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K3V0
Ninja
He might not be a great player of spin, but my god can he play some great innings against it.
I've only caught bits of it but this has been a fantastic test match.
Syers
Division One
Durham v Somerset
Notts v Middlesex
Warwickshire v Derbyshire
Yorkshire v Sussex
Division Two
Essex v Gloucestershire
Glamorgan v Northants
Lancashire v Worcestershire
Starts on 10th April. Come on Durham!
K3V0
K3V0
South Africa 2-62 atm.
K3V0
South Africa 3-63 now...
mr.SPANKY
DB
Ninja
K3V0
rossiheslopi
mr.SPANKY
Ninja
Hilarious.
K3V0
Were Australia really good today or Sri Lanka really shit?
mr.SPANKY
K3V0
Bird did look impressive yesterday as well, didn't look like he was making his Test debut.
mr.SPANKY
K3V0
This test match will have blown their confidence away and the Australians will be like sharks in water smelling blood.
K3V0
mr.SPANKY
Ehmo
There are a lot of teams in dire straits atm... Sri Lanka and New Zealand are a bit of a shambles. India are getting worse. Only the likes of SA and England have settled teams. And Australia, Pakistan, Windies and Bangladesh are on the rise (at different levels obviously)
Ninja
A lot of people would blame T20 cricket, but I think it goes deeper than that.
New Zealand are paying for having been mismanaged by the board, Brendon McCullum is hardly a test player let alone a captain and the likes of Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder not being on the tour was always going to give them problems. Even then some of the dismissals were awful, Philander is a good bowler and he's accurate but he really didn't do much with the ball and the Kiwi batsmen were queuing up to give him their wicket.
But yeah, T20 does have a role to play in explaining it. NZC even if they were a competent board don't have the money to stop people going to the IPL and their T20 competition is not going to encourage anyone to play the longer format when more money is on offer in the shorter game and the fact that Sri Lanka aren't playing a test series this year is criminal.
Of course, T20 has its own success stories. Eoin Morgan became a test player broadly off his skill in the shorter format and the same is true for Faf du Plessis as well but in the long term its rewarding of wibbly wobbly bit part players who will hit a breezy 20 and bowl a couple of overs is going to harm the test game.
mr.SPANKY
Sri Lanka's problems also stem from the fact that the sports minister picks his selectors, the selectors then pick a team which goes back to the sports minister for approval. I mean 3 or 4 of the batsmen Sri Lanka have taken over here average around 20 which is not good enough. I'm sure there are probably a lot of players that get overlooked by the minister that could do a job.
New Zealand were always going to struggle, Ross Taylor getting sacked as captain then not going on the tour at all would send any team into disarray. Don't forget we got rolled for 47 over there little more then a year ago so it's not exactly the end of the world for them yet.
Ninja
Warner out for a golden duck with Australia chasing 141 to win.
I'd love an Australian collapse and Mr Cricket to come in and hit the winning runs, it would be fitting.
K3V0
Ninja
Yeah, it looks like he will.
Bit of a shame, because he's played like shit. He'll struggle big time in India.
And then Clarke gets himself out out of absolutely no where.
K3V0
Ninja
K3V0
Ninja
Let them score the 5 runs ffs, Tea can wait.