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*Official* England in Sri Lanka 2021

wpdavid

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
BoyBrumby said:
Root has to improve to even become the Pete Best of the new Fab Four. Looking very much the Yoko Ono currently.

Meanwhile my entire Saturday entertainment plans were pretty much based watching this. Odds on it making a third day?
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You'll be hiding behind the sofa as England try to chase down something awkward in what will by then be a sandpit.
 
cnerd123

cnerd123

likes this
nzfan said:
Why do they need Mickey Arthur for this? They must be paying him and the rest of the staff big money. They played some Lanka league shots. Maybe the coaching staff is trying to get them to finish the test match in 2-3 days, didn't matter which team wins.

That said will still wait to see England bat. They're not as flash as their bowling.
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It's possible the SL coaching staff told the players "England are playing their first Test in ages, they'll be rusty and nervous, let's go out there and put them on the backfoot right away"

And tbf that's not bad advice. If they batted sensibly they would probably be okay. England offered lots of poor deliveries to put away, and the pitch had some turn but was hardly a minefield.

Instead they just did everything wrong. Bad shot selection, bad technique, poor execution. And no one showed any willingness to just grind it out for a while. Then they had two freak wickets in a row (from the lower order, who tbf should not be expected to score runs) and it was all over.

SL are good players who have had some tough days on the field recently. I wonder if the SA tour is still on their mind. With all the injuries in the squad there could also be some lack of clarity over everyone's roles in the side. Chandimal was made captain literally yesterday.

How have they been bowling? I'm not following. Seems like Root and Bairstow have taken some of the advantage back. Hope Root can turn this into a ton - he's a great player.
 
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P

Pup Clarke

Cricketer Of The Year
cnerd123 said:
How have they been bowling? I'm not following. Seems like Root and Bairstow have taken some of the advantage back. Hope Root can turn this into a ton - he's a great player.
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They've bowled reasonably well, but pressure has been lifted from Hasaranga and Dilruwan, who have looked quite pedestrian. Embuldeniya has been by far the pick of the bowlers
 
B

BSM

U19 Cricketer
Bit of a random thing to bring up but I reckon that Root's probably got the best conventional sweep shot in world cricket.
 
nzfan

nzfan

International Vice-Captain
cnerd123 said:
It's possible the SL coaching staff told the players "England are playing their first Test in ages, they'll be rusty and nervous, let's go out there and put them on the backfoot right away"

And tbf that's not bad advice. If they batted sensibly they would probably be okay. England offered lots of poor deliveries to put away, and the pitch had some turn but was hardly a minefield.

Instead they just did everything wrong. Bad shot selection, bad technique, poor execution. And no one showed any willingness to just grind it out for a while. Then they had two freak wickets in a row (from the lower order, who tbf should not be expected to score runs) and it was all over.

SL are good players who have had some tough days on the field recently. I wonder if the SA tour is still on their mind. With all the injuries in the squad there could also be some lack of clarity over everyone's roles in the side. Chandimal was made captain literally yesterday.

How have they been bowling? I'm not following. Seems like Root and Bairstow have taken some of the advantage back. Hope Root can turn this into a ton - he's a great player.
Click to expand...
Sure SL played some audacious shots, they are a talented bunch but a test match cannot be won in a day's time. You need a mix of players of vigil, grit and also aggressive ones. You can't have from no.1 to no.11 swinging the bat like a rusty gate. You can afford maybe couple of guys to play their shots, couple of guys to anchor and rest to play their natural game. You can't say this is the way we will play every game no matter the deck. You got to pick players that can grind it out on tough decks. Getting bowled out to 130+ on the first day after winning toss and batting at home against England side that hasn't played in sub continent in like 2 or 3 years is not great.

SL bowling has been reasonable. Spinners a bit on the short side at times and they try magic balls every over so there will be ample opportunities to score runs. Couple of close calls, one LBW vs Root was quite straight I thought but the DRS showed the ball was well over, I was really surprised at the height of the ball as per DRS. I don't trust DRS to be honest but that's the best there is and it's the same for both teams. The pitch has enough assistance but the SL bowlers have to chose consistency in line and length over variations I feel. England will comfortably take the game away from them today I feel.
 
Starfighter

Starfighter

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Just finished the highlights, and boy was the Sri Lankan's shot selection just as dire as had been painted here. Surely Zimbabwe would have done better.

Also I note that if Bairstow goes onto a hundred here that'll earn him three more years in the test team.
 
nightprowler10

nightprowler10

Global Moderator
Back in 2014, a bunch of ex and upcoming Pakistani cricketers came to Chicago to play in a tournament, most of them in the same team. This included people like Shabbir Ahmed, Sami, Sohail Khan, Kakmal, and some others I can't recall. Players we might not think much of here but they definitely outclassed every one there. One of the matches I stuck around for was between their team and a team from a Wisconsin league that didn't even have LBW as a mode of dismissal. It was interesting to watch because Sami bowling with a quarter run up after his fifth cigarette was blowing them away.

The quality of cricket I watched yesterday from SL definitely brought back memories of that day.
 
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