*Official* 1st Test at the SWALEC Stadium

[smash84]

haha, well said GIMH

well done England. 1 up on Australia and looking good for the series

 

[grecian]

Thanks, I worked hard towards this result

Pfft, it was clearly me coming back to Cricketweb (yeah I was away a couple of months ****s, what do you mean you didn't notice?) that gave England the boost.

 

[wpdavid]

Cooks captaincy beating yours I'm afraid. Keep the spinners on, rest the fast bowlers. Gotta say Cook has been on the money here, would have taken Root off after that first over.

He's done well, hasn't he. I read some of the talk earlier about how the shackles have been taken off his captaincy now that Moores has gone, and it may be that Bayliss has made a difference, but it's not inconceivable that he's just improved with experience and learned from his mistakes. For now though, I am choosing to believe that Bayliss has helped Broad discover his inner McGrath, so I'm looking forward to seeing how he goes at Lord's. Beyond that, the selectors will be quietly chuffed that they've been getting the marginal calls right this summer: Stokes staying at 6, Wood as the 3rd quick and Ali staying as the spinner have all been justified so far.

EDIT
Talking of Ali, I'm surprised to see he didn't feature in your discussion of top English bowlers in the Ashes. Currently averages 26 doesn't he?

 

[grecian]

He's done well, hasn't he. I read some of the talk earlier about how the shackles have been taken off his captaincy now that Moores has gone, and it may be that Bayliss has made a difference, but it's not inconceivable that he's just improved with experience and learned from his mistakes. For now though, I am choosing to believe that Bayliss has helped Broad discover his inner McGrath, so I'm looking forward to seeing how he goes at Lord's. Beyond that, the selectors will be quietly chuffed that they've been getting the marginal calls right this summer: Stokes staying at 6, Wood as the 3rd quick and Ali staying as the spinner have all been justified so far.

EDIT
Talking of Ali, I'm surprised to see he didn't feature in your discussion of top English bowlers in the Ashes. Currently averages 26 doesn't he?

Stokes worrying me a bit with his bowling, but yeah they seem to have got the balance right.

In the end if we were talking about limited bowling careers there would probably be a few, Dean Headley obviously. I did notice that Howezat for some reason put the qualifying matches at 7 in his graphic, must be a coincidence that that's how many games Bresnan has played. Headley played 6. Jones 5.

 

[LegionOfBrad]

These are my (sunburnt) thoughts of a great day.

Well done England! Broad was absolutely lethal all day.

Crowd was pretty restless just before lunch until Moeen shafted Warner.

The biggest cheer of the day was when Watson reviewed his LBW. The crowd is a lot more aware of the cricket narrative than I thought.

Mark Woods run up is even more bonkers when you see it for real.

https://goo.gl/photos/hf6LKsbP7ZTNahH1A

Warner's innings looked even worse live than it did on the TV by all accounts. He looked incredibly nervous.

 

[wpdavid]

Stokes worrying me a bit with his bowling, but yeah they seem to have got the balance right.

In the end if we were talking about limited bowling careers there would probably be a few, Dean Headley obviously. I did notice that Howezat for some reason put the qualifying matches at 7 in his graphic, must be a coincidence that that's how many games Bresnan has played. Headley played 6. Jones 5.

tbh I didn't actually read the piece, so when I saw Trott being discussed it didn't occur to me that there was any kind of minimum criteria. Worrying that I didn't even think about Simon Jones, let alone Headley. All good fun anyway.

I'm OK with Stokes as the 4th quick. I think he's better than he was, which may be because Cook has listened to Scaly and let him have the ball when it's less than 40 overs old. Or it may just be that he's a WIP. As it stands, I'm more than happy with our number 6 averaging 40+ (I'm talking this summer, before I get trashed for that) and knocking over some key wickets. Especially if he's improving, so we can look forward to more than that in the future.

 

[wpdavid]

These are my (sunburnt) thoughts of a great day.

Well done England! Broad was absolutely lethal all day.

Crowd was pretty restless just before lunch until Moeen shafted Warner.

The biggest cheer of the day was when Watson reviewed his LBW. The crowd is a lot more aware of the cricket narrative than I thought.

Mark Woods run up is even more bonkers when you see it for real.

https://goo.gl/photos/hf6LKsbP7ZTNahH1A

Warner's innings looked even worse live than it did on the TV by all accounts. He looked incredibly nervous.

Did you get to hear the fans' Watson song?

 

[GIMH]

tbh I didn't actually read the piece, so when I saw Trott being discussed it didn't occur to me that there was any kind of minimum criteria. Worrying that I didn't even think about Simon Jones, let alone Headley. All good fun anyway.

I'm OK with Stokes as the 4th quick. I think he's better than he was, which may be because Cook has listened to Scaly and let him have the ball when it's less than 40 overs old. Or it may just be that he's a WIP. As it stands, I'm more than happy with our number 6 averaging 40+ (I'm talking this summer, before I get trashed for that) and knocking over some key wickets. Especially if he's improving, so we can look forward to more than that in the future.

My thoughts on Stokes too. He's fulfilling the number six role brilliantly. The bowling will come

 

[grecian]

tbh I didn't actually read the piece, so when I saw Trott being discussed it didn't occur to me that there was any kind of minimum criteria. Worrying that I didn't even think about Simon Jones, let alone Headley. All good fun anyway.

I'm OK with Stokes as the 4th quick. I think he's better than he was, which may be because Cook has listened to Scaly and let him have the ball when it's less than 40 overs old. Or it may just be that he's a WIP. As it stands, I'm more than happy with our number 6 averaging 40+ (I'm talking this summer, before I get trashed for that) and knocking over some key wickets. Especially if he's improving, so we can look forward to more than that in the future.

Yeah, in the end I'm happy with the side ATM, my main worry is when Wood gets injured, we were severely hampered by having people like Jordan and Woakes as the 3rd main bowler.

Plunkers looked okay, but is just as injury-prone as Wood. Puts fair too much pressure on Broad and Anderson.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

It's a fine line between positive cricket and reckless abandon. Australia were on the wrong side of the line batting and bowling in the first innings and that's where the match was won and lost.

 

[grecian]

It's a fine line between positive cricket and reckless abandon. Australia were on the wrong side of the line batting and bowling in the first innings and that's where the match was won and lost.

I think Nasser made some interesting points about our bowling and field-settings, yes we did attack more than we have at times, but we did actually go back to being tight and organised at others when needed.

I mean the weird thing about Warne always advocating these funky fields on commentary when there hasn't been a wicket fallen for 10 balls, is how often he and McGrath just strangled us by not letting us score any runs for over upon over, them we screwed up.

 

[Spark]

I think Nasser made some interesting points about our bowling and field-settings, yes we did attack more than we have at times, but we did actually go back to being tight and organised at others when needed.

I mean the weird thing about Warne always advocating these funky fields on commentary when there hasn't been a wicket fallen for 10 balls, is how often he and McGrath just strangled us by not letting us score any runs for over upon over, them we screwed up.

That's exactly what Clarke did in 2013-4 and exactly how he needs to captain again.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

I think Nasser made some interesting points about our bowling and field-settings, yes we did attack more than we have at times, but we did actually go back to being tight and organised at others when needed.

I mean the weird thing about Warne always advocating these funky fields on commentary when there hasn't been a wicket fallen for 10 balls, is how often he and McGrath just strangled us by not letting us score any runs for over upon over, them we screwed up.

I can't listen to the Sky commentary. I put Test Match Special on. It's not like it used to be, but Henry - my dear old thing - Blofeld is at least a reminder that commentators used to be part of the experience instead of an annoying bunch of hyped up tossers.

 

[Spark]

Funny, I would have called Blofeld the epitome of the hyped up tosser.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Funny, I would have called Blofeld the epitome of the hyped up tosser.

He only gets excited by pigeons and buses. With the cricket he's the best commentator we've got.

 

[grecian]

Funny, I would have called Blofeld the epitome of the hyped up tosser.

Me too, TBH, I loved the likes of Arlott, Mosey and Johnners, but feel Henry is a pale imitation of those greats, and getting worse by the day. Along with the utterly tedious Aggers and Boycott banter, I've given up on TMS.

Sky much better apart from Beefy, Warne (if he's there) and occasionally Bumble, who can be funny at times, but others not.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Me too, TBH, I loved the likes of Arlott, Mosey and Johnners, but feel Henry is a pale imitation of those greats, and getting worse by the day. Along with the utterly tedious Aggers and Boycott banter, I've given up on TMS.

Sky much better apart from Beefy, Warne (if he's there) and occasionally Bumble, who can be funny at times, but others not.

A certain part is probably just the fact that he's the last remaining link to better days. TMS is really just the lesser of two evils.

 

[grecian]

A certain part is probably just the fact that he's the last remaining link to better days. TMS is really just the lesser of two evils.

I kind of get your point and I too am nostalgic about proper broadcasters being on the comm team, but I draw the line at Blowers, I've never liked him, and was always happy when one of the other proper broadcasters were on.

I'd like Pat Murphy to do more, he's knowledgeable, lyrical; with words and quite amusing at times.

 

[91Jmay]

McGrath said in his masterclass he wasn't thinking about taking a wicket every over let alone every ball. Just keep it in the right areas, Warne is just a hyperactive child.

 

[greg]

He only gets excited by pigeons and buses. With the cricket he's the best commentator we've got.

Well, if you want someone commentating on an imaginary game, i suppose...

Because the events that Blowers describes often bear little relation to what actually happens in reality. It's actually sometimes quite amusing listening to him on TMS whilst actually sitting in the crowd at a test match, because it's obviously not what his commentary is designed for.