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

It's obviously noticeable how Vaughan's batting became less successful on the instant of becoming England captain. If it was his injury, surely there would be a decline rather than a plummet. Vaughan just said on the radio that when he became captain he became more interested in captaincy and less in batting. Which might be a factor.

BBC has a broadcast of commentators chatting while they watch the cricket on tv, which isn't that successful I don't think. Currently Vaughan, Simon Hughes, Andy Zaltzman and Simon Mann, I think.

sussexpob wrote:

meninblue wrote:The temperament, shot selection is a huge concern for batsmen nowadays. Surely this was not a wicket where a 4 day match result is fair. Most likely result should have been draw. England batted under par in one innings. SL has been very poor in both innings in home conditions.

There seems a trend in modern batsman to block a few balls then feel that they have bought credit for an aggressive shot. The amount of England batters that actually end with very low strike rates for an innings, but who are dismissed playing at the ball hard and aggressive, is quite sad to see.

I have a feeling Mark Richardson would bat for days in this era of cricket. Bowlers wouldnt know what to do against a batsman who didnt play strokes.

SL we're guilty of that. They did grind till the team scored 50 and went wicketless for long period. Then they must have thought let's win and started getting complacent because all 10 wickets were intact and 5 sessions were enough to chase this.


That Dhananjay wicket should fetch him the contract for advertisement of Cadbury's Temptation for years given the context.

8 wickets to Moeen Ali. So far Jack (5) and Rashid (2) have managed 7. The all rounder has outperformed two specialist spinners by a wicket.

SL 238/8.

239/9. Wicket for Rashid. Ben takes the edge at slips. Dilruwan out on 13.


Heraths last walk to bat in tests. England players welcome him again.

Herath reviews successfully this innings as well. Decision overruled by 3rd umpire.

On the brink of a famous and historic win.

Drinks. One hour play left post drinks. One wicket to win.
England would look to wind this and win by margin of 200 plus runs to have a psychological advantage.

4. Sura plays it away from body through covers. Rashid has been very inconsistent. He has struggled to control the ball.

248/9.

Heath dives but is run out while completing 2nd.

England win by 211.

SL needs to sort out batting. They will look to find a way to also work out the reverse sweep tactics of Keaton. A high risk shot will be taken care by a spinning wicket. If he manages to play as many reverse sweeps so well and score as many runs on those reverse as he did this test on s pinners wicket then hats off to him. But some bowling plans will be done post his technical analysis on that shot by SL staff.

England will probably retain winning team unless for injuries while playing football during nets.

scorecard reads like a very comfortable win. Well done England

Curran only bowling 11 overs in the match suggests that:-
1/ he is a luxury who could be replaced by another batsman,
2/ England completely misread the pitch,
3/ England didn't have enough faith in their 3 spinners

I think 3

although the lack of faith might only have been whether Moeen was up to the job should Leach turn out to be hopeless

if 1, then Denly should be coming in, with Moeen dropping down to 8..... either giving Stokes the new ball with Santiago, or opening up with spin straight away

2 feels unlikely given that most of England's management have a lot of experience working in SL

Durhamfootman wrote:
if 1, then Denly should be coming in, with Moeen dropping down to 8..... either giving Stokes the new ball with Santiago, or opening up with spin straight away

the nest pitch might be completely different, of course, so perhaps I should have said that Denly could have played in Galle with Moeen at 8

Foakes was POTM for me.

KJ and Mo in with a shout.

Farewell to Rangana Herath. Arguably the best spinner of the 2010s.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... pe=bowling

I notice from that that Adil Rashid went past 20 Test wickets in Galle in 16 Tests.

Durhamfootman wrote:Curran only bowling 11 overs in the match suggests that:-
1/ he is a luxury who could be replaced by another batsman,
2/ England completely misread the pitch,
3/ England didn't have enough faith in their 3 spinners

I think 3

Nearly reached 50 in the first innings. Maybe should be cut the same slack as Stokes as an all rounder. If he's contributing in one discipline then he's worth his place.