The Cricket thread

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

I'd be inclined to pick the best opening pair in county cricket. I have no idea who they are but just about everybody has had a go alongside Cook and nobody has been up to it.

So pick a pair of teammates and they can reassure each other as they go.

And what happened to that Asian lad? Habib was it?

Didn't he get a ton as an 18 year old opener never to be heard of again. Try him.

He badly broke his finger during the last Indian tour and hasn't done much since his return to county cricket,not even in the Lancashire team against Somerset.

Seems as though the best two pairs by weight of runs are Somerset's Hildreth and Abell or Worcestershire's Mitchell and Clarke.

Somerset lost any chance of the county championship today and they bound to lose points for the wicket. Every year now batting paradise for six weeks and at the end of the season a spinners paradise. Still 2nd to Surrey is good, made the finals day in the 20/20as well. Spat my tea out listening to the tie earlier but Surrey got it rapped up anyway

I didn't realise cricket was still played outside of the sub continent. Sounds like one of those there spread betting wheezes like the good old days.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

I'd be inclined to pick the best opening pair in county cricket. I have no idea who they are but just about everybody has had a go alongside Cook and nobody has been up to it.

So pick a pair of teammates and they can reassure each other as they go.

And what happened to that Asian lad? Habib was it?

Didn't he get a ton as an 18 year old opener never to be heard of again. Try him.

Haseed Hameed was the new Boycott once upon a time however he didn't even play for Lancs against Somerset the other day,thats how badly he has regressed. Rory Burns appears to be the next cab on the rank having averaged 64 for Surrey this year, likelyhood is he'll partner Jennings who has done just about enough this Summer.

The trouble is its all well and good getting good scores against mid pace county bowlers on green top wickets, it will be another thing entirely playing on the dusty sub continent pitches this winter aginast international class bowlers who will pick upon the sort of flaws that you can get away with at county level. More often a cricketer will have been identified shortly after breaking into the County first team and go on several tours with Lions before being assimilated into the National side. Some players barely get a game for their county anymore, whereas a number of international players may get to play the first 3 or 4 county games of the season players like Stokes< Buttler and Ali miss it to play in the IPL.

What a brilliant end to Cooks career. A fantastic 100 which had the longest loudest ovation Ive ever heard at a cricket match. Take a bow Chef best English batsman ever 5th highest test run scorer ever and the highest scoring left handed batsman ever. Legend

If Carlsberg did last test matches and all that...

If i were to pick an England team from when i started to be interested in cricket,which was the late 1960's, then Cook would be in it-ideal left hand/right hand combination with Boycott,two simiilar types to form a parnership which may be slow but would also be very effective.Had his bad spells over the years but always came through them,unlike many another test player whose career floundered-probably at his best in the 2010/11 Ashes series.The much vaunted Indian batting line up has been shown to be a paper tiger in English conditions,Kohli apart-serious problem for modern test cricket is the discrepancy between home and away results for all teams,no doubt Egnland will find the going tough on the ragging square Sri Lankan pitches this winter.

Especially with two new openers, one of whom is only there because its assumed there is no one better, the other is completely untried against international bowlers and foreignn pitches.

Jimmy Anderson should overtake Glenn McGrath later today to become the 4th highest wicket taker and the number 1 in terms of pace.