International cricket thread

That's probably that.

Gutted for them. Last ball six by Susie Bates the difference.

New Zealand batting England out of the test at The Oval.

NZ leading by 445 at lunch with 4 wickets left, not unimaginable that it could be a 500 lead unless England make quick inroads… none of Englands bowlers have been particularly expensive but they haven’t been too threatening either…

Oval pitches tend to notably decay, the highest successful fourth innings run chase is 263, way back so Englands goose is pretty much cooked.

Root back as captain and is out there batting in the fifth over in a lost cause. Just like old times. At least he passes 14,000 runs. Sachin 1921 runs a head, will take a bit of catching still.

Along with Pant, Brook is the most exciting batsman going. Must watch when he's on it. Oval all stood for his fifty like they would for a hundred.

Fantastic bowler is Matt Henry and an absolutely crushing win for New Zealand. An excellent all-round performance from them but in particular by Henry for whom England had simply no answer to his wicket-to-wicket bowling. England's balance in the team was all wrong. The changes were always going to make it difficult for them but they shouldn't have had Cox at 7 and Archer at 8 which began the tail.

Rob Key scoffed at the idea of wicket-keepers standing up and after suffering from the tactic in the winter, they still have no idea how to face it in the summer and for sure they will see plenty of it at Trent Bridge again at the end of the week. Having a quality wicket-keeper who can almost create wicket taking opportunities is much more valuable than a guy who can add an extra 20-30 runs but is generally just an average keeper.

You do need a balanced attack of seamers but England have always gone too far for the pace and height element. No slight against Sonny Baker as he was on debut but he was picked primarily because of his attributes rather than his wicket-taking ability and his match figures were 3/161. Tongue also was 3/161 and that's simply not going to win you test matches. Jofra Archer for all his natural ability also just doesn't take enough wickets. We all remember his spell against Steve Smith and that spell against Glenn Phillips on Friday evening was fearsome but for all that he didn't get either out which is the most important thing.

Looks like everyone will be back for Trent Bridge so the tail won't be a problem with Atkinson and Robinson in it. Some chat around Rehan getting picked which will strengthen the batting as well.

Glad New Zealand dished out such a hammering. Complete overreaction to a non issue, ECB statement says it was the rugby player that caused the trouble and Stokes didn't even witness it.

I remember the late 90's against New Zealand actually when they had a shambolic series of different sides and one of the test matches had Caddick at 8 and then Mullally, Tufnell and Giddens. All genuine number 11's. This one was pretty bad and also shows the need to have an all-rounder to balance out the attack somewhat. All well and good dropping Stokes for a game, but you do need to have an all-rounder to replace him with.

Archer has all the ability in the world and obviously because of his injury troubles we just haven't seen enough of him. Only 19 matches out of a possible 64 I think, since he made his debut 7 years ago is a testament to that. When I've seen the likes of Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc who are similar style bowlers take over test matches and series with incredible spells, everyone know he has the ability to do that but it just hasn't happened yet and now he is 31 already. At the very least, hopefully he plays the rest of the summer and at least get a run of games. Like most current players, he doesn't play very much red ball cricket outside test matches, so he will surely get better and better with more overs in his legs.