WDB
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Post by WDB on Aug 19, 2019 6:48:03 GMT
Didn’t get out much this weekend. I didn’t have a game to play and the cricket on the telly was as gripping as I’ve seen since — well, doesn’t matter. And to see Australia celebrating a rain-affected draw is always nice, bringing back memories of Old Trafford, 2005.
This is shaping up to be a great series. Neither team is as strong as it was in 2005, but they’re evenly matched and both are stronger in bowling than batting, which makes for exciting, low-scoring matches.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2019 9:34:32 GMT
I should have been more involved, but I got distracted by a YouTube channel called Plane Savers which documents the restoration of a D-Day DC3 by the outfit that operate Buffalo Airways in Canada.
But the rest of series will be very interesting if the rain holds off a bit more.
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Post by bromptonaut on Aug 21, 2019 17:00:11 GMT
Is this what they call red ball cricket?
What other colour balls do they play with now?
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Aug 21, 2019 22:06:38 GMT
I believe they also use pink and white balls - needed due to the red balls not being so easy to see under the artificial lighting. I'm no cricket expert but for limited overs cricket they will play under flood lights so red balls not so good.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Aug 22, 2019 12:48:23 GMT
Pink balls are a substitute for red in long-form matches played partly into the evenings. There isn’t one in this series but the Adelaide Test in the last Ashes series was played with pink balls.
Broad and Archer are doing great things with the red ball this morning — between the rain breaks anyway.
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Post by tyrednexited on Aug 25, 2019 15:40:46 GMT
Cricket? Boring game.................
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Aug 26, 2019 16:16:25 GMT
Funny to see the overseas reactions, especially in Australia. The majority take the view that it (the Headingley Test, for anyone who wasn't paying attention - Humph!) was a tough one to lose but a fantastic spectacle and something for any lover of the game to savour. But a significant minority, many of whom are still replaying the World Cup final and carping about the details that went England's way then, have found a whole new set of details to carp over in this one. And, having painted Archer as a Barbadian last time, they're back to reminding us that Stokes was born in New Zealand - never mind that both are representing the country they call home.
I'm with the good-for-the-gamers, and firmly on the side of the umpire who gave Stokes not out with two to get - rightly, I think, because there was so much going on in the flurry of bat and pads that he couldn't be certain what he'd seen and heard. And, of course, with Jack Leach. I've been that No11; I once contributed 0 not out (plus a leg bye) to an unbroken tenth-wicket partnership of 70 to win a Saturday league match, so I can appreciate what he had to do to keep out Australia. Well played, chaps, well played.
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Avant
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Post by Avant on Aug 27, 2019 22:39:37 GMT
I trust that - being a No. 11 - you are an ace bowler. Or maybe wicket-keeper, although I can't remember any Test w-k who was ever a No. 11.
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Post by tyrednexited on Aug 28, 2019 6:11:13 GMT
...he's an outstanding drinks-tray carrier.....
(or perhaps Mrs Dubya makes the best cucumber sandwiches)
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Aug 28, 2019 7:18:39 GMT
I used to take the new ball and frighten wicket keepers and the occasional batsman. But these days I seldom bowl and I bat at 1 or 2. This Test match is the perfect illustration of why this isn’t as strange as it might appear.
As Jack Leach showed, a good No11 knows the value of his wicket and does all he can to preserve it, either to help the last of the batsmen over the line, as at Headingley, or to hold on for the draw like Panesar and Anderson (both essentially No11s) at Cardiff in 2009.
That same determination to stay in works at the top of the order too; all you need is a shot or two to score off the bad ball. Alastair Cook made ten thousand runs with a flick off his legs, a square cut and the occasional pull. I usually miss those leg-side flicks, but I have a good straight drive and a cut that’s meant to be square but tends to go through extra cover because I hit it too early.
In the league cricket we play, our innings are limited to 47 or 52 overs. If we’re 50 for 0 after 20 overs, the ball has lost its shine and the bowlers some of their freshness, and the middle-order batsmen have time and licence to play their fancy shots and build a total. We tend to end up with more runs that way than if we race to 80 off 20 but lose four wickets in the process.
England’s final innings at Headingley was all this on an epic scale. Denly and Root faced over 300 balls between them on the third day, and Stokes took another 70 after Denly was out, wearing the Australian pace bowlers down, so that when Stokes began his rampage on the fourth day, they had nothing left to stop him. Extraordinary stuff.
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Post by tyrednexited on Aug 28, 2019 10:39:31 GMT
...meanwhile, over in parliament, Boris isn't playing cricket at all....
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Alanović
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Post by Alanović on Aug 28, 2019 14:20:40 GMT
"The nation and the government in Germany are one thing. The will of the people is the will of the government and vice versa. The modern structure of the German State is a higher form of democracy [ennobled democracy] in which, by virtue of the people’s mandate, the government is exercised authoritatively while there is no possibility for parliamentary interference, to obliterate and render ineffective the execution of the nation’s will."
Joseph Goebbels, September 1933.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Aug 28, 2019 21:41:31 GMT
I’m so angry about this that I can barely sit still. And, as autocrats do, he’s trying to dress it up as ‘defending democracy’ — right up to the point where he sells what’s left of the country to Trump.
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Post by tyrednexited on Aug 29, 2019 19:27:54 GMT
...rather ironically, I'm in Maastricht at the moment. Very prosperous looking place. More restaurants and bars than you could shake a stick at, all packed to the gunwales tonight. (Mind you, it is still lower 20s at 21:30)
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Aug 30, 2019 6:49:03 GMT
Sounds good. A Dutch town on a warm evening is a fine place to be. Haven’t tried Maastricht but I can recommend Haarlem.
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