England v NZ, 3rd Test, Trent Bridge, 5th-9th June

leg glancer wrote:I'm sure the selectors will still find a logically safe excuse to keep Bopara and Shah out the team.

Bopara and Shah, who're they?

Sh1t - I've just noticed that McCallum is actually playing. I thought he was injured and that's why the newbie keeper is playing.

The poms have enough runs to declare ...only batting now to puff up KP's average

JGK wrote:Sh1t - I've just noticed that McCallum is actually playing. I thought he was injured and that's why the newbie keeper is playing.

No. Oiyun Smuth reckons McCullum wants to give up keeping and bat full time. Marshall is shit, so they replaced him with Gareth Hopkins.

Here's a like-minded person:

Neil Clark emails in: "Never can there have been a more clear-cut case of a result masking the flaws in the England line-up than this. Both Bell and Colly were woefully out of form - unlike a number of their county colleagues (Bopara springs to mind) - but the closed shop matey-ness of the selection must have given New Zealand a real boost. Goodness knows what Colly was working on in his time off."

Brass Monkey wrote:

JGK wrote:Sh1t - I've just noticed that McCallum is actually playing. I thought he was injured and that's why the newbie keeper is playing.

No. Oiyun Smuth reckons McCullum wants to give up keeping and bat full time. Marshall is shit, so they replaced him with Gareth Hopkins.

Here's a like-minded person:

Neil Clark emails in: "Never can there have been a more clear-cut case of a result masking the flaws in the England line-up than this. Both Bell and Colly were woefully out of form - unlike a number of their county colleagues (Bopara springs to mind) - but the closed shop matey-ness of the selection must have given New Zealand a real boost. Goodness knows what Colly was working on in his time off."

Get him to join here

Don't worry plenty of time for the kiwis to show their mediocrity.

embee wrote:The poms have enough runs to declare ...only batting now to puff up KP's average

If we were 1 nil down in the series and it was cloudy today but the weather forecast for tomorrow was sunshine there would be a case for that. Well just.

Player Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave
TR Ambrose 6* 9 1 222 102 27.75
JM Anderson 25* 35 22 158 21* 12.15
IR Bell 39* 70 8 2591 162* 41.79
SCJ Broad 6* 7 1 147 42 24.50
PD Collingwood 36* 67 7 2457 206 40.95
AN Cook 30* 55 2 2244 127 42.33
MS Panesar 29* 39 14 154 26 6.16
KP Pietersen 39* 73 4 3392 226 49.15
RJ Sidebottom 16* 23 8 234 31 15.60
AJ Strauss 49* 91 2 3763 177 42.28
MP Vaughan 79* 142 9 5679 197 42.69



Pretty consistent averages for the middle order. England would have killed for those averages 10 years ago.

DEcent partnership being put together at the moment.

James Maynard-Lowe. "The retention of Collingwood makes the decision to drop Hoggard after one poor match look increasingly unfair." Man at slip and one in close on off

JGK wrote:Player Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave
TR Ambrose 6* 9 1 222 102 27.75
JM Anderson 25* 35 22 158 21* 12.15
IR Bell 39* 70 8 2591 162* 41.79
SCJ Broad 6* 7 1 147 42 24.50
PD Collingwood 36* 67 7 2457 206 40.95
AN Cook 30* 55 2 2244 127 42.33
MS Panesar 29* 39 14 154 26 6.16
KP Pietersen 39* 73 4 3392 226 49.15
RJ Sidebottom 16* 23 8 234 31 15.60
AJ Strauss 49* 91 2 3763 177 42.28
MP Vaughan 79* 142 9 5679 197 42.69



Pretty consistent averages for the middle order. England would have killed for those averages 10 years ago.

10 years ago the bar for a quality batter was 40. Now its more like 50.

FFS Clarke average 47+, Symonds does also.

Those averages bar Strauss Vaughan and KP are massively inflated due to bashing minnows and a poor Pak team!

It's a top 6 of MEW's and Marto's ...a string of ordinary scores followed by a saving innings where they look brilliant followed by a string of ordinary scores ...resulting in a mid 40's average ...

MEW and Marto had at least one "50+"er in the order to save them when they were shit...the poms cant even coordinate their shitness

50 for KP. Have to hand it to him - he generally does deliver when the others fail.

OK why do 3 people sit in the commentary box and only 2 talk?

embee wrote:It's a top 6 of MEW's and Marto's ...a string of ordinary scores followed by a saving innings where they look brilliant followed by a string of ordinary scores ...resulting in a mid 40's average ...

MEW and Marto had at least one "50+"er in the order to save them when they were shit...the poms cant even coordinate their shitness

To an extent I agree - though I'd say KP and Vaughan consistently get tough runs. Colly's always getting tough runs, but he's just very limited indeed.

Collingwood is the player most at risk. One innings left to save his test career...

doremi wrote:OK why do 3 people sit in the commentary box and only 2 talk?

One of them is the 'Third Man'. They basically have that job for the day and get called on to make some off-beat, different analysis - aided by a technician to illustrate it....

Good innovation IMO.

Brass Monkey wrote:

doremi wrote:OK why do 3 people sit in the commentary box and only 2 talk?

One of them is the 'Third Man'. They basically have that job for the day and get called on to make some off-beat, different analysis - aided by a technician to illustrate it....

Good innovation IMO.

Except Bumble's where he just seems to laugh at people in the crowd.

Full name Paul David Collingwood
Current age 32 years 10 days

Yeah, I see your point.

PearlJ wrote:
Except Bumble's where he just seems to laugh at people in the crowd.

He's good on anything umpirish and not bad with the bowlers, surprisingly. TBH, I like to see a replay of some birds in the crowd and Bumble genuinely is funny.

Brass Monkey wrote:

embee wrote:It's a top 6 of MEW's and Marto's ...a string of ordinary scores followed by a saving innings where they look brilliant followed by a string of ordinary scores ...resulting in a mid 40's average ...

MEW and Marto had at least one "50+"er in the order to save them when they were shit...the poms cant even coordinate their shitness

To an extent I agree - though I'd say KP and Vaughan consistently get tough runs. Colly's always getting tough runs, but he's just very limited indeed.

Yeah ...I was probably harsh on KP (and his ave is nearly 50 anyway) ...Vaughan looks a lot better than his average ( sound like anyone I mentioned) except when he gets bowled through the gate playing the "perfect" defensive shot

Brass Monkey wrote:

PearlJ wrote:
Except Bumble's where he just seems to laugh at people in the crowd.

He's good on anything umpirish and not bad with the bowlers, surprisingly. TBH, I like to see a replay of some birds in the crowd and Bumble genuinely is funny.

Yes, he is a bit of a laugh. Best bit was when he replayed that guy from NZ falling over and spilling his beer everywhere. That never gets old.

embee wrote:Yeah ...I was probably harsh on KP (and his ave is nearly 50 anyway) ...Vaughan looks a lot better than his average ( sound like anyone I mentioned) except when he gets bowled through the gate playing the "perfect" defensive shot

Aye, there've been too many KP innings to think otherwise and Mick does always look good - today it was a 'booming' drive he played so down the wrong line it was beyond belief. Wanker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyc22i1hVbk&feature=related

Gold.

PearlJ wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:

PearlJ wrote:
Except Bumble's where he just seems to laugh at people in the crowd.

He's good on anything umpirish and not bad with the bowlers, surprisingly. TBH, I like to see a replay of some birds in the crowd and Bumble genuinely is funny.

Yes, he is a bit of a laugh. Best bit was when he replayed that guy from NZ falling over and spilling his beer everywhere. That never gets old.

"Looks like the umpire's got a little hot spot too," had me rolling during the last Test!