case as Ramprakash - not quite as phenominal a domestic record, but no Test failure of a career behind him.

Bopara on the other hand was a typical case of going with the one who "looked best"; "had something about him" and all that crap. Unless he gets something substantial in the second dig here, it'll rightly look like the shocker it was. EDIT: as Dave has pretty much beaten me to saying.
 
Langeveldt

Langeveldt

Soutie
Fantastic stuff from Sri Lanka, nice to see their bowlers other than Murali embarassing a side..

Who or what is Bopara? What does he bring?
 
wpdavid

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Richard said:
Chanaka gets his 1st Test wicket as Collingwood appears to miss a straight one.
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Probably the shock of actually facing one after the rain break.

England will probably be praying that it doesn't rain tomorrow morning, so they can be back in time for the weekend.
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
wpdavid said:
England will probably be praying that it doesn't rain tomorrow morning, so they can be back in time for the weekend.
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I guess - if you're going to be demolished it's best to be demolished quickly.

TBH this game really does remind me so impossibly acutely of the previous Third Test (albeit at a different venue). England must have dropped 6 or 7 catches at the very least in 2 days' play, then got knocked-over for nothing in both innings as Sri Lanka missed nothing. Not entirely poor batting in either case, there was good bowling aplenty in both Tests.

But you rarely see such total scorecard domination. This will be a first-innings lead of 400 or so barring something remarkable.

Odds on Jayawardene doing a Ponting and deciding to prolong the agony by batting again? He's got a series victory so he might as well if he fancies it. Does anyone know how many more injuries result from enforced follow-ons?
 
Richard

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
:laugh::lol: What an extraordinary run-out! That livens things up a bit. Shame Vaas is denied a five-for by that a bit, but never mind.

I really would love it if he batted again here TBH.
 
wpdavid

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Richard said:
I guess - if you're going to be demolished it's best to be demolished quickly.
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I could imagine nothing worse than being stuck in the changing room all day with absolutely nothing to gain from a possible 5th day's play that may not happen anyway. OK, there's several things worse, but you know what I mean ..

Richard said:
TBH this game really does remind me so impossibly acutely of the previous Third Test (albeit at a different venue). England must have dropped 6 or 7 catches at the very least in 2 days' play, then got knocked-over for nothing in both innings as Sri Lanka missed nothing. Not entirely poor batting in either case, there was good bowling aplenty in both Tests.

But you rarely see such total scorecard domination. This will be a first-innings lead of 400 or so barring something remarkable.

Odds on Jayawardene doing a Ponting and deciding to prolong the agony by batting again? He's got a series victory so he might as well if he fancies it. Does anyone know how many more injuries result from enforced follow-ons?
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We batted first last time, didn't we. There may well have been a 400+ first innings lead then, as well. IIRC the innings loss was one of, if not the biggest, in our history.
As for the follow on, there's no reason at all not to enforce it unless he's been reading too much about 'mental disintegration' or somesuch. The bowlers are hardly going to be knackered, are they.

Talikng of Jayawardene, he has had rather a lot to say for himself this series, hasn't he. First we had the stuff at Columbo about England batting too negatively (er pots & kettles anyone?) and today he's been publicly saying that we gave up yesterday. OK, so it's probably true, but you don't need to tell the world that about your opponents. And again, pots & kettles spring to mind after SL's white flag job in Aus last month.
 
Burgey

Burgey

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That was perhaps the sinlge most inept test match batting performance I've seen since Australia got rolled for 76 vs the Windies in the 80s at Perth.

But at least that was the Windies in the 80s - and at least it was in Perth.

I mean, well done Sri Lanka for bowling at or near the stumps, but really to see players of that supposed quality getting done over so cheap on that wicket? What the hell is going on? Absolutely disgraceful, and for the first time ever, I feel sorry for England supporters.

You English are a generous people, but I didn't think you'd gift Sri Lanka this series for Christmas quite so easily.
 
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