West Indies v England, 3rd Test, St. George’s, 24-28 March, 2022

beamer wrote:So, any chance of a result pitch, or will the Somerset Sloggers Shield be shared in a 0-0 snoozer?

Looks like a result pitch at this stage.

only 10 in front ya SGDT

exactly

beamer wrote:Appears that pissing away our reviews cost us what could be a decisive 50 or so runs, as well.

Did someone say Broad for captain? 

Some pundits touting Billings for the job now. He drove half way across Australia so reward him with the England captaincy perhaps? Seems the only explanation. Would be harsh on Foakes in terms of the keeping role though I bet he half expects to be the sacrificial lamb anyway… a drop and a brainless run-out will probably consign him to the outsider role again.

Some runs on lifeless pitches might have boosted the stock of a few but once again, absolutely nothing when the pressure was on. Lees is just Sibley mk 2, Crawley and Lawrence don’t have the patience and shot selection for this level.

Anyway, looks like we need to arrange an El Crapico against Sri Lanka to decide the wooden spoon of the serious Test nations. I don’t expect any resistance against NZ, SA and India this summer, by which time it could be something like 17 Tests without a win.

Apologies. Foolishly assumed Cricwaves widget was correct.

It lists England 11 as 204 and WI I1 as 268 (not the actually 297). This equates to a Cricwaves 39 run "lead" for England.

Oh dear. I really feel for our English mates. It was tough enough supporting Oz during the Langer disaster but that is just a blip.

Here is Thickers -

"Today has not been right but a lot of what we've done in the first two Tests has really been good and the team has produced some great performances, so let's not judge it just on today that it's not working," said England batting coach Marcus Trescothick.

Tremendous result for the Windies, especially man-of-match Da Silva, man-of-series Braithwaite, and Mayers.

Congrats to the Ganjas on a great win.

Captain COARIAB still not falling on his sword… a decision for the new regime to make.

The problems won’t be fixed quickly, whoever is in charge on and off the field. 1 win in 17 Tests, we can no longer rely even on home wins or beating the supposed minnows to paper over the cracks. Bottom of the WTC is where we deserve to be, shame the ECB won’t have the embarrassment of a relegation play-off against Ireland or something like that.

If Root is ‘Dud’, then is the current England squad Dud’s Army?

I wonder if Sturat and Jimmeh are smirking into their lager.

Pimms more likely

fwiw I think they should persist with Root. He has been carrying the team. If he was sacked would there be an adverse impact on his form?

There are no obvious alternatives. Suggestions for Broad are ludicrous. The sun has almost set on his career and I am not sure one of the old faction members who is abrasive with team members when fielding would work.

I can imagine Broady giving a short speech before his team starts an innings. "Remember guys it is really important to get behind the ball.... (cue smirks)"

The poms should Brearley in a youngish successful county captain or even an oldish one

6 of the top 7 regularly fail so it wont make a difference if you put in someone who cant bat as long as they can set a field and bowl his bowlers at the right time

Joe no longer has the highest batting average among current players* so the captaincy is stuffing up his batting





*until they drop the wonder horse's nephew or give him another bat

Congratulations to Root on equalling the achievement of the legendary Brian Lara… 26 Test losses as captain!

I think the situation is desperate enough to at least consider someone from outside the current setup for the job. The talent might be lacking in certain areas but we need someone with fresh ideas to try and reboot the mentality of a team who have just completely forgotten how to win, and who lose pretty much every decisive session.

Whatever we do with or without Anderson and Broad now will continue to cast a shadow over things moving forward. Bringing them back will only be a sticking plaster even if they’re still our best two bowlers. Obviously it’s their decision to remain available for selection, but I think it would have been in the team’s best interests had they retired gracefully after the Ashes and allowed everyone to move on.

Punce and Neph have much in common.

Cracking World Class bats who carried their sides, but couldn't those shit sides to victory.

See also Lara and Tendulkar. Ponting won 48 of 77 Tests as captain, but will be remembered for losing three Ashes series, and a chimp could probably have captained some of the sides to victory that he had early in his reign.

Interesting with hindsight is how some of us, and probably pundits as well, saw this series as something of a “free hit” - temporary coaching regime, strange timing, unfamiliar squad and a venue where we have a terrible record anyway.

Now it’s being positioned as a 1999-style rock bottom crisis point. I think it’s down to the way it’s progressed, with two “winning draws” on lifeless pitches and then a capitulation in the decider. Had it been the other way around, we’d have talked of progress. As it is, it just confirms the team’s technical and mental failings when the going gets tough, and lack of tactical response to change anything in the field.

... just a wonderful result for Test cricket. Still smiling.

I don’t think it signals a great WI revival. Crap WI teams have been overperforming against England for years then reverting to type. They’ve got a solid opener, a resilient lower order and a serviceable seam attack but they’re not going to be challenging India, Australia or New Zealand in the near future. At best this was the second division title series, at worst the wooden spoon contest (depending on where you place Sri Lanka and Bangladesh).

I’ve realised Viv Richards is now the only person to have his name on two recurring Test series trophies… not bad going, especially for someone who is not only still around but at 70 still looks in decent enough shape to make mincemeat of the current England attack.

Re: England's travails.

My respect for Ramprakash as a fair judge continues. Although I don't agree with every detail, he speaks and writes with a "centre of gravity", with thoughtfulness, acumen and integrity.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2022/mar/30/england-young-batters-despite-failures-test-level


Whereas I still don't know what Agnew is on - some sort of happy pills gone wrong this time?

Asked to triage the England players, between:

a) Who is in credit? b) Who has work to do? c) Who has gone backwards?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/60895904

He concludes:

a)
Lees
Root (batting - doesn't mention captaincy, except to say: "his captaincy woes haven't affected his batting"*)
Stokes
Bairstow
Leach
Mahmood
Fisher

b)
Crawley
Foakes
Overton

c)
(Only) Woakes (although: "I feel a bit harsh because he bowled on two absolute roads").


* - Yet, maybe not happy pills at all. Not even happy pills gone wrong.

On another BBC Sport page, he plays the sneaky double game, giving Root the thumbs down while pinning the responsibility for his sacking on others, note how he puts it here:

"However, there comes a point when you have to stop and ask whether him continuing is in the team's best interests.

These things do come to an end. Like in football, teams tune out from what they are hearing from a manager. Have this team tuned out from Joe Root as captain?

Only they will know, but it would not surprise me if, when the new coach and managing director is in place, they decide to move on with a new captain."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/60895903


I have to say (obvious) I much prefer Ramprakash's approach: looking at the whole picture, analysing and trying to diagnose where and on what levels problems need fixing in the overall set-up, the administration, the squad and team and mindset of the players - rather than focusing on self-indulgent games, picking off individuals and giving them thumbs up & down (or with Root: both).

“There are not many Alastair Cooks who can come in and make a hundred on debut” (Ramprakash).

Well, there were plenty of them in the mid-late ‘00s. Namely, nearly every batsman/keeper we picked. I know there are exceptions but first impressions still go a long way, and county cricket isn’t producing players with the patience and shot selection to cut it at this level.

Anyway, solutions…

1) Move four-day cricket back to June, July and August
2) Rejoin the EU and bring back the Kolpak players (if Boris says no, maybe we could re-adopt all EU rules where related to cricket only. I don’t expect the 27 member countries would give that much of a crap. The Irish and Dutch maybe a very small one…)
3) Have a 6-team CC top flight and make it clear that Test players will only be selected from that division other than in exceptional circumstances, unless already regulars.
4) Forcibly retire Darren Stevens (well, 1-3 will probably achieve that between them) and ban 65-80mph bowling except in the case of deceptive slower-ball yorkers and occasional part-time medium pacers limited to odd overs before tea

Some parts of that may be more serious/workable than others, but as much of it as possible might get us back to the top table within a few years…

Mayers was bowling around the 120 kmh mark when he cleaned up England in this Test

Maybe CC should have more Darren Stevens clones so this doesnt happen again