***Official*** Sri Lanka in England

[marc71178]

Liam Plunkett batting average of 2 prior to this Test, Panesar, about 3 or 4, Muralis, 600+ wickets and 8 in the innings. I wonder who will come out on top.

Greigy!!!

 

[marc71178]

Silly me, forgot that we do that in England

As well as Pietersen batted in the first two matches, I feel let down by his innings today, I know I haven't been watching today, but the entire middle order have cost us a series I reckon. The openers got us off to a decent start, and the tail batted fairly well. 3-7 should be ashamed of themselves. Pathetic.

To be fair to him, wasn't he injured?

 

[Neil Pickup]

Slightly off thread, I thought Lewis was going to be the solution, seeing as we were sinning by picking our fastest bowlers rather than our best...

 

[aussie]

well bowled to Murali & Sri Lanka, England need to get back to the level they were during the ashes soon or else the results for the rest of the year wont be too good i'm afraid to say.

Panesar had a very impressive series with the ball, even though i think England may look stronger without him i'm pretty convinced now that Fletcher & whoever is the captain is firmly behind the idea that England should have a spinner in the attack.

Mr.Jones on the other hand had another unconvincing series & must know that his days as England #1 keeper bat are numbered.

 

[Neil Pickup]

well bowled to Murali & Sri Lanka, England need to get back to the level they were during the ashes soon or else the results for the rest of the year wont be too good i'm afraid to say.

Panesar had a very impressive series with the ball, even though i think England may look stronger without him i'm pretty convinced now that Fletcher & whoever is the captain is firmly behind the idea that England should have a spinner in the attack.

Mr.Jones on the other hand had another unconvincing series & must know that his days as England #1 keeper bat are numbered.

How the hell would we have been stronger without him?

 

[social]

Must say that I'm surprised by the no. of people advocating the replacement of Cook with Vaughan (if fit).

Cook's a young guy that has had a fantastic start to his test career.

IMO, he is a better player now than Strauss, Vaughan and Collingwood.

Why should he be sacrificed to make way for a pretty average test batsman?

 

[silentstriker]

Must say that I'm surprised by the no. of people advocating the replacement of Cook with Vaughan (if fit).

Cook's a young guy that has had a fantastic start to his test career.

IMO, he is a better player now than Strauss, Vaughan and Collingwood.

Why should he be sacrificed to make way for a pretty average test batsman?

Vaughn's value to the team is greater than Cook's value to the team, at this juncture. Captaincy cannot be underestimated. A year down the road...who knows? But right now, England need a captain who averages 40 more than just a batsman who averages 50.

 

[aussie]

How the hell would we have been stronger without him?

In a full-strenght england team once everyone is fit, they certainly would be:

Trescothick
Strauss
Cook
Vaughan
KP
Collingwood
Flintoff
Jones
Hoggard
Harmison
S Jones

Prior to this test, that would have been my full-strenght England side & i have been saying that the 4-man pace attack once fully fit can cut in on most pitches in all conditions around the world unless you go to the sub-continent or Sri Lanka where it would be unwise to play without a spinner. The great west indian side did it & this England quartet is the best since then i see no reason why they cant emulate that.

Plus not picking the spinner in Giles or Panesar would enable England to have a stronger batting line-up since Jones is up to standard as a test keeper batsman coming in a #7.

But knowing Fletcher its fair to say that England want the spinner in the side to give them variety.

 

[aussie]

Vaughn's value to the team is greater than Cook's value to the team, at this juncture. Captaincy cannot be underestimated. A year down the road...who knows? But right now, England need a captain who averages 40 more than just a batsman who averages 50.

exactly, but that little problem could be solved & both of them could actually play together if England were to decide to drop the spinner. But thats unlikely, thus Cook or Collingwood would be sacrificed when Vaughan returns.

 

[social]

Vaughn's value to the team is greater than Cook's value to the team, at this juncture. Captaincy cannot be underestimated. A year down the road...who knows? But right now, England need a captain who averages 40 more than just a batsman who averages 50.

Captaincy didnt lose this test nor the test series in Pakistan - Murali and Shoaib are simply top-quality bowlers and the English batting line-up is not that strong.

Why weaken it further when Freddie and Tresco have shown themselves to be at least as capable as Vaughan in the captaincy stakes?

People seem to have quickly forgotten that Eng produced a supposed miracle to draw the series in India and that this test should really have been a dead rubber. All of a sudden, they've been bowled out by arguably the greatest bowler in history and everyone acts like Vaughan is a saviour.

The fact is that he's a crock with a limited career in front of him and that his best batting days look to be well behind him.

 

[Blaze]

That is pretty bad for England to lose to Sri Lanka at home, despite Murali's heroics the series really should have been wrapped up by the end of the 2nd Test.

Hold on though it doesn't matter cause they still have the Ashes...

 

[James]

Injuries, injuries, and more injuries.

Stop taking the Black Caps excuses guys

 

[Sanz]

Hold on though it doesn't matter cause they still have the Ashes...

Wait for few months..Ashes will be *GONE*.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Test was lost in the 2nd and 3rd innings' of the match. It's never ever easy to make 300+ in the last innings of a Test match, and I don't think enough people are paying respect to that.

Especially against someone like Murali, what a legend.

 

[howardj]

In a full-strenght england team once everyone is fit, they certainly would be:

Trescothick
Strauss
Cook
Vaughan
KP
Collingwood
Flintoff
Jones
Hoggard
Harmison
S Jones

Prior to this test, that would have been my full-strenght England side & i have been saying that the 4-man pace attack once fully fit can cut in on most pitches in all conditions around the world unless you go to the sub-continent or Sri Lanka where it would be unwise to play without a spinner. The great west indian side did it & this England quartet is the best since then i see no reason why they cant emulate that.

Plus not picking the spinner in Giles or Panesar would enable England to have a stronger batting line-up since Jones is up to standard as a test keeper batsman coming in a #7.

But knowing Fletcher its fair to say that England want the spinner in the side to give them variety.

I agree with that - it's definitely their best team for the Ashes.

 

[adharcric]

The real problem is not Panesar but rather Jones. Just because you don't have a test-standard keeper at #7, you shouldn't sacrifice a good spinner or the balance of your bowling attack. England have plenty of batsmen now.

Trescothick, Strauss, Cook, Bell, Shah, Vaughan, Pietersen, Collingwood. That's 8 batsmen competing for 5 or 6 spots ... make them perform to stay in the team and the performances might improve. Flintoff is good enough at 6 or 7. I wouldn't even want Geraint Jones batting at #8 in my team, especially against an above-average spinner ... he's looked like trash against Kumble, Harbhajan and now Murali. I'm not sure if England would be better off with Chris Read but you really need a reliable scorer at #7. Don't hurt your bowling attack just because you have a substandard keeper and underperforming top-order batsmen. England's bowling is their strength, it's the main reason they can compete with the Aussies at all (along with KP) .. DO NOT sacrifice it. You need the spinner.

 

[marc71178]

Panesar had a very impressive series with the ball, even though i think England may look stronger without him i'm pretty convinced now that Fletcher & whoever is the captain is firmly behind the idea that England should have a spinner in the attack.

Only pretty convinced now?

When did England last not have a spinner in the team?

That ranks alongside the Geraint Jones should keep his place ahead of Read comment.

 

[marc71178]

Test was lost in the 2nd and 3rd innings' of the match.

This one was partially lost when they allowed 90 for the the last 2 wickets on day 1.

 

[Laurrz]

OMG WHAT A PERFORMANCE....single handedly destroyed England

8/70 by the great offspinner

chucks it or not...he is a phenomenon and to have him and Warney in the same era is a treat.... they are truly great and Murali ..the Man of the Match...Man of the Series... has done it again for his little country of high spirited men

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-Z8M_o4eD4&search=cricket

watch here.... if you want a longer version of the highlights.... ask me for it...but if taht will do ...then yea...

Watching Murali bowl is awesome..like Warney...whether he chucks it or not.... bloody awesome..love seeing the poms getting killed

POMS HAVEN'T WON A SERIES AFTER THE ASHES...... ty murali!!!!!!!!!

 

[a massive zebra]

Slightly off thread, I thought Lewis was going to be the solution, seeing as we were sinning by picking our fastest bowlers rather than our best...

Oh come on, he was brought in on the least responsive pitch in the series and his first innings performance was completely commendale. Far better than Plunkett in his first few matches anyways.