creeeeeeeekeeeeeet

[Prufrock]

I misunderstood Monty's post; I thought he was saying that it would be depressing as the team enforcing the follow-on to face a target of 500 in the fourth innings (having enforced said follow-on). That would have required 700 or so in a 5 dayer.

My bad.

I see the point, but I just think you risk running out of time when you don't need to. You're clearly on top, I think it's usually wise to take advantage of that as quickly and as brutally as possible!

[Montreal Wanderer]

Close to 500?? That would require a team who have been not good enough to avoid following on in their first innings to post at least close to 700 in their second!

Not qyuite. They had a 1st innings lead of 200+ and declared when on 285-5 in the second, giving an overall lead of 500 or so.

I still don't get it, but hey.

Hants ended day 3 on 137-7. So a win should come ... presuming the weather's OK. I just think they have it won by now if they'd made them follow-on.

I don't get it either but it seems to me that they may have thought Hants would score more easily against tired bowlers. In our second innings we knocked the cover off the ball - they might have too.

[bwfcdan94]

Personally I am not of the opinion of forcing the follow on ever because if it goes wrong then as a captain you literally look retarded, I think the whole point of test cricket is to let it follow its course and I think, if you regularly score say double if not triple the number of runs the opposition score in a test match even if halve of them ending in draws then it gives you more of a psychological advantage over a whole series and you will always end up winning series using such tactics it will just be 2-0 rather than 5-0.

[thebish]

hey - we won this today! yay!!

[bobo the clown]

hey - we won this today! yay!!

Only feckin' just !! almost 200 runs for the 8th wicket.

Had rain arrived they'd have looked pretty silly.

[jimbo]

Currently we have England playing Ireland. Boyd Rankin is making his England debut, having previously played 38 times for Ireland. He's bowling at Ed Joyce, who has a dozen or so England caps to his name. Doesn't help the credability of the game very much does it?

[mrkint]

Who is Eoin Morgan captaining?

[jimbo]

Who is Eoin Morgan captaining?

South Africa? Meanwhile former England U19 and proper Londoner Tim Murtagh is coming in at number 8 for Irelend.

[jimbo]

Actually, I've just noticed none of our South Africans are playing. Trivia - when did England last line up without a South African in their line up?

[thebish]

morgan and bopara blast us to victory with a world record 5th wicket stand of 226

taking us from the unpromising 48-4 to 274-4 with a whole seven overs to spare..

[Prufrock]

Pfft. Hoboh would have batted better.

[bobo the clown]

Not proper cricket anyway.

[thebish]

anyone but me think that all tbis fannying about with one-dayers and t-20s tacked on to an ashes tour is a monumental waste of time?? presumably they are cash-generators - but - does anyone care???

BTW - snot going well!!

[Bruce Rioja]

anyone but me think that all tbis fannying about with one-dayers and t-20s tacked on to an ashes tour is a monumental waste of time?? presumably they are cash-generators - but - does anyone care???

BTW - snot going well!!

I agree entirely. However, cricket needs to generate cash.

[BWFC_Insane]

Didn't they use to play the one dayers before the actual ashes? As a sort of taster? An amuse-bouche if you will.

That makes sense if you need the money. Play it early summer get everyone up for the test series and keep the grounds and the ECB happy.

Playing it well after the Ashes is over in the arse end of the English summer is an anticlimax and also as we are seeing very prone to washouts.

[Bruce Rioja]

Didn't they use to play the one dayers before the actual ashes? As a sort of taster? An amuse-bouche if you will.

That's what I thought. The international one dayers and even the one international 20/20 that I've been to were all in the lead up to the relevant test series.

[Worthy4England]

Didn't they use to play the one dayers before the actual ashes? As a sort of taster? An amuse-bouche if you will.

That's what I thought. The international one dayers and even the one international 20/20 that I've been to were all in the lead up to the relevant test series.

They did used to do that. They may well have taken the view that losing a couple of test matches to wash out in September, is less cost effective than losing one or two one dayers...

[jimbo]

Depends completely how the summer is arranged. We had the Champions trophy prior to the Ashes this summer, so there was no window for any ODIs v Australia prior to the tests. Guessing they may have been worried about ODI overkill. To be fair I think the rarity is having the ODIs before the tests. They did in 2005, and it was brilliant. Set the scene and the tone for the whole series. Trescothick booming it round, and Simon Jones throwing a cricket ball at Matthew Hayden had them a bit rattled.

[bwfcdan94]

Lancashire promoted .

[jimbo]

Lancashire promoted .

Was at Old Trafford yesterday. Stalest atmosphere you could ever experience. No wonder county cricket is dying a death. Must have been less than 500 in for a game when they could win the division