England v New Zealand, 2nd Test, Headingley, 29 May-2 Jun, 2015

Jesus.
Three f**king catches go down in 6 balls ...
Wood, Balance and finally Cook.
Three lives for Latham - lucky b**tard.

Poor sh*t from England - heads going down now.

tricycle wrote:

PeterCS wrote:Big Mac?

Yes.

Usually prefer a Quarter Pounder with Cheese...

Latham finally succeeds in getting himself out having spent the last half an hour doing his best Chris Martin impression.

Rank idiocy from Ronchi.

Dello wrote:Latham finally succeeds in getting himself out having spent the last half an hour doing his best Chris Martin impression.

He didn't sing Yellow very well, from what I caught on the stump microphone...

297/8 off 65 overs having been put in. I think NZ won't be too downhearted about that.

Some shocking dismissals, though. No discipline at all.

Not too much from the bowlers either, it would appear... still, this is the sort of Test cricket we want to see. Evenly poised, anyway. Shame we don't have 4 or 5 against this NZ team really.

Sheep started poorly yet raced along at 5 runs an over?? From above descriptions it appears a number of wickets fell to indiscriminate shots. I blame the IPL.

NZ rescued by Ronchi? WTF!!

I think in some regards NZ have been playing up to their hype - our cricket media have been fawning over them. Rightfully so in many respects. The way they play is admirable. They'll get criticism for the way they batted and I suppose it's deserved. But from a spectator point of view it was quite exhilarating to watch. Not quite Test cricket, but you know, who cares? I'd take that over the Pak / Bangla style bullshit each and every day

Geez, at 5 for 264, NZ were cruising to a massive day, but Latham and Raunchy couldn't keep their heads. Good comeback by England to claw their way back.

Interesting stat after the Latham/Ronchi 6th wicket stand of 120 - the Sheep average 82.2 for that wicket since the beginning of 2014.

Brass Monkey wrote:5 day forecast =

Fri: rain, max temp 12
Sat: cloudy, max temp 13
Sun: rain, max temp 10
Mon: rain, max temp 11
Tue: rain, max temp 12

Honestly don't know why they bother allowing Northerners to host cricket matches.

Looks like our midwinter forecast. Dire.

skully wrote:Geez, at 5 for 264, NZ were cruising to a massive day, but Latham and Raunchy couldn't keep their heads. Good comeback by England to claw their way back.

Interesting stat after the Latham/Ronchi 6th wicket stand of 120 - the Sheep average 82.2 for that wicket since the beginning of 2014.

Then again the kiwis were two for very little and it could have been worse without some consolidation. McCullum and Ronchi seemed to be in limited overs mode.

Shame Ronchi didn't quite make a ton on debut. He seems to have approached the game with a great attitude ... 'this might be my only Test, I'm going to play my natural game and enjoy it'.

Brass Monkey wrote:I think in some regards NZ have been playing up to their hype - our cricket media have been fawning over them. Rightfully so in many respects. The way they play is admirable. They'll get criticism for the way they batted and I suppose it's deserved. But from a spectator point of view it was quite exhilarating to watch. Not quite Test cricket, but you know, who cares? I'd take that over the Pak / Bangla style bullshit each and every day

Agreed.

"Not quite Test cricket, ...". Depends what you mean! Had the England bowlers not had some help (which some used better than others) from the conditions - in other words, without those first two wickets in particular, NZ might be 320-4 or 5 and pretty much on top.

Of course, in that case, Cook might have chosen to bat. But nevertheless. NZ have quality, even if not always shown at its best.

PeterCS wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:I think in some regards NZ have been playing up to their hype - our cricket media have been fawning over them. Rightfully so in many respects. The way they play is admirable. They'll get criticism for the way they batted and I suppose it's deserved. But from a spectator point of view it was quite exhilarating to watch. Not quite Test cricket, but you know, who cares? I'd take that over the Pak / Bangla style bullshit each and every day

Agreed.

"Not quite Test cricket, ...". Depends what you mean! Had the England bowlers not had some help (which some used better than others) from the conditions - in other words, without those first two wickets in particular, NZ might be 320-4 or 5 and pretty much on top.

Of course, in that case, Cook might have chosen to bat. But nevertheless. NZ have quality, even if not always shown at its best.

Conversely, NZ were lucky that we were awful in the field and we have Cook as a captain, who likes to spread the field at the merest show of attack.

Easy singles everywhere, predictable bowling plans... a very lucky side indeed.

Phew.... can't believe we managed to get the mighty Craig/Henry/Boult combo. They're like a dream team at batting. Phew. Only 53 runs this morning - whoa we got off lightly. Phew.

Hoo-bloody-ray!

C'mon Lyth ... it's time you clocked on.

It's not really time, is it? 2 innings? On Alastair Cook time, that's a heartbeat.

Thrilling start to the innings.

Playing for the draw already.

Cook one hit away from the record... not exactly his way, but would be good if he took a leaf out of the KP/Mucca rule book!

Brass Monkey wrote:It's not really time, is it? 2 innings? On Alastair Cook time, that's a heartbeat.

Was it Atapattu who made 1 run in his first 6 Test innings or something like that? Gooch started with a pair as well... compared to them, his start is positively Strauss-like.

beamer wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:It's not really time, is it? 2 innings? On Alastair Cook time, that's a heartbeat.

Was it Atapattu who made 1 run in his first 6 Test innings or something like that? Gooch started with a pair as well... compared to them, his start is positively Strauss-like.

Yeah exactly. Barring a horrendous run of scores, he should have 7 Tests to make his name. Incidentally, he's looked a lot more assured outside off today. Just heard that he averages 29 at Headingley though, so we've nearly seen all of him this innings!

vilkrang wrote:Thrilling start to the innings.

Playing for the draw already.

Should draw level after 140 overs.