England v Sri Lanka, 1st Test, Headingley, 19-23 May, 2016

Hmm, I thought Hales was selected ahead of other opening batsmen because he is supposed to be a bit of a 'dasher'. Not sure 8 off 30 balls is what he's there for. May as well pick someone who has a better technique in that case. Or move Compton up to open and bring someone else into the middle order.

Pretty uneventful session so far.

Looking like a net session for the 2 England openers ATM.

Flange's decision to bowl looking exceedingly dodgy now.

Well they're poor in most departments so probably wouldn't have made any difference. This will be like a club side opposition for the poms.

Chef falls to a lazy wide waft. He'll have to wait for 10,000. 1-49.

Nice work, Red. Another woof will make it interesting before Lunch.

Welly well well, Compton goes for a duck. 2nd one to debutant Shanaka. 2-49.

skully wrote:Welly well well, Compton goes for a duck. 2nd one to debutant Shanaka. 2-49.

Ha Skully, I'm channelling JGK!

So the collapse has started.

Wow, Shanaka gets Root for a globe!!!! 3-51!!

skully wrote:Flange's decision to bowl looking exceedingly dodgy now.

I guess I need to retract this.

taipan wrote:So the collapse has started.

And that was before Root.

The Flange looks like he's been in a good paddock lately.

skully wrote:

skully wrote:Flange's decision to bowl looking exceedingly dodgy now.

I guess I need to retract this.

I was thinking that you woofed first!

So at Lunch on Day 1 England have faffed their way to 3-57. New boy Shanaka has 3-6. Lankans will be delighted with this position.

Cook did f*ck all in South Africa, just as he'd done f*ck all in the Ashes before the UAE series against Pakistan. That's two out of his last three series doing f*ck all. And he did f*ck all in the first innings here.

Just saying.

Now Eranga gets Vince. 4-70!!

Crikey, Stokes chips one to mid-on. 5-83.

Looked up who this 'Vince' was, expecting some bloke called Lombard or something....and was flabbergasted to find it was his real name.

Henry wrote:Cook did f*ck all in South Africa, just as he'd done f*ck all in the Ashes before the UAE series against Pakistan. That's two out of his last three series doing f*ck all. And he did f*ck all in the first innings here.

Just saying.

So maybe you think he does not f'''king deserve to sit alongside some of the other luminaries who have chalked up 10k.

Fred Nerk wrote:Looked up who this 'Vince' was, expecting some bloke called Lombard or something....and was flabbergasted to find it was his real name.

Better than Mince, I guess.

Pretty trouble free 50 for Hales while the carnage goes on at the other end. Well done him.

Jonny looks like he means business.