*Official* 2nd Test at Lord's

[Antihippy]

Possibly. Was more of a generic statement tbh. People are far too quick to judge wickets without having seen the match unfold for a decent bit. Sure, I'd like to see the ball carry to the slips, but look at Cardiff. That pitch didn't have great carry either, but had a decent test match and a result was achieved easily. As long as the test match doesn't completely die within 2 and a half days, where we get 600 vs 600, I think the pitch is fine. People get too worked up with the lack of bounce=woeful pitch stuff.

Cardriff at least had the decency to have inconsistent bounce. More swing too really.

Also both sets of batsmen batted somewhat badly. Australia moreso than england, but it was a pitch that should have had more than one century on it. I still had no idea how england lost that many wickets first day with how badly we bowled.

 

[cnerd123]

Ponting has startled a lot of people with his commentary, his tactical knowledge has always been questioned by the less bright section of cricket pundits ( His captaincy ability was acknowledged by the voting panel for the greatest player of the 00"s which included many former captains.) and suddenly they see how good he really is. The confusion of seeing something that contradicts what they thought is causing a few bewildering moments for them.

Be more condescending.

Ponting never really impressed me as a captain. Warne and McGrath, and to some extent Gillespie, had the freedom to set their own fields and make their own plans. The few times Ponting did it, it was just bland, boring, conventional stuff.

I guess he never really had to be creative or clever when captain a team of that calibre though.

He's a pretty good commentator, Never really showed that amount of insight while captaining though.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Very happy I'll get to see all three sessions tonight, looking forward to more Pom plundering

 

[TNT]

Be more condescending.

Ponting never really impressed me as a captain. Warne and McGrath, and to some extent Gillespie, had the freedom to set their own fields and make their own plans. The few times Ponting did it, it was just bland, boring, conventional stuff.

I guess he never really had to be creative or clever when captain a team of that calibre though.

He's a pretty good commentator, Never really showed that amount of insight while captaining though.

Of course he didn't, you never knew what he was thinking or trying to achieve and only made assumptions based on guess work. When in the field he did not relay information so you could judge what he was doing. I remember a match where Lyon got a bit of a beating and when Ponting was interviewed he was asked why he set the field the way he did and he said sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, when they interviewed Lyon and asked how he felt about Pontings field settings he replied that he set the field not Ponting. That's what a good captain does, he didn't try and put the blame on Lyon he was quite happy to take the criticism for his player regardless. you and many others have only one tired old line you drag out saying he was not a good captain because of his field setting but that is only a minuscule part of leading a team. Ponting excelled as a captain when it came to many facets of the position, you only seem to see field settings as the duties of the captain which sort of backs up my earlier statement which you took offence to.

 

[morgieb]

I'll reserve judgement on Ponting's commentary until he's done it for a few years. Slater was a pretty good commentator to start off with and even Warne showed some insight in his first couple of commentary stints. Let's just say that neither of them held that quality together for long.

Fortunately Ponting works for Ten rather than Nine.

 

[Hurricane]

To Heef's point, many commentators start off very well as they have some pent up points that they wish to get across from their playing days.

Richard Hadlee was simply out of this world for the 2-3 games I listened to him.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

To Heef's point, many commentators start off very well as they have some pent up points that they wish to get across from their playing days.

Richard Hadlee was simply out of this world for the 2-3 games I listened to him.

Very true, even Warne was good to start with as it was different. Now he just says the same old stuff all the time.

 

[Spark]

From the little I've seen of Ponting's commentary in this series he's unlikely to regress to ****tiness, partly for the reason vic outlined but also because his style of commentary is very straightforward: mostly he just explains what he sees on the field without getting caught up in extraneous bull****.

 

[GIMH]

Warne was absolutely outstanding in 2009 though.

I think it's natural that commentators lose something the longer they are removed from the game, but national bias aside I think Athers and Hussain have stayed at a good level on the most part.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

Prediction:

Australia to collapse to 451

England 32/3
Lyth and Root to rescue England from f/o and the rest is history

 

[Uppercut]

Warne was absolutely outstanding in 2009 though.

I think it's natural that commentators lose something the longer they are removed from the game, but national bias aside I think Athers and Hussain have stayed at a good level on the most part.

Yeah Warne was great at first, shame he's commentated on the same test every time since. He sort of reminds me of those very extroverted types that are a lot of fun at first but quickly become tiresome and you realise it's essential to keep them in small doses.

I'd be surprised if Ponting goes the same way, he's much more relaxed.

Hussain is normally quite good but stoops to Botham's level when they're on together.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Yeah Warne was great at first, shame he's commentated on the same test every time since. He sort of reminds me of those very extroverted types that are a lot of fun at first but quickly become tiresome and you realise it's essential to keep them in small doses.

I'd be surprised if Ponting goes the same way, he's much more relaxed.

Hussain is normally quite good but stoops to Botham's level when they're on together.

Warne commentates on every test like it his first and he said Monty played every test like his first.

 

[Compton]

I love when Nasser talks about bowlers. He has the great quality in a pundit that he's completely unable to mention any aspect of bowling without doing the seam/spin actions with his hands.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Be more condescending.

Ponting never really impressed me as a captain. Warne and McGrath, and to some extent Gillespie, had the freedom to set their own fields and make their own plans. The few times Ponting did it, it was just bland, boring, conventional stuff.

I guess he never really had to be creative or clever when captain a team of that calibre though.

He's a pretty good commentator, Never really showed that amount of insight while captaining though.

Man that's a really, really silly post

 

[dooks]

I love when Nasser talks about bowlers. He has the great quality in a pundit that he's completely unable to mention any aspect of bowling without doing the seam/spin actions with his hands.

Its like he has carpel tunnel

 

[Spikey]

this taylor thing is the worst. should have just shown this on repeat for 10 minutes https://twitter.com/HomeOfCricket/status/621734777150947328

Really? 450 is where they should be not long after lunch.

Yeah I probably underestimated the impact of the RR. But I don't think he'll bat that long after lunch. I just don't think Clarke's plans include anything about enforcing the follow-on, so I don't think he'll bat to 600 unless we seriously move quickly. I'm pretty confident we'll bat in the second innings, which means we'll bat less time in the first innings.

 

[dooks]

Ouch

 

[Swingpanzee]

****

 

[Spark]

Hey so we should probably make those side coverings mandatory

 

[Swingpanzee]

hope he's okay