Cricket (part dix)

[Geoff Parkstone]

We now have 5 current international wicketkeepers who have test 100s in Buttler Bairstow Foakes Pope and Duckett plus Bracey and Simpson who don't.

Don't like the declaration. When's the last time a side batting first scored over 650 and lost?

[Geoff Parkstone]

Oops, and Billings makes 6

[macstheman]

The declaration is 'interesting' to say the least and what could be a significant drop by Jennings.
Stokes has made it clear he'd prefer to lose trying to win rather than draw avoiding defeat! That approach makes any score England get often irrelevant to the final result raising the question should the opposition approach the match on the basis of 'just staying the game because Stokesy will open the door for us at some point'!
I'm not sure that approach will help my blood pressure in the Ashes!

[ramAnag]

The declaration is 'interesting' to say the least and what could be a significant drop by Jennings.
Stokes has made it clear he'd prefer to lose trying to win rather than draw avoiding defeat! That approach makes any score England get often irrelevant to the final result raising the question should the opposition approach the match on the basis of 'just staying the game because Stokesy will open the door for us at some point'!
I'm not sure that approach will help my blood pressure in the Ashes!

Can’t help agreeing entirely with that last sentence.
I’d have preferred another 30-40 runs today with another hour taken out of the game...but it’s just possible ‘Ben and Baz’ might know more than me.

[macstheman]

I presume they reckon the spinners will become more and more of a factor on the last day but Pakistan are brought up on such pitches and, so far, any turn has been slow with Leach, notably, getting little out of it.
Mind you, this one's gone to five days which is almost alien to England games!

[Geoff Parkstone]

5 days for England is rare, but if this one goes the full 5 days it will still only be like 4 days in any other country such is the iffy light

[macstheman]

Phew, what a game. Well done England, a last ditch win with minutes to spare.
Stokes got it right, early declaration made a win possible which they managed. Exciting but nerve grinding!

[ramAnag]

‘Ben and Baz’ knew best then. Brilliant win...great captaincy and even if it hadn’t gone our way it was one of the great Test matches which, under less imaginative/ambitious circumstances, most people would have switched off half way through day 3. A great 24 hours for England.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Hands up, I was wrong, declaration was well timed as it turned out. Mind you three times out of five it may not have worked, but that's the philosophy of New England. If it spreads across to football, look for a 93rd minute winner in a 6-5 victory over France, after having been 4-2 up and going to two at the back

[Andy_Faber]

fantastic start to the day, well done England and maybe the past 50 years of travelling to the subcontinent worried about how good our spinners are was the wrong approach