England vs Ireland, Match Thread

[rentaghost]

What I mean is on flat wickets in test cricket, its hard to get players out. Our bowlers play over half their matches on seaming English decks.

How many seamers have had decent test careers from the sub continent over the last 10 years.....Vaas and Zaheer Khan

Thats true enough - but as far as I can see that an endorsement of bowlers who are better than them on a variety of surfaces.

You put far too much emhasis on judging the qualiity of a test match bowler as to how they bowl on flat decks. The vast majority of test match venues are a decent battle between bat and ball. The skills that Anderson has of bowling with the new ball, reversing the old ball and increasingly bolwing good consistent tight lengths in test matches are important and yes when there is a bit more in the wicket he can be devastating another quality shouldnt be underestimated. You also over estimate 'English conditions' - from May to September in English test matches there are loads of runs scored and English test cricket is a great battle between bat and ball.

Malinga has learned his cricket and been brought up bowling on pancake wickets in the likes of Galle that are completely alien to everywhere else in the world. Ive no doubt on those surfaces hes a better turn than the likes of Glen McGrath and many of the greatest bowlers in test history who wouldnt have had a career if pitches were all like that.

 

[chelt_mackem]

Andy why do you think England bowlers bowl on a length and when Jimmy runs through opposition in May and June in England why do you always have a wank about how good he is. Your contradicting yourself

Because that is the correct way to bowl in test (ie proper) cricket, with the occasional yorker/short ball/slower ball. That's what Jimmy's good at, and it's hardly his fault that his excellent test form has now seen the selectors decide to pick him for the farce that is one day cricket. I, and I'm sure most true cricket fans, would much rather see us playing excellent test cricket and being dog shit at one day cricket than be the other way round like Australia at the moment.

Today was a farce, but I think the buck has to stop at the selectors for picking a test team (more or less) to play a format of the game that should be saved to be a laugh when the serious stuff (tests) is all done with. Sadly, we decide the best team in the world with this form of the game.

 

[rentaghost]

you dont adapt to bowl on English wickets, you grow up on green club wickets where you just pitch the ball on a length and let it zip around. This is then carried on into first class and then international cricket.

I would suggest Malinga has adapted very well to bowling on flat wickets. His lack of test form is strange and due to the fact I do not have the privelige of watching Sri Lankan home test matches I cannot comment on why he hasnt cracked test cricket. I bow to your vastly superior knowledge on this front

I would suggest you are right but he doesnt have the ability to bowl a consistent length moving the ball away from the bat which gets you wickets in test matches. His record against the higher quality sides away from Sri Lanka are:

England 2 tests - ave 45
India 1 test - ave 44
Aus - 3 tests ave 72

He hasnt played in SA but his record against them at home is an average of 50 in 3 tests. He has some good performances against weaker sides at home but thers not a single example of him performing well against good sides in any conditions. In my opinion its because he bowls at the stumps, bowls a great yorker which is devatating in ODIs when batsmen are looking to score but hasnt got the skills to move the ball away from the bat consistently like Anderson which gets you wickets in test matches.