England vs Sri Lanka, 2nd Test, Lords, June 3-7, 2011

Finn's going to pull another 5fer out of his arse isn't he?

The thing about Finn is that no matter how shite he bowls, he still takes wickets. There are some genuinely good deliveries in there amongst all of the tripe. Definitely a work in progress.

Finn's okay, but a bit too London lad for my liking. He'll probably have a big impact this summer.

Unless England actually pick Dirtbag.

Remind me why Maharoof was selected?

This is getting annoying.

It was strange of Strauss to take Tremlett out of the attack and bring on Swann. These are hardly Swann conditions, but Tremlett was really starting to find a groove.

Out. Swann gets Herath. Yessir....

Maybe we should persist with Finn even when Anderson comes back. Get Broad out of there. Send him back to County cricket so he can learn how to take wickets.

Finn is far from the finished article but at least he gets people out. At the moment Broad is neither economical OR taking wickets.

Strauss oh so casually takes the catch of the Summer so far.

Strange decision to bring on Swann??!?!


Don't think so pal, see you later Fernando!

Swannyyyyy.

You should be thanking me you Welsh git.

I have single handedly got England two wickets.

Always thought we could end up with a lead even when they were piling on the runs, their tail really is pure gash.

More importantly it's long. Once we have 3 or 4 the rest seem to crumble.

First 3 wickets put on 370, last 7 109. Gash.

Good review....

Hmm, suddenly Strauss's form is becoming a bit of an issue. Hasn't really done much since that century in Brisbane.

incredible review by strauss. wonder what he was thinking. maybe hoping for a no-ball?

wonder what kind of target england will set if any. surely they will be thinking about it after the events of the last test and almost 150 overs remaining

maybe 60-70 overs for lanka to get 250 or so

An england team led by Strauss, already leading the series 1-0, will make no effort to force the pace until just after lunch tomorrow, where he will probably set Sri Lanka 300 to win in 40 overs.

Ball swinging. England should have played Dernbach. Or even Hoggard.......

KP isn't going to bat today.

There, I've said it.

FFS. The light rules are pathetic. F*cking man up and play. They've been playing in this light for an hour. What's changed???

Twotty was a wittle bit scared.

Yeah, because he only averages 65 in test cricket and is horribly out of nick....

Well the rules now say that the players will not be offered the light, and the decision to go off is entirely up to the Umpires. So the Umpires have clearly bowed down to Trott, and ignored the paying public and common sense.

And people wonder why test cricket is in decline.....

Henry wrote:Hmm, suddenly Strauss's form is becoming a bit of an issue. Hasn't really done much since that century in Brisbane.

Not suddenly. I've brought this up a few times now in among all the "Pietersen on the brink" bollocks - Strauss now averages 30 for the last year of Tests. Much worse than KP.

He's also gotten out to more left-arm seamers than Pietersen has to his "problem" SLAs.

Strauss has flown under the radar big time.

Henry wrote:Ball swinging. England should have played Dernbach. Or even Hoggard.......

I wonder when the last time was England went into a home Test match in early summer without a swing bowler?

This attack never looked right. I think they convinced themselves that they had to pick Finn as they had already hyped him up as being "difficult to leave out" of the first Test.

Dernbach, though... crumbs. Has it come to this?