England vs Sri Lanka

[The Dark Knight]

Second test at Chester-le-Street, stumps day one. England made 6/310, some exceptional catching from the Lankans and poor shot selection brought about those 6 English wickets. Alex Hales top scored with 83, falling just 17 runs short of a maiden test century. He was out to a ripper catch taken by Angelo Mathews. Joe Root scored 80 and Jonny Bairstow 48. Alastair Cook made just 15, still 5 runs short of the magical 10,000 mark.

[helicopterking]

Anyone else think Eranga chucks it.

[The Dark Knight]

Anyone else think Eranga chucks it.

The bent arm during his point of release sure makes it looks like it.

[The Dark Knight]

Day 2 and much to my surprise (NOT) England are all over Sri Lanka. Was going to watch it when I got home last night but was way too pissed lol. England's first innings was very good posting 9/498. Moeen Ali was the star top scoring with 155 at number 7, his second test century. Chris Woakes made a handy 39 and was good support for Ali.

In reply Sri Lanka limped to 8/98 in another pathetic batting display from there top order. No disrespect to them but they are way out of their depth. Chris Woakes was the pick of the bowlers taking 3/9. Anderson 2/31 and Broad 3/35 were the other wicket takers as once again the lines and lengths of the English quicks were on the money. All but one of those eight Sri Lankan dismissals were caught behind the wicket.

[The Dark Knight]

England quickly took the last two Lankan wickets on the start of day three to roll Sri Lanka for just 101. Broad finished up being the pick of the bowlers taking 4/40. Cook forced Sri Lanka to follow on once again and are currently 1/58, trailing by 339.

[The Dark Knight]

End of day 3 and Sri Lanka are 5/309 in thier second innings still trialling England by 88 runs. Skipper Angelo Mathews top scored with 80. A much better effort from the Lankans in the second innings as their batsman finally start to show some fight.

[The Dark Knight]

England win the second test by 9 wickets. Sri Lanka were dismissed for 475 in a much improved batting performance but it mattered little as England take a 2-0 series lead. Chandimal and Herath were amongst the runs with Chandimal scoring his sixth test century and Harath making a valuable 61 at number 8. England were able to clean up the tail quickly and found themselves needing only 79 runs to win the match. Jimmy Anderson finished the Lankans second innings with 5/58 from 27 overs. He was named man of the match.

England chased down the deficit with ease and it was all about Alastair Cook. He scored 47 not out to guide his team home and reach the magical 10,000 run mark. He is the first Englishman to make 10,000 runs and now the 12th of all time.

[The Dark Knight]

Anyone else think Eranga chucks it.

For you HK, you're on the money!

http://www.cricket.com.au/news/shaminda ... 2016-05-31

[The Dark Knight]

3rd test at Lords, England won the toss and are batting. They are currently are 2/67, Compton has just been dismissed. Cook is 47 not out

[heater31]

3rd test at Lords, England won the toss and are batting. They are currently are 2/67, Compton has just been dismissed. Cook is 47 not out

Mate of mine living in London is there today the prick

[The Dark Knight]

Root gone cheaply aswell. England 3/74 at lunch.

The future doesn't look good for Nick Compton after only failing again. As a whole there are a few week spots in this English batting line up.

[Grahaml]

A few? Cook and Root and who? Stokes at 6 is laughable. He's a number 7 at best, only missing the bowling to carry that off and without a bowler or keeper capable of batting top 6. If Ali isn't good enough for 6 he isn't good enough for tests. At the moment England are 2 handy bowlers and 2 strong batters (albeit one likely to cave in for months on end) and 7 guys trying their best. They'll beat sides, but when things go well and if the opposition also have a bunch of issues.

[The Dark Knight]

You're right Grahaml, that was just a quick, general comment. It appears Compton is not a test number 3. The jury is probably still out on Hales, I haven't seen much of Vince and I think Ali, who is now batting at 7 in this test was batting too low at number 8, can definitely bat at 6 IMO. Bairstow is the one that's really coming along nicely, another 100 today, he's in good touch and fi ding his feet at test level. So I think you can add Bairstow with Cook and Root but after that it falls away.

[The Dark Knight]

End of Day 1- England 6/279
Bairstow 107 not out, Cook 85

[heater31]

Division 1 County Leading Run Scorers

Sam Robson 636 @ 79.5
Kumar Sangakarra * 601 @ 46.23
Samit Patel 585 @ 45
Scott Borthwick 574 @ 82
James Hildreth 569 @63.22


Apart from Sanga who is not English James Hildreth is the only one not to have played international cricket at any level. Would be early 30's so he is in danger of becoming the English Michael Klinger......


Mo Ali bats at 3 for his County side Worcestershire and forced his way into the side from Division 2 so he can bat.

[batmanbegins]

A few? Cook and Root and who? Stokes at 6 is laughable. He's a number 7 at best, only missing the bowling to carry that off and without a bowler or keeper capable of batting top 6. If Ali isn't good enough for 6 he isn't good enough for tests. At the moment England are 2 handy bowlers and 2 strong batters (albeit one likely to cave in for months on end) and 7 guys trying their best. They'll beat sides, but when things go well and if the opposition also have a bunch of issues.

Disagree about Stokes, He's only 24 and if you saw what he did in South Africa he has the talent to be number a very good number 6. But there is plenty of issues, Hales worries me against good bowling, Vince has done nothing to impress and Compton has to be gone now, Bairstow is really looking good since he returned in the Ashes and obviously Cook and Root are quality but the rest are very up in the air. Personally I think Bell should come back in for Compton as we all know how good he can be. But other than that there isn't a huge amount of quality young Bats in England.

Were lucky we have a quality bowling line up as our top order is saved a lot. We will get found out when we go to india without a quality spinner also.

[The Dark Knight]

Division 1 County Leading Run Scorers

Sam Robson 636 @ 79.5
Kumar Sangakarra * 601 @ 46.23
Samit Patel 585 @ 45
Scott Borthwick 574 @ 82
James Hildreth 569 @63.22

Apart from Sanga who is not English James Hildreth is the only one not to have played international cricket at any level. Would be early 30's so he is in danger of becoming the English Michael Klinger......

Mo Ali bats at 3 for his County side Worcestershire and forced his way into the side from Division 2 so he can bat.

http://www.cricket.com.au/news/nick-com ... 2016-06-10
An article I read this morning about Compton struggling and Scott Borthwick maybe a chance to take his place.

[The Dark Knight]

England doing it easy here at 6/333. Bairstow 127 and Woakes 52

[The Dark Knight]

End of day 2- England 416, Bairstow 167 not out, Cook 85, Woakes 66. Herath 4/81. Sri Lanka 1/162, Silva 79 not out, Karunaratne 50

[Grenville]

He's making good runs Bairstow but he's still a crap keeper.