The summer of cricket 2020

First topic message reminder :

A very strong position for England with runs on the board and a series lead in hand.

Pakistan going to have to produce something special from here to rescue the series

Duty281 wrote:Oh that's stupendous from Buttler. What a test match he's having. England are two away.

To be fair he is generally pretty good standing back (though that one was a particularly fine grab !)

His problem is keeping to the spinner . Still he caught a good one from Bess earlier so I think Soul can forget about his Foakes dream for a while...

Imagine if he wasn’t the worst player ever to don a pair of keeper gloves eh

Not easy, but felt Burns should have grabbed that one. Keeps Pakistan's innings ticking that little while longer.

And that one from Crawley was much easier. Two drops in one over!

OK we can all join the drop Burns club now.

Burns not having a great match. Probably should have caught that , though it went fast.

Nearly 598 for Jimmy...

Oh blimey ! Now Crawley drops Abbas ! Jimmy will explode ...

Don’t think Rory will be in the cordon come the next test wherever and whenever that is

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Imagine if he wasn’t the worst player ever to don a pair of keeper gloves eh

Are you talking about Burns

OK we can all join the drop Burns Crawley club now.

Only 27 overs bowled in 130 minutes from England in this session, so still 20 overs left but with no chance of getting them in.

Azhar Ali playing a few shots now. 124 to avoid the follow-on.

That England slip cordon still has a few holes , it seems. The fast bowlers don't need those at the end of a tiring day.

Not sure how long the light will hold so getting these last two wickets is fairly urgent . Might have to bowl them...

A third drop?! The easiest of the lot...but Abbas run-out at the other end.

Pretty decent throw that.

Christ England dont deserve to win this, thats the most ridiculous wicket ever.

That wouldve been 600 for Anderson....and to top it off Broad robbed one from him!

Well that is just village !

Broad dropping an absolute sitter (Anderson should have had Azhar twice in two overs !) and then runs out the dozy Abbas...

Ridiculous. Nine down

Broad deliberately ensuring Anderson’s career wicket total stays down whilst also still getting the wicket

Think I know how Jimmy must be feeling . I once had four dropped off me in one eight ball over (yes , a long time ago ) and it's a cross between laughing your head off or slashing your wrists

At least the drops don't look like costing England too much.

Still don't know how Broad managed to drop that dolly...it was Denly-esque ...

Someone maybe needs to remind Anderson about his fielding at the end of that West Indies test.

Woakes and Archer will need to take the first new ball of the second innings if the final wicket falls and Pakistan bat again tonight.

Now : can Archer keep Azhar down this end ? Surely Naseem won't survive a full over if he has to face one...

alfie wrote:Think I know how Jimmy must be feeling . I once had four dropped off me in one eight ball over (yes , a long time ago ) and it's a cross between laughing your head off or slashing your wrists

At least the drops don't look like costing England too much.

Still don't know how Broad managed to drop that dolly...it was Denly-esque ...

Back in the day, one of my team mates was a terrible fielder who went by the nickname of Parachute ... as everything landed safely!

Sibley catches one. Anderson gets a deserved five-for. Azhar remains undefeated.

Hopefully Root knows what the weather's doing and will enforce the follow-on! A poor over rate has cost England about half a dozen overs, however.

Polite applause

Got it at last ! Nice catch by Sibley...

Richly deserved Michelle for Jimmy

Following on...presume Azhar will open ?

Can’t wait for Jimmy to Roy Keane everyone in the changing room now

Duty281 wrote:Woakes and Archer will need to take the first new ball of the second innings if the final wicket falls and Pakistan bat again tonight.

Theres only been 13 overs with it and Broad/Anderson were used sparingly in the afternoon. They should be fine to bowl whats a very short burst tonight then be fresh tomorrow.

Duty281 wrote:Woakes and Archer will need to take the first new ball of the second innings if the final wicket falls and Pakistan bat again tonight.

You really think they will be able to get the ball out of Jimmy's hands ?

Haha yes, Anderson will keep bowling I think. Broad I'm not sure about because he went off the field.

Two wickets tonight would be grand.

Captain leading from the front. Good man.

Or not. Oh well!

The light prevents any more play today.

Draw probably favourite, but the forecast might clear up a little. England probably need another 90 overs to win this test, currently it looks unlikely we'll get that much play.

Anti climax for the finish as the light is deemed too dull to start ...

Guess they start at 10-30 Monday ?

Whether England can dismiss them in whatever overs they get out of the nominal 196 we shall find out eventually.

Goodnight all

No, they're not starting at 10:30 tomorrow because of the poor forecast, according to Nasser on Sky. They'll be trying to play tomorrow until 19:30 instead.

Duty281 wrote:No, they're not starting at 10:30 tomorrow because of the poor forecast, according to Nasser on Sky. They'll be trying to play tomorrow until 19:30 instead.

Surely you aim for a 10.30 start and if it doesn't happen then you start later.

Soul Requiem wrote:

Duty281 wrote:No, they're not starting at 10:30 tomorrow because of the poor forecast, according to Nasser on Sky. They'll be trying to play tomorrow until 19:30 instead.

Surely you aim for a 10.30 start and if it doesn't happen then you start later.

That would be sensible, but it seems the decision on when to start has to be taken the previous day.

Yeah the thing I didnt realise with that rule was that the "extra" half hour gets taken off the end if its used early. Frustrating today as we ended up losing that last half hour to bad light. Does look like the worst of the weather tomorrow will be early, so maybe another day quite similar to this one. Tuesday still is at best play after tea, a very slight improvement but could still be a washout.

Dont hold out much hope for England really, gonna take some more from Archer Bess and Woakes even if Anderson and Broad continue their double act with the new ball. At least they did enforce the follow on.

Yes it looks like a tough task for England to bowl Pakistan out in less than a day , going on yesterday's play.
However it is not impossible that the back up bowlers will play a bit more of a role second time around. Archer was pretty lively - if not accurate enough - and might do better tomorrow . Woakes improved a lot in his final spell and didn't have a lot of luck (except for the important strangle of Rizwan) and Bess , although he wasn't consistent , induced a few errors that might on another day have brought results.
It could be - if , say , six or seven wickets were taken on Monday - we
might all be sitting around anxiously waiting in hope for the rain to stop for most of Tuesday...a somewhat depressing thought actually!

Might have to get another bottle of Scotch in just in case...

Apparently raining right now in Southampton so the early start wouldn't have been a thing anyway, and probably will start late and as with the previous days be on off a bit. On a more positive note the forecast for tomorrow afternoon is improved again so more likely than not we should be able to get a worthwhile amount of play in if the light holds.

If we can get in 80 overs or so between the two days and England hold their chances and get the rub of umpires calls they should win. Trying to be positive the rain breaks give a chance for the bowlers to rest up and the Pakistan players to get nervous. Bowling in the high winds tomorrow wont be easy though.

Supposedly should get the morning in and some play this afternoon

Forecast has improved a little, but not much. Looks like 2-3 hours of play might be possible tomorrow, light permitting. So if we can get in 60 overs+ today, there might just be a chance.

Even with that in mind, however, it's still a tough pitch to get wickets on as we saw yesterday. Going to need at least three in the opening 15 overs; the new ball is so crucial.

Good to see it ain't raining...

But Pope looks to have done himself a mischief That didn't look good. Hope it is not too serious...

Duty281 wrote:Forecast has improved a little, but not much. Looks like 2-3 hours of play might be possible tomorrow, light permitting. So if we can get in 60 overs+ today, there might just be a chance.

Even with that in mind, however, it's still a tough pitch to get wickets on as we saw yesterday. Going to need at least three in the opening 15 overs; the new ball is so crucial.

Agree about the need for early breaks... Guess that always applies to a point ; but especially on this surface with time of the essence.

Concern might be how well Jimmy in particular comes up after a fair bit of work yesterday. I fancy Woakes - and Broad to a point - were already showing some signs of weariness after four Tests in a row. Don't think we can assume Archer and Bess will be able to bowl them out on their own

alfie wrote:Good to see it ain't raining...

But Pope looks to have done himself a mischief     That didn't look good.  Hope it is not too serious...

Clutching the same shoulder he dislocated previously as well. Hopefully it's not the same injury again. From personal experience I'd say that once your shoulder pops out once it never really feels as strong again though.

Not the best start from England's opening bowlers, now Buttler makes a horlicks of a regulation chance. Missed it by a long way.

Unbelievable . Buttler drops a dolly - off the cursed Anderson of course !

Jimmy has given up on getting grumpy it seems...resignation ?

Duty281 wrote:Not the best start from England's opening bowlers, now Buttler makes a horlicks of a regulation chance. Missed it by a long way.

OK , Soul...

Where is Foakes ?

alfie wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Forecast has improved a little, but not much. Looks like 2-3 hours of play might be possible tomorrow, light permitting. So if we can get in 60 overs+ today, there might just be a chance.

Even with that in mind, however, it's still a tough pitch to get wickets on as we saw yesterday. Going to need at least three in the opening 15 overs; the new ball is so crucial.

Agree about the need for early breaks...  Guess that always applies to a point ; but especially on this surface with time of the essence.

Concern might be how well Jimmy in particular comes up after a fair bit of work yesterday. I fancy Woakes - and Broad to a point  - were already showing some signs of weariness after four Tests in a row.  Don't think we can assume Archer and Bess will be able to bowl them out on their own

Yes, fatigue (both physical and mental) will be a big concern, probably another reason to back the draw. Generally why teams don't enforce the follow-on these days, but this one has of course been forced by the likely adverse weather.

Collingwood coming up as sub to save us

Do I need to comment?

If Collingwood drops one, we know the end times are near.

England already wanting the ball changed, which isn't a good sign. No dice from the umpires.

Nine overs gone for no result. Bit early to start worrying but that isn't the best start to the day.
All those drops might be adding up to suck a bit of life out of the team? Important they get something soon to make sure things don't get too flat...but the early signs aren't what I was hoping for.

Double change. Time for Woakes and Archer to do some work...