International cricket thread

Gillespy · 11-01-2021 3:53pm

Stayed up to watch it all. While Pant and Pujara were in it was to see if they could pull off a huge win. When they fell and Vihari couldn't run anymore it was to see if they could bat for the draw. As good as it gets if you like this game.

So impressed by India this series. Captain and best player leaves after a horrific loss in Adelaide, so many injuries and they refused to roll over. Draw will do them at the Gabba but I hope they can go to the well again and win it.

Delighted for Paine. Average keeper, average batsman and a poor captain. And so fake as a man. The most annoying keeper around to listen to from him shouting catch it and appealing every ball to his stupid ''banter''.

Gillespy · 12-01-2021 8:17pm

More bad news on the injury front for India with Jasprit Bumrah ruled out of Brisbane with an abdominal strain. That's their full first choice attack gone.

Mysterypunter · 14-01-2021 6:40am

Sri Lanka are 25-3 early against England, they are completely useless, crowd of sloggers, and Karunaratne is missing with an injury, so it's Angelo Matthews vs England

Gillespy · 14-01-2021 10:06am

135 all out after winning toss and batting. Bess, England's worst bowler gifted a 5fer. Broad and Leach bowled well.

Bat once now will be the plan while the pitch is still good.

Richard Hillman · 14-01-2021 10:09am

Test cricket is brutal. Get battered in the first 40 overs and now you have live with it for the next couple of days. SL very unlucky with 2 of the wickets but the rest was tosh.

Sri Lanka are the warmed up team. They had the SA series and just came off their own T20 Comp. England had a half white ball Series in SA and last played a test in September.

VillaMad · 14-01-2021 8:12pm

It's been coming for a while for Sri Lanka as they haven't had any star power coming up for a while and with the likes of Herath and Malinga gone their bowling now looks light and the batting simply doesn't have anyone near a Jayawardene or Sangakkara.

Wouldn't totally rule them out of the test match despite their position but somebody is going to have to play a blinder in the second innings.

Richard Hillman · 14-01-2021 8:14pm

We are hopefully playing Sri Lanka soon. Could be a shot at a test win. We'll need to bring every spinner Ireland possesses though :pac:

Gillespy · 15-01-2021 12:48am

Aus win the toss and bat. Ashwin doesn't make it either. Naratajan and Washington Sundar make their debut. Shardul also plays. Such an inexperienced attack lets see how they go.

VillaMad · 15-01-2021 12:57am

First Test: Agarwal, Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, Vihari, Saha (wk), Ashwin, Yadav, Shami, Bumrah.

Fourth Test: Sharma, Gill, Pujara, Rahane (capt), Agarwal, Pant (wk), Sundar, Thakur, Saini, Siraj, T Natarajan

That's pretty incredible for India with only Pujara, Agarwal and Rahane from the first test and only Pujara has remained in the same spot. Hard to see them beating an Australian side that has such a consistent selection apart from their openers.

VillaMad · 15-01-2021 1:07am

Great start for India. Another failure for Warner as Siraj finds the edge.

Gillespy · 15-01-2021 1:52am

Harris gone to Thakur's first ball. 22-2 in the eleventh over.

Work really starts now with Labuschagne and Smith in.

VillaMad · 15-01-2021 1:57am

Gillespy wrote: »

Harris gone to Thakur's first ball. 22-2 in the eleventh over.

Work really starts now with Labuschagne and Smith in.

Yep these are the big two. Both of them averaging over 60 in Test Match cricket is pretty ridiculous.

Impressive start from India considering they lost the toss.

Mysterypunter · 15-01-2021 8:50am

VillaMad wrote: »

Yep these are the big two. Both of them averaging over 60 in Test Match cricket is pretty ridiculous.

Impressive start from India considering they lost the toss.

Australia 274/5 at the close, 87 overs bowled in 6 and a half hours. Marnus 108, and a good stand between Green and Paine unbroken around 50, Wade also played well. England are currently 211/3 leading by 76 runs, Root 102*

VillaMad · 15-01-2021 7:17pm

As the day wore on, it became quite easy for Australia and they look in command you would say. From their point of view, they gave away some of their wickets and should be in even a better position.

Joe Root was excellent for England in a day shortened by rain. Too many bad balls from the Sri Lankan spinners as England cruised to a lead of 185 runs. They got Bairstow second ball and it looked like it was going to be a tough day for batting but they were very poor for most of the day's play. Dan Lawrence looked good on debut and one also had to feel for Kusal Mendis at short leg who got belted a number of times before finally having to come off for treatment. Sri Lanka's only hope is rain at this moment.

Gillespy · 16-01-2021 8:22pm

Bit of a reality check for England's attack. They also should have scored a lot heavier. Really bat them out of the game. 400 first innings won't do in India.

Happy to see Sri Lanka fighting hard. You just never know what a lead of 120 could do in that part of the world.

India praying for rain in Brisbane. Forecast isn't great so they might escape.

MFPM · 16-01-2021 9:48pm

Decent fight back with bat and ball by SL, England still massive favourites and should win.

AusvIndia nicely balanced, Aus favourites at the moment.

Strumms · 17-01-2021 4:09am

MFPM wrote: »

Decent fight back with bat and ball by SL, England still massive favourites and should win.

AusvIndia nicely balanced, Aus favourites at the moment.

Tomorrow is crucial, English don’t have to pull up trees. If they have Sri Lanka 220-4 at lunch or better they’ll be happy.

Weather is set very fair for the start of play in a few hours, should have a full days play. Monday at present anyway is much more mixed with a decent few showers expected....

English ‘should’ on this basis go all out attack...new batsman at the crease too... See if Mr Conservative JR agrees.

Mysterypunter · 17-01-2021 9:16am

Australia v India is a fantastic series, Australia 369 & 21/0 India 336, 2 days left, but a mixed enough weather forecast

Mr. Guappa · 17-01-2021 11:25am

Sri Lanka lead by 57 now. A few more and it could be a nervy chase for England.

Mr. Guappa · 17-01-2021 12:46pm

Mr. Guappa wrote: »

Sri Lanka lead by 57 now. A few more and it could be a nervy chase for England.

19-3 chasing 74.....

Strumms · 17-01-2021 2:57pm

England will be disappointed to have shipped 3 wickets for just 38 runs. Still in the driving seat....... not much hope for Sri Lanka but if they managed to grab another 3 quick wickets in the first 45 minutes of play... the English 6 down... say 65/6....squeaky bum time at least..humongous ask, English still will have enough to get the job done...

Incidentally I hate as a lover of cricket the SL test series. Purely because of the time difference, makes watching live cricket pretty impossible... it’s early EARLY morning.... ughhh

Strumms · 17-01-2021 3:53pm

Just seeing the highlights Sibley leaves a fullish ball, that pitches literally two inches outside off, wtf... the runout is even more shambolic, don’t know who called but Joe Root finishes about four feet outside the crease when the bails are dislodged.

England should or could have been five down, Jesus... combination of really good bowling and terrible batting.

Gillespy · 17-01-2021 4:07pm

Pity they couldn't finish it today. Barely an hour in the morning should do it either way. It will be similar start times for Indian test matches. The day/night one will be on at a better time for us though.

Leach deserved his five wickets. He improved as the game went on. England were so unprepared for this game. One day of play between themselves isn't enough. Looks like they'll get away with it and they should be better for it. Big doubts about their spinners though especially Bess. Virdi might be a better bet. Or one of the leggies.

Sibley was already a concern based on his playing of spin in unfriendly spin conditions. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't play all the India games.

MFPM · 17-01-2021 4:44pm

Fantastic response by India at the Gabba, excellent partnership between Sunder and Thukar, probably saved the match for India given that there is some rain forecast in the next day or two. Given how depleted the India side is notably in the bowling dept it's an excellent performance.

England running out easy winners as expected, though making it harder than necessary SL got pummeled across two tests by a poor enough South African side.

Richard Hillman · 18-01-2021 12:53am

These Natarajan no-balls are suspicious as ****. Always his first over and a mile over the line. If he was from Pakistan there would be talk....

Richard Hillman · 18-01-2021 1:13am

Shane Warne is voicing his concern over Natarajan. 7 no balls, 5 off the first ball of his overs, big ones.

It would take a lot from a cricket commentator to start alluding to something. All he did was describe it as "interesting". But we know what he's at.

MFPM · 18-01-2021 2:29am

Australia slowly building a lead here but India fighting hard - three relatively quick wickets, Lambuschagne out cheaply which is a bonus but Smith still there.

MFPM · 18-01-2021 4:36am

Smith out for 55, he was put down a couple of times...good spell of bowling by Siraj. India just hanging on but Aussies lead is now 229, looking for 40-50 more before declaring to try and win the game.

VillaMad · 18-01-2021 1:29pm

India need 324 runs from the final day against Australia with all 10 wickets intact. Australia really should have declared earlier to give themselves more time. Weather doesn't look great tomorrow, so a draw now looks the favourite. Australia's bowlers started to look a little fatigued to me in the first innings but it will be a day 5 pitch and they do have the quality to get it done.

England took just 40 minutes to knock off the runs this morning to beat Sri Lanka. Not really an impressive performance by England except for Joe Root's outstanding innings as Sri Lanka were their own worst enemies on Day 1.

Gillespy · 18-01-2021 7:23pm

Weather apps aren't that bad looking from what I can see. Written forecast says thunderstorms which will be a problem if they hit. Worse case scenario for India it might be cloudy and humid for most of the day and Australia get to bowl enough overs.

dfx- · 19-01-2021 7:37am

69 runs, 6 wickets and 15 overs left. The commentators had been looking for a declaration at tea yesterday as they had enough runs in the bank before Australia added another 60 or so.

Australia have been pretty underwhelming

Mysterypunter · 19-01-2021 8:42am

India win by 3 wickets, Pant 89* put the finishing touches to the win, set up by Gill and Pujara especially who I wouldn't like to bowl at for a living, some comeback from 36 all out in the first test, and with a list of injuries as long as a wet weekend

Richard Hillman · 19-01-2021 8:46am

Test cricket. Real Stakes. Stuff that will be remembered forever.

MFPM · 19-01-2021 9:53am

Phenomenal result by India, only three players playing in final test who started the first, down their best batsman and all front line bowlers, great achievement.

Tom Mann Centuria · 19-01-2021 9:55am

MFPM wrote: »

Phenomenal result by India, only three players playing in final test who started the first, down their best batsman and all front line bowlers, great achievement.

It really was. Fantastic stuff.

Royale with Cheese · 19-01-2021 12:46pm

Tim Paine will probably keep his mouth shut next time about getting his opponents to the Gabba.

19-01-2021 1:46pm

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Tim Paine will probably keep his mouth shut next time about getting his opponents to the Gabba.

His position as captain must be under pressure. That's two home series defeats to India on his record. And if he isn't captain, is he getting in the team?

Gillespy · 19-01-2021 1:55pm

I watched until the Tea break, wish I could have stayed awake to watch it all live. Pujara is such a warrior. He was so poor against anything close to short, took blow after blow but kept getting up. Gill was fantastic.

India have won a lot of fans this series. So many including me classed their last win there as lucky with Warner and Smith banned. They're a lot more weakened now and still won.

Gillespy · 19-01-2021 2:04pm

Ward J. Littell wrote: »

His position as captain must be under pressure. That's two home series defeats to India on his record. And if he isn't captain, is he getting in the team?

Add the Ashes to that. Headingley was awful for him.

Very average player that had a job with Kookaburra lined before Sandpapeegate meant they needed a captain.

Beasty · 19-01-2021 2:20pm

India getting results like that hopefully encourages more from the sub-continent to get into the test scene. T20 has arguably been a saviour for all forms of cricket, but a number of high profile cricketing nations are now producing some great cricket at test level. I hope the West Indies can continue their resurgence as if we can get them, England, Australia and India performing the future of Test cricket is hopefully assured. Indeed I think the white ball game has encouraged test teams to be more open/aggressive and we may be entering or even already in a new golden age for the game across all formats.

dfx- · 19-01-2021 4:39pm

Australia seemed to go about it all wrong. They expected the pitch to do the work at the start, Lyon bowled at leg stump and then tried to blast them out with short balls tiring themselves in the process and costly sets of 4 byes. Lyon was back bowling with the new ball after two or three overs.

Gillespy · 19-01-2021 6:16pm

I hate the way Cummins is used. Not given the new ball and asked to do the enforcer roll too often. He is far too good to be that type of bowler. Warne lost his cool completely with Lyon bowling too straight with no bat pad on the off side.

India announced squad for England. Kohli, Hardik and Ishant Sharma are back. More expected back for later games. Starts Feb 5th. Not confirmed yet where that series will be shown.

MFPM · 19-01-2021 11:32pm

Gillespy wrote: »

Add the Ashes to that. Headingley was awful for him.

Very average player that had a job with Kookaburra lined before Sandpapeegate meant they needed a captain.

He was what they needed after the Smith/Warner controversy, interesting to see what happens now. He'll go to South Africa as captain and you'd imagine they'll win that series, if they don't he won't captain for the Ashes, his wicket-keeping was relatively poor in this series.

VillaMad · 22-01-2021 3:26pm

Very good day for Sri Lanka as they only lost 4 wickets on day 1 against England, scoring 229 runs with Angelo Matthews getting a century. As we saw in the last test match, first innings runs are vital as the pitch will deteriorate and that puts Sri Lanka in a strong position. No wickets for Bess or Leach and that's a huge worry not only for this test match but the next series in India.

Jimmy Anderson was absolutely magnificent. 3-24 from 19 overs. 38 years of age and possibly getting better with age. He will be a man in demand whenever he retires to coach the next generation.

Gillespy · 22-01-2021 5:42pm

Looks very flat. Both Sangakkara and Mahela on commentary said this pitch can remain flat, end up with boring high scoring draw. Let's see on that.

Both sides probably happy tonight. Sri Lanka for an excellent recovery and England haven't lost control. Both spinners disappointed again, Jimmy bowling maidens at one end and them leaking easy runs at the other.

MFPM · 22-01-2021 10:04pm

Good day for Sri Lanka, great knock by Mathews, no chance given. It would be great if they could post 350 tomorrow, it would put it up to England and make for an interesting match.

Ireland fell short once more against Afghanistan yesterday, they really have our measure in recent times.

Mysterypunter · 23-01-2021 8:52am

MFPM wrote: »

Good day for Sri Lanka, great knock by Mathews, no chance given. It would be great if they could post 350 tomorrow, it would put it up to England and make for an interesting match.

Ireland fell short once more against Afghanistan yesterday, they really have our measure in recent times.

Nearing 350, but also losing wickets at 332/8, Anderson 6/38, some performance.

SeeMoreBut · 23-01-2021 11:52am

England lack of wickets from spinners must be a concern and their 2 openers gone for nothing against spin must be worrying also

MFPM · 23-01-2021 11:57am

Excellent performance by SL to get that score. Great performance by Anderson. England openers out cheaply again they and the spin bowling are concerns ahead of India clash.

MFPM · 23-01-2021 1:47pm

Root and Bairstow hit back well after the loss of the openers. Even though three days to go, this has the feel of a draw about it unless England bat all day and more posting a big score.

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