England vs Sri Lanka 3rd Test (Lords) June 9-13

First topic message reminder :

England expected to be unchanged, SL may tweak their lineup but likely to be close to the team that competed better in the second half of the second Test

Despite the all-formats points system, I think this match can be viewed as a dead rubber, but England will want to close out a 3-0 series win as they look to move up the Test rankings

Gooseberry

Look at the scoring rates of all the batsmen - even Bairstow, who is bang in form and a rapid scorer only scored at 4 an over in the first innings. Fast outfield, but I think the lack of pace in the wicket meant shot making was difficult.

Today's the sort of funny weather day where you might only get 20 overs at Lords but 60 at the Oval. Makes it very difficult for coaches and captains to predict when the declaration should have been.

dummy_half wrote:Gooseberry

Look at the scoring rates of all the batsmen - even Bairstow, who is bang in form and a rapid scorer only scored at 4 an over in the first innings. Fast outfield, but I think the lack of pace in the wicket meant shot making was difficult.

Today's the sort of funny weather day where you might only get 20 overs at Lords but 60 at the Oval. Makes it very difficult for coaches and captains to predict when the declaration should have been.

Yeah I wouldnt argue with any of that, but someone will and looking at the comments from yesterday people were.

Ultimately england have lost their chance of a win through the weather, bad keeping, phases of underwhelming bowling and the lack of a killer spinner.

Got a tenner on England to finish this off @ 25/1.

47 overs if the weather holds off.

Ok I failed to generate any excitement.

And I lost a tenner.

limp

10-2 is a precarious lead imo

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:10-2 is a precarious lead imo

If anyone cared about the extended series scoring.

Actually this does bring up a thing. England are rightly using the limited overs games to try out a few new players and may well field a fairly experimental side. Mills and Malan have been selected, whilst Root and Hales are getting rested for the T20s (the only format that Hales is truely established in ...which shows how much they are looking at Sri Lanaka as a development exersize)
If they start really caring about the overall series results, which is the aim of the cross format scoring, then this sort of selection comes under pressure. Should they always be fielding the strongest available side in all formats potrentially at the cost of the long term for individiual players and team development?

As it stands the media and public are still struggling to care or even remember about the cross format score. Once the idea gets embdedded though things may start to change.
I guess on the plus side it may make some of these tours more competitive for the visitors.

With their good show in tests...Eng lead 8-0

Now Eng need to win only one of the 6 limited over games to draw the series.....and 2 wins for an outright series win.

Pretty sure its 10-2. Also pretty sure its been almost entirely forgotten about

Gooseberry wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:10-2 is a precarious lead imo

If anyone cared about the extended series scoring.

Actually this does bring up a thing. England are rightly using the limited overs games to try out a few new players and may well field a fairly experimental side. Mills and Malan have been selected, whilst Root and Hales are getting rested for the T20s (the only format that Hales is truely established in ...which shows how much they are looking at Sri Lanaka as a development exersize)
If they start really caring about the overall series results, which is the aim of the cross format scoring, then this sort of selection comes under pressure. Should they always be fielding the strongest available side in all formats potrentially at the cost of the long term for individiual players and team development?

As it stands the media and public are still struggling to care or even remember about the cross format score. Once the idea gets embdedded though things may start to change.
I guess on the plus side it may make some of these tours more competitive for the visitors.

Malan and Mills only in the T20 squad - for which their is just a single game. For the five ODIs they have selected what they believe to be the strongest squad available.