England v Pakistan, 1st Test, Lords, 14-18 July, 2016

The Stans have a real opportunity today. 1/40 at lunch after cleaning up the Pom tail.

Oh dear Miserable!! What were you thinking??

horace wrote:The Stans have a real opportunity today. 1/40 at lunch after cleaning up the Pom tail.

I was clearly under the influence of many years exposure to JGK.

155 ahead with six in hand; the game is interestingly poised.

6 fer now and the lead is a bit over 240...the test has tilted to the Poms, although Crooked is under bowling Woakes and allowing Finn to bowl too many.

england starting to look like the Stannies in the field

69.3
One Run
Steven Finn to Sarfraz Ahmed. Out-swinging length ball, outside off stump on the front foot driving, outside edge to slips for 1 run, dropped catch by Bairstow.

Finally a test where Bairstow's keeping is going to cost us I think. Time for Buttler to come back in to keep and Bairstow can stay as a batsman. I don't care if it upsets him or if he thinks he can do the job because he's done it for Yorkshire for years, he's absolute shite at test level and doesn't belong anywhere near a test team as a keeper.

Wow. Another Michelle to Woakes. On top of his unbeaten knock in the first dig, he is way ahead in motm calculations.

A 281 run lead with two wickets in hand make this test engrossing. Great effort from Woakes (and Ali) to have Pakistan reeling and then another great fightback in the mid and late order.

Test cricket is grouse.

vilkrang wrote:Finally a test where Bairstow's keeping is going to cost us I think. Time for Buttler to come back in to keep and Bairstow can stay as a batsman. I don't care if it upsets him or if he thinks he can do the job because he's done it for Yorkshire for years, he's absolute shite at test level and doesn't belong anywhere near a test team as a keeper.

Well, it won't be Buttler - at least for a while, because he has a broken thumb

Buttler is also an average keeper

horace wrote:Buttler is also an average keeper

Better than Bairstow and was actually improving when he was dropped.

Indeed, Bairstow on the other hand shows no signs of improvement and if anything seems to drop more.

I can't remember the last series where there were any question marks about Buttler's keeping ability, he definitely lost a bit of form with the bat and losing his place in the side was fair as it had been a long run but he's due another chance, he's been playing very well in other formats (his drop in form wasn't just his test batting it was batting everywhere so I don't think it's too big a leap to think that now he is batting well in other formats he will also start to bat well in tests) and he should be our keeper with Bairstow as a specialist batsman.

I can't recall any glaring errors from Buttler in recent years whereas it's happening in every single test with Bairstow, we are lucky in that we are still winning tests in spite of the runs he is costing us but this might be the test where it could be the difference between a win and a loss and we can't keep carrying him.

From what he has said in interviews I worry that he is being very stubborn and is against Buttler being keeper and him just playing as a batsman, his tone when talking about his keeping makes me think that he is putting his foot down and demanding to be behind the sticks.

sounds like another prima donna like Prior.

SO the Wackies are pushing towards a 300 lead then. Hard to see them holding out Yasir in the 2nd dig.

Should be an intriguing finish to the match.

And congrats to Woakes on his 10-fer.

Excellent bowling from Woakes. Cograts for another michelle and 11-fer in the match.....

Great advert to how engrossing test cricket can be. All the see-saw and shifting of momentum back and forth... Even after three days match seems evenly poised. Pakistan with their sub-par score in second innings have made it interesting. But 4th day wicket with Yasir shah in fine bowling form will be tricky for England. Agree, tht England willl try to play some counter attacking cricket at the top of the order get as many as possiblebefore Yasir comes on..

All in all, Victory for Test Cricket...

horace wrote:Wow. Another Michelle to Woakes. On top of his unbeaten knock in the first dig, he is way ahead in motm calculations.

A 281 run lead with two wickets in hand make this test engrossing.  Great effort from Woakes (and Ali) to have Pakistan reeling and then another great fightback in the mid and late order.

Test cricket is grouse.

If Shah takes a Michelle and the Whacksters win he should get MOTM.


But yes, Test cricket is, indeed, grouse.

Nice one, Chris.

Not out of the woods yet though.

Pakistan big favourites now, should be game over if they can put on another 50+ before our run chase.

We'd be in a much better position with a decent keeper. There must be some keeper who can step in whilst Buttler is injured who can average 20 with the bat and not drop howlers. Bairstow isn't scoring enough runs to make up for the lost runs so a solid keeper who only scores 20 odd will be more helpful than him right now (but again, he should stay as a batsman only).

Certainly seems as though 300+ will be a bridge too far for England.

vilkrang wrote:Pakistan big favourites now, should be game over if they can put on another 50+ before our run chase.

We'd be in a much better position with a decent keeper. There must be some keeper who can step in whilst Buttler is injured who can average 20 with the bat and not drop howlers. Bairstow isn't scoring enough runs to make up for the lost runs so a solid keeper who only scores 20 odd will be more helpful than him right now (but again, he should stay as a batsman only).

There's James Foster, but he's 36 and there's talk that he might retire at the end of this season. If it's a younger keeper you want who's better than Bairstow then I'll give you Ben Foakes and Ben Cox

It will be beyond a joke if we have F Foakes, B Stokes and C Woakes. Sounds like characters in a Roald Dahl novel.

For what it's worth, Foster rates Cox

Good catch this morning by Bairstow but it doesn't get us the runs back that are already lost.

He'll need to score a match winning century to turn it around but even then I'd rather he was making centuries from positions of strength rather than on the backfoot and England could have been in a position of strength if we had a better keeper yesterday.

There's too many passengers in this England batting lineup. Hales, Ballance, Vince....I'd even say Bairstow hasn't 100% convinced everybody yet.

You won't win too many test matches against the top three teams with only two consistent batsmen in your team.

That's dreadful batting from Root.