I'm in agreement with this, pretty much. We've played the same side for six tests on the bounce, so the selectors feel the need to make up for it by pulling one out of their arses.
What was the "de Villiers catch" all about?
Bounced very clearly & he claimed it; it actually bounced up into his hands off the grass. Saw it on the news this AM. Even allowing for my pro-English bias it was quite ordinary.
Well no but someone has to defend him - i think the moderators must have an equivalent of the "cab rank" principal and Richard got the shortest straw (by some distance)
Well I cant imagine what gave you that idea
Anyway if we're not careful those moderator people will delete our posts and ban us for irreverency and irrelevance
at this.
Nah. In Test cricket you get to see bowlers bowling at batsmen far more than you do in a Twenty20 game. Tailenders battling it out and trying to eke-out as many runs as possible is part of the game, but it's only terribly important later on. In the first-innings of the game, I generally find it very boring.
Actually, have you played against him, vic? Any thoughts if so? Did he look like a potential test player then?
The Vaughan catch was a very different kettle of fish - he probably caught it cleanly, as the replays showed, but there was the inevitable element of doubt created by the foreshortened TV images, so Amla had to be given not out. Vaughan can't be accused of cheating on that evidence.
This game he looked completely out-of-nick. He got two excellent balls at Lord's, but today he was late on several, got edges, played at deliveries he shouldn't have, the ole kaboodle. Strange seeing such a good batsman play so poorly, but it happens from time to time. Imagine it won't last too long.
There's been more than one occasion where Kallis has been out - and when he hasn't - when he's simply failed to pick-up a Yorker right at the start of his innings. I don't know why on Earth that is, and nor do I know why everyone who ever bowls at him doesn't try a Yorker 1st delivery.
Yup, 'twas.
God, that looks worse than the clip I saw there. One of the worst I've seen.
Doing Fred a disservice IMO. Averages around 32-33, even accounting for his youth when he was ****, he may be in bad form with the bat but he is a Test match seven I reckon. I know you aren't the only one to think this, so expecting some kind of backlash hereI'm in agreement with this, pretty much. We've played the same side for six tests on the bounce, so the selectors feel the need to make up for it by pulling one out of their arses.
I've nothing against Pattinson (or "Sir Les" as I heard Pat Murphy call him on Five Live yestreday) and he looked impressive in the one game I've seen him bowl in, but even allowing for traditional Headingley "horses-for-courses" picks (Mallender, Watkin, Mike Smith, Kabir Ali & Bicknell have all been plucked from relative obscurity to play test cricket there in recent memory) he's a left-field pick. I haven't seen any play yet, but given Mick only gave him three (expensive) overs I'd guess he doesn't fancy him all that much.
& that's without the effect in could have on Tremlett's confidence, it's not the first time he's been passed over for bowlers who might be considered his inferiors.
As for the batting line-up; sheesh. Threes 8s (well, Fred & Broad are possibly more "seven-and-a-halves", but they ain't 7s) & three 11s in the bottom six? What can you say? All a plot to get Prior back in IMHO.
I've always said that being Welsh\English is the same, in essence, as being Yorkshire\Devonian (both of which I could classify as as well). I'm British above all. Britain is one big country with subdivisions, IMO.
