Cricket

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Can Pakistan claim an extra half an hour today?
I hate that rule whether for or against England.

No need...Rashid last man out for 61.

England 312 all out....Pakistan win by 178 runs.

 

[Pakenhamtrain]

The tour match between the Cricket Australia XI and NZ ended in a bit of a farce.
The CA XI delcared on 1/503. Carters the man out with 209 Finch the not out man on 288.
NZ then tried to declare twice. Because of the pitch.

And on D/N tests: Here's a ball from Sheffield Shield after 80 overs:
https://twitter.com/White_Adam/status/660031884760485888

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Third Test Match....Day 1.

Pakistan 234 all out.....1st innings
Misbah-ul-Haq 71 (2 x 6 / 7 x 4)

Anderson 15.1 - 7 - 17 -4
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Third Test Match....Day 2.

England 222-4.....1st innings.

From being 97-3 and 139-4, Taylor (74 not out) and Bairstow consolidated matters with an unbeaten stand of 83.

 

[ainsworth74]

At least we haven't had to wait for four and a half days play before things get interesting! Very well poised at the moment this Test. If England can bat on to a lead of 150+ then it should be game over and series tied up but less than 100 and anything is possible.

Should be a good couple of days play in the offing.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The tour match between the Cricket Australia XI and NZ ended in a bit of a farce. The CA XI declared on 1/503. Carter's the man out with 209 Finch the not out man on 288.

NZ then tried to declare twice. Because of the pitch.

I have just seen an image of the wicket () referred to at the Blackdown International Sports Park. To say that a wicket has "deteriorated" would be not really the words I would have chosen to use to describe that particular wicket.

 

[Pakenhamtrain]

I have just seen an image of the wicket () referred to at the Blackdown International Sports Park. To say that a wicket has "deteriorated" would be not really the words I would have chosen to use to describe that particular wicket.

Apprantly it was blamed on the weather during the week not giving them enough time to do better.

They've only really started using it for First Class cricket in the last few years.

 

[Busaholic]

The word 'unique' is so over-used, even abused (itself a word rather too casually flung around imo) but the passing of Lindsay Kline, the Australian test cricketer, is a time to reflect on a seminal moment in test history, and one that is (for the moment, and possibly forever) unique - the Tied Test in 1960/1 at Brisbane between Australia and West Indies.

To set the scene - the last afternoon of the match saw Australia seemingly coasting to victory with a 7th wicket stand of 134 between Richie Benaud and Alan Davidson taking them to within seven runs of victory. Time was, however, a factor and in the penultimate over Davidson was run out. So the Aussies faced the last (eight-ball) over from the great fast bowler Wes Hall with six runs to win and three wickets remaining.Suffice to say that Kline, one of nature's no. 11s, came in with two balls remaining in the match, the scores level and just the one wicket left. Kline and Meckiff, the no. 10 who had himself only been in for a couple of balls, decided that, come what may, they would run off the penultimate ball. Kline managed to get bat on ball somehow and turn it to the leg side but the fieldsman, with one stump to aim at, hit it with Meckiff out of his ground. Meckiff is now only remembered for later being banned from cricket for throwing, but Kline's place in cricket history is assured. He also took a hat-trick in only his second test, in South Africa, a feat that has not (yet) been repeated there.

Apparently Kline was a very popular cricketer, with a great line in self-deprecation. He liked to point out that his hat-trick put him on a par with Shane Warne; 'the only difference is, he got 700-odd test wickets and I got 34!' Those 34 did include 7-75 against Pakistan in Lahore which set up an Australian victory, so he was a not insubstantial cricketer.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Third Test Match...Day 3

England lost their last six wickets far too cheaply and from the overnight score of 222-4, they were all out for 306.
Good bowling return by Malik....9.5 - 3 - 33 - 4.

Pakistan (2nd innings)...146-3
A century opening stand and with the opener Hafeez on 97 not out (3 x 6 / 9 x 4), Pakistan ended the day with an overall lead of 74 with two days to play
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Third Test Match....Day 4

Pakistan (2nd innings)...355 all out
Hafeez as opener still pressed home the advantage until he was dismissed for 151 (3 x 6 / 15 x 4). Broad finished with 3-44.

England (2nd innings)...46 - 2
England need to score a further 238 runs in three periods of the final day to win this match and to square matters.

 

[backontrack]

Bell may have played his last Test Match, but he did get his 100th Test catch (Hafeez), if that's any consolation.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

England lose four quick wickets in the first session of the final day, leaving them 59-6.
,

 

[Pakenhamtrain]

The 1st test of the Australian summer has begun. Australia won the toss and elected to bat first.
Turned out to be a good decision.
AUS: 2/389
Burns 71, Warner 163, Khawaja 102*, Smith 41*.
Quite a bit of sloppy bowling from the NZ attack really helping Australia's cause.

 

[Cletus]

Three test matches live on Sky Sports at the same time this morning when I got up.

Pity I had to leave for work

 

[Oswyntail]

England lose, with a dramatic collapse.
They need to:-

• Sort out a decent specialist opener
• Move Moeen back down the order. He was excellent at managing the tail in the summer.
• Stop listening blindly to Vaughan and Boycott. Bairstow is not up to test cricket as a keeper (persevere with Buttler) or batsman. Yorkshire is not always the answer.
• Find (produce) a few decent specialist spinners, not only so that they can play in the test side, but so that batsmen can learn to play them. Proper 4-day pitches in county cricket, that take spin on days 3 and 4, not just giving success to medium wobblers.
• Sort Bell's head out. He is still the most complete middle order batsman we have
• Stop anyone saying "We can win this" - it just fires up the opposition

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

England lose, with a dramatic collapse.

England (2nd innings)...156 all out
Cook 63

Yasir Shah 4 - 44
Shoaib Malik 3 - 26

Pakistan's spinners took 17 of the 20 England wickets to fall in this match.

 

[Pakenhamtrain]

Day 2 of the Aus vs NZ test saw Australia declare at 4/556.
Smith was bowled to an absolute jaffa for 48 and Khawaja was caught for 174. Khawaja's wicket prompted the declaration.

NZ started well enough only loosing the 1 wicket until the final session. The cloud arrived and cue Starc and Johnson with 2 wickets each.
NZ finished the day on 5/157.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Day 2 of the Aus vs NZ test saw Australia declare at 4/556.
Smith was bowled to an absolute jaffa for 48 and Khawaja was caught for 174. Khawaja's wicket prompted the declaration.

NZ started well enough only loosing the 1 wicket until the final session. The cloud arrived and cue Starc and Johnson with 2 wickets each.
NZ finished the day on 5/157.

New Zealand retrieved matters from that position mainly as a result of a typical innings from Williamson, who hit 140 from 178 balls faced, with 24 x 4, to finish on 317 all out.

Johnson seems to have certain matches these days whilst still taking wickets, can tend to go for far more runs per over than he did in his younger days. His bowling return of 21 - 3 - 105 - 3 shows him going for 5 an over.

 

[Pakenhamtrain]

New Zealand retrieved matters from that position mainly as a result of a typical innings from Williamson, who hit 140 from 178 balls faced, with 24 x 4, to finish on 317 all out.

Johnson seems to have certain matches these days whilst still taking wickets, can tend to go for far more runs per over than he did in his younger days. His bowling return of 21 - 3 - 105 - 3 shows him going for 5 an over.

Willamson's innings appears to matter for nothing.
Australia finished day 3 on 4/264. 503 infront.
At one stage it was 0/237 before Warner tried a switch hit slog that went down a fielder's throat.
By that stage however both Warner and Burns were taking the mickey. Between Warner and Burns they hit 21 fours and 6 sixes between them. The run rate is at 6.28.
Warner 116. Burns made his debut century and ended on 129. Didn't exactly hang around Burns to get it eather with it starting to rain he went after the bowlers and got it with a couple of overs before the umps had enough.
It was the first time ever the opening two batsmen have had twin century partnerships for Australia.
I think the message of the day was to bury NZ. Fair to say that was achieved.

 

[Busaholic]

Postscript to Pakistan v England, last test.

In England's second innings nos 3 to 7 batsmen (and that's five different batsmen) contributed the grand total of 8 runs, equalling an England 'record' going back to 1887!

On the subject of England's opening batting partnership, I cannot think of a more dire situation during the almost 60 years I've been following them.

 

[Whistler40145]

Absolutely dire. Where do we lay the blame, Selectors or Captain Cook?

We need a proper spin bowler, not three batsmen who can bowl spin. The last great spinner must be Graeme Swann and before him, Derek Underwood, others in between have been decent, but not outstanding!

 

[Oswyntail]

Absolutely dire. Where do we lay the blame, Selectors or Captain Cook?....

Why not at county cricket, where batsmen can get runs but rarely face genuine challenges, and spinners are used as slightly slower medium pacers?

 

[ainsworth74]

Absolutely dire. Where do we lay the blame, Selectors or Captain Cook?

I would suggest the batsman who collapsed in a heap would be to blame rather than selectors or Cook. A target of 284 whilst perhaps not the easiest of scores was certainly eminently gettable if the middle order had actually got some runs. Even just twenty by batsman three to seven would have seen us within thirty of the total!

I'm also not sure I'd call Rashid a part-time spinner.

 

[Busaholic]

I was interested to read Boycott's opinion that Carberry should have been stuck with, although I seem to remember he was rather in favour of Lyth, until suddenly he wasn't! Taylor is the right quality, compared in the first innings to a right-handed Thorpe, which spoke volumes for his grittiness.

 

[Whistler40145]

There's other options England could try, one being try opening with Butler, but that's not likely to be the best solution. Should Tredwell have been called up when Swann retired as a replacement?

 

[ainsworth74]

Should Tredwell have been called up when Swann retired as a replacement?

But he isn't really very good...

This season in first class cricket (against Division Two sides!) he played seven matches and took eleven wickets at an average of forty with a strike rate of eighty two! Rashid on the other hand (against Division One sides) who also played seven matches took twenty nine wickets at an average of twenty eight with a strike right of forty three.

If we go back to 2014 then Tredwell (again against Division Two sides) played four matches and took eleven wickets whilst Rashid played fourteen and took forty six wickets.

I don't think he would have made sense as our full-time spinner and certainly not as a replacement for Swann.

 

[Busaholic]

I'm a Kent supporter (we all have crosses!) and I wouldn't back Tredwell to play anything other than a containing role in a test match. He is just not test material: Adam Riley, on the other hand, who replaced him in the Kent side during 2014 as an off spinner, won plaudits from quite a few cricket writers, particularly Paul Nixon who opined that Riley should be fasttracked into the England set-up. Regrettably, as is often the case in county cricket, an excellent season is followed by a mediocre one, and Riley got dropped from the Kent side later in 2015.
In the current edition of the Cricket newspaper, Nixon says that he considers Panesar to be the best spinner available to England, assuming he can resolve the personal issues which have surrounded him for so long. Forget his batting and fielding, many of our best bowlers in the past could do neither well either.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

In the morning session of the final day of the Test Match, New Zealand were all out for 295, having lost their last seven wickets in that same time period.

Australia win by 208 runs.

 

[Pakenhamtrain]

The second test has begun at the WACA ground.
Australia won the toss and decided to bat. A good decision it turns out.
At stumps:
2/416.
Warner 244* Smith 5*
Of the two batsman dismissed:
Burns 40 Khawaja 121
The NZ bowling card is a very depressing sight. Only one maiden in the 90 overs bowled today and it was the first. 8 bowlers were used. No pressure on the batting side what so ever.

Warner has put on a masterclass. Simply fantastic batting. Khawaja was a bit lucky early on with the umpire turning down a catch that was edged. NZ has used all thier DRS chances at that stage.
Even Warner got a bit lucky with DRS. Only 49.9999999999 percent of the ball hitting the stumps.

 

[Busaholic]

Even Warner got a bit lucky with DRS. Only 49.9999999999 percent of the ball hitting the stumps.

That's usually enough to dislodge a bail.

Let's hear it for England. an easy win over Pakistan in the ODI, batsmen made a competitive score, bowlers did the rest.

 

[Pakenhamtrain]

Day 2 has been finished. Australia declared on 9/559. Went for a bit more of a slog.
NZ are 2/140.
Although the big talking point is in the 42 overs of the NZ innings the ball was replaced 3 times.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Day 3 of that Test Match has finished with New Zealand on 510-6
Taylor 235 not out
Williamson 166

Is the batting track at Perth conducive to run making?