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Matt Prior

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
Well everyone's favourite scapegoat is having an excellent Test. Important runs; tidy keeping; and he's caught his catches.

No doubt as soon as he makes a mistake everyone on this forum will leap all over him, so I thought I'd try to redress the balance in advance.
 

Pothas

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Would agree with this. I think Prior and the keeping situation has gone from one of the biggest problems that England faced to a relatively small one. I think we all know his keeping is never going to be excellent or please the purists but if he can hold the important catches and not give too much away that is ok. As a number 6 he has shown great promise, cannot see him getting many massive scores in tests but there should be plenty of half centuries against most attacks.
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
I actually made sure to praise his keeping today, as he never gets a mention when he's keeping well, but as you said, as soon as he makes a mistake people jump all-over him. He's clearly making steady improvement with the gloves, and I believe he could get into the side on his batting alone, so he's proving to be a key player atm, especially with Flintoff's inconsistent batting making it pretty much impossible to pick an out and out gloveman without severely damaging the batting line-up.

He's also the most stylish batsman in the team (in my eyes anyway), and is a joy to watch compared with the likes of Collingwood, Cook and Strauss. Hope he continues to improve his glovework and produce the goods with the bat, liking Prior alot in Test cricket.
 

Woodster

International Captain
When you don't really notice Prior behind the stumps, he must be having a decent time of it. He will rarely take the headlines for such sharp glove work (a la Foster in the T20), but his value as a batsman, on the proviso his keeping does remain tidy, is a valuable commodity. Don't think his batting has ever really been questioned, and his innings on the first day was most enjoyable. Sweet timer of the ball and very strong on the drive. Will be interesting how he counters Siddle with his aggression and in-swing movement.

His keeping, as you say, has been pretty good today and he's clung onto his chances. Let two consecutive byes for four go through him off Collingwood, but there really was very little he could do about those. Good work Matty.
 

Lillian Thomson

Hall of Fame Member
It's true his keeping so far has for a change been bordering on adequate but after one and half days in the field on a slow pitch it's a bit early to judge him.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Has a habit of becoming more ragged as series progress (India in 2007, SL 07/08, Windies 08/09) so reserving judgement.

Arguably our best bat currently tho, Pietersen notwithstanding.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
Yeah, most surprisingly he has done a very good job imo, I'm not at all his biggest fan, but he seems to have improved noticeably.
 

Top_Cat

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He's probably cost England a bit of charity with the umpires by appealing for ever ball touching pad within a metre of the sticks.

</desparate attempt to find something to criticise>

He's doing a decent job but, as much as they spat, those two balls North copped early in the day which went past the bat, can't help but feel most other Test 'keepers would have gotten glove on them.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Yeah. Think the best we can say about Prior at this point in time is "so far so good, thank ****".

Seriously, hands-up: who's honestly not still got a horrid lurking feeling at the back of the mind that he's going to drop something crucial (maybe several crucial things) this series?
 

social

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Prior is developing into a very good test cricketer - excellent bat and more than serviceable behind the stumps

ATM, he is arguably as good as anyone in his position in tests and if he was Eng's biggest problem, they'd be a great side

Fortunately for Oz, he's the least of Eng's worries:laugh:
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Prior is developing into a very good test cricketer - excellent bat and more than serviceable behind the stumps

ATM, he is arguably as good as anyone in his position in tests and if he was Eng's biggest problem, they'd be a great side

Fortunately for Oz, he's the least of Eng's worries:laugh:
Give him a couple of tests before the life peerage is finalised.

As I said earlier, he has a habit of starting series promisingly before reverting to bollock-fingered type. Think his issue is concentration over long periods myself.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Prior is developing into a very good test cricketer - excellent bat and more than serviceable behind the stumps

ATM, he is arguably as good as anyone in his position in tests and if he was Eng's biggest problem, they'd be a great side

Fortunately for Oz, he's the least of Eng's worries:laugh:
The doubts about his batting have been being slowly allayed for the last 18 months now. He's a fine player of spin (that much has been evident to a wide audience since the SL tour in 2007/08) and a fine player against a 65-over-old ball against seam (how he'd fare against a second new-ball or coming in at 90-4 off 27 is another matter and we'll only find-out when it happens).

Almost all remaining doubts relate to his wicketkeeping and no, a short period of competence (which, let's remind ourselves, he's managed several times before) does certainly not do anything to allay those fears. The jury is 100% still out on his wicketkeeping.
 

Uppercut

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Yeah. Think the best we can say about Prior at this point in time is "so far so good, thank ****".

Seriously, hands-up: who's honestly not still got a horrid lurking feeling at the back of the mind that he's going to drop something crucial (maybe several crucial things) this series?
Yeah, I realised that when Hughes nicked one in the first innings. When I hear a nick from an English bat i think "out", but when I hear a nick from an Aussie bat I instinctively think "will Prior drop it?"
 

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
At least, now that you're picking a keeper on the basis of his batting, you've got a keeper that's capable of batting six. If you are going to prioritise the batting ability, it has to be of some worth, not like Geraint.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Yeah, I realised that when Hughes nicked one in the first innings. When I hear a nick from an English bat i think "out", but when I hear a nick from an Aussie bat I instinctively think "will Prior drop it?"
See the point you're making, but you're giving Haddin's keeping too much credit there IMHO. Not absolutely of the first water, to be polite. In fact I'd say his batting is closer to Gilchrist's than his keeping.
 

Uppercut

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See the point you're making, but you're giving Haddin's keeping too much credit there IMHO. Not absolutely of the first water, to be polite. In fact I'd say his batting is closer to Gilchrist's than his keeping.
It's just a feeling. Whatever their relative ability, I don't expect Haddin to drop catches, where I do expect Prior to drop them.

Haddin's perfectly decent with the gloves anyway. He's no Gilchrist (who I personally think was a fantastic keeper, and IMO he doesn't get enough credit because his batting was so good too) but you wouldn't call him a liability.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
It's just a feeling. Whatever their relative ability, I don't expect Haddin to drop catches, where I do expect Prior to drop them.

Haddin's perfectly decent with the gloves anyway. He's no Gilchrist (who I personally think was a fantastic keeper, and IMO he doesn't get enough credit because his batting was so good too) but you wouldn't call him a liability.
Decent enough standing back (although shelled two he might've taken in the Loins game), but doesn't inspire confidence standing up. Dunno how often he's kept to Hauritz, but was untidy generally.
 

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