Thetownend.com

England squad is Freddie;Tres:Strauss:Cook;KP;Panesar;Plunkett;
Hoggard;Mahmood;Bell;Lewis;Jones;Collingwood.
It will depend on the conditions,it is Lords in May so there is a good chance it'll be an all seam attack.I reckon the team will be
Tres
Strauss
Cook
KP
Freddie
Collingwood
Jones
Plunkett
Hoggard,chasing his 200 wicket :)
Lewis
Mahmood/Monty
I think Lewis will play especially given his current form,its just that final bowling berth.Tbh from a squad of only 13 the team picks its self really.
I'm just hoping it'll be sunny on Friday,because i'm going :dance:

I'd go with Mahmood and Monty, and leave out Lewis.

I know one thing,its going to be a bit weird without Richie :cry: Fucking Murdoch and the ECB's greed :x  Still at least we'll know Sky will do a good job[as long as Bob is kept away from the microphone :-))( ] and there won't be breaks for fucking horse racing.

I just remembered this isn't on Channel 4 any more. I was going to skive off work tomorrow as well  :x

Oh well, Radio 4 it is then.

 :x  Indeed! It will feel strange,no cricket on terrestrial t.v anymore [for a few years at least :-))( ] Can't beat a bit of TMS though,its ace :D Its what an English summer is all about.
Highlights are on Channel Five at 7.15 don't forget,so we can all get our Mark Nicholas fix.

You're right but it's a shame Blowers has retired, no more random vivid descriptions of passing buses.

 :shock: What?? when did that happen???Shows how much i enjoy TMS i didn't even realise the national institution that is Henry Blowfield had retired,its too much him and Richie :cry: Cricket will never be the same again.

And thats why i hate it when it's on Channel 4, ive got Sky so im not bothered either way.  8)

Just cause your rich Spud don't rub it in :wink: I just think a sport like cricket needs the coverage only terrestrial t.v can give it,football dominates so much that cricket can get lost and ignored.I wonder if the Ashes last year would have been so popular if it had been on Sky?
Anyway we've talked about it before and its happened so we'll just have to get on with it :) COME ON ENGLAND [especially on Friday :wink: ]

Yes cos people wpuld have gone down the Pub, just like i did for a few hours when KP was spanking the Aussies at The Oval.

 8) Ah memories :D
But what about the kids Spuddy :wink: ?They can't go down the pub whenever they feel like it,thats what was so special about the Ashes,not just the fact we stuffed the convict bastards in one of the best series ever :beers:  but that you'd go down the park and see kids playing cricket :) Everyone being able to watch at home means more exposure to the wonderful game of cricket which in the end hopefully leads to more players in the future.Hopefully i'm being too pessimistic and the deal will be good for the game,as i've said its done now.I think i'm more upset at the thought of no Richie tbh :wink:

the annoying thing is that u cant watch the match at work now .. on terrestial that was always poss .. or there was the lil telly i took in with me when i could

NOW .. nothing except radio coverage ... and the trouble is when you have earphones on u cant listen to anyone else ...

I agree with your team Larwood ... personally id have Bell in instead of Cook and i think its likely to be Sajid Mahmood instead of Panesar .. rarely any spin at Lords

and as its pouring down here ... might be hit by the rain ... so deffo NO SPIN

what day are you going?

panesar will play i reckon

any one know if any of the tests are in manchester?

4th ODI against the Sri Lankans and the second test against the Pakistanis are both at Old Trafford.

Never known you to be interested in Cricket son! F1 getting a bit dull these days? :wink:

Cook is playing,Graveney said so on Sunday.
And i'm going on Friday,as i've said about three times Fats :beers:

We win the Toss and decided to bat first.  8)

England: Andrew Flintoff (Captain), Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss, Alistair Cook, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Geraint Jones, Liam Plunkett, Matthew Hoggard, Sajid Mahmood, Monty Panesar.

Sri Lanka: Upul Tharanga, Jehan Mubarak, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Thilan Samaraweera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chamara Kapugedera, Farveez Maharoof, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Kulasekara, Muttiah Muralitharan.

Oooh I was right about the line-up.

Funnily enough, I'm too ill to get to college today.

 :o

It seems I was wrong about Blowers, he simply had the winter off, I just heard him on TMS.

TFFT

village, i dont know u :) im some1 else in manchester! not the person u know

i have to listen through my tv, as i havent got sky :(

:D Sorry Manc

Excellent start, 176-1 with only Strauss gone so far, predictably falling to Murali. Tresco looking good for a ton....

199-1 at tea,going along well.Weathers looking good for tomorrow too :D
One thing i'll say for Sky,its nice to have the old times back,11am starts just like it should be :)

Phew,i thought if he'd retired i would have heard about it.Henry always has the winter off,bless him :)

Tres has just got out on 106,213-2.

i thought i heard blowers as i was driving home, i assumed i was just going mad.

nice to have some some english test crcket at home again, proper summer.

question - why cook instead of bell? not saying it's the wrong deicision, just wondered why

good day for england....tresco back  :beers:

312-3 now, Cookie chasing a wide ball.  Out for 89.

why go for a wide ball in a test, never get that.

Good day .. hope you have a Brilliant day tomorrow Larwood and that KP and Freddie can do the biz for u!

good start! its only that though!

Cracking day for England. Great to see trezza back and bang in form. I thought Cook was superb too and pieterson looked like he was taking a stroll in the park.

600 anyone?

Sri Lanka's attack looks ordinary to say the least.

i must say i have missed it all, didnt see the highlights, on what is that rubbish channel? umm 5. wot a joke, bloody ECB money grabbing basatrds, wonder if ne 1 has put highlights on the bit torrent site?

im off to look

nope searched a few sites of choice, couldnt c ne highlights, ne 1 know of a website u can get thtem from?

it wasn't that wide. how do you expect them to score runs if they don't attack bad balls.

one of my pet hates is when people say what a bad shot when batsmen get out attacking, either play overambitously or to a bad ball. its the same way they manage to score all their runs so just accept it if it doesn't come off

Yes please :D

Cheers Fats,i'm sure i will :beers: ,the sun is going to shine,and i've got tons of food to eat oh and i'm going with one of my brothers mates who's a poxford fan :beers:

the channel 5 highlights were basically like channel 4 but on 5 if that makes sense

But shitter

fair enough, i will just have to try and remember them, not even sky sports news showed much of it, think i will leave it on all day 2day! they mite giev me a few shots :o

im on a night tonight which means i have all day to watch the cricket!  :D

damn u! i mite go down the pub for the day, get them to show it :P

kp is on fire  :beers:

Hoggy. SL 0-1.

Nice to see Plunkett is keeping it steady.  :mrgreen:

Saj looks nervous too.

Could be a long haul which is why I think we've declared a bit too early, SL have a very underrated middle order.

Erm 83-4 and Saj takes two.

Dilshan Run out!  :mrgreen:

85-5 what a run out.  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

I know  :D

He did manage to bowl his entire first over wide of leg stump though  8)

:beers:  :beers:  :beers:

mahmood is having a stormer!

i hate larwood

all out for 192 8)

i love cricket me

Sri Lanka 339-5, making a better fist of batting this time round, Mahela Jayawardene has just gone past 100. Off for bad light at the moment

Why hasn't Monty been give a go today?

 :soapy tit wank: So do i :(
It was a good day,lots of runs and lots of wickets falling,Mahmood was very impressive :D
We were awful yesterday though,our fielding especially was shocking,the Sri Lankans played well though.We'll have to improve some to inforce a win today.

I think the weather might get the better of us .. we took the foot off the pedal and its proving costly .. tho tbh .. Saj and in particular Plunkett havent really been up to standard set up GBH and S Jones .. oh enjoy Morrissey next week too !

It's going to rain all day, bollocks.

play to start at 1120 .. hopefully!

damn got 2 wickets but now its raining :(

 :D Thanks Fats.

429-8,Plunkett got Dilshan on 69.Its just the tailenders left now,no problem :-))( Oh and the weather.

fingers crossed it clears up and we can rattle off those 2 wickets and the runs required

play has resumed after lunch ! COME ON ENGLAND!

what a poor effort by England! a truly pathetic last day showing! not happy!

Hey be fair Rich,the last TWO days were awful :(
Fielding practice needed i think,you can't drop that many chances and win a test match.It was frustrating just watching it,it must have been a hell of a lot worse for the poor bowlers.

Harmy is back for the next test though so fingers crossed and Freddie should bowl Monty more

i haven't been on in a while in here...just to say, england were crap in there 2nd innings, poor bowling, didn't trouble the tailenders.

I'd agree, but you can't say the bowlers didn't create any opportunitys to get them out,wasn't it something like nine dropped chances?On another day we would have won comfortably.

very true....but having to get 4 tailenders out....and it wasn't all 9 in one innings surely?

I don't think so,but we did put quite a few down it seemed most of them happened during their second innings,it was like some sort of dropping disease infected everyone.
It just bugs me when the bowlers get the blame,it wasn't all their fault  :x although some of the bowling was bad,especially on the last day.Still i think we can still win the series.

I didnt think our bowlers were good enuf mind u ... id drop out Plunkett and Sajid for Harmy and Lewis (lets face it he shud have played the first test!)

I was surprised when Mahmood got the nod,i was sure Lewis would play.Tbf to Mahmood,he was on fire on the Friday,he was just steaming in,he bowled a great spell i know cause i was there 8) I'd drop Plunkett for Lewis,but keep faith with Mahmood if Harmy is still unfit.
We do need Harmy back,i really don't like Fred opening the bowling as well as everything else he has to do.

yeah .. im not really sure Freddie is a good longer term captain ..

Its too much for him i think especially in the long term,whilst Virgil is injured i have no problems with it.The only other player i think could do a good job as captain is Strauss.

totally agree ... maybe Cook in the very long term