Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Another one gone to Moeen.

Last word to Dawson.

Moeen MoM for me although it might go to Root.

so much for Moeen just playing as a specialist bat and not being used as a bowler

Must be Mo's first ten-fer.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Must be Mo's first ten-fer.

I presume only the 5-fer goes on the honours board?

Thought I read somewhere best by an English spinner at Lords since Derek Underwood in 1969.

Sixth best at Lord's by an England spinner ever.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... view=match

Crazy day. Nineteen wickets.

ZBGB got out by the right arm round/left arm over line, pushed back on his stumps, and playing forward to crease level.

on a day when 19 wickets fell, on a pitch that was extremely helpful to the bowlers, and Ballance got a corking delivery that pitched and straightened, trying to spin it into some sort of issue with his technique seems like you are not really being too fair AC

That is how he got out though! I suppose it could be argued that everyone gets out playing the way they play. But arguably he gave himself less of a chance to survive playing that way. Anyway, just got it out there for what it's worth, as part of Ballance-watch.

Well, I was not expecting that!

Verity, Underwood, Lock, Swann, and now Ali. Exalted company indeed.

Not a great surprise England keeping the same squad, but you'd have thought an extra batter for Trent Bridge would be the way to go, given how it normally favours swing and seam, and England already have 4 in the line-up. Obviously having two spinners here was a result of reading the pitch (I wondered about that earlier) and turned out to be a winning tactic, but it'll be very strange if Nottingham goes the same way.

England have not put together back-to-back wins against South Africa since 1998 (unless you count final test of one series and first test of another 18 months later, which I don't). Given how series between these two sides tend to go, you'd expect SA to come back hard, especially with Faf back. However, without Rabada they lose one of their most potent weapons on a pitch that historically favours swing, although it looks as if Philander will be ok by Friday.

just because we won doesn't mean the selection of dawson was right, the ends dont always justify the means, i thought that should be obvious

i'm also confused by this argument that in order to get the best out of Moeen as a bowler he needs to think he is playing as a batsman, does that mean we have to pick 2 spinners all the time? if we dont pick a second spinner Moeen wont bowl as well as he did today?

all that sounds like is continued fudging of selection to keep people happy rather than picking the best team

we won the test because we won what turned out to be a very good toss, made the most of batting first then took advantage of a pitch that turned into a bit of a minefield, not because we picked Dawson.

Don't forget Dawson was there for his batting at 8 as well

Dawson bowled ok in the second innings, but England would still have won without him. I think keeping him for Trent Bridge may be a mistake unless it turns out to be a very different wicket from normal.

After session 1 day 1, I was beginning to doubt, but it's always good to win the toss and bat first at Lord's.

bigfluffylemon wrote:Obviously having two spinners here was a result of reading the pitch

not so sure myself. the only alternative to having 2 spinners was to have 5 seamers, which seems like overkill, so I think they always planned to give Dawson a go regardless of the pitch

premeditated, if you will

They might have asked Lords to produce a 2 spinner pitch in advance, of course