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Post by hhsussex on Apr 14, 2015 7:38:54 GMT
Milliband did some work experience for me when he was 17 years old. Nice lad, and so yes, I did deliberately omit him from those who cannot be trusted. (How do you tell when Cameron/Farage/Dobell cannot be trusted? Answer: when their lips move. Ha ha!) hh will probably never forgive me for this, but I've switched over from the boredom of Bell and Root's Test match 'fightback' on Sky Sports 2 to watch David Warner going ballistic for Sunrisers v Bangalore Challengers on Sky Sports 4. I managed to miss this post at the time - too busy listening to a very exciting and developing fightback, first by Bell and Root, then by Bell and Stokes. I'm still of the opinion that it would be for the better of the future of English Test cricket if we had tried out one of the newer middle order batsmen on this tour but Bell's innings sounded exquisite, and Strokes full of command and potential. I'm sorry I don't have the access to watch it on television but Sky Sports is expensive and I cannot afford it, so don't have your agonies of decision-making. You will be forgiven if you come and watch some proper cricket with me next week.
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Post by hhsussex on Apr 14, 2015 19:41:20 GMT
Meanwhile CJ finally broke the shackles with a few late runs this morning, took a key wicket and has just broken an important stand with a stunning slip catch. Of course, he's "not quite quick enough", or "not enough of an all-rounder", or not quite somebody's favourite flavour - but he's a gutsy, flamboyant and intelligent cricketer who has responded well to his challenges and has mastered them. A credit to himself, to Sussex who gave him the big chance, and to all of those who believe in character.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2015 20:22:21 GMT
Meanwhile CJ finally broke the shackles with a few late runs this morning, took a key wicket and has just broken an important stand with a stunning slip catch. Of course, he's "not quite quick enough", or "not enough of an all-rounder", or not quite somebody's favourite flavour - but he's a gutsy, flamboyant and intelligent cricketer who has responded well to his challenges and has mastered them. A credit to himself, to Sussex who gave him the big chance, and to all of those who believe in character. Well said. And his great slip catch was Tredwell's first Test wicket in 1,848 days, since his last v Bangla Desh on March 24, 2010. Probably not a record. But a ruddy long time to wait!
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Post by hhsussex on Apr 15, 2015 6:48:43 GMT
Meanwhile CJ finally broke the shackles with a few late runs this morning, took a key wicket and has just broken an important stand with a stunning slip catch. Of course, he's "not quite quick enough", or "not enough of an all-rounder", or not quite somebody's favourite flavour - but he's a gutsy, flamboyant and intelligent cricketer who has responded well to his challenges and has mastered them. A credit to himself, to Sussex who gave him the big chance, and to all of those who believe in character. Well said. And his great slip catch was Tredwell's first Test wicket in 1,848 days, since his last v Bangla Desh on March 24, 2010.
Probably not a record. But a ruddy long time to wait!Derek Shackleton took the wicket of Pankaj Roy in Delhi on the 3rd November 1951. His next Test wicket was that of Joe Solomon at Lord's on 21 June 1963. That was 4248 days. But that is nothing compared to my own record: under your captaincy I took a wicket for Tribune v the New Statesman in, I think, August 1985 , my next wicket was in July 2013. Oh, the wasted years!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2015 19:37:03 GMT
Trott nicks off again. If Jerome Taylor has the hoodoo on him, there is no way he can be permitted to play against Boult and Southee, let alone Starc and Johnson. It would be sadistic cruelty and show a thoroughly irresponsible disregard for his mental well-being to pick him again. Lyth must replace him in the second Test.
And with Tredwell's splendid Swann-like performance making him undroppable, where does Moeen Ali fit in the team for the Second Test? At number three, instead of Ballance, perhaps?
(Sussex should take Tredwell on loan again, because even if he returns from the Caribbean as England's leading wicket-taker, Kent will only pick him for white ball cricket and relegate him to the stiffs when they're playing championship, as they did last season. Unless Sussex rescue him, he'll be playing second XI fixtures against the Army, the Club Cricket Conference and MCC YCs, which is pretty darned demeaning for a Test match bowler - so get in there, Robbo! Would love to see him back at Sussex. His performance at Horsham last season was arguably the best we've seen from a Sussex spinner since the days of Mushy.)
Meanwhile, Cook's nightmare continues. Will he still be in charge come the Ashes? I always assumed he would be, but am now beginning to have my doubts.
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Post by leedsgull on Apr 15, 2015 19:41:42 GMT
Cook's decline looks terminal. It is so long since he played a convincing innings. I think he should be put out of his misery after this tour. Only GD would surely advocate the retention of Trott. Time for Lyth now please.
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Post by invicta1977 on Apr 15, 2015 20:09:49 GMT
Cook's decline looks terminal. It is so long since he played a convincing innings. I think he should be put out of his misery after this tour. Only GD would surely advocate the retention of Trott. Time for Lyth now please. I was out in India watching an England Test a few winters back and I lost count of the number of fans who repeated the mantra "Cook will beat every England runscoring record in the book and probably challenge some international ones too". My stock response was to say "Quite possibly, but don't take anything for granted in this game". Those 450 runs to Goochy's aggregate now seem like four and half thousand.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2015 7:28:17 GMT
A couple of newspaper reports this morning offer an interesting insight into the England management's thought processes on getting Trott to open the batting (which he has apaprently only ever done once before for England).
Fearing that he would get bombarded with short stuff in the middle order after his problems against Mitchell Johnson (and Chris Jordan at Edgbaston, of course), they allegedly came up with the plan to turn him into an opener, when the bowlers would be pitching the ball up to make it swing.
They pitched up. It swung. And he nicked off. Twice.
If true, one of the most cockeyed theories ever invented, even by England's standards!
Dobell's reports have barely mentioned either of Trott's innings. Instead, his piece this morning is a rather nice essay about the old-fashioned excellence of Tredwell - although from what I have been told his claim that Kent dropped Trdders last year because Riley was out of contract and would have left without first team cricket is pure fiction.
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Post by hhsussex on Apr 16, 2015 7:50:51 GMT
A couple of newspaper reports this morning offer an interesting insight into the England management's thought processes on getting Trott to open the batting (which he has apaprently only ever done once before for England). Fearing that he would get bombarded with short stuff in the middle order after his problems against Mitchell Johnson (and Chris Jordan at Edgbaston, of course), they allegedly came up with the plan to turn him into an opener, when the bowlers would be pitching the ball up to make it swing. They pitched up. It swung. And he nicked off. Twice. If true, one of the most cockeyed theories ever invented, even by England's standards! Dobell's reports have barely mentioned either of Trott's innings. Instead, his piece this morning is a rather nice essay about the old-fashioned excellence of Tredwell - although from what I have been told his claim that Kent dropped Trdders last year because Riley was out of contract and would have left without first team cricket is pure fiction. I think that many of us here thought it was a foredoomed experiment, and a retrograde piece of selection, and so it has proved. Listening on TMS the two sharpest commentators - Vaughan and Swann, both streets ahead of any other media presenters for insight and relationship of their own professional skills to the match in hand - both implied, without sticking the knife in, that Trott would have been better off staying in county cricket and England would have been much the better for trying another opener. Swann was particularly supportive of Tredwell's bowling and particularly the technical aspects of his bowling on a slow wicket, using drift rather than trying for extra spin, which is not his forte. At least one selection that has gone right in this dreadful omnishambles! On the debit side, Rashid is doomed to kick his heels without real prospect of playing, unless by some miracle England win both matches handsomely and the omniscient Cook and his selection partners bizarrely play Ali, Rashid and Tredwell in the Third Test.
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Post by leedsgull on Apr 16, 2015 16:13:09 GMT
On TMS they have been suggesting that Balance could replace Trott as opener. This is nonsense. Balance is making a success at three so why on earth move him? The opening position should be filled by a genuine opener e.g Lyth. It isn't a difficult decision.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2015 16:31:29 GMT
On TMS they have been suggesting that Balance could replace Trott as opener. This is nonsense. Balance is making a success at three so why on earth move him? The opening position should be filled by a genuine opener e.g Lyth. It isn't a difficult decision. Agreed. But there are not one but two players they need to get into the side for the next test - Moeen Ali and Lyth. Logically they should come in for Cook and Trott, the only two batsmen who are completely out of form in the top six. But we all know the captain will not be dropped. So we are back to where we were with the ODI side last year, when all kinds of players were being sacrificed in turn, just to keep the captain in the side. If Trott is dropped in favour of Lyth (which seems an absolute no brainer), then presumably either Tredwell or Jordan will be dropped for Moeen, depending on pitch conditions and whether they want to play two spinners.
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Post by hhsussex on Apr 17, 2015 7:24:54 GMT
Another rip-snorting catch by CJ and much attritional bowling, especially by Tredwell. It occurs to me that if he can provoke a victory here - and he is the likeliest to get a bundle of wickets - and continue through the rest of the tour then Kent could get the best of both worlds this summer. They could have the luxury of playing Riley throughout the season and the bonus of getting payments from England for his absence on Test match and one-day duty. Of course, that depends on whether England will continue with trying Moeen Ali as the key all-rounder, and if not, then by Test match standards Tredwell would join a lengthening tail, so perhaps not.
I do wish Sussex had managed to keep him last year, though. I know he got hit for a bit at Scarborough, but then I was at Scarborough a few years ago and I seem to remember Adil Rashid being hit for plenty by Ben Brown and Yardy. Until we get a full-time spinner into our squad we will struggle, not just against the over-rate with our battery of exciting but slow spinners, but because we will lack the means of control on batsman's wickets and the opportunity to attack when conditions are favourable.
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Post by hhsussex on Apr 17, 2015 13:29:00 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2015 18:42:39 GMT
Tea and with only 31 overs left and four wkts still to get, Windies might just escape with a draw from this one.
TV cameras showed a close-up of the ball in Jordan's hand a few overs ago; it's the second new ball and it was only 12 overs old , yet it looked like you'd expect a ball to look after 50 overs in English conditions.
Disappointing from Tredwell who one hoped would be England's match-winner today. Everyone on commentary says he has bowled "beautifully", yet he has just one wkt in 30 overs. Upstaged by Adam Riley at Kent and by Joe Root for England. Unless he can win the match for England from here, he's probably just lost his place to Moeen Ali.
Having waited five years between his first and second Tests, he might now never get a third!
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Post by hhsussex on Apr 17, 2015 19:10:03 GMT
Tea and with only 31 overs left and four wkts still to get, Windies might just escape with a draw from this one. TV cameras showed a close-up of the ball in Jordan's hand a few overs ago; it's the second new ball and it was only 12 overs old , yet it looked like you'd expect a ball to look after 50 overs in English conditions. Disappointing from Tredwell who one hoped would be England's match-winner today. Everyone on commentary says he has bowled "beautifully", yet he has just one wkt in 30 overs. Upstaged by Adam Riley at Kent and by Joe Root for England. Unless he can win the match for England from here, he's probably just lost his place to Moeen Ali. Having waited five years between his first and second Tests, he might now never get a third! Ridiculously unfair as is the parallel suggestion that Jordan should lose out because he hasn't made that much of an impression. Less than Anderson, whose pace has gone entirely and is now living on reputation and sentiment? A poorer impression as a bowler than Stokes? Neither Tredwell nor Jordan are blameless nor are they the perfect cricketers. But this tour has shown up what a dreadful muddle selectors have made by keeping a nucleus of the same old faces in inappropriate circumstances, then finding themselves embarrassed by competing claims amongst the newer players. And we still cannot bowl out West Indies on their dreadful wickets. I think a team with Tredwell and another first rate spinner, plus two genuine pace bowlers would do it, properly trained for the pitches, but we fitted in a tour for the purposes of taking money off the British tourists and thus fulfilling our ICC commitments, rather than to play cricket, so there was no chance of proper assessment or preparation, let alone the small problem that we don't have another first-rate spinner even at county level.
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