**Official** Sri Lanka in England / Scotland - 2011

[Jarquis]

Still here, although my view is more "he's not good enough and county runs alone won't change that" than a hater.

Acceptable tbh, I have my doubts toooo

 

[morgieb]

Where were all the Ravi haters before this game?
I get he's been hugely outscored by Morgan in this game but the fact is the last time both of them played Tests they looked god awful against quality pace. Morgan hardly inspired confidence at the start of his innings when he made a century so I don't quite get why people think he's the man for a crisis.
I get he's done it in a ODI or 8 but he's not even managed it for Middlesex in his particularly average county career.

I'm no huge fan of Ravi by any means but maintain Morgan is not the long term answer. Nor's Ravi tbph so it's just a case of waiting for Samit to lose weight or Hildreth/Taylor getting a gig.

iirc Morgan wasn't even that bad against Pakistan - 70-80% of batsmen would've struggled against Asif/Amir imo. It wasn't like Bopara, who has played **** against any sort of quality bowling. Sri Lanka don't have good quicks, either.

 

[Athlai]

Fernando will bowl well in patches this tour I reckon.

 

[vcs]

Fernando will bowl well in patches this tour I reckon.

And terribly for the vast majority?

 

[tooextracool]

Fernando, Dilhara has forged a test career out of bowling at 85+ mph and offering absolutely nothing else. If he does well this summer, it will be a rather sorry state of affairs for England because quite frankly he has a greater chance of being cast for Les Miserables than taking wickets this summer.

 

[Spark]

Morgan struggled against Pakistan, but some of the dismissals Bopara had vs. us in 09 were park-standard, really.

 

[GIMH]

Where were all the Ravi haters before this game?
I get he's been hugely outscored by Morgan in this game but the fact is the last time both of them played Tests they looked god awful against quality pace. Morgan hardly inspired confidence at the start of his innings when he made a century so I don't quite get why people think he's the man for a crisis.
I get he's done it in a ODI or 8 but he's not even managed it for Middlesex in his particularly average county career.

I'm no huge fan of Ravi by any means but maintain Morgan is not the long term answer. Nor's Ravi tbph so it's just a case of waiting for Samit to lose weight or Hildreth/Taylor getting a gig.

Where was I? I was here.

Morgan didn't substantially fail last summer like revisionists are now seemingly claiming. He didn't succeed either, the jury was still out.

Ravi, on the other hand, has conclusively failed for us in Tests.

So having seen their respective performances in this game, Morgan all the way.

 

[superkingdave]

Will have been a good workout for the SL batsmen this, if they bat well second time around they can take a lot out of this game in the batting stakes. Given the depth in bowling at the moment for England the test bowling attack won't be a massive step up from the Lions attack.

Would be interesting to see a series with England vs SL with England Lions pace attack actually, the extra class in SLs middle order might tip the balance more than the difference in pace attacks

 

[Migara]

Sri Lanka all out for 266 in the end, with 5 for Dernbach. Likely to follow on tomorrow.

Randiv it seems put in a good fight with the bat, seeing as he bowled so badly yesterday. I wonder if that could get him into the side as a #7, with Chandimal taking the gloves? Randiv may not be bowling well but he's contributing more than PJ right now.

It will take SL select suckers to realize that in tests you have to play your best spinner and the best wicketkeeper-batsman in the country. (Senanayake and Kaushal Silva respectively).

Randiv looks to have had a bad day. May bowl well. And if SL #8/9 can put together 100 runs, there would be a top order player getting a century too. I would like to think this as a one off happening with whole line up failing. That might happen one in six innings, but rest of it there would be some good runs.

And as I have said earlier PJ is close to useless against moving ball. Drop him and bring in KS junior (Kaushal Silva, wicket keeper batsman, KS senior is Sanga). Nice to see F'do getting wickets.

But first, "HOLD ON TO YOUR CATCHES YOU BITCHES!"

 

[Migara]

Fernando, Dilhara has forged a test career out of bowling at 85+ mph and offering absolutely nothing else. If he does well this summer, it will be a rather sorry state of affairs for England because quite frankly he has a greater chance of being cast for Les Miserables than taking wickets this summer.

But has produced some brute of deliveries against Lions. If he can do it without overstepping, somebody will nick them too. (but the bitches should hold on to them, which is a problem ATM)

 

[TT Boy]

Where were all the Ravi haters before this game?

Checking in...

 

[superkingdave]

From the look of the scorecard they were probably hoping that Ravi would take a couple of wickets today so they had something to justify their decision. Missinfo is still spruiking the Ravi line anyway

 

[Howe_zat]

It's just McGlashan really. No idea why he felt the need to put up a whole article stating his opinion when he the last two days' reports to it.

 

[Furball]

Also averages slightly less than Matthew Hoggard with the bat in the past two FC seasons.

Haha, was wondering how bad his last couple of years have been since I'm sure his FC average was touching 50 at one point.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Haha, was wondering how bad his last couple of years have been since I'm sure his FC average was touching 50 at one point.

Wasn't entirely serious tbh. 2,186 runs @ 33.63 since '09 (has had a fairly decent start to this season too lifting it above 30). Was considering him for CWPL but saw the last two seasons and decided to leave him well alone.

 

[Prince EWS]

Wasn't entirely serious tbh. 2,186 runs @ 33.63 since '09 (has had a fairly decent start to this season too lifting it above 30). Was considering him for CWPL but saw the last two seasons and decided to leave him well alone.

This season doesn't count for CWPL either.

 

[Howe_zat]

Dilshan and Paranavitana's hundreds got them right back into it but now they're losing wickets again. Sanga, Mahela and Chandimal will all be disappointed with this.

 

[Migara]

Good to see Sam and Randiv doing well.

 

[keeper]

Stephen Brenkley in the Indie also reporting Bopara as a done deal. Other papers reporting it as a Morgan vs Bopara choice heavily influenced by the IPL.

England can be No 1 but will KP be No 4? - Cricket, Sport - The Independent

I'm quite happy if Morgan isn't selected but dumfounded that Bopara is next in line. I really hope that his bowling doesn't come into the equation as it ought to be irrelevant. The selectors simply can't believe Taylor, Hildreth and Patel are good enough, or ready enough, for Test cricket if they're not selected when Morgan is out of the frame.

 

[Furball]

Morgan gets the nod, common sense wins the day, although I'd have preferred to see James Taylor given his debut.