England v West Indies, 2nd Test, Trent Bridge, 25-29 May, 2012

Very cockeyed looking innings. Lose 6 for 136, put on 204, then lose 4 for 20.

Rampaul is no batting hack, down at 11.

A number of people wrote:Figured you two Merlo would go ballastic ... you're both He's so fecking predictable when it comes to berating Strauss Vaughan!

FFS Albus - stop your continuous whining about Strauss Vaughan .... on and on and on and on ... never f**king satisfied despite all that he's achieved as a skipper since taking over!

Ah, 2003 - 2008. The glory years.

Done, no Michelle for Bresnan.

28c? I'm about 13 miles from Nottingham and it's 22 here. Let's not exaggerate.

Merlin wrote:
What I cannot understand with you're on-going bleating about Strauss's captaincy is the allowances which you patently ignore and which have to be made when bowling on a flat track under a 28C sun in glorious batting conditions ...

What does 28 Degrees have to do with anything? It's hardly a mid summer's day in The Sahara. That's warm, pleasant cricketing conditions.

I know there's a propensity for Brits to say anything above 17 degrees is 'hot', but still.. These guys are supposed to be professional sportsmen. If they can't handle 28 degrees then they should pack up and find another career.

Merlin wrote:
What I cannot understand with you're on-going bleating about Strauss's captaincy is the allowances which you patently ignore and which have to be made when bowling on a flat track under a 28C sun in glorious batting conditions ...
Are you expecting to attack at all times with 3 slips, a gully, point, leg slip and two close fielders on each side of the bat ...?
Do you envisage a short leg and silly point every time a quick hurls one down...?
Just where do you draw the line and start to consider spreading the field ... buying a wicket ... stopping the easy runs ... given these conditions??

Had this been a cold damp day on a green top I'd agree with you whole heartedly about going on the attack with the score at 130 - 6 ...but it isn't. It's Trent Bridge on a flattie with ace batting conditions ...

Anyway - enough ... let's get back to the cricket!

No, no, no, no, no, no, NO...

YOU patently have ignored both mine and Dello's points - this is the most incredulous thing about your clamour. The big partnership was about 30 runs in FOR 6 and he had one slip and one gully - that is negative captaincy whichever way you want to look at it.

skully wrote:Very cockeyed looking innings. Lose 6 for 136, put on 204, then lose 4 for 20.

Aye, it makes letting that partnership drift on and on

and on

even stoopider

... even if it WERE 28 degrees ... which it isn't

Merlo has rarely been known to let the facts get in the way of his argument, though.

krikri wrote:
What does 28 Degrees have to do with anything? It's hardly a mid summer's day in The Sahara. That's warm, pleasant cricketing conditions.

I know there's a propensity for Brits to say anything above 17 degrees is 'hot', but still.. These guys are supposed to be professional sportsmen. If they can't handle 28 degrees then they should pack up and find another career.

Aye, they face those conditions every time they play away and they seem fine - it's quite a silly point to grip onto... oooh 28...

It takes something special to bring you here krikri

it might be 28 celsius in Merlo's head, but ...

LINK

it's not difficult to detect bullshit these days, even when the bullshit is international bullshit

phurt Nass didn't have a problem saying it was hot

Brass Monkey wrote:
Aye, they face those conditions every time they play away and they seem fine - it's quite a silly point to grip onto... oooh 28...

It takes something special to bring you here krikri

When England are a big bag of sh!te

What's he supposed to do, go all out truth, all of the time? Even when his conscience is trying to cope in 22c temperatures?

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:What's he supposed to do, go all out truth, all of the time? Even when his conscience is trying to cope in 22c temperatures?

It's a tough time for The Tories at the moment..

Oooh, kriki, I can't tell you how much I'd enjoy watching Merlo defend the current shambles at Westminster.

Nice start, but a bloody no ball.

G.Wood wrote:phurt Nass didn't have a problem saying it was hot

Does it count when an Englishman says it?

Only if said englishman agrees with Merlin

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:Oooh, kriki, I can't tell you how much I'd enjoy watching Merlo defend the current shambles at Westminster.

Blame Jesus. Or Labour.

WideWally wrote:

Allan D wrote:Is this the highest partnership by a pair of unrelated players whose surnames begin with the same 3 letters?

Viv Richards & Richie Richardson once put on a triple century partnership against the hapless Aussies of the mid eighties.

Dunno about others. Did Jayasuriya & Jayawardene ever put on a really big partnership? Or Barrington & Barber? Did Tom Graveney ever bat with WG Grace?

Once again, Wally supplies the goods even if the startlingly obvious to everyone but myself. Indeed, the 2 "Rich" 's 308 for the 3rd wicket against Australia at Antigua in April 1984 sets a high bar for both the West Indies and Test nations overall in partnerships by similarly named, but unrelated players. Although they overlapped by a decade in the Sri Lankan side the highest partnership I can find between the 2 "Jaya's" is 120 for the 3rd wicket v. Zimbabwe at Kandy in March 2006. Although Kenny Barrington and Bob Barber were regular teammates in England sides of the early to mid-60s the highest partnership I can discover between them is 45 for the 5th wicket at Mumbai in November 1961.

As for Wally's last question I think even I can aver, without fear of contradiction, that the two didn't bat together given the 52-year gap in their Test careers, the 48-year gap in their appearances for Gloucestershire, the 42-year gap in their fc appearances and the 12-year gap in their being in existence. There are three degrees of separation between Graveney and Grace in the Test side. Graveney appeared with Freddie Brown in the Lord's Test v. Australia in June 1953. 2 decades earlier Brown had appeared in 2 Tests v. New Zealand alongside Herbert Sutcliffe who in August 1926 played in the The Oval Test v. Australia in the same side as Wilfred Rhodes, whose debut Test was W.G.Grace's last at Trent Bridge in June 1899.

There are also 3 degrees of separation between Tom Graveney and Andrew Strauss. The intervening players are, going backwards, Nasser Hussain, Graham Gooch and Geoffrey Boycott.

You should start a three degrees of separation thread Allan. Give us two names and challenge us to find the link. Without making them ridiculously difficult, as you are prone to do!

Well done by Wally.

Gillespie/Gilchrist no good? Vengsarkar/Venkat? Coney/Congdon? Khan/Khan (Mohsin and Majjid were unrelated)

Doubt any would match Richardson & Richards' 308.

Gilchrist didn't bat when "Dizzy" made his big score against the Bangas in his last Test in April 2006. Jeremy Coney began his Test career in the 2 home and away series against Australia in 1974 under Congdon's captaincy but then didn't play Test cricket again until 5 years later after Congdon had retired (which may help to explain the gap) and only topscored with 45 in his debut Test.

There are any number of Khans, both related and unrelated (Imran was Majid's cousin, I believe), as well as Mohammeds in the Pakistan side but Pakistani players are usually referred to by their forenames which would make Majid and Mohsin invalid.

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:You should start a three degrees of separation thread Allan. Give us two names and challenge us to find the link. Without making them ridiculously difficult, as you are prone to do!

I conducted the exercise originally to see if I could find the smallest number of players whose overlapping careers would link a member of the current England side to Lillywhite's side at Melbourne in March 1877. Of course Grace did not appear then and the only survivor of Lillywhite's XI who appeared in Grace's debut Test at The Oval in 1880 was Fred Shaw but the Grace-Rhodes link makes him an obvious choice. Try doing the same for the Australian side - the obvious starting point in the current side is Ponting - and then for each of the Test sides to their inaugural Test Match.

Another old chestnut is fathers and sons - for instance which player links Arthur & Dudley Nourse? Colin and Chris Cowdrey? Fred & Maurice Tate? Smallest number of players between David & Jonny Bairstow?