Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Eng in India, Afg vs Ire in UAE, SA & Oz in NZ, SL in Bang

Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby Gingerfinch » Mon Nov 26, 2018 12:43 pm

budgetmeansbudget wrote:Probably gave Bairstow MOM to stop him throwing his toys out the pram.

I would have said Stokes, hundred runs in the game and featuring in important rebuilding partnerships in both innings, and a crucial bowling spell in first innings when SL were getting away. Plus some important catches.

Foakes is definitely right for MOS.


Bairstow won't be liking that!

Stokes for MOM though!
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby sussexpob » Mon Nov 26, 2018 3:38 pm

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Leach finishes it off, well done to him, Mo, Rashid on the win. And Root and Bayliss and the rest of the tourists. 3-0 in SL is a landmark victory. Reminds me of England winning 4-0 in the WI in 2004.


I actually like the series comparison, but it might be for a different reason to yourself; both series seem to underline our opponents were not just average, but very, very poor cricket teams. Sri Lanka are a terrible side, lets not make excuses for them. We should beat them, and we did, pretty comfortably.

So, SL beat Australia and South Africa without dropping a single game, but anyone who watched all of these series will know the pitches this time round simply werent the same. Aussies and Saffers played on spinners wet dreams, the ball spat all over the place, turned, came through the surface, bounced all over the place; maybe its the monsoon period that keeps a bit more moisture in the pitch, but as soon as Sri Lanka are taken off death traps, they look terrible.

India must have played around October time last year, and they got similar pitches to these England have got.... they scored 600, 600 and 500 in three games. No Sri Lanka player took more than 5 wickets. The previously rampant Perera averaged a 100. While India are a good team in Asian conditions, I still feel that series is indicative; Sri Lanka cannot take wickets on anything but rampant dust bowls.... the fact England didnt put runs on the board at Galle and in this test speaks more about how average our line up is, more than anything.
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby meninblue » Mon Nov 26, 2018 5:12 pm

SL scored 74 more than what i expected. A good fightback on Day 4 spinner friendly wicket given their batting lineup. Easy for England though - by scorecard the game looked over as SL had to get about 100 or so with the tail. 3-0 is a super show no matter what imo. SA were being rolled like minnows over here two months back. Think SL also rolled Aussies before that. Strategically England were better equipped than both Aussies and Saffers with 3 spin attack. So even if one had off day in test, there were other two spinners to pick up 20 wickets. Batting wise most England batsman have contributed in some or other innings as compared to Aussies and Saffers with more number of tons. England's spinners were better than Sri Lankan spinners as well. Overall England players have throughout outplayed Sri Lanka in all departments.
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby bigfluffylemon » Mon Nov 26, 2018 11:09 pm

Typical England pessimism. We won, so our opponents must have been crap.

Now, I'm not trying to pretend this Sri Lanka line-up are world beaters, far from it. They're obviously not a great side. But they still beat Australia and South Africa at home, and Pakistan away. They're not easy to beat at home. Before the series, given England's overseas record, I think most of us would have taken a 1-1 draw as creditable. 3-0 is extraordinary. England haven't whitewashed a side away in a series of 3 or more matches for over 50 years. That just doesn't happen any more, no matter how bad the opposition are. The only other sides to have whitewashed Sri Lanka at home in history are the great Australians of 2004, and India recently. That does say that the current crop in Sri Lanka are poor, but it also says that it's no easy feat, given that India are number 1 in the world, and are themselves superb in Asian conditions.

This has been a successful year for the England test side, by any measure. A win loss record of 8-1-4. By both number of matches won and win percentage, that's one of England's more successful years in their test history. Most would have had India as slight favourites before the India series, and Sri Lanka as favourites before this one. Not only did England win both, they won them convincingly. Yes, several of the matches were close, we didn't dominate, but that at least says England have found a tough mindset and way to win. In both series, it has been England that has won key moments, either through a counter-attack with the bat, an incredible bit of fielding, a great spell of bowling or a combination thereof. Furthermore, England were criticised after the India series for only being able to win on seaming tracks. Yet they've come here to Sri Lanka, a place where we've struggled horribly in the past, and found a way to win with our seamers barely lifting a finger (Stokes' excellence in the final test notwithstanding). These are all things to be proud of.

I'm not trying to paper over the disappointments. Auckland and Lord's v Pakistan both stick out as exceptionally poor performances. And the batting is still far worse than it should be given the capabilities in the side. England's highest score this year was 423/8d, and even that was something of a disappointment given we were 320/3 at one stage in that innings. There can't be many sides since the era of covered pitches that have managed to win 8 out of 9 games and only passed 400 once. We are in the bizarre situation where the batting is poor, yet we have such a depth of allrounders and bowlers that it's nigh on impossible to work out who to leave out, and that depth keeps finding ways to win. And yes, there is a fear that as soon as we get on flatter wickets, we're going to come a cropper, as this team can't bat time. These are all fair concerns.

But wins in Asia don't come along often. I'm going to enjoy it. :salute England.
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby bigfluffylemon » Tue Nov 27, 2018 3:21 am

Also, for all that we've been (rightly) down on England's batting, this has been their most successful ever batting performance in a series in Sri Lanka
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... pe=batting

More runs, more runs per test, higher average and more hundreds than any other series.

No Muralitheran sure helps on that front, but it hasn't been a disaster by any stretch.
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Nov 27, 2018 6:40 am

Powerful stuff bfl! There have been two good series certainly. But the NZ and Pakistan series belong to the poor performances that came before. Maybe Root has been lucky with the toss too, which counts for a lot.

Interesting to see the squad for WI.
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby bigfluffylemon » Tue Nov 27, 2018 9:07 am

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Powerful stuff bfl! There have been two good series certainly. But the NZ and Pakistan series belong to the poor performances that came before. Maybe Root has been lucky with the toss too, which counts for a lot.

Interesting to see the squad for WI.


There has been some luck with the tosses, certainly. I don't think we'd be looking at 3-0 if the coin had come down differently.

I guess time will tell if this is the point at which 'Root's England' became his team and threw off the shackles of the past on the way to a period of sustained performance, or was just an upward blip for an otherwise mediocre squad. England have the opportunity to go to number 1 in the world by the end of the summer if they win both their upcoming series.
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Nov 27, 2018 9:28 am

Root has won the last eight tosses! Handy knack.
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Nov 27, 2018 9:31 am

Won 4/5 in the Ashes too.
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby sussexpob » Tue Nov 27, 2018 10:44 am

bigfluffylemon wrote:Typical England pessimism. We won, so our opponents must have been crap. Now, I'm not trying to pretend this Sri Lanka line-up are world beaters, far from it. They're obviously not a great side. But they still beat Australia and South Africa at home, and Pakistan away


There is one constant in those victories, and its Herath. You could say England won at Galle with him there, but I dont think the commentators made any secret that Herath shouldnt have been playing. He'd originally planned to retire after the series, but it was clear the injuries of recent times caught up with him, and he wasnt able to play to his normal level. Without sentiment, its debatable SL would have picked him at all. He was given his send off test, but looked done throughout..... he averaged 12 vs Australia (took half the wickets in the series possible), 17 v the other two. A world class spinner with 450 odd wickets, at his best, is a different proposition to face.

SL cricket has undergone a chaotic crisis in recent times. For a team more concerned with ODI performances, they were the first team recently to be whitewashed 5-0 in three series in a year long period. They lost a series to Zimbabwe in ODIs. They nearly lost a test to Zimbabwe too, and really should off considering Dickwella made the telling 4th innings contribution, but was dropped more times than Mark Ramprakash was in his career. He was the beneficairy of the worst umpiring decision of DRS history, when he was clearly stumped out of his ground, only for the third umpire to rule it in (no one at all understood that one). They also struggled in the Windies, and it was their younger pace attack that carried them through that series.

But what happened to that pace attack that did so well that series? Well Kumara went out on the piss in the ODI series before this series, and the team threw the book at him. This is actually a massive problem, because he's one of a long list of players who have recently broke team rules on going out, which shows there is a huge discipline problem. In St Lucia, I think it was Cheemera who went out so late, the team's plane had to be held up the following day because he was still out on the razz and AWOL. Rajitha averaged 14 in the Windies with the ball, not seen him either, rumours also that he has been involved in off field AWOL nonsense. Thats basically all of SL's pace options, save for Lakmal, who played by default despite being the worst bowler in history to have taken 100 wickets in the game (worst average post 100 wickets, save for Carl Hooper and Shastri, both batters).

Gunithalaka, who was banned for the first two tests, is another SL had to do without when the series was live. Another player who decided he'd go out and get wrecked on a school night. Sadly for him, the mate he met in a hotel ended up sexually assaulting a lady, and he was arrested. Seeing an emerging theme here? He was banned for a long time, and only just came back to the team for the 3rd test.

Might ask, where is the leadership? Well, the chairman of selectors just got shopped by an ICC anti-corruption investigation into match fixing. The captain of the test team just got stripped of his role and banned for ball tampering in a game. The captain of the limited overs side just got sacked a couple of weeks ago, with the coach saying he was that bad a role model, he had let himself get unfit to the point it was debatable he could even make it through the physical needs of fielding in a 50 over game (and who now averaged under 30 since 2016 in tests, and who now no longer fit enough to bowl). We can then throw in the fact that the coach and team director were also recently banned by the ICC for acting against the spirit of the game (6 matches each), and that a key bowler has just been charged with chucking, and its not exactly a rosey picture, is it?

So, you end up with.....

Spin - The only proven long term world class option retired. The second best averaging option called for chucking. The original third spinner in line was banned for 12 months by the board for his role in another AWOL incident in the Windies (Jeffrey Vandersay). That left Perera (who averaged nearly 50 in 2017 in 11 tests!!!) alone.

Seam - They fielded one seamer on his own, the worst statistically to have ever played this much. Arguably the worst seam "attack" in history, considering the second new ball option in the squad of 11 is a part timer who is too unfit to bowl, and even at his "peak" averages 55.

Batting - One opener disgraced. Karanatarne I think recently broke his hand and has had to play T20s exclusively to get into gear. De Silva is a lower order batsman/spin option (who averages under 30 in 13 tests batting in the top 5) who is at one drop. Him, Mendis and Rosheen only have form scoring on roads (a general indication is, if more than a 1000 runs are scored in the first innings, these batters score, if not, they have probably miserably failed). Dickwella is rubbish. Mathews is finished. Chandimal is the only real approaching world class option, and he limped his way through one test, and then his series was over. K De Silva has routinely failed against virtually everyone, hes nowhere near test class (average comfortably in the 20s after 40 tests as an opener, which is pretty shocking).


Call me a pessimist, but I wouldnt brag about beating this rabble.
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Nov 27, 2018 1:42 pm

Arthur Crabtree wrote:
Interesting to see the squad for WI.


Don't think it will be much different. We'll have seen the last of Pope for a while, but Foakes came in for him. Denly will step down for an opener. Maybe another pace bowler for one of the spinners. Don't know where Stone stands as England seemed to cool on him quickly in the ODIs.

SL squad:

Jennings/Burns
Denly/Bairstow/Root/Pope/Buttler
Stokes/Curran
Foakes
Moeen
Rashid/Leach
Woakes/Stone/Anderson/Broad
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby Durhamfootman » Tue Nov 27, 2018 7:58 pm

would you need another seamer if you dropped a spinner, Arthur? Santiago, Broad, Woakes, Stokes, Curran and Stone ought to be enough for anyone. Plenty of slow pitches to be found in the caribbean too, if they wanted to retain all 3 spin options..... besides, they won't have clue who their best 2 are, so might keep all 3 by default.
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Nov 27, 2018 8:04 pm

True. Assuming Pope doesn't go, no other change has to be made.
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby Durhamfootman » Tue Nov 27, 2018 8:06 pm

would Roy come in for Pope?

he's an explosive T20 opener, so probably ticks all Ed Smiths boxes for a potential test number 3
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Re: Third Test: Sri Lanka v England in Colombo, 23/11/18.

Postby Durhamfootman » Tue Nov 27, 2018 8:07 pm

although he doesn't keep wicket, so that would weigh against him
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