England v Sri Lanka, 3rd Test, Lords, 9-13 June, 2016

Brass Monkey wrote:

skully wrote:How's the London summer looking? Has winter left yet?

Sweltering 22s to 25s ATM... all week as well. Get to the weekend and it's apparently filthy dogshit rain once again.

Filthy dogshit, you say?

The hourly forecast is showing we should get through the day without rain.

Hope it goes into a fourth day.

Awesome, thought this was tomorrow for some reason.

Hoping for a win (obviously) but also for the Lankans to continue the fight they showed at the end of the last test, it's only a dead rubber but all the same it would be nice to see an exciting test.

Cautious but decent start by England.

Bit of a flurry of wickets.

Welly welly well. 4-fer!!!!

Chef must be shat off watching from the other end as 0-56 turns into 4-84.

I do not think Compton has ever recovered from the massive Trevving he received some years back....

This is a bit of a face-f*cking. If rain doesn't juice the pitch up, we're dead meat. Dead meat.

How the fark was that umpire's call? Looked out in real time, looked out in slow motion, ball tracking had it hitting the middle near the top of leg stump not clipping anything yet it's umpire's call?

Weird one that, Bairstow is a lucky boy.

Apparently 49.98% of the ball was hitting the stumps and it has to be 50. Very harsh on the Lankans that. Especially losing a review. Looked plumb.

Ginger nugget

279/6

Sri Lanka just edge the first day for me, but it could swing wildly the other way tomorrow if England get near 400.

Surely this must be Comptons last test.

Compton is the English version of Bog

Jonny to the rescue again!! Well done him, albeit with the lbw fortune.

skully wrote:Jonny to the rescue again!! Well done him, albeit with the lbw fortune.

I'd be pissed off if I were the Lankans, you can't get much more plumb lbw on leg stump.

Still, the match is nicely poised, honours even although you feel that they need to get us cheaply to defend their meek batting line up but perhaps they'll prove me wrong, they got a good score second time round last time.

Big Dog wrote:Surely this must be Comptons last test.

Looks completely shot. Would peg this on England as much as anyone. Don't think he should've been dropped when he was and his dashing replacement goes slower than Cook.

Does everyone remember the time we all thought Bairstow was shoite?

Jonny is a ginger legend.

Basil wrote:Does everyone remember the time we all thought Bairstow was shoite?

Errr ... not everyone. We don't all jerk knees in place of judgment!

Some said: "Let's see. Lad's clearly v nervous". I did fear for him in SAfrica though, and said as much. Glad the fears were unfounded.

So too with Vince. Any call for his damnation to hellfire yet? Weak start score-wise to his Test career, but I'm not sure. I'd like to see a few more innings.


England have sprung another leak at the top of the order, though. As has been remarked on above, the supposed adventurous foil to Cook's gradual accumulation is now scoring at half his speed as well as with half his assurance. And seems to be exploring the whole range of headless ways to get out. After crawling his way to a couple of decent scores, to go back to peanuts again is not good.



btw, on subject of paying over-rehearsed, with a burden of pressure added to by yourself: Did anyone not catch Bren McC's Cowdrey lecture? A weird and wonderful listen. Strange, intense, to me at least unexpected in parts, etc.

https://www.lords.org/mcc/mcc-spirit-of-cricket/mcc-spirit-of-cricket-cowdrey-lecture/2016-brendon-mccullum/

If you can't listen, this is one person's summary: http://www.mensxp.com/sports/cricket/30978-brendon-mccullum-s-cowdrey-lecture-shows-why-he-is-one-of-the-most-respected-cricketers-of-the-last-decade.html

Compton will be gone barring a second innings 50+, and Vince doesn't look all that convincing either. He looks a bit lazy to be honest with his footwork.

And I see Matt Prior is still invited into the England dressing room. Any sign of KP?

What were the odds on a Woakes ton?

Henry wrote:Compton will be gone barring a second innings 50+, and Vince doesn't look all that convincing either. He looks a bit lazy to be honest with his footwork.

Bring back iRon.