creeeeeeeekeeeeeet

[thebish]

I see tms are doing a world Beardy XI feature... they came up with:

Email [email protected] - Beard XI

Saeed Anwar, WG Grace, Viv Richards, Hashim Amla, Mohammad Yousuf, Moeen Ali, Matt Prior (wkt), Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Mushtaq Ahmed, Steve Harmison. Manager: Mike Brearley (1979/80). Scorer: Bill Frindall. If the pitch is taking spin, we can jettison Harmison and play either Daniel Vettori, Monty Panesar or Harbajan Singh.

[Puskas]

I see tms are doing a world Beardy XI feature... they came up with:

Email [email protected] - Beard XI

Saeed Anwar, WG Grace, Viv Richards, Hashim Amla, Mohammad Yousuf, Moeen Ali, Matt Prior (wkt), Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Mushtaq Ahmed, Steve Harmison. Manager: Mike Brearley (1979/80). Scorer: Bill Frindall. If the pitch is taking spin, we can jettison Harmison and play either Daniel Vettori, Monty Panesar or Harbajan Singh.

A strong line-up, but missing Inzaman ul-Haq, who has the benefit not merely of a good beard, but also liking his pies.

And it's always good to see a fat lad do well.

Except Mike Gatting, after his rebel tour....

[thebish]

prior has skipped along to 22... he doesn't often hang about...

[Puskas]

50 partnership already.

Don't be daft, chaps - dig in.

If you can't leave it, block it.

[thebish]

Prior breezes to 50 - 309-5 looks rosier than it was before lunch!

[Puskas]

100 partnership now up.

[thebish]

couple of overs left for Root to get his century and, altogether, not a bad day!

edit: he's there!

[TANGODANCER]

Sacrificed the World Cup build up (caught a bit of it and the sound was pretty awful) and watched the cricket highlights instead. Solid performance fro Root and Prior but Alaister Cook sure isn't breaking any pots. Good end to the day.

[Puskas]

A fifty partnership in 33 balls?

A run rate of more than 4 an over in a TEST MATCH?

This isn't some limited overs slogfest.

FFS, Moores - sort it out. Show them training videos of Chris Tavare or something. Preferably from the Sri Lanka test - 138 minutes, 95 balls, 14 runs scored. That's proper batting.

What's the world coming to?

[TANGODANCER]

Magnificent 152 for Joe Root at lunch. 473-8.

[Puskas]

England have made their highest total against Sri Lanka.

Currently 554-9.

[TANGODANCER]

Hoping Root can get the double century.....

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Hoping Root can get the double century.....

rooting for Root, huh?

[Puskas]

Root gets his 200, England declare on 575-9.

Which is nice.

[TANGODANCER]

Root gets his 200, England declare on 575-9.

Which is nice.

[bobo the clown]

Root gets his 200, England declare on 575-9.

Which is nice.

It seems a long time since we did that to someone.

[Puskas]

Root gets his 200, England declare on 575-9.

Which is nice.

It seems a long time since we did that to someone.

I think (although I'm sure someone can correct me....) that it's been 21 innings since we last scored over 400.

I would check on cricinfo or some such. But I'm not going to.

[EDIT]
I can correct myself - 24 innings since they last scored over 400 (according to Michael Vaughan, who's a Lancastrian, so will know these sorts of things)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricke ... ttack.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Worthy4England]

We still seem to have a problem with batting positions 1, 2 & 3. They need to start scoring.

120-4
87-4
17-4
87-4
173-4
121-4
146-4
143-4
111-4
130-4
87-4

We seem to still have a wagging tail at the wrong end of the dog.

[thebish]

hard work out there for the bowlers... just have to hope for Geoffrey's maxim: "if one wicket goes add two more and my grandma could have hit that with a stick of rhubarb" - or summat!

[thebish]

Leading Test centurions

Sangakkra now sits joint fourth on the all-time list of leading Test centurions, which makes impressive reading:

51: Sachin Tendulkar (India); 45: Jacques Kallis (South Africa); 41: Ricky Ponting (Australia); 36: Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka); 36: Rahul Dravid (India).