International cricket thread

Mahmood takes a wicket with a sublime yorker or so he thinks, his ankle is 3 inches over the popping crease… no ball ! when it’s not going for you…the replay of the celebration turned to disappointment tells it all. Bowler, captain, vice captain… hearts sinking..

agro now, a lot of verbals plus bowler and batsman squaring up in the middle of the pitch, you don’t see this often, properly aggressive,.. haha got some sympathy with the England lads, WI batsmen saying plenty and being aggressive , nothing said, but when the England lads returned fire the umpires step in.

India got up to 277/7 including 24 wides, the over referred to in the video was bowled by an opening batsman to attempt to revive a game that was heading for a dull draw, when you mentioned long overs, I thought of tearaway fast bowlers, and a name that came to mind was Patterson Thompson who played 2 tests for West Indies around 1990, I looked it up and he bowled 22 no balls on debut, and on the cricinfo website his profile says he made Devon Malcolm look like a metronome 😂

A draw is really the only possible result, 1/6 one of the online bookies have it….

in hindsight after the big opening innings scoring by England they’ll be disappointed that West Indies got so close to them. England batted too long… far too conservative declaration.

Root went with a majorly attacking field for Leach but seemingly not bothered to offer his pace men anything like that support… he must think a short leg is something that gives you a limp, as opposed to enabling catches and wickets.

hopefully England throws the kitchen sink at the West Indies and declare about 30 minutes after lunch…I’d bet though handshakes will decide this one.. don’t imagine Mr Adventurous Joe would contemplate anything else

What are the Windies at here? It's Leech and Mahmood, hardly difficult prospects to navigate.

5.65 now required and West Indians making no effort beyond blocking and punishing the odd wide one.

according to Mark Butcher…

play finished early last night as the umpires forgot to request the floodlights were turned on.

takes 20 minutes for them from being powered up to be ready and effective….

that’s what you are up against in this sport now…ffs.

two standing umpires, third umpire, and match referee… four goons who between them, having to be aware of the light, checking it… but nobody thought about getting lights turned on.

“One mistake Joe, just one mistake” can be heard by an enthusiastic close catcher….. “ just one brilliant delivery” I thought might be more encouraging ? … either way, Joes next delivery is wayward, down leg side and swept for four.

15 overs remaining, looking like a lost cause for England.

butcher chirping in criticising the late declaration by Root.

Root was obviously too conservative with the declaration but throwing out Lees and Crawley to open the bat was a bad call too. The 2 guys are playing for their place/careers. They were never going to go out and start hitting the ball. Everyone else pretty much went a run a ball, but their places are pretty safe.

Root should have sent Bairstow and Woakes out to start hitting straight away. Make Brathwaite put the field back to defend the draw. Then set them a similar target but with more overs.

When I mention that Lees and Crawley were playing for their places/careers, it also be noted that Root is playing for his captaincy. Which again will hamper decision making. So Roots uncertainty as captain is becoming hamperous to the team.

Root has had the captaincy for 5 years… the same style of captaincy prevails…being constantly cautious over cleverly venturesome…. Way too negative…

give Ben Stokes a go…. Nothing to lose…..

Stokes had a game as captain, at home to the West Indies and lost it but more importantly said he didn't enjoy it. Can't make someone do it. At the end of the day, he would have had the same talent shortcomings to deal with. No amount of captaincy nous will get you out of 30-3 holes and small first innings totals and limited bowling options especially spinner wise. It's not as if he isn't heavily involved in the running of that team anyway.

Any optimism there for a result in the third Pakistan Australia game? Pakistan are 90-1 at the end of day 2 in reply to Australia's 391. No hundred for Smith again, duck for Labuschagne again. Khawaja out in the 90s again. Green and Carey played well to get them towards 400. Four wickets a piece for Afridi and Shah.

Bangladesh beat South Africa with 141 runs to spare, a 9 wicket victory a 2-1 series win…

South Africans bowled out in 37 overs…

Bangladesh only loose that single wicket in the chase. Haven’t beaten SA, hammered them

Some collapse by Pakistan, 170/1 to 268 all out. With two days left and a lead of 134 and 10 wickets in hand, will Australia finally get the win?

Bangladesh beat South Africa by nine wickets with 24 overs to spare to win their first ODI series in South Africa. It was a strong side by South Africa too with De Koch, Miller, Rabada.

England have named their team for tomorrow, Woakes for some reason plays and they drop Fisher for Overton. And of course no Parkinson. I hope they lose by an innings for being so bland and boring.

Khawaja has a ton in the second innings, he has really played well since his recall, Australia lead by 327 now, 8 wickets in hand, probably looking at a 400 run lead before a declaration

Abadan Raza gives Imam Ul Haq out caught behind off Nathan Lyon..

Reviewed by the batsman… by my estimation about a 4-5 inch gap between bat and ball. Wtf… Ball nowhere near the bat. The clown obviously just influenced by the veracity of the appeal around him… he looks confused, takes an age to raise the finger but raise it he does… DRS makes an outright eejit of him.

Khawaja has been outstanding since his return. To think Marcus Harris was keeping him out of the team. Levels above the likes of him.

Pakistan are in with a shout tomorrow are they? A shade over 3 runs an over needed? Not been watching it just looking at the scorecard it seems flat. Australia lost just three wickets in their second innings and Pakistan none in 27 overs so far. Pat Cummins has made it an interesting game now with that declaration.

There are now 3 DRS reviews available to each team per innings… The ICC put this down to less experienced local, non neutral umpires taking charge of matches since the pandemic due to increased risks for and from travel etc…

my estimation is that this will last beyond the pandemic… there will be a call for it to. It was two before this.

the standard of umpiring though even at top level is piss poor these days. Shockingly bad.

I can’t find the most up to date numbers.

but in 2016… 32% of DRS referrals showed the decision being incorrect and having to be overturned.

32 matches and 32% were overturned.

It says something when the most critical decision an umpire can make in the sport, is wrong almost 1 in 3 decisions which they try and make…a third of the time they are wrong.

bowlers bowl faster and that’s certainly a mitigating factor… but the integrity of the sport is dependent on how it is umpired….the umpires performance….

4 runs taken by England from their last 33 deliveries….

37 overs remain in the day but it’s unlikely they’ll get through all of those id imagine.

probably unlikely England will still be batting come the close of play … certainly won’t now as Woakes gets done by a good fullish second ball after tea…he misses out on easy runs the previous delivery that Seales dragged down leg side…

the England scorecard is pathetic.

Mayers 5 overs 5 maidens 2 wickets. Not bad. I guess Holder doesn't want to ruin his figures

This is rubbish by the WI, and really valuable runs for England

Agree, Braithwaite's captaincy has been poor in last few hours, he was off the pitch getting instructions. No pressure on the batsmen, no one around the bat..boundaries coming now with the new ball..

The only thing the WI can cling too is that if two tailenders can bat like this surely their top order can get runs.

Declare when you have less then 200 runs on the board….not sure Joe will go that way.

90/8 - 200/9 is some recovery..Lazarus be proud of that.

Joseph bowls it about a meter and a half down leg stump, no wide called… circus level umpiring.