England v India, 4th Test, Old Trafford, 7-11 August, 2014

Punetastic

This is quite a bad warm up for the Champions League t20

Looks like Instant Charmer was India's talisman!

Buggered off crack o dawn on Friday to the South coast for a stag do (no TV), returned late Saturday
evening only to discover that the cricket was all dun n dusted.

Awful show from the Bannies ... good to see that Jimmeh now owns Kholi ... and that Moeen can now
truly shrug off the tag of being "a part time spinner".

Now if only Cook can start scoring runs, all should be well again in the England garden of roses...
But tbh,  England haven't exactly beaten a team that's any better than the Zimboks or the Bangles right now ...

PS - Jordan does take spectacular catches and make them look easy... a pity about his processed bowling though.

Red wrote:Looks like Instant Charmer was India's talisman!

Only because of England's batsmen brain-frozen frenzy in hooking or pulling his short pitched sh*t at Lord's.

Just watched the 2 hour Foxy highlights package on Day 3. Some observations (most of which have probably already been mentioned):

- to get knocked over by an attack that consisted solely of Jimmeh (does anyone seriously rate Woakes, Ali and Jordan?) speaks volumes for the ineptness of the Bannie performance;
- to lose 9 wickets post-Tea on that deck against that attack was unforgivable;
- Woakes clearly has taken all his wickets in County with bouncers;
- Chris Jordan has a big heart but the worst run up in world cricket;
- Ravi Ashwin must be disgusted with the tripe he had to watch hold a bat at the other end. He averages 41.61 with the bat and 28.78 with the ball. To put that in perspective, Aus's "world-beating allrounder" Shane Watson averages 36.25 with the bat and 31.95 with the ball. He is (bizarrely) one of the first picked for Aus, yet Ravi had to wait till this Test in the series for the Bannies to give him a go. WTF??
- the way Coaly, Jadeja, Rahane and Dhoni batted when India had to get to Day 4 and a chance of a weather draw was absolutely disgraceful;
- T20 has killed India the Test nation in every corner of the world except India;
- England's catching was good;
- Chef looks so much a different man from the sad sack at the end of T2.

Dello wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:I wouldn't say he's done that, but I doubt we'll bother choosing anyone for quite a while - probably the 4th Test of the Ashes when he's got tonked to f*ck in the first three. Reckon he'll fare well in the Windies.

I'm not too worried about his batting, overall. It was a Jaffa that got him really. I'm actually more concerned that when he's set, he gets a little loose in his strokeplay. He's got to keep his concentration like he did against SL in that exceptional innings.

Hmmm. I was more worried about the fact that even Kumar, at 75mph, troubled him with the short ball.

He doesn't seem to have much of a clue. There's a talented batsman in there, that's obvious, but he's going to get peppered to f*ck against Australia, like a hapless tailender.

Never mind. Turn him into a spinner. Bat him at eight or nine. Everyone wins.

M'yeah... I wouldn't say that Kumar particularly troubled him in this match. I just think that it gets a bit overanalysed, he did alright apart from the Aaron bouncer. Know what you're saying about Australia, that'll be an exceptionally tough Test. To bat him lower than six would be madness - to proper a batsman.

skully wrote:Just watched the 2 hour Foxy highlights package on Day 3. Some observations (most of which have probably already been mentioned):

- to get knocked over by an attack that consisted solely of Jimmeh (does anyone seriously rate Woakes, Ali and Jordan?) speaks volumes for the ineptness of the Bannie performance;

Ali isn't the world beater he's looking at the minute, but he gets more purchase than most of the spinners out there - as the revometer states.

Jordan, horrendous run up, a bit all over the shop - but he bowls some jaffas. Just a shame that he only has the England coaching staff to work with.

Get Kerrigan in the side for the fifth. He'd end up with a handful of wickets. So devoid of tact when playing spin.

lardbucket wrote:

Dello wrote:"Big Yellow Taxi there by Joni Mitchell, a song in which she complains that they 'paved paradise to put up a parking lot' - a measure which actually would have alleviated traffic congestion on the outskirts of paradise. Something which Joni singularly fails to point out, perhaps because it doesn't quite fit in with her blinkered view of the world. Nevertheless, nice song."

Is that Woakesy of Radio Caroline?

I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure that's pure "Alan Partridge", if it's not then Dello is really Steve Coogan which, when you think about it, would explain a lot.

as great an effort by the Poms and big congrats to them - the question remains - can the Bannies ever deal with movement and bounce while they manscape their home wickets...agree with Skully's earlier comments re Ashtray - a damned decent all rounder

eowyn wrote:

lardbucket wrote:

Dello wrote:"Big Yellow Taxi there by Joni Mitchell, a song in which she complains that they 'paved paradise to put up a parking lot' - a measure which actually would have alleviated traffic congestion on the outskirts of paradise. Something which Joni singularly fails to point out, perhaps because it doesn't quite fit in with her blinkered view of the world. Nevertheless, nice song."

Is that Woakesy of Radio Caroline?

I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure that's pure "Alan Partridge", if it's not then Dello is really Steve Coogan which, when you think about it, would explain a lot.

Sounds very Coogan v Brydon repartee indeed

It's out of I'm Alan Partridge. One of many humdingers from the most 'in character' character there has ever been.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bpFcfRn2-Y

The laughter track kind of f*cks it up. Nevertheless, nice clip.

beamer wrote:He's clearly got something there to work with though - someone with raw wicket-taking ability can learn control, whereas Woakes for example just seems to lack that X factor to take wickets at the highest level. Not sure you can play him and Finn in the same team at the moment though. We'll have to when Anderson and Broad are finished though, unless you have any other good suggestions...

I don't even see a raw wicket taking ability. He has eight wickets in four Tests at at strike rate of pretty much 100 and a quarter of those were from him padding his figures with ten and jack in the last Test. I have a vague recollection of his bowling being quite effective in some one-dayers but then so has Ravi Bopara's. At least with Finn he was taking wickets in between shoving it down the leg side. Bowlers I would pick ahead of him:

Plunkett (I realise this is not an option at the moment)
Stokes
Finn
Hell, I'd even bring back Bresnan and Tremlett before considering him

Tempted to include Meaker in that list as well but haven't seen enough of him.

Woakes is a weird one. I haven't seen much of his bowling for Warks but what I have seen I assume he's taken 90% of his first-class wickets by bowling full yet bowls short for half time when playing for England. I'm sure in India's 2nd innings in the last Test he bowled a full over of bouncers with three men back on the leg side. Not sure whether that's his fault or his captain's.