*Official* Second Test (Lord's, London) 28 June–2 July

[Prince EWS]

So spooked is the new choked.......can't wait for this to be overused and totally miss applied.

Looks like you're a bit spooked by the posting in this thread mate.

 

[the big bambino]

Nothing like it as Australia won. First occasion of it being miss applied has been logged.

 

[Adorable Asshole]

Other than not declaring on Day 1 of course.

And not drop catches

 

[ataraxia]

After expecting to lose the first test, I think Australia might be a bit spooked for the rest of the series tbh

 

[Prince EWS]

Shane Watson was a man before his time - spooked by a ghost in Durham in 2005.

 

[Burgey]

And not drop catches

Does that apply to the four Australia put down in the first innings as well, or in this alternative universe do only England take all their chances? I just want to know which parameters you’re setting here is all

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Does that apply to the four Australia put down in the first innings as well, or in this alternative universe do only England take all their chances? I just want to know which parameters you’re setting here is all

Probably referring to Bairstow's largely shoddy work with the gloves












Gee I wonder, what could England have possibly done about that?????

 

[Socerer 01]

Does that apply to the four Australia put down in the first innings as well, or in this alternative universe do only England take all their chances? I just want to know which parameters you’re setting here is all

if only Australia took none of their chances and England took all of theirs they would have won!

 

[Burgey]

Looks like you're a bit spooked by the posting in this thread mate.

The “spooked” call is analogous to Leigh Sales looking the primary vote numbers on election night 2022 and asking Tanya Pleibersek “what went wrong for Labor?”

“Umm, nothing Leigh. We won.”

 

[Adorable Asshole]

Does that apply to the four Australia put down in the first innings as well, or in this alternative universe do only England take all their chances? I just want to know which parameters you’re setting here is all

But Australia didn't declared on day 1, so I think it evens out.

 

[Shady Slim]

So all this is because I left out the word "usual" there? And dude, they were spooked. They won at the end but that doesn't take away how they bowled and had their fields before.

And I am not creating any narrative. Its just what happened. Read the first game thread to see what people were saying as it was happening.

what they did was create a game plan that they felt would do better to stop this attacking way of playing than just setting usual fields and bowling usual lines and lengths would. like @TheJediBrah says, if you come up with a plan to counter the opponent’s plan that is not being “spooked” lmao it’s just good strategy!! i don’t get how this is even being debated!!

 

[TheJediBrah]

Looks like England might be spooked by Moeen's sore finger and leave him out of the side. Such negative cricket

 

[Spark]

what they did was create a game plan that they felt would do better to stop this attacking way of playing than just setting usual fields and bowling usual lines and lengths would. like @TheJediBrah says, if you come up with a plan to counter the opponent’s plan that is not being “spooked” lmao it’s just good strategy!! i don’t get how this is even being debated!!

It's not good strategy if your plan is bad and based on an overestimation of the opposition. It would be like thinking Kohli has a good looking cover drive, therefore we should never bowl outside off stump.

 

[Nintendo]

It's not good strategy if your plan is bad and based on an overestimation of the opposition. It would be like thinking Kohli has a good looking cover drive, therefore we should never bowl outside off stump.

I get your point, but the whole "kohli cover drive" example probably isn't the best example. Don't know what the stats are for the past ~year, but for the 5 years period before the end of the 4th test in India's last tour of England in test cricket the cover drive was was kohlis second most productive shot in terms of runs scored. He only got dismissed 8 times playing the shot in ~350 attempts, made 400+ plus runs playing it at a 50+ average and scored at faster than run a ball from the shot.

Kohli's cover drive is his equivalent of the backfoot dab root and Kane play, its his way of countering the channel ball and its effective. Sorry fot going on a bit of a tangent, just annoying seeing people bring up the kohli's cover drive as a surefire way for him to get dismissed, when it's pretty much the inverse.

 

[Spark]

I've seen that stat and it's a gross simplification of what makes Kohli's offside play so poor these days. The simple fact that he's constantly looking to play balls that wide at all, because he knows he has a good cover drive, is the problem. Not that he plays the cover drive specifically.

But yes someone could go look at that stat and therefore conclude you should never try and nick off Kohli with balls wide of off stump; that would indeed be a perfect example of what I'm talking about re: how you can get "spooked" into a bad plan by overreacting to a batsman's strength.

 

[Nintendo]

I've seen that stat and it's a gross simplification of what makes Kohli's offside play so poor these days. The simple fact that he's constantly looking to play balls that wide at all, because he knows he has a good cover drive, is the problem. Not that he plays the cover drive specifically.

But yes someone could go look at that stat and therefore conclude you should never try and nick off Kohli with balls wide of off stump; that would indeed be a perfect example of what I'm talking about re: how you can get "spooked" into a bad plan by overreacting to a batsman's strength.

What do you thinks made him start playing at those wide balls more recently then? Cause he's always used the cover drive as a way to score off the channel ball, he due it during that crazy 2018 period when he scored a **** ton of runs in SA and ENG when noene else could score runs and when he made that 100 at Perth in the smith and warnerless series. It's only been after that covid break that his test stats have fallen off a cliff.

Edit: If I'm hijacking the discussion I'll stop, just never understood kohli's recent redball decline.

 

[Shady Slim]

What do you thinks made him start playing at those wide balls more recently then? Cause he's always used the cover drive as a way to score off the channel ball, he due it during that crazy 2018 period when he scored a **** ton of runs in SA and ENG when noene else could score runs and when he made that 100 at Perth in the smith and warnerless series. It's only been after that covid break that his test stats have fallen off a cliff.

Edit: If I'm hijacking the discussion I'll stop, just never understood kohli's recent redball decline.

honestly discussing the great kohliplunge is probably worth its own thread

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Spooked? Been to Durham again and seen the ghost have they?

 

[honestbharani]

what they did was create a game plan that they felt would do better to stop this attacking way of playing than just setting usual fields and bowling usual lines and lengths would. like @TheJediBrah says, if you come up with a plan to counter the opponent’s plan that is not being “spooked” lmao it’s just good strategy!! i don’t get how this is even being debated!!

Dude... you are like a dog with a bone now with this. Putting 2 boundary riders each on both sides of the wicket when not even a single ball has been bowled is never a good strategy in test cricket. The fact that Australia thought it was, is the proof that they were spooked by Bazball batting. You can argue points no one made but this is just the reality that you fail to accept.

 

[honestbharani]

I've seen that stat and it's a gross simplification of what makes Kohli's offside play so poor these days. The simple fact that he's constantly looking to play balls that wide at all, because he knows he has a good cover drive, is the problem. Not that he plays the cover drive specifically.

But yes someone could go look at that stat and therefore conclude you should never try and nick off Kohli with balls wide of off stump; that would indeed be a perfect example of what I'm talking about re: how you can get "spooked" into a bad plan by overreacting to a batsman's strength.

It has been the opposite. Virat himself has been so spooked by that 2014 tour of England that he has now devised his game exclusively around his cover drive and once he lost touch with the covid break, has found it almost impossible to get it back. He has shelved backfoot shots on the offside against seamers and scoring behin square on the on side against spinners (and even on the off to an extent) off either foot and he is now figuring out how strokeless he can be when his scoring zones are cut off and the lengths and lines are targetted either outside off or into the body from the spinners.

IIRC he made most of these changes around 2018 for that entire season of SEA tours for India and he has not been the same batsman since. But the problem with figuring out success of such strategies is that if you look at just scores and results, he did have a great 2018 and 2019. But its evident to anyone who follows him and Indian cricket seriously that the changes that have cost him his game right now started back in 2018.