Topic: The Cricket Thread

It was remarkable, great to see England chase down the runs, here's hoping this turnaround for England will continue into the series against South Africa.

@Thrillho @ThereThere What did you reckon of England's win over India in the second ODI match? Think we can win the series in the decider? All we need to do is perform just as well under Buttler's captaincy as we did last time and all should be well.

@TheBrandedSwordsman I haven’t seen anything of the matches but sounds like they’ve been pretty eventful!

No idea how we could play so badly in the first match to lose by that much. Hopefully we get to chase for the decider!

@ThereThere @Thrillho Shame we lost against India eh? But a woeful performance by South Africa in that series has put us right back in the running for the decider on Sunday.

@TheBrandedSwordsman I haven’t been following the short format stuff too closely and it’s a bit confusing with so many ODIs and T30 matches happening around each other (plus the women’s matches too!)

@ThereThere I can’t say I blame Stokes. The ECB are trying to squeeze every penny out of each format and there’s just too much going on. And if they’re going to carry on with two different squads for ODI and T20 as they have this month, he might not be the only one to do so.

Plus, if it helps with his mental health after his recent absences from the test team, then even better for him. The players are still only human!

@ThereThere He's probably just had enough of it but I don't think it's the end of the format. Anyway, he's probably just decided to prioritize test cricket with the South Africa series coming up, probably regards the tests as more important now he's Captain.

@ThereThere @Thrillho Following the Twenty20 series against South Africa? Who do you think will win on Sunday now that South Africa seem to have wised up to our batting techniques?

@TheBrandedSwordsman Well it’s looking like a pretty poor performance from England again. Weird just how much their white ball form has fallen off recently. And Jason Roy in particular with another poor performance.

@ThereThere @Thrillho How do you think the test is going? It looks like our return to form was unfortunately quite short-lived with the batting side collapsing in their first innings with the possible exception of Pope who did best against the bowlers, do you think that we will have to rely on rain to save the match?

Well that was a humiliating defeat. Lost by an innings. I hope the next match will be better for England.

@TheBrandedSwordsman Well, it didn’t take long for England’s normal style to make a comeback.

Zak Crawley must have some serious dirt on the ECB to still be making this team. Our tail is also awful now with none of our bowlers being any good with the bat and Foakes not having added anything much so far.

@Thrillho What about Broad? He was decent for a tail-ender I thought, got 35.

@ThereThere @Thrillho What do you reckon of the second test so far? It seems the bazball approach has been semi-abandoned in favour of a more conservative approach, but it looks like it paid off in England's first innings, what with us feeling like we were far ahead enough to declare, but who knows how this test will end.

What a win eh? Stokes and Foakes both getting 100s in the first innings too. Here's to the next test.

@TheBrandedSwordsman A bit more of a sensible approach pays off!

That said, it always seemed a bad call to put England in to bowl first; perfect conditions and England will always want to chase. It’s no good planning for your spinners if you lose by an innings!

Have to say I’ve really been enjoying The Hundred this season. I know cricket fans have their issues with it but I can only really speak as somebody who doesn’t watch much cricket at all. The atmosphere’s pretty good, they explain a lot of the more technical stuff to encourage new fans etc. I like that the men’s and women’s games are back to back as well, it’s really easy to root for both.

@nessisonett The Hundred is a weird one for me.

They’ve clearly crowbarred a b*stardised version of the game in to make another short form version that they can flog for more TV money, coming at further detriment to the rest of the domestic game.

But the move to have men’s and women’s matches back to back is a great one, and they’ve pushed it as more of a family friendly game too.

So while they could have made T20 more free to air, the fact it isn’t just a load of drunks turning up after work is a huge thing that will hopefully get more people into the game.

We got a load of tickets for a couple of matches in the Commonwealth games and my wife really enjoyed, as did her parents; none of whom were particular fans before but who all would now be interested in seeing more short form games.

@Thrillho Yeah, as much as I can understand why actual cricket fans are annoyed by it, I do think that they’ve done a great job in getting the game out there. I’ve already watched more Test cricket than I’ve ever done previously because I enjoyed watching The Hundred. Not that I really have a team to root for though, Scotland are practically nowhere!

@Thrillho @ThereThere Great way to end England's cricketing summer with this second series win eh? There was less bazball cricket involved but still it was great to see this victory for England, I think Crawley has now justified his position in the side.

@TheBrandedSwordsman Pretty remarkable to lose by an innings in the first test and then win the other two by almost the same amount! It’s also great to see the wickets being shared around with a particularly good performance by Robinson in the last test.

Not bad when you still have Potts, Mahmood, Archer, Wood all as potential choices too (pending injuries).

And I’m worried you’re right that Crawley has had another innings where he’s done enough to cling on for even longer..