Sri Lanka Vs England 1st Test

[dandeclaret]

Certainly been Sri Lanka's day so far.

Mopped up the tail pretty well and now sit 148-1 in their 2nd innings.
England spinners know where near good enough on a turning pitch. Inconsistent line and length.
No better than the part time Root at bowling which is a problem for us.

It will have to be an all out pace attack for the ashes down under.

Leach has bowled very few overs, and has had short spells of decent bowling. He bowled ok in the first innings, but got no rewards. Moeen will come in for the 2nd game, and maybe they might look at one of the reserve spinners. Bess is way above his level - he needs to play a couple of consecutive seasons of county cricket in my view, and bowl a lot of balls to get some control into his game. He's not really dangerous, or controlled.

[Quickenthetempo]

Bess 13.0 2 30 0 2.31
Wood 7.0 1 20 0 2.86
Leach 20.0 2 67 1 3.35
Root 6.0 0 10 0 1.67

These are this innings bowling figures, on a turning pitch. The spinners and the fast make it happen type bowler.

Leach as a finger spinner should be aiming for less than 2 an over, it's the easiest type of bowling to remain accurate. He needs to be a Giles type to be of benefit to the team.
We have a very high class Fast/seam attack, unless we have a high class spinner then Root is capable of playing the Carl Hooper role.

[dandeclaret]

Sorry - bowled very few overs before this game. Also, there are no spinners going for less than 2 an over in the game are there?

[tiger76]

Sri Lanka regaining their pride if nothing else, England still in a good position, but 2/3 wickets in the 1st session tomorrow would be nice, if SL can bat most of day 4, then England could face a tricky chase in the 4th innings, SL will be rueing why they couldn't perform like this on day 1, if they had this game could have been radically different.

It's worrying that England's spinners are looking so tame in this situation, if they're struggling against Sri Lanka's batting, then they won't cause Kohli and co to lose much sleep, the late wicket should make a difference to England's mindset in the morning however, and Leach is bowling reasonably well as he did in the 1st innings when Bess picked up a flattering 5 for, he's not quite found his range despite the wickets, but this might be a useful exercise for England as long as they go on to win the game, the spinners getting overs under their belt can't do them any harm, and should help their rhythm in the coming weeks.

[Quickenthetempo]

261-5 in their 2nd dig still trailing by 24.

[Quickenthetempo]

Sri Lanka have moved to 5 runs in front but England have a breakthrough.
6 down now. Buttler taking a catch off Bess.

[dandeclaret]

Game on now.

Bess has bowled well in this session. Session before lunch was hard to stay awake for, it was pretty dull stuff.

[Quickenthetempo]

Leach follows it up with a wicket, bowled.

Now 7 down

[tiger76]

Those 2 quick wickets have totally changed the game, England might even wrap up victory today, if the rain stays away.

Leach deserves his wickets in this innings, he's probably been the best of the spinners in this game, but without much reward, Bess has 8 wickets in the match, and yet he'll bowl a lot better and go wicketless on other occasions.

302-7 at tea, lead of just 16.

[dandeclaret]

I'd agree on Bess for the first innings Tiger - that was very poor, but he's been good in the spell between Lunch and Tea.

Leach had an off day yesterday, I though he bowled well with no reward 1st innings, but yesterday he didn't threaten, nor did he offer control.

[dandeclaret]

Super catch that Root off a bowl that turns from Leach.

[tiger76]

Shouldn't be long now for England, lead is still only 29, with the pitch starting to show sharp turn they'll be glad of that, chasing anything over 150 would be tricky on this pitch now, so they'll want to end this innings quickly, and avoid an awkward 4th innings.

[tiger76]

I'd agree on Bess for the first innings Tiger - that was very poor, but he's been good in the spell between Lunch and Tea.

Leach had an off day yesterday, I though he bowled well with no reward 1st innings, but yesterday he didn't threaten, nor did he offer control.

The wickets for both should improve their confidence, and also getting some long spells won't do them any harm in the longer term, I suspect they and perhaps Root will be bowling a lot of overs in India, so getting attuned to the conditions in the sub-continent can only do them good.

[Quickenthetempo]

Pitch is a bit of a minefield but the Sri Lankan batsman are putting up a decent fight.
It will be a big test for our batters on here.

[dandeclaret]

53 shouldn't be a big test. 150+ will become problematic if they get to that.

[Quickenthetempo]

The wickets for both should improve their confidence, and also getting some long spells won't do them any harm in the longer term, I suspect they and perhaps Root will be bowling a lot of overs in India, so getting attuned to the conditions in the sub-continent can only do them good.

I don't think India is as spinner friendly these days. They have changed the pitch type for the Ipl and outfields are lush green. The Indians realised to improve their fielding to match the other top sides, they needed surfaces they could dive on.
It's helped to bring on some very good seam bowlers.

[tiger76]

I don't think India is as spinner friendly these days. They have changed the pitch type for the Ipl and outfields are lush green. The Indians realised to improve their fielding to match the other top sides, they needed surfaces they could dive on.
It's helped to bring on some very good seam bowlers.

Yes I've heard the pitches have dramatically changed in India, mind you what sort of seam attack India will be able to muster for that series is open to question, so they may revert to type and produce some spinning tracks once again, whatever the tracks offer any visiting team will still need a holding spinner to wheel out 15-20 overs a day, if nothing else just to give the seamers a breather and chance to rotate.

[tiger76]

53 shouldn't be a big test. 150+ will become problematic if they get to that.

Yep this partnership is starting to become troublesome for England, they could do with breaking it soon, leads now 66, not too dangerous yet, but another 50-60 could make things interesting on the final day.

A wicket bang on queue, England might have the chance to finish this today, and get an extra day with their feet up tomorrow.

[Bosscat]

74 to win come on England

[dandeclaret]

Good for Jack Leach that.

[Quickenthetempo]

Both spinners had a 5fer in the game which is pleasing.

Sibley leaves a straight one having a brain fade. Bowled for 2.

8-1 now

[tiger76]

Good job England only need 74, Sibley back in the hutch, and Crawley surviving a drop in the 2nd over, I wouldn't fancy chasing 150 or so on this pitch, so thankfully for England it's a modest target, which shouldn't cause undue alarm.

Pleased for Jack, and both spinners getting 5 wicket hauls can't be sniffed at, and will do their confidence and self belief a world of good.

[Quickenthetempo]

14-2.

Root needs to win it for us.

[MrTopTier]

Root out

[Quickenthetempo]

Disastrous run out for Root.

[tiger76]

Crawley gone cheaply now, 14-2, England making hard work of this small chase.

[Iloveyoubrady]

Bairstow is a bit dim isn’t he

[taio]

Losing their heads here.

[jrgbfc]

Surely England can't cock this up?

[tiger76]

What the heck are England playing at here, this should have been a relatively simple victory, and we're in danger of making a pig's ear of it, this could only happen with this England side.

[tiger76]

Surely England can't cock this up?

I wouldn't be so sure, Sri Lanka will be buoyed be those early scalps, and fancy they can crank up the pressure, England should still get home, but it's a nervy performance with the bat, England just need to calm down and play sensible basic cricket for half an hour, and cut out the daft quick singles, this isn't a ODI.

[Quickenthetempo]

Always going to be tough on a turning pitch.

We should still get 74 but it will be a big learning exercise for the batsman under great pressure.

[dandeclaret]

Relax lads.... panic will subside, and as long as they relax, they will be ok. If they panic, the. It might be a struggle. 54 required.

[tiger76]

Always going to be tough on a turning pitch.

We should still get 74 but it will be a big learning exercise for the batsman under great pressure.

Yes it's a turning pitch, but 74 shouldn't present too many problems, all 3 dismissals have been poor, Sibley leaving a straight ball, Crawley playing a rash shot, and as for the run out between our 2 most experienced batters, that's schoolboy cricket is that.

[Ashingtonclaret46]

How true, tiger76! This has been painful to watch, particularly the run out of Root and then could have been followed the next ball by Bairstow, who seemed to have had a brainstorm for a few overs.
Still not confident that we will see this through.

[dandeclaret]

You can have 35/1 about Sri Lanka winning the test match Ashington. Puts the chances at around 2.9%

[tiger76]

How true, tiger76! This has been painful to watch, particularly the run out of Root and then could have been followed the next ball by Bairstow, who seemed to have had a brainstorm for a few overs.
Still not confident that we will see this through.

We've made heavy weather of it, but that Bairstow/Lawrence partnership at the end has just steadied everybody's nerves, and there is only 36 required in the morning now, so even England can't mess this up can they, I've been impressed by Lawrence's composure in a tense situation, it's easy to forget this is his debut, he's certainly gone up the pecking order, whether he'll retain his place once Stokes returns is doubtful, but he's taken his chance when it's arisen, and that's all you can do.

Sibley has had a stinker with the bat, and I worry about him in India, he struggles against the left spin, as this stat from Andy Zlatzman illustrates perfectly.

Dom Sibley has been out against left-arm four times in his Test career for 79 runs. He averages 19 against left-arm spin, 34 against right-arm and just under 40 pace bowling.

What these last couple of days will do is make Sri Lanka believe that they can match this England side in the 2nd test, apart from that collapse on day 1, it's been an even contest, and purely the fact that SL have managed to make a game of it, after conceding a near 300 run lead on 1st innings is a testament to their character, and their batsman scoring big in their 2nd innings after being rolled on day 1 will set them up nicely for the 2nd test, if they could put say 350 on the board next week, that would really test this England top order, which still is suspect against the new ball, don't forget England have lost both openers for single figures in each innings, so that doesn't inspire much confidence that they'll give you a steady start, and scoreboard pressure makes a huge difference, in this match when your only facing 135, you can afford a couple of early poles going down, but if the other team has runs on the board, the mentality changes for the batting and fielding sides.

[Longsidelenny1882]

England should win at canter to moz I would even back padiham to knock them off up the colne

[LeadBelly]

Yes it's a turning pitch, but 74 shouldn't present too many problems, all 3 dismissals have been poor, Sibley leaving a straight ball, Crawley playing a rash shot, and as for the run out between our 2 most experienced batters, that's schoolboy cricket is that.

I heard that last 5 word phrase spoken by Geoffrey B. All of the post spot on though.

[Quickenthetempo]

England should win at canter to moz I would even back padiham to knock them off up the colne

Not a problem for the thicknecks Lenny.

I think it's more the Colne tarmaccers trying to play against Holt and Tripathi on a dust bowl Turf Moor.

[jrgbfc]

I think Burns and Crawley could be a better bet as openers out in India. Sibley just looks too big and cumbersome against spin.

[Quickenthetempo]

I think Burns and Crawley could be a better bet as openers out in India. Sibley just looks too big and cumbersome against spin.

Burns will certainly be back in, as will Stokes and Pope.

Hopefully Bairstow has a good tour and is in the team for India. He has lots of experience of Indian pitches and conditions. Could be invaluable.

Plenty of strength in depth at the minute.

[tiger76]

I think Burns and Crawley could be a better bet as openers out in India. Sibley just looks too big and cumbersome against spin.

I'm not certain, but I believe Burns isn't touring this winter, Sibley does seem to struggle against spin though, and it's been a question mark throughout his career, however he'll definitely be given a chance in the 2nd test, so it's up to him to prove the doubters wrong, and fight for his place, there's lots of competition waiting in the wings, so if you want to remain in this England side you need to perform, which is no bad thing.

[IWOODLOVETT]

Play Bairstow as an opener and play Lawrence at 4.

[Quickenthetempo]

Play Bairstow as an opener and play Lawrence at 4.

I presume you mean Lawrence at 3 and not in place of Root?

[jrgbfc]

I'm not certain, but I believe Burns isn't touring this winter, Sibley does seem to struggle against spin though, and it's been a question mark throughout his career, however he'll definitely be given a chance in the 2nd test, so it's up to him to prove the doubters wrong, and fight for his place, there's lots of competition waiting in the wings, so if you want to remain in this England side you need to perform, which is no bad thing.

I think Burns is going to India, he's just missed Sri Lanka as is partner is due to give birth.

[tiger76]

I think Burns is going to India, he's just missed Sri Lanka as is partner is due to give birth.

Ah! right well in that case Sibley better start putting some runs on the board.

[MT03ALG]

Bowler should have been given a yellow card (or even a red) for the Root runout

[dandeclaret]

A very good, comfortable win.

[The Enclosure]

A very good, comfortable win.

Hmmm.you missed off a ☺