*Official* 2nd Test at Lord's

[Woodster]

It's inevitable England are going to have days like today,this is not a complete Test team nor do they claim to be. The series against NZ offered encouragement in both the performance and with a victory in one of the Tests. The win in Cardiff has inflated the optimism around this side but consistency wise we have a long way to go thus such bumps in the road as today will occur throughout this series.

 

[Zinzan]

Jeeze, that's some scorecard after day 1, doesn't sound like it was much fun for the English bowlers or spectators. Any thoughts on whether the pitch is likely to stay true for most of the 5 days? I heard Vaughan suggesting it will quicken up on days 2 & 3.

 

[social]

Good to see the doctoring of this pitch has worked out so well for England

Best thing for the game would be for Oz to have a massive victory as it might force these clowns to change their gutless approach

 

[Uppercut]

Jeeze, that's some scorecard after day 1, doesn't sound like it was much fun for the English bowlers or spectators. Any thoughts on whether the pitch is likely to stay true for most of the 5 days? I heard Vaughan suggesting it will quicken up on days 2 & 3.

That's happened at Lord's a few times recently, but on very different pitches. We haven't seen a Lord's pitch like this since SA 2008, and that one just got flatter and flatter as the game went on. If there's a bit of rain that might change the conditions. But otherwise I think to see a result one of the teams will have to either bowl spectacularly well or bat spectacularly badly.

 

[morgieb]

This wicket is a joke.

Still awesome, awesome stuff from Rogers and Smith, especially given that our batting has often been guilty of lack of paitence. England actually didn't bowl all that badly after the first hour (where if they did bowl well they could've done something), but Rogers and Smith showed strong signs of paitence, knowing they could cash in later and waiting for the bad balls. That's just really, really good Test batting.

 

[Nate]

Bat on to the 1000 imo.

 

[TheJediBrah]

The english media is going full ******, making it out as though the pitch was an absolute road. And fan's comments aren't much better. You wonder how many actually watched the day.

It was batting friendly, but there was more than enough in it for the bowlers. The ball swung a lot with new ball and there was reverse with the old ball, England were just too slow to take real advantage of it and didn't bowl that well (not to mention the horrendous fields --> great way to take 10 wickets, get them all caught at deep point? Cook logic).

There was also some sideways movement of the deck (not a lot mind you). It was not a 1-300 pitch. People's reactions are just making me want to facepalm so ****ing hard.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Bat on to the 1000 imo.

 

[Gnske]

The english media is going full re***d, making it out as though the pitch was an absolute road

But it is.

The swing was far from dangerous in itself not to mention poorly utilized and Ali only managed to turn one after a day of Jimmy running down the danger zone. Carry was better than Cardiff Day 1 but still not that great too, one of Smith's edges literally floated in the air and plopped in front of slip, not that it would have been caught given it was in front of Ian Bell.

Even I could have made 10 on that pitch.

 

[TheJediBrah]

But it is.

The swing was far from dangerous in itself not to mention poorly utilized and Ali only managed to turn one after a day of Jimmy running down the danger zone. Carry was better than Cardiff Day 1 but still not that great too, one of Smith's edges literally floated in the air and plopped in front of slip, not that it would have been caught given it was in front of Ian Bell.

Even I could have made 10 on that pitch.

no where near as much as it is being made out to be

media saying "death of cricket because of pitches like this". The exact same pitch will get 5+ wickets in day more often than not it just wasn't today.

 

[SteveNZ]

no where near as much as it is being made out to be

media saying "death of cricket because of pitches like this". The exact same pitch will get 5+ wickets in day more often than not it just wasn't today.

Over-exaggeration maybe given Cardiff, but if the same officialdom who are sitting in meetings espousing 4-day Tests and the inability to sell it as a profitable product are the ones overseeing pitches with the life sucked out of them in the guise of suiting England and lasting 5 days, then we need to get people in suits in the right places that actually have a clue.

 

[hendrix]

It was obviously a batting friendly track but there was bounce, carry, and plenty of swing to be had. There's also the slope to be used.

Not a bad pitch IMO.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

I'm inclined to agree that the pitch isn't that flat. It's a flat wicket and if Australia made less than 400-450 on it they'd have batted quite poorly, but it's not a draw wicket I don't think. There were flatter pitches this Australian summer for instance. We won't really know until England bats on it and we see how Haze etc go, but people already calling for the groundsman to be sanctioned etc are being silly. If Australia declare and England are still batting on day 4 and the wicket isn't deteriorating, then we have a problem. Aside from the lack of carry which (while not as bad as it was in Cardiff) hurts the quality of the cricket.

That said, criticising Cook for having a deep point is crazy. That deep point probably saved 15-20 boundaries, you can't just keep pure attacking fields all day on a flat pitch when the opposition is 1 down at tea. The game would be basically over already. Cook had 3 slips almost the whole day, tried plenty of creative catching positions in front of the wicket etc, it's not like he was just trying to conserve runs and nothing else. Drying up the runs is a good way to get wickets on a surface like that and at times England did it pretty well, especially in the middle session, and only patient batting and a dropped catch kept Australia in control.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I'm inclined to agree that the pitch isn't that flat. It's a flat wicket and if Australia made less than 400-450 on it they'd have batted quite poorly, but it's not a draw wicket I don't think. There were flatter pitches this Australian summer for instance. We won't really know until England bats on it and we see how Haze etc go, but people already calling for the groundsman to be sanctioned etc are being silly. If Australia declare and England are still batting on day 4 and the wicket isn't deteriorating, then we have a problem. Aside from the lack of carry which (while not as bad as it was in Cardiff) hurts the quality of the cricket.

That said, criticising Cook for having a deep point is crazy. That deep point probably saved 15-20 boundaries, you can't just keep pure attacking fields all day on a flat pitch when the opposition is 1 down at tea. The game would be basically over already. Cook had 3 slips almost the whole day, tried plenty of creative catching positions in front of the wicket etc, it's not like he was just trying to conserve runs and nothing else. Drying up the runs is a good way to get wickets on a surface like that and at times England did it pretty well, especially in the middle session, and only patient batting and a dropped catch kept Australia in control.

doubt it saved 15-20 boundaries. Probably gave away more than 30 singles though. The release of pressure every time a batsman can get off strike and the bowler having to adjust between batsmen constantly cannot be underrated.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Oh i agree he does tend to go for the early declarations.

Its just that this looks like it could be a runway for 5 days so maybe he'll only bat once.

If it's that flat, then they'll need some recovery time for their bowling. No use going to 650+, because you might not have time to bat again and give your bowlers a rest.

With the confined Test schedules these days, think it's part of making sure that your bowlers don't break down.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I still don't get how one disappointing days play changes whether or not he should be feared. You also get that the type of crickets who are often described in such way tend to be more inconsistent than others right?

And that you are more likely to "fear" him with the bat than the ball anyway. Who even mentioned that "f" word anyway?

 

[vic_orthdox]

Be interesting to see how Aus bowl on that track. Early signs say a draw but never judge 'till both sides have bowled on it I guess...

A few people talked of the NZ pitch getting quicker as the Test went on. But the amount that the wicket was wearing in the footmarks doesn't hold good signs for that.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I'm inclined to agree that the pitch isn't that flat. It's a flat wicket and if Australia made less than 400-450 on it they'd have batted quite poorly, but it's not a draw wicket I don't think. There were flatter pitches this Australian summer for instance. We won't really know until England bats on it and we see how Haze etc go, but people already calling for the groundsman to be sanctioned etc are being silly. If Australia declare and England are still batting on day 4 and the wicket isn't deteriorating, then we have a problem. Aside from the lack of carry which (while not as bad as it was in Cardiff) hurts the quality of the cricket.

That said, criticising Cook for having a deep point is crazy. That deep point probably saved 15-20 boundaries, you can't just keep pure attacking fields all day on a flat pitch when the opposition is 1 down at tea. The game would be basically over already. Cook had 3 slips almost the whole day, tried plenty of creative catching positions in front of the wicket etc, it's not like he was just trying to conserve runs and nothing else. Drying up the runs is a good way to get wickets on a surface like that and at times England did it pretty well, especially in the middle session, and only patient batting and a dropped catch kept Australia in control.

Yeah, and they had the guy out at deep point, but attacking guys around that if you wanted to beat him (gully, catching covers). I went to bed at midnight, but thought that it was a well set field; especially to Rogers who feeds the ball through that point area comfortably.

 

[Gnske]

To be fair, he could have saved 15-20 either way. Broad was hanging around up in that backward point/ third man region all day and all day he was running fruitlessly behind a never ending tide of late cuts from Rogers. Seemed odd Cook didn't just throw him on the rope down there, never seen Rogers milk that area so much and at the same time I've never seen him so comfortable in a Test.

Easy being an armchair captain, but throwing Broad down there would have at least made Rogers searching for the drive a bit more for boundaries, I think he only hit one through the covers for a boundary after that first hour, so easy was his game. Of course, I know nothing about cricket but it just seemed odd.

 

[adub]

[If Australia declare and England are still batting on day 4 and the wicket isn't deteriorating, then we have a problem.]

Yeah, would be terribad if we had pitches like Adelaide.