I think Jimmy will be rested and Wood will come in. So I would guess he will play if Moeen isn't fit.
With the noises about Root being ‘excited’ at possibly bowling more, there is the option of using Ahmed to mainly attack and using Root more defensively if necessary. He can be very difficult for right handers to get him away when he bowls flat from round the wicket.
Yes, that's why I think this is a good pick. No doubt he will get 0-150 now. Oh dear, I'm sounding like @The undeniable truth...
Wood has to play. A quandary between Jimmy and Broad; the former looked well off it whilst the latter put in a hell of a shift, so who knows how quick he’ll recover to be able to fire on all cylinders. I’m not sure Robinson is 100% fit either; his speeds hovered around the 80mph mark for quite a lot of the time.
Well done to Tammy Beaumont. Double century . Hopefully one of the men can follow suit next week although guess the pitch and bowling will be much tougher ! Feels like this one will be a draw.
Good points no doubt. Also the 1st innings declaration may have been seen by the Aussies as disrespectful . It is hard to criticize "Bazball" although there is a world of difference in being gung-ho against Pakistan\NZ and in an ashes series where the result is the be and end all .
Doubt this is the sort of media attention the ECB want just before another Ashes test. Puts cricket in a very negative light regardless of if you agree with some points made or not. Some might argue the lack of cricket played at state schools means privately educated players will have more of an advantage for example. Hopefully any issues are being stamped out. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/66022949
Amazing game between the Netherlands and the West Indies. The decline of the Windies continues. They also lost to Scotland. World Cup qualifier: Netherlands beat West Indies after thrilling super over - highlights - BBC Sport
From the report quoted earlier and the excellent Flintoff series. In the last Ashes, two thirds of the England men's squad were privately educated. Roughly 7% of the population went to private schools. That's insane. Imagine if cricket was available to all kids? When my son was young he joined the local football team, one of the Dads was a sports mad Ozzie who encouraged all of them to give cricket a try, if he hadn't they wouldn't have even tried out. They all said the same thing, they didn't feel all that welcomed whereas at the footy they were joined at the hip.
Scotland win by 7 wickets. For those of us who remember W Indies winning the World Cup twice in the 70s, it doesn’t seem right.
Years of mismanagement, complacency, lack of funds and selfishness of some players prioritizing the IPL over Test and ODI cricket and one or two deciding to run abroad like a certain Barbadian and turn out for England instead. Scotland walked that although McMullen is South African by birth he is of Scots ancestry.
Yeah having grown up with the Windies dominance late 80’s and 90’s it still feels so weird seeing them like this, even though they have really been in the doldrums for 20 years or more now.
Win win for him now. Either becomes a hero or the narrative will be we only lost due to “dodgy Aussie tactics/cheating”
Closer than expected, but still, a test match we had several chances to take the initiative and failed. A bold stand from the skipper to make it interesting at the death doesn't change that. Far too many players not up to the task in that side.
I know how the Ozzies are getting pilloried and rightly so for not playing in the spirit of the game but this is a lovely video featuring Steve Waugh and him being an aspiring photographer. You can see him working on his panning, prefocusing , use of low light and backlight etc,etc. He's a very genuine guy and a great insight into the love of the game in India in the maidans. A wonderful photo project.
Sri Lanka and Holland will make it to the ODI World Cup. Scotland will be gutted. Bas de Leede son of Tim played a heroic innings to catapult the Dutch into the finals. It's a shame there are only ten nations in the finals. Ridiculous really. It's already a parochial sport which is struggling to make headway as an international sport. This sort of restriction hardly helps. It was bad enough the MCC's dead hand for decades stifling the game only for the BCCI to carry on in the same vein. In the last two decades we've only seen Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Ireland make any real progress. Otherwise it is as it was. Or worse considering the decline of Kenya.
The best white ball team in the country finally proves it! Eighteen years of hurt never stopped us dreaming. Blackbird, I’ll ‘ave ‘e!!!
Hello from the happiest poster on here tonight along with @Keighley We did it my friend. No longer the bridesmaids! 15 wins from 17 matches. First team ever to bowl both opponents out on finals day. Magnificent fielders. Great batsmen. Terrific bowlers. Very astute overseas signings. After losing so many finals and coming second in the league, at last it’s our turn again to lift a trophy. Wow!
Yes, yes, yes!! We so deserved that this year. Although I wasn’t confident when Essex hit a few boundaries early on. Cracking catch to win. Very happy.
I believe the key to our success was simplicity. This season we kept it nice and basic. None of this bowling a bowler for only one over at a time and then rotating him. We used our two best strike bowlers at the start, usually for 4-5 overs and beardy every match we took early wickets. We used our three best T20 batters at the start and most times we got off to good and fast starts. All very simple. And the unfortunate injury to Siddle enabled us to then replace him with a world-class spinner, which really made the team more balanced. The other key to the win was our mentality. For so often we’ve fallen at the last hurdle. This year the amazing form in the group stages seemed to give us an inner belief that this was finally our year. We pulled a win out of the hat from a bad position in the quarter final and had the strength of mind to defend two lowish totals yesterday. It was this self belief and refusal to be the bridesmaids yet again that was so wonderful to see yesterday.
Hurrah! An 8 wicket victory at Edgbaston takes Middlesex out of the relegation places. Ethan Bamber takes 9-91. Middlesex are 8 points ahead of Kent but they are still playing v Notts although unlikely to win. Middlesex will then have a Furphy but as the great man said " games in hand aren't necessarily games won".
