England v Ireland, Only Test, Lords, 1-4 June, 2023

Fred Nerk wrote:Anybody else notice something that seems unusual about this Irish team? (Seems unusual to me anyway)

(Actually it's something that's missing ....)

No O’s?

Norfolk Ian Goode wrote:

Fred Nerk wrote:Anybody else notice something that seems unusual about this Irish team? (Seems unusual to me anyway)

(Actually it's something that's missing ....)

No O’s?

O'Migawd he's got it!

Fred Nerk wrote:

Norfolk Ian Goode wrote:

Fred Nerk wrote:Anybody else notice something that seems unusual about this Irish team? (Seems unusual to me anyway)

(Actually it's something that's missing ....)

No O’s?

O'Migawd he's got it!

There don’t seem to be many in the rugby team either these days, compared to the era of O’Driscoll, O’Gara and O’Connell (I know, there’s one or two South Africans and Pacific Islanders in there, as with everyone. Though I always assumed Van der Flier was a Yarp until I recently discovered he’s just a born and bred Irishman of Dutch ancestry!)

Century for Duckhead… the Cheese might not be too far behind.

England might go for the World record here. They have time. Oh wait, it's only a 4 day Test.

Or they might rather be golfing.

Obviously have had the best of the conditions, as well as it being something of a mismatch in essence anyway.

Brook, Stokes and Bairstow might still fancy a bat… you have to cash in on these opportunities, and Pope is certainly taking the chance for a bit of Lathaming of his less than flattering average.

On yesterday’s O’Question, I found this reference: “In general, Mac is associated with the northern half of the country and the O with the southern portion.”

Irish cricket is mostly concentrated in the North (along with Dublin) so that perhaps goes some way to explaining the lack of O’Cricketers.

Root the 11th man to 11k. Is 15,921 on his radar?

you can pick up some nasty injuries playing golf

Pope reaches his double with a straight six, is stumped the next ball and Stokes says that’s enough… can the Irish batting line-up take it into day 3?

Three for Tongue after no luck first time up. Can he manage a debut Michelle, as per Jimmy two decades ago to the week? (If he’s still knocking them over in 2043 he will have had a half-decent career…)

McCollum (not Baz) departs with a nasty-looking ankle injury.

Root was the fastest to 11k in terms of time, second-youngest (after Cook) and third fastest in terms of number of Tests (130th cap, to Lara’s 121 and Sangakkara’s 122). He trumps Tendulkar on all three counts!

A bit of resistance from the Irish this morning but we’re into the tail now, so should finish it off in time for them to watch the FA Cup Final.

Stokes looked in a lot of discomfort taking that catch, which is a concern…

A lot being made of the gulf between the sides, but better and more experienced teams than Ireland have been steamrollered in early season English Tests over the years.

At risk of having to bat again here…

Jesus, Mark Adair, with a previous Test best of 32, is 87 not.  He and McBrine have put on 150!!

Paddies making a fair fist of making England go to the crease again.

And Tongue does match Jimmy 20 years ago with a Lord’s five-for on debut against a minnow.

11 to win. Should be gettable.

Good effort from Ireland to avoid the innings defeat, better teams have folded in such situations.

Crawley finishes it in four balls.

at least Ireland made England bat again

A shame Adair choked when in sight of his maiden Test ton.

Well done England.

skully wrote:A shame Adair choked when in sight of his maiden Test ton.

Well done England.

Meh

very very disappointing from the Paddies

lardbucket wrote:very very disappointing from the Paddies

Though you wouldn’t have backed WI, SL, Zim or Ban for example to put up that kind of second-innings fight in early season England.