Chappelli always said that if your team has quick bowlers you use them ‘cause if they have, they will. He had Lillee and Thompson. In response to that in 1975/76 Clive Lloyd formulated the “four quicks, four short an over, no respite” strategy of the West Indies.
If bowlers are deliberately and with calculation going to try to lid their opposite numbers, with every ding requiring a concussion test, then should the test be failed, the batting team having to use a “like for like” replacement should be re-examined.
Nice option if the only available “like for like” is a bowler of inferior batting credentials padding up after his mate gets TKOed. And were they to be a slow bowler they have no means to return fire.
The batting team should be able to send out whomever they like, including a dismissed batsman. That’d give the bowling attack a vested interest in keeping the tailenders out there.
I always walked. Since I usually came in at 9 or lower, not much was expected from me anyway. I had a few captains and batting partners get annoyed at me.
When batsmen didn’t walk off my bowling even when I was sure they’d nicked it, I wouldn’t get upset. I play my way, you play yours.
Caveat that I’ve never actually played cricket, except some street games when I visited India as a child. That said, I think you have a duty to your squad to try and stay in there. There is quite a bit of randomness with close umpire decisions in cricket. Even with DRS, for example, LBW reviews are often inconclusive and “umpire’s call” is the final call. You take advantage of these when they go your way and accept the opposite when they don’t. Let’s remember that this is still “just a sport”, so life, death, liberty or justice are not at play here. Additionally, it’s common practice in cricket to frame a play so that a decision goes in your favor; e.g. low catches where it’s not clear if the fielder’s fingers are underneath the ball, so it’s not like golf in which complete honestly is built into the fabric of the game.
India all out 78. 9th worst effort in their history apparently.
With that sort of (not unusual for this Indian team) tail end batting collapse following a top end collapse just shows what right and absolute Charlies the Poms were at Lords when they let the worlds worst 8-9-10-11 take the Test match away by trying to knock their fucking heads off.
These great attacking middle order batters who can come out and put the opposition to the sword. Given a platform. Tired bowlers, the ball not doing much. Runs there for the taking. And yet…there go the wickets.
It’s a long way back for India here. Even if they roll over the next two wickets without losing anything, they’d have to score 500 to post 120 to chase. Would be a hell of a game.
It was the use of the terms “poms” and “whinging” that fooled me.
Yeah, I don’t seriously expect England to lose from here.
But this is an interesting test case for the England batting line up. Bairstow, Buttler and Moeen aren’t in the side because they can grittily bat time on tough wickets. They’re there because they can “bat explosively” and “take the game away from the opposition”. Yesterday offered the perfect - perfect - conditions for exactly that. Unthreatening conditions, no scoreboard pressure. (Look how angry Root was to get out at 120. He knew there were runs to be taken on that pitch against that attack). And one by one they failed. And we’re still doing OK. So… do we in fact need three quick scoring desperadoes in the side? They don’t help when batting is tough and they haven’t helped when batting is easy.
Yes, I see your point. But I’m a Pakistan supporter and I assure you in the parallel circumstances we would not be worrying about the stuff you are worrying about. We’d just be dancing.
Unfortunately, I’m right now seeing the ugly side of Pakistan supporters. Pakistan just won an important test match against the West Indies. On WhatsApp I heard less about that than about India getting skewered. Ugh!
India are 112/1, normally an excellent position, but they are still 242 behind with another two days after this one. If they can get to the close without losing another wicket it might start to put a bit of doubt in the England players.