Dare I say it… Jos is looking good. So is Crawley, mind, on 85*. But I’m very aware there isn’t much batting to come, and if a wicket falls we could be all out for 30 more.
Crawley gets a richly deserved ton - looked like he was playing a different game to many of his team-mates. Buttler, as Teuton suggests, also looking in better nick. Can we possibly hope that he has turned a corner.
Also as suggested by Teuton, not a lot separating the current score of 188-4 and 220 ao.
Looks like Buttler is starting to tee off - 16 from that over
OK, I’ll be the one to jinx it - this is how Test cricket is meant to be played, isn’t it? See off the first new ball without serious loss, grind the bowlers down in the middle overs at the cost of a couple of wickets, accelerate as the ball ages and fielders tire - textbook stuff. Not sure how much of this is a mirror of the Windies series (tiring tourists with a smaller squad) but it really is looking quite rosy at the moment (313/4 after 83 overs). Burns and Root will no doubt be disappointed but cricket is rarely perfect.
Playing with 4 bowlers including two teenagers isn’t the brightest idea.
Shaheen is 20 but otherwise a fair point.
Not had many days like this in the recent past - even when we’ve put up good scores it’s usually been a bit harem scarem. The CricViz guys suggest that Buttler and Crawley have played very few false shots today and it has seemed somewhat serene, albeit whilst walking the tightrope that there’s not much batting left after the fall of this wicket.
Crawley’s is the 9th highest score of all time in tests by someone with 8 or fewer matches in their test match career (my coding is coming on - and I scraped this esoterica off Cricinfo into a stats package that was a little quicker than filling in the relevant blocks on the StatsGuru interface). If he can get to 211, he’ll have the third highest such innings - places 2 and 1 are some way above, 287 and 303 (the latter by Karun Nair, against England in 2016). Of course, someone may well have scored more than that in their first 8 matches but had a longer career, still working out how to make that one work…
Don’t know why they didn’t bring Shaheen back when they got Pope out. They had them on the ropes.
Abbas was doing the square root of fuck all and they were defending against Yasir.
@Cumbrian’s little list missed out Stoneman, Carberry, Hales, Compton, Root, Hameed and a few others who were tried briefly. England have been scraping the barrel for openers ever since Strauss retired. Burns/Sibley have looked a step up from the previous run - but Burns has had a bad summer, true.
A day of two halves, as they say. About an hour into the afternoon session, England were 130-4 (again) with Pakistan only a couple of wickets away from a very long tail. Now they need to make the new ball count tomorrow morning if they want to keep England down to 400. Very well done by Crawley who stuck it out when the bowlers were on top and then stayed around to cash in later. Pakistan must be getting really tired of bowling to Buttler.
I thought I did well to remember some of the ones I did and should definitely have been able to put more of that list together. Since 2015, we really have played everyone we can find.
The cliche is “the next session is critical” - I’m not convinced it is for England but it really is for Pakistan. If they don’t make the new ball pay tomorrow morning, or worse, have a bad session, the series will be over, with England having put up enough runs that they shouldn’t lose the match. If Pakistan can get through them before England get to 400, then they’re still struggling a bit but a good performance with the bat and bowl like the wind in the 3rd innings and they might be able to square the series. They’re in a lot of trouble as it stands though.
I have been fantasising about beamers to his head.
Still my angry googling meant I did find this good 80’s era BBC Documentary about Bodyline.
I hope Crawley gets to stay at 3, and that they don’t constantly move him around to accommodate other poorly performing players. Especially, I hope he’s not forced to open.
I broadly agree but there’s no escaping 4 things:
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Runs are currency - if a player doesn’t score enough, he can’t be in the side;
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Burns has had a bad summer and needs runs sooner rather than later, ideally on the coming winter tour (a big second innings score here would be useful too).
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As noted, in the opening slot, we’ve tried almost everyone.
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Crawley opens for Kent and opened in the winter in SA, after Burns got injured. We won the series and the opening partnership looked good.
I’d leave him where he is if he looks comfortable, but the fact remains that we’ve got players like Lawrence (and further away from the test side, the likes of Northeast) who could slot in at 3, should one of the current openers not make it. Crawley’s flexibility could be an asset (assuming he continues in the vein of yesterday).
We’ve talked about this before in this thread, I think, but England really do move people around too much. If Crawley is doing well at 3, he should bat at 3. It’s different if he wants to open, but the instability of the batting order isn’t going to get better until people can feel settled in their place.
Right, but where do you draw the line? The principle is sound but if inflexible, you can easily wind up with poorer returns.
For me, and admittedly it might only be me, I have no problem with the 3 being another opener and being able to step up if needs be. After all, if one of the openers gets a first ball duck, he’s effectively opening anyway.
Highest fifth wicket partnership for England in tests now. There’s a lot higher ones for other nations (up to 405 by Bradman and Barnes for Aus).
And there’s 200 for Crawley. Bit of a streaky shot to be honest, edged past a diving slip, but you don’t get a double hundred without a bit of luck going your way. Well played.
The agony of the bowler isn’t the days when you lose your radar and bowl filth. It’s the days when you’re bowling well and still can’t take a wicket. Naseem Shah, at the age of 17, is learning this harsh lesson and he does not look at all happy.
(In fact, genuinely wondering if there’s some added duty of care with really young players to help them cope with the mental/emotional load of top class sport.)
Interestingly, this isn’t the highest partnership by anyone in this team, and it’s not who you might think - if they get past 332, they will surpass Trott and Broad’s partnership at Lord’s against Pakistan in 2010.
It’s a long way to the record of 411, or even Bairstow and Stokes’ 399 against SA a couple of years ago.
Are we not declaring? Is 546 not enough?
Well, this series is almost certainly over; it’s just a case of whether it finishes 1-0 or 2-0. It will take something very special indeed to get Pakistan out of this (probably from Babar) and even then, there is the forecast rain on Tuesday which could well end prospect of a result.
Crawley and Buttler - very, very good. Buttler firmly putting to bed any suggestion that he lose the gloves now I think.
Pakistan 11-2 in reply and still time left tonight.
Kill me now.