***Official*** Sri Lanka in England and Ireland 2014

[Adders]

OMFG we truly are woeful.

That has to be the worst scorecard I have ever woken up to........ever.

Congrats to Sri Lanka and especially Matthews, what a ****ing innings to take the game away.

 

[Adders]

I have just negotiated a day off with my boss so will be there tomorrow..seems like only yesterday- oh it was !! But I can't miss this, not sure if we will win as there's still root, beard, prior, Jordan and broad to bat and any of the first three can go big and the last two can plunder too... No matter what the result I am incredibly proud of our boys and the most encouraging thing is our cricket is moving in the right direction..

Nice one mate.........gonna be party time for the Lankan supporters in Leeds tomorrow. Hope you negotiated Wednesday off with your boss as well LOL

Edit:

And no way you are not winning this.......no way in the world. England may have pulled off some amazing rearguards in the past but this team just doesn't seem to have the ticker for the fight and Sri Lanka clearly do.......go and enjoy the victory as it is so very well deserved.

 

[Howsie]

Arghhhh. Why didn't I get on Sri Lanka just before I went to bed last night.

 

[a massive zebra]

Congratulations to Angelo Mathews on probably the best Test innings at Headingley since Rahul Dravid's masterly 148 against the wildly swinging ball in 2002.

 

[Maximas]

Does anyone have a list of Test matches that Sri Lanka have won in England? I know they've had a few, but not sure if this could be the first without Murali in the team?

98 at the oval and 06 at nottingham, Murali took massive hauls in both

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Cook for Essex this year:

vs. CMCC 39, 60
vs. Derbys (home) 35, 181
vs. Surrey (away) 39, 127
vs. Gloucs (away) 4

The runs against Derbys in particular were in a low scoring match - particularly the first innings 35 (Essex 94, Derbys 154)

Average: 69.28

For those saying he just needs to go and play more cricket for Essex, that isn't the solution. To me, he has a serious technical flaw that bowlers at international level are much more able to exploit than bowlers at county level. Needs to either put away any attempts at the cover drive and wait ad infinitum to get a short ball to pull (yes, that was his second innings downfall, but is still his strength) or he needs some concerted effort put in with the batting coach (maybe even a new batting coach just for a bit of a change) to solve his technical deficiencies.

 

[hendrix]

I know England were bad in many ways, but it can't really be overstated how good that innings from Mathews was.

I watched the first session last night, and he was batting with Herath when he was in the 50s,the lead wasn't much more than 150, and the ball was still relatively new. He then manipulated the strike and scored boundaries when necessary.

You'd expect a good batsman to be able to do that for another 50 odd runs with the tail, maybe. But to get the lead up to 350 batting like that, that's just insane.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

They bowled far too short all morning as far as I could see. Mathews was never troubled because, yes, he was batting well - but also England failed to put him under pressure at all. They gifted him runs before the new ball, and how they bowled with the new ball was atrocious. Credit to Mathews for sure though. You don't score that many runs in the 3rd innings without a huge amount of skill and chutzpah.

 

[hendrix]

They bowled far too short all morning as far as I could see. Mathews was never troubled because, yes, he was batting well - but also England failed to put him under pressure at all. They gifted him runs before the new ball, and how they bowled with the new ball was atrocious. Credit to Mathews for sure though. You don't score that many runs in the 3rd innings without a huge amount of skill and chutzpah.

They often bowled outside off stump to him on the last couple of deliveries of the over, knowing that he needed to get off strike. Most batsmen would eventually nick those ones looking for the single, but he either just murdered them or somehow flicked them into the gap. So gun.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

They often bowled outside off stump to him on the last couple of deliveries of the over, knowing that he needed to get off strike. Most batsmen would eventually nick those ones looking for the single, but he either just murdered them or somehow flicked them into the gap. So gun.

That flick-six he hit off Plunkett was marvellous.

And they bowled whole overs of wide crap at him. Craven stuff.

 

[a massive zebra]

If you would like to hear Geoff Boycott breathing fire over England's performance today, listen to his TMS podcast here.

 

[Spikey]

We shall call it Compton's Curse

 

[Riggins]

Cook for Essex this year:

vs. CMCC 39, 60
vs. Derbys (home) 35, 181
vs. Surrey (away) 39, 127
vs. Gloucs (away) 4

The runs against Derbys in particular were in a low scoring match - particularly the first innings 35 (Essex 94, Derbys 154)

Average: 69.28

For those saying he just needs to go and play more cricket for Essex, that isn't the solution. To me, he has a serious technical flaw that bowlers at international level are much more able to exploit than bowlers at county level. Needs to either put away any attempts at the cover drive and wait ad infinitum to get a short ball to pull (yes, that was his second innings downfall, but is still his strength) or he needs some concerted effort put in with the batting coach (maybe even a new batting coach just for a bit of a change) to solve his technical deficiencies.

Yeah it's like Phil Hughes, even though his problems get exploited at test level he still goes back and carves up FC matches. Makes it hard to tell if someone is 'over' the problems.

 

[Cabinet96]

Cook's always had similar issues though, It's not like it's a new revelation. Difference is when he's really playing well he's more patient and is less likely to throw it away when set like he's done in the last year.

I'd say the mental strain of captaining England at the moment is probably a contributor to such problems.

 

[Flem274*]

Nom nom nom nom, Phlegm tasting some Prasad.

If a Sri Lankan seamer were to destroy England I would have picked Eranga since he's got a bit to him, but never Prasad. Nom nom Phlegm tasting it even more.

 

[social]

Cook's always had similar issues though, It's not like it's a new revelation. Difference is when he's really playing well he's more patient and is less likely to throw it away when set like he's done in the last year.

I'd say the mental strain of captaining England at the moment is probably a contributor to such problems.

100% correct

When he scored a mountain of runs in Oz, he hardly played a cover drive and simply waited for our bowlers to stray to his strengths

 

[Jono]

Burgey and all the other **** ****s who liked his **** Sri Lanka post and thought it was a great rant, suck it hard.

 

[hendrix]

100% correct

When he scored a mountain of runs in Oz, he hardly played a cover drive and simply waited for our bowlers to stray to his strengths

So putting this out there, not because I think it's true, but...

Could it be that Cook's career is an extreme symptom of the increase in quality of bowling over the last few years?

He made mountains of runs during a period where the bowling wasn't very good, and all of a sudden has found life very difficult. Obviously there are extenuating circumstances - the mental stresses of captaincy, general fluctuations in form etc. But is it possible that he's sorta the enhanced Phil Hughes? Outstanding against bowling that's not very good, but as soon as teams bowl well to him he's incapable of scoring runs?

 

[Cabinet96]

I think there's certainly a case of it. But then which batsman would you expect to do better or continue at a similar run scoring trend after an increase in the standard of bowling? Not like Cook has never scored runs against a good attack before.

 

[hendrix]

Yeah everyone's going to do better against poor attacks.

Meh, it seems more likely that he's just in a particularly poor run of form. Either that or he's regressed as a batsman.