The Cricket thread

Fwiw I would rather die like that than be a vegetable for years, although deeply tragic to lose one so young to go suddenly doing something you love isn't such a bad way to go. You have to feel for his mate that bowled the ball.

I think that's fair. His last thoughts were probably something along the lines of "This knock will probably get me back into the Test side".

At least he never felt any pain - it sounds like he never came round after the impact.

Terrible news, RIP.

Dreadful news, made worse, I think, because I expected him to recover.

Very sad end for someone who was very well liked by everyone it seems.

I echo all of the above. I feel very sorry for the poor lad who bowled the fatal bowl i have to say. He must be going through hell.

Cornish Chris wrote:

I think that's fair. His last thoughts were probably something along the lines of "This knock will probably get me back into the Test side".

At least he never felt any pain - it sounds like he never came round after the impact.

Didn't he get back up and stand at the crease for a short while before collapsing face first onto the pitch? Either way it's a tragedy, particularly for his family and friends and the poor bloke who bowled the ball who will be haunted by that moment forever.

AB De Villiers hits a ton off 31 balls against West Indies, fastest in ODI history. Wow, stunning to watch, De Villiers is up there amongst the best batsman of my time and an incredible all round sporting talent, apparently could have been outstanding in about half a dozen sports. Still going-116 not out off 34 balls!

Are they bowling underarm!

Les Miserable wrote:

Are they bowling underarm!

The West Indies attack sure isn't what it used to be but they didn't actually bowl terribly today, except at the end when they were demoralised. One example was when somebody bowled a textbook Yorker to De Villiers, who just opened the face of the bat and guided it to the boundary-only a batsman of rare talent could play that shot. He ended up with 149 from 44 balls,9 fours and 16 [!] sixes. Awesome stuff.

An incredible knock, is it a World record for a balls bowled to runs scored ratio in first class International cricket ?

AstiSpumante wrote:

An incredible knock, is it a World record for a balls bowled to runs scored ratio in first class International cricket ?

To get to one hundred...

For one day games yes. Chris Gayle has the overall record though. 100 hundred in 30 deliveries in an IPL game.

Amazing.

It would be nice to see a bit of balance between bat and ball though. As a grumpy left-arm-over medium-pace trundler, I'd love to see a Twenty20 game on an uncovered pitch at Headingley in April. I reckon 80 would be very defendable.

Great win for England yesterday - well done Captain Cook.

Trott opening the batting though. Why? Surely it had to be Adam Lyth. But no, this is England, we can't pick a young player in the form of his life, we have to pick an old-timer and make him play in the wrong position.

I just know the dreaded KP will get back in the Test side at some point, too.  He'll score a 150 on a flat Oval pitch against Glamorgan in July, and his mates in the media will demand that someone like Ian Bell gets dropped for him.

Cornish Chris wrote:

Great win for England yesterday - well done Captain Cook.

Trott opening the batting though. Why? Surely it had to be Adam Lyth. But no, this is England, we can't pick a young player in the form of his life, we have to pick an old-timer and make him play in the wrong position.

I just know the dreaded KP will get back in the Test side at some point, too.  He'll score a 150 on a flat Oval pitch against Glamorgan in July, and his mates in the media will demand that someone like Ian Bell gets dropped for him.

If KP is playing well he should be in the team as he is one of the best batsman around, if the england dont want him back then they need to perform well and win well so the ECB dont have a reason too.

I do agree with you that youth needs to be called up over ageing part timers like trott.

I just can't see where there would be a long-term vacancy for Pietersen to fill.  Ballance and Root will hopefully be there for the next decade, and Ian Bell has hopefully got another four years left in him. If we see sense and replace Trott with Lyth, Trott can cover any injuries or losses of form in the middle order. Pietersen's ego isn't worth the disruption.

I'm just worried about the attack.  Broad is 28 and Anderson is 32 - they're unlikely to be the new ball pairing for the long term.  Does Jordan have the control and consistency to pick up the mantle?

England get thwacked by 5 wickets in the final test for a drawn series and thoroughly deserved it was too-it would have much more comprehensive if Cook had been given out when he should have been in the first knock. Shocking collapse by England in their second innings on what was by no means a minefield as was proved by Bravo and the exceptionally promising Blackwood. Trott is finished as a test batsman, although it would be very unfair to single him out-England still have some hefty problems to sort out in general. Broad is also shot away as a batsman which lengthens the tail substantially and the rest of that top order look very susceptible to extreme pace which the West Indies produced in this match and which will be coming their way in large doses this summer. The bowling, Anderson and possibly Broad aside, doesn't really convince either-Stokes, Ali and Jordan don't really look the part as test bowlers and some very deep and serious thinking needs to be done in the next few weeks. Having said that, the West Indies did look a much improved side in this series and have some decent young players to build around for the first time in many years, so credit to them-good news AFAIC, world cricket needs a good West Indies team.

Beaten by the WI.....have a better chance of beating the other WI (Womens Institute).

Is it time the ECB admitted they got it wrong with Moores...again?

Cant bare the incoming hammering this summer from Australia

I went down to Australia and saw us humiliated 5-0 and in the intervening time nothing has basically changed.
We have the same mentality whereby we shun the policy of picking youth and more importantly players in form and picking the old guard. Whilst Anderson and Broad will be more effective on English pitches than they were in Australia I just don't see that we are potent enough to bowl Australia out twice which is what we need to do to win the Ashes back.
It's sad to see such a quick demise of the English national side and the men in suits have a lot to answer for.

Rumours are that Peter Moores is going to be sacked and Jason Gillespie of New Holland will take over.

Frank Bullitt wrote:

Rumours are that Peter Moores is going to be sacked and Jason Gillespie of New Holland will take over.

apparently only heard he is getting the boot from reading media reports... ecb classy as ever

Andrew Strauss in as England Director replacing Paul Downton and Peter Moores sacked (again)

All fir the best im trusting the ECB hire the right coach who can develop a decent england side with youth in mind.

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Probably the right decision to sack Moores, but he's been treated disgracefully.

Good luck to Dizzy Gillespie - he certainly did well for Yorkshire.

Pietersen 320-odd not out overnight for Surrey v Leicestershire.

I still think it would be wrong for him to get back in the England setup. For one thing, there still isn't a vacancy, and secondly we should be blooding people like Gayle and Taylor.

I heard another interview with him today, and he still seems to think that he's a victim. It's utter rubbish. Nobody made him send those texts to Jacques Kallis, and 18 months ago he was a senior player who totally went missing during that disastrous Ashes tour. Scoring runs against second division cannon-fodder is one thing; doing it against Mitchell Johnson et al is something totally different. Why split the changing room for a 34-year-old who's as likely to get out to Xavier Doherty as he is to score a hundred?

At least they have put him out of his misery and told him that he won't be selected. But to be honest, the fact that they had to tell him to sign for a county and play first class cricket tells you how serious he was about getting back in the test team.

I would imagine that he will be off to the IPL on the next plane out of Heathrow.