This is kind of dull. Not a lot happening for anyone.
I have had my eye diverted by happenings in county cricket. Glamorgan were 28-5 and then 60-8 when Marchant De Lange came to the crease - he then hit a 62 ball ton. Middlesex and Sussex is reasonably close at the moment - 50 wish to get for Middlesex, 5 wickets needed for Sussex. Kent were 69-5 and now 118/9. Foakes got a ton for Surrey but Kent had a first innings lead, so have an advantage of 182.
The autocorrect on the comments system is real pain in the arse sometimes. 50 wish? 50 runs, thanks.
Second wicket falls, but the light meter is out.
It seems to me that with both teams having three reviews, nearly every wicket gets reviewed these days, probably because in many cases ‘umpire’s call’ will mean a review isn’t lost even if wrong. Not sure this is particularly desirable, then again the review process is generally so slick these days (football, take note) that maybe it doesn’t matter too much.
I think I am generally of the view that the 3 reviews is right when we don’t have neutral umpires (just for the sake of propriety) but agree that if everything is getting reviewed, which ordinarily could take quite a bit of time out of the day, that’s not ideal - particularly when they’re struggling to get through 90 overs a day at the best of times, and thus shortchanging the paying punter.
Going off for light. Still not convinced that there is a positive result in the offing here.
Maybe do an automatic review for dismissals as they trialed in the Champions Trophy a few years ago (and got Fakhar reprieved in the final)?
Would have caught Fawwad’s wrongful dismissal.
There’s a real danger of Anderson getting stranded on 599 wickets here. Who knows when or where the next test match will be?
Most of the cricket Twitter accounts I follow that are at the ground claiming that play isn’t going to start before late afternoon at earliest. Very heavy rain making the mop up job particularly lengthy, it appears. Anderson may well have to sit on 599 for a while yet. If they get on, I assume he’s getting the first over.
Play due to start at 4.15 (in 15 minutes). Not much chance of a result, but some chance of a little milestone for Jimmy.
Well, Anderson managed to get there. Nicking off Azhar to Root.
Can we all shake hands and go home now?
Never seem him look so happy!
Why? I think this England team believes they can win, and why shouldn’t they? I know it’s a cliche but it only takes 7 balls to take 7 wickets, obviously that never happens in practice but there are 20-30 overs still available which is more than enough for the necessary collapse. Especially with the new ball available within that time.
I wonder if anyone has been present for Jimmy’s 100th, 200th, 300th, 400th, 500th, and 600th wicket? The obvious candidate is Broad but of course he has not been literally ever-present. Maybe someone on the coaching staff.
The commentators would be the obviously ones. Jonathon Agnew probably has.
Why stop now? Well, they’re going to get 27 overs in between start of play and before the last hour rule kicks in, so they can’t stop right now. But if they take no more wickets between now and then, irrespective of the innings victory potential, I say get off. We’ve won the series and all we’re doing from there on is risking injury.
Since Anderson turned 30 on the 30th July 2012, he’s basically had what would constitute an entire career for other players. His post 30 stats are:
85 matches, 3030+ overs, 332 wickets at an average at 23.86, an econ rate of 2.6 and a strike rate of 54.7.
You’d take that for a career. In some respects, he reminds me of Kumar Sangakkara - if Kumar had never even taken the field for the games in which he kept wicket, he’d have nearly 9300 Test match runs at an average of 66.78.
The obvious knock on Anderson is that he’s better at home than away (and he is, averaging 20.7 at home since he turned 30) but even still his econ rate post 30 years old is pretty much identical (2.62 at home, 2.67 away, 1.87 in the UAE), so he’s always been at least able to tie an end up, even if not able to get wickets abroad at the rate he gets them in England.
More than anything, it’s a real victory for fitness and conditioning. They’ve just showed on Sky that he is 2nd quickest (in terms of balls delivered) to 600 wickets and the obvious thing about him, given his average compared to the greatest bowlers, is that he was fit enough to keep going long enough to bowl them. His average keeps getting better year on year too. Pretty remarkable
Since turning 35, he’s taken 120 Test wickets at 21.06.
I can’t remember ever trenchantly disagreeing with you before but this is a hill I’m prepared to die on (well, in a very minor way - I’m not that bothered in all honesty!). People who play sports, especially professionally, are primarily there to win. Those at the top of their sport are usually those with the most drive to do so, that’s how they got there. You risk injury any time you take the field in any sport. I grant you that some matches are more meaningful than others, obviously, but there are still a few things at stake here (Test championship, pride, stats, the desire to beat the other team convincingly). And especially when a lot of the players in this game may not play competitively again for several months, and that if they are lucky.
Great stat just announced on TMS - the next run scored will be the 1 millionth in Tests involving England. And Azam gets it (and 3 more).
Well, agree to disagree. I’ve just watch Dom Sibley put down the worst over I’ve ever seen in Test match cricket, whilst they try and hide the seam bowlers. There are 19 overs left in theory, but they can shake hands with 15 overs left. They’re talking about whether they are going to use the new ball - it’s equally likely they’re just hurrying through to get off the field. The England players in particular have been in this bubble for 2 and a half months - I don’t blame them for wanting to go home.
And bloody hell, Root has taken a wicket at short leg. And they’re going to have a bowl with the new ball. Be interesting to see what happens with a non-set batsman.
Yes, fair point - I would. The new ball bowling doesn’t exactly look scary, I guess they’re struggling a bit to maintain concentration. Might be a bit different if the score were 1-1 or 0-1.
So, man of the series, for either side? Broad and Woakes have been consistent, Buttler has had two incredible knocks, mixed in with some shoddy glovework. Crawley has a double ton, and Anderson refrained from killing his entire slip cordon overnight, which has got to count for something.