3rd Test England v Pakistan, Edgbaston, Aug 3-7.

[Dr Cricket]

Stokes is injured by the way.

[Slipstream]

Stokes is injured by the way.

Just saying.

[Dr Cricket]

Stokes is injured by the way.

Just saying.

true but if a bowlers not looking threatening or being expensive captain is more likely to over bowl or let that bowler that is the most threatening bowl more.
if Finn/Stokes/Ali are expensive Woakes, Anderson/broad bowls more.
if woakes struggles then Anderson/broad have to bowl more especially if the batsman score an par or below par total.
no question about it Anderson/Broad will be bowling if pakistan are 220/3 or 4 and others look expensive and less threatening.

the only difference having 5 bowlers makes is that cook can attack at all times and rest bowlers when their need them but would bowl them long over if the team needs it.

Anderson/broad are still likely to bowl at all the key moments in the game.

[Dr Cricket]

We'll see. The commentators I heard said there was some bounce in the pitch. It's hard to be that confident in the Pakistani batters in English conditions, especially with the top three offering some potential for an early collapse. But if the sun is out, I expect they'll get a lead. If it's overcast, I wouldn't be surprised if they get bowled out for less than 200.

less bounce than old tr afford similar pace/bounce to lords.

[backfootpunch]

Some poor out shots now and then but I think it was a good day for England, 300 was a good target and if we bowl anywhere near well I reckon that's worth at least a 50 run lead. Woakes won't be daunted he's used to having low scores to bowl against for Warwickshire.

seriously a good day, wouldn't be confident on a 50 run lead.

should be a close game but England would have to bowl well to get pakistan all out before 230.

Id go the other way and say pakistan are going to have to bat very well to reach our score

When the ball swings we have the best bowling attack in the world

assuming the ball does swing, Swing can be so random at times.

if the ball is only swinging think 295 is a par/below par total and pakistan could get a decent lead if they survive the first 20-30 overs.
if the ball is also seaming then yeah 295 would be a tough total for pakistan but what I have seen the pitch looks good or decent for batting.

Also only two bowlers in the england team actually swing the ball, Anderson/Woakes.
broad stopped trying to bowl the outswinger now and hasn't really got the ball to hoop for a while now and is pretty much a seam bowler now, Finn is basically a bounce bowler.

in my opinion England would have to be brilliant in the field and pakistan being awful with the bat for england to get a decent sized lead.

Pakistan have had four innings in this series in conditions where the ball hasn't moved much and have made 3 very low scores anyway

They have only passed 240 once

If it moves for England like it did for pakistan today getting to parity would be a huge achievement for them

Another score of 190-230 wouldn't be surprising

And broad was getting some in swing in the previous two tests btw, quite a lot on occasions

[backfootpunch]

Stokes is injured by the way.

Just saying.

true but if a bowlers not looking threatening or being expensive captain is more likely to over bowl or let that bowler that is the most threatening bowl more.
if Finn/Stokes/Ali are expensive Woakes, Anderson/broad bowls more.
if woakes struggles then Anderson/broad have to bowl more especially if the batsman score an par or below par total.
no question about it Anderson/Broad will be bowling if pakistan are 220/3 or 4 and others look expensive and less threatening.

the only difference having 5 bowlers makes is that cook can attack at all times and rest bowlers when their need them but would bowl them long over if the team needs it.

Anderson/broad are still likely to bowl at all the key moments in the game.

That's not really true

The main benefit of five bowlers is that when conditions dictate moeen doesn't have to bowl

Whereas Yasir ends up bowling 20 overs anyway on a pitch where he isn't threatening

Or when it is spinning we can play 3 seamers and 2 spinners but still have batting strength

[Dr Cricket]

Isn't that what I said.
Although at times Cook been reluctant to bowl Stokes, Ali and Finn so in bowling terms cook really bowling with 4 bowlers anyway.

[backfootpunch]

Isn't that what I said.
Although at times Cook been reluctant to bowl Stokes, Ali and Finn so in bowling terms cook really bowling with 4 bowlers anyway.

Fair enough

I don't agree about pakistan making 350 being likely though

They haven't made it once in 4 innings and on three of those not got remotely close to 300 let alone 350 in conditions that offered even less swing

[Dr Cricket]

Think pakistan getting 350 is more likely than pakistan being all out below 220.
just can't see many demons in the pitch for pakistan to be dismiss for a low score and their don't really have an excuse to get out for a low score either.

Really in the old trafford test you can make a case the low scores were because of huge first innings total.

Only time I can see pakistan getting all out below 200 is if England take 5 wickets before pakistan score 50-60 runs.
if pakistan get a platform I suspect they will get a lead at worse a small deficit.
At the moment pakistan are only one hundred away from a good lead and 2-3 good partnerships from parity. Teams bat totally different when their a sniff of a victory or a strong position, hard to see Misbah, Shafig, Ali, younis khan and wicket keeper all failing and giving england a big lead when bowler dismiss them for 298.

Anyway good night folks should be a good day of cricket tomorrow.

Edit TBH only really making this point because most forum/articles I read suggest england would get a big lead and that pakistan would struggle with the bat, not really seeing it and a lot of it sounds like fans are being optimistic that the bowlers will save the batsman again.

[backfootpunch]

Isn't that what I said.
Although at times Cook been reluctant to bowl Stokes, Ali and Finn so in bowling terms cook really bowling with 4 bowlers anyway.

That's the exact benefit of 5 bowlers though

It means someone can bowl badly and it doesn't matter as you have 4 others and you don't have to bowl the one not in form

Whereas when you have just 4 all the bowlers have to bowl a lot regardless of how they are bowling

[backfootpunch]

For someone who supports india and lives in London

I'm surprised you aren't rooting at least a little for the home side, instead of wishing for England to fail at every point

[Dr Cricket]

For someone who supports india and lives in London

I'm surprised you aren't rooting at least a little for the home side, instead of wishing for England to fail at every point

I am totally neutral, for some reason always been pessimistic about england cricket team.
plus being slight realistic not really seeing england getting good/decent size lead.
at worse pakistan will score around 260-270 which is basically parity.

[backfootpunch]

For someone who supports india and lives in London

I'm surprised you aren't rooting at least a little for the home side, instead of wishing for England to fail at every point

I am totally neutral, for some reason always been pessimistic about england cricket team.
plus being slight realistic not really seeing england getting good/decent size lead.
at worse pakistan will score around 260-270 which is basically parity.

In a low scoring game which this may well be 30-40 runs is a good lead

[Dr Cricket]

Another thing I am totally biased brought a ticket for day 3 and really only want to watch it if it is a good game and it can only be a good game if Pakistan bat well.
Hate watching test cricket if it is one sided especially if India are not playing lol.

I be honest I probably support the away team more since them doing well means it is a good series.

In a non India game all I want to see is a good test match and series.

Wouldn't enjoy the game one bit on Friday if Pakistan are 150 all out tomorrow.

If England had scored 400+ in the first innings probably wouldn't have brought the ticket.

Got to be honest got the cricketing bug at the moment and actually wanting to go and see the test matches but at the same time only wanting to see competitive test cricket.
Would have hated watching the old Trafford test whereas this test looks competitive ie why I brought a ticket.
Tempted to go oval but old Trafford game me second thought especially now when ticket won't even sell out can basically go to the games and days that I wanna go.

the worse case scenario would be Pakistan 150 all out and England getting 300-400 odd in the 2nd innings with cook and balance getting most of the runs.
Just kill me now.

[Dr Cricket]

Cricviz predicting Pakistan getting 297 and England Winning by 110 runs and their usually quite accurate in test cricket although so crap in one day/t20 cricket.

They are predicting a low scoring game.