The ability to soak up pressure and then apply it yourself when the time is right is so valuable, scoring slowly always leaves the risk of having little to show for a lot of effort, and you can swing momentum by counter-attacking successfully, but today 100% showed how the patience of Root, Denly and Stokes himself paid off, mind you England still needed that little booster from Bairstow to get going this morning
For some reason I found this way more bearable than the World Cup final.
I know you're a professional troll but the **** were you watching? He creamed the vast majority of those shots.
Maybe because the win was so unexpected?
You mean batting like it is a Test Match is good in a Test match? Don't let the intent brigade hear you say that.
Definitely some thick edges that just barely made it over the deep fielders, some of the best timing were his 4s in fact, along with the little pick-up over square leg for that full toss, the reverse slog sweep, and the ramp
Sort of, but I think that was more to do with the fact a tie would have been a pretty great result too. I was already satisfied at that point.
He was trying to argue he didn't hit them that cleanly though. It's such an obviously nonsense point. He probably nailed 15 out of the 19 boundaries.
Ha. Not won a test this summer with a three figure first innings score yet. Unreal.
Aye well there's the simple fact that the Ashes remained live once we'd tied
Heh, keeping count of those boundaries eh
362-9. Close enough.
320 all out is one wicket off, you were two. Don't pretend you can claim that, captain hindsight.
