1st TEST - England v Sri Lanka

[Safc_Luke]

Lead of 381...

100 for Ballance.. well played lad

 

[TopCat]

You just know we will and cook will think he's class.

And his decision making would be justified. The game doesn't end until Day 5 - lots more cricket to play here

 

[Twisted]

320 is fair enough, but it's now 380 - just going to make it harder for ourselves as they won't even try and chase this.

350 should have been the point when we said enough is enough, terrible mindset playing for individual accolades.

spot on. should have given ourselves 20-30 minutes at them with a lead around 330-340. even then would still be the biggest 4th innings winning score at lords iirc

should have played that shot about 15 overs ago

 

[stephen cartwright]

get in ballance , a six to bring up the ton. amazing that tendulkar never made a test match ton and this lad d achieves it at the first attempt

 

[mackembhoy]

He's got his ton man declare ffs

 

[smoker]

Well done Ballance, was critical of his first innings performance but done the biz today.

Good job we have bowlers who can bat or the lad would have been left high and dry.

 

[dangermows]

Warne said we should have declared over an hour ago.

f***ing pathetic, cook is an utterly abysmal captain

Agreed, but Cook is just one in a long list of negative England captains.

He's got his ton man declare ffs

His aim is always to avoid defeat rather than to win.

 

[Twisted]

Agreed, but Cook is just one in a long list of negative England captains.

never captained at county level, learnt at the knee of strauss, was never going to be owt special.

 

[stephen cartwright]

at lords that is. a decent recovery, as never mind declaring, we could have lost until jordan and ballance got going

 

[Dougal]

Can't see Sri Lanka attempting to chase down 400 in three sessions tomorrow - unless we bowl absolute shite ........

 

[TopCat]

Pietersen was an adventurous and aggressive captain

You must be logged on to see external links

#JustSaying

 

[smoker]

He's got his ton man declare ffs

Can't believe we haven't had a few overs this evening, always a tricky time to face the new ball.

 

[dangermows]

Pietersen was an adventurous and aggressive captain

You must be logged on to see external links

#JustSaying

Was nothing wrong with the declaration though. Better to risk a defeat in search for victory. Plus, the match was a one off, Sehwag simply threw the bat from ball one.

 

[mackembhoy]

Pietersen was an adventurous and aggressive captain

You must be logged on to see external links

#JustSaying

Sehwag batting with a SR of 122 aye cos thats going to happen all the time

 

[TopCat]

Was nothing wrong with the declaration though. Better to risk a defeat in search for victory. Plus, the match was a one off, Sehwag simply threw the bat from ball one.

Why was it better?

Sehwag batting with a SR of 122 aye cos thats going to happen all the time

You have the two best Sri Lankan batsmen of all time playing for the last time in England, plus a slipper with a batting average of 80+ since taking over. Of course it could happen

 

[dangermows]

Why was it better?

Cos 9 times out of 10 it would have resulted in a win. It was a no brainer to declare when he did that match. Not one person disagreed with it at the time.

 

[TopCat]

Was nothing wrong with the declaration though. Better to risk a defeat in search for victory. Plus, the match was a one off, Sehwag simply threw the bat from ball one.

2 match series

 

[dangermows]

Sehwag batting with a SR of 122 aye cos thats going to happen all the time

Correct. He was in T20 mode from the first ball. Loads of near misses throughout.

 

[TopCat]

Cos 9 times out of 10 it would have resulted in a win. It was a no brainer to declare when he did that match. Not one person disagreed with it at the time.

I'm sure there were plenty who did.

 

[dangermows]

2 match series

And?