Thetownend.com

First day of the first test of the summer today, Sri Lanka won the toss and are bowling first at Headingley. A lot of new faces in the Sri Lankan outfit, with Dilshan, Sangakkara and Jayawardene all retired, so it'll be very interesting to see how they play: other than the exemplary Angelo Matthews and Rangana Herath, it's a bag of mysteries.

James Vince makes his test debut, whilst Finn is the third seamer.

Irritatingly, I've managed to get myself into a 2pm meeting in London which will neccessitate a train at 11 and getting home around 6:30, neatly missing the entire day's play. But, on the other hand, I have just bought myself a ticket to the Sunday of the Lord's test.

Happy to have domestic/recreational cricket chat in here as well.

Oh dear.

Thought we'd changed to a more dynamic side? This is what it was a couple of years ago

Very poor shot selection again by Cook, a habit which keeps popping up to haunt him.  Compton and Root went to poor shots as well.

To be fair you can only be a more dynamic side if the conditions help. If it was a nice flat pitch on a sunny day, then yes, I would hope to be scoring at a good rate.

Anyway, typical England...make a steady start... then lose 3 quick wickets.

Decent recovery from Hales and Bairstow. Hales showing that he's more than just a pure hitter, although he still looked wobbly early on.

Good stuff from Hales and Bairstow. Less so from all the others, but if you choose to bowl on Day 1 it says a lot about the conditions. We were hardly going to rack up 300 for not many.

Compton is the one that will be scrutinised most this series. I expect he will be given a go - and when he is surrounded by positive players - you can see the rationale for having someone to drop anchor for others to play around. But, he is just incredibly, incredibly dull to watch.

Anyone who plays at 3 should be selected on the basis of being the 3 for the next Ashes. It could be Vince... and someone else popped into the middle order.




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91/10. Oh dear.

Well that was bullying

Wow Anderson 10-45 those are some figures.

Playing Asian sides at Headingley in May is a bit mean really when you could easily have the first game at the Oval. I get that it's home advantage but we'd be spitting feathers if we got a dead track in Galle on a day that's 45 degrees.

Yep, and only two of our batsmen handled the Headingly conditions any better than the Sri Lankans.  The deciding factor was Jimmy.

And Bairstow, surely?

We only play the last test of the summer at the Oval. Sri Lanka might want to play in the second half, where the weather is better but normally the second half is played against the bigger draw, in this case Pakistan. Of course there was no issue when they beat us at Headingley 2 years ago...but they have no-one to replace all their big names that have retired over the last few years.

He was one of the two batsmen I was referring to.  If you meant his eight catches, your mum would have taken most of those.
 :)

Second test at Durham starts today, Cook gone already 5 short of his milestone. Compton and Hales in now, both need runs of course.

Another day...another England batting collapse on a flat wicket...

And another Bairstow led recovery. Shame as I'm a big fan, but I think Compton has to go, the pressure from the media clearly gets to him and that's just not going to go away.

The question is what do you do.

Put Vince to 3, who has yet to find his feet, and bring Buttler in with Buttler and Bairstow fighting for the gloves, or bring Borthwick in, who has been scoring runs for fun for Durham in the CC, and due to the fact he also is a leggie, would also be an advantage as we've got Bangladesh and India in the winter.

The form that Bairstow is in he would get into any test side as a batsman, is Buttler a better keeper than Bairstow?  Buttler's problem is inconsistency with the bat, brilliant one innings, out for a duck the next!! 

Borthwick or Hildreth if you want to try and keep an experienced guy in the team. Don't understand the clamour to get Buttler back in the test team, he's never been a brilliant red ball performer, just let him play white ball cricket for a bit.

Pakistan starts today, far tougher challenge. Ballance back in with Root at 3 and Ball in for the injured Anderson.

Not sure I think much of the Ballance selection but the current coaching set up has credit in the bank. Amir and Shah represent a serious test for our batsmen, will be very interesting to see how it goes.

I'm still trying to get over Chris Rogers handing a win to Middlesex by declaring.....what was he thinking? 301 of 46 overs the target....surely in the modern game Middlesex would have still fancied 320 off 40, especially on a small ground and the Cidermen their best bowler down.....and as for Allenby bowling the final over  :suicide:

As for England....a proper test, it will be a decent achivement to come through this series intact..a lot of new lads with something to prove atm....I wish them well.

That Somerset game was not a happy one.

Surprised that Pakistan are rank outsiders - I've got a fiver on them to win at Lord's (7/2) and the series (5/1) both of which seem heavily overpriced. This England side is not great yet, especially without Anderson.

Re: Somerset. That Grockles forum makes for interesting reading. There are some on there heartily congratulating Rogers for his bravery in trying to force a result?! Hahaa!

And I thought Andy Hayhurst was bad.

 Congrats to Misbah-ul-Haq.

 42, first test in England and only 2nd or 3rd 1st class innings.  Has held together the clusterfuck that is Pakistani cricket with a quiet decorum. Chapeau

Looking a very good bet....

I had a run of six successful in plays all being down on our middle order today, it was getting a bit silly. The line on Vince, Ballance and Hales was around 32 each which is madness

 England going to have to step up a gear....Pakistan weren't great, but more than enough for our lads. Also Old Trafford should suit them fine. One thing we have done in recent seasons at home is to bounce back.

 I guess Jimmy will come back for Jake Ball, and Stokes will come back presumably for Steve Finn.

Very good from Pakistan & lovely to have a properly competitive test, feels like a long time since that happened. They look very strong from 1-11 - or perhaps 2-11, as Shan Masood looks a bit cack.

Stokes in for Finn would mean Moeen at 9, which is a ridiculous amount of all rounders. But I could see them doing it. Glad to see Woakes come good, he's been brilliant in the CC for years.

 Durham lose 5 wickets for 6 runs v mighty Cidermen, in about 20 mins,  when needing 45 to win.

 Crazy game....Somerset yesterday were 0-3 Tresco, Abell and Rogers all gone for ducks....Tom Abell I think bagged a king pair.  13 batters, in the match, failed to trouble the scorers  :).

 I daresay an ECB pitch inspector has been dispatched from HQ, even as we speak.  Had it been v Middlesex or Surrey, no doubt Somerset would be docked 25 points....against Durham though  :hmmm:

Wow, some craziness going on. Hales just broke the England highest I day score at 171, they get rid of him, and now Buttler is going mental.

Fastest 50 by and England player now for Buttler, including one six into some ones pint.

And a world record score!

Great entertainment....Trent Bridge the place for 50 overs.  Earlier in the Royal London Notts got 400 odd v Northants and Northants nrarly chased it down

 Nice win for the mighty Cidermen today....seeing off the flat capped pigeon fanciers within 3 days.

 Last games Toffs v Yorkshire....Cidermen v already relegated Notts.

 As a Somerset fan since the age of 10, I've long accepted we'll never win the County Championship, and still don't  :)

Off to Lord's on Saturday to cheer on the Rey... Going with a Warwickshire fan, though. Looking toward to it.😊

Somers have done brilliantly to take it to the final games, Jack Leach has been sensational and today proved he can do it away from Taunton on a less helpful surface as well, he should certainly be in the England mix for the subcontinent.

Still outsiders, but it would be brilliant if they could do it and give Tres that Championship before the end of his career.

Leach is an interesting one...the current vogue for England spinners, post Swann, is that you have to be of Asian descent. I don't think anyone other than  Monty, Moeen, Adil Rashid, Samit Patel, Zafer Ansari, has been picked.  OK Ansari probably only got picked because he was Surrey.

On balance though it's fair enough to go with Moeen and Adil for Bangla....Leach though should be taken as the 3rd man, to widen his horizons.

I was critical of Chris Rogers when his over generous declaration seemed to hand the game to Middlesex back in July, when I thought the Cidermen were merely fighting relegation and as it turns out will likely hand them the penant....however I retract it, as he said you need to show the team how to win and he has largely done that.

I will be there, in the upper Grand Stand row A - see the weather forecast has improved for Saturday originally forecasting showers.
Love this final, always great entertainment and value, being a Surrey fan hope for a better result this year, we throw it away last year.

Can't wait for Saturday.

The Selectors are probably still smarting from the unfortunate experiment with Simon Kerrigan in the 5th Ashes Test at the Oval in 2013.  I was there to watch him being destroyed (mainly) by Shane Watson.  :(

I'll pm you my number, if you want to say hello.

interesting transfer from Surrey to Somerset with Steven Davies, still Surrey's best keeper imo, heading west next year

I will not have my mobile with me at Lords
Currently selling my house, and my mobile is the only contact with the estate agent so leaving it with my wife.
Happy to meet for a pint at future home fixtures (Sat only)

Hope the sale goes smoothly.

It is interesting....the mighty Cidermen went from having the best 2 keeper batsmen in the country in Buttler and Keiswetter, to having neither through misfortune. None of the short term replacements have been convincing....Ryan Davies who's a kid, started off terribly, but has shown some improvement....I guess he's seen as back up now.

Suggestion is that Steven Davies will keep in four day cricket and Ryan will keep in at least one of the limited over competitions - although Steven would likely get in that team as a bat. Been a while since a cricket transfer made so much sense on all sides.

 So Hameed and Ben Duckett called up for Test squad to Bangladesh.....don't recall seeing Hameed play, probably only does 4 day games, but many good judges think he's the business and the numbers this summer back that up. Duckett gets big runs in all forms, had to be given a chnace.

The spin bowling is interesting taking 4 spinners, suggests that Moeen might end up playing as a batsman.  I don't have a problem with Batty being picked, if he ends up on drinks duty, better to have an experienced chap wasting his time than a young un.

With that in mind, it's probably the reason for not picking Jack Leach....he'll be better off playing with the Lions, I think in Sri Lanka.

Ansari, presumably is a sympathy pick for last year's misfortune and to get the decent Surrey chap count up.

I think Reg and the rest of the Somerset fans will be doing a rain dance for Lords tomorrow...

 
 :rain: :storm: :pope:

I am no fan of cricket (I used to be back in the 80s but lost interest) but I am out having a few drinks in Taunton tonight (right next door to the County Ground) so there could be some major celebrations or commiseration going on.

As long as theres some amount of free or cheap beer I don't mind :)

And so it begins. Still a long shot for Somerset, but they've done so well to be in with a chance.

Bit of a farce really with the way that innings ended

Eh, it was always going to happen. Can't blame either team for trying to win the game. Brilliantly poised now too, all three results possible with two hours of the season to go - can't ask for much more than that!

Bye, byt Big Bressie.

As a Glos fan and having lived in Yorks do I really want Zomerzet to win anything?

Looks like Middlesex now anyway, which was my least favoured option!

Won with a hat-trick. Can't begrudge that too much, though plenty on Twitter are trying. Brilliant final round of games, four days of ridiculous tension.

 So it all boiled down to Chris Rogers over generous declaration, which handed Middlesex a win earlier  :(

Oh rubbish, without that statement of intent we'd never have gone on the winning streak we did. Over the course of the season there are always going to be might haves but the main reason we didn't win is that we were rubbish for the first half of the season...