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Milfner

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2 hours ago, lapal_fan said:

And there was an 18 month period where he couldn't get to that from a good 50.

His stats are becoming astonishing. 

I think there's a difference between being England captain and being captain of, say, New Zealand. It just seems so much pomp and blazers and wood panelled b*ll*cks. It affected Root, I think.

Stokes seems to have a different approach and I hope it continues.

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I do wonder how much the new type of ball impacts it, it does less more quickly and needs changing all the damn time, it's definitely more batting friendly once the first 15 overs or so have happened.

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34 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

I’ve been trying to figure out exactly why BazBall works, and why nobody else has tried it before. It’s a bit baffling isn’t it. Sure, pitches are better now, but that doesn’t explain the massive 4th innings totals.

the various theories seem to be…

  • Pitches hold up much better across the 5 days, so batting first and putting on big early totals is less important. All innings are equal now.
  • Ball doesn’t swing or reverse as much, gets easier to hit as it gets older. This explains why the middle order are getting so many runs, but doesn’t explain favouring the later innings, since it’s a new ball each innings?
  • With players learning their trade through white ball cricket (esp T20) it’s pointless to try and build an old fashioned defensive test innings, because nobody knows how to do it. And no reason to favour a 200-ball 50 over a 60-ball 50.
  • Psychologically, once you start targeting 4th innings runs chases, it completely transforms the way the two captains attack the game. Gets in the opponents’ heads and can force errors. Takes the psychological boost of the coin toss out of the equation if you’re equally happy batting first or second.
  • The physical workload of modern cricket means bowlers slow down and bowl more trash towards the end of the test? So a better time to start going after them?

I have a sort of string of theory things, fwiw (which is now't).

It worked (so far) because of 

a) Covid. The players had spent 2 years in bubbles and it had got to them. The England team spent far longer in bubbles than any other, due to the volume of tests they have played. Now that the bubbles have gone, (and crowds are back, and they're at home) there's been a lightening of mood and a rediscovered joy which has kind of underlayed things.

b) Joe Root is not Captain. He's a brilliant player, but on field captaincy isn't a strong point, and he's less innately up and at 'em than Stokes

c) Eoin Morgan - he set the 50 over side on a path to be ultra attacking (particularly with the bat) and a lot of the key players of the test side have that mindset already ingrained as a "yep, I can play that way, and get it" - Bairstow, Root, Billings, Stokes...

d) Ben Stokes - as Captain he's done exactly the same as Morgan - been selfless (sometimes seeming reckless) with his batting - by counter-intuitively throwing his wicket away a couple f times, that tells all the other players "I'm not gonna get in trouble, or dropped if I do something daft in the aim of trying to win"

e) The white ball side has played that way for ages, now and this summer England have been playing a 50 over cricket style all summer - it's what the modern England players in particular are good at. Their techniques are built on it, as well as the mentality

f) The pitches - pretty much all flat tracks

g) The balls - during Covid , apparently, the people hand making them were different from the usual staff, and the stitching is not of the same high quality and not as tight, so they get out of shape sooner and go soft sooner - great for batters. Crap for bowlers. Same has been seen in the county games.

h) The biggest thing though is that the Coach and Captain have rid us (or the players at least) of fear of failure which is very English and majored on the "have fun doing your job" aspect.

So the right style of game for the conditions, that plays to the strengths of the players in batsman friendly conditions against opponents who are away from home (and home advantage is big in Test cricket).

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2 hours ago, theunderstudy said:

England Twitter account taking a jab at Kohli just now, fantastic stuff. Hope we never see him batting in England again tbh

Bet he wasn't acting like a bell end today. 

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1 hour ago, blandy said:

I have a sort of string of theory things, fwiw (which is now't).

It worked (so far) because of 

a) Covid. The players had spent 2 years in bubbles and it had got to them. The England team spent far longer in bubbles than any other, due to the volume of tests they have played. Now that the bubbles have gone, (and crowds are back, and they're at home) there's been a lightening of mood and a rediscovered joy which has kind of underlayed things.

b) Joe Root is not Captain. He's a brilliant player, but on field captaincy isn't a strong point, and he's less innately up and at 'em than Stokes

c) Eoin Morgan - he set the 50 over side on a path to be ultra attacking (particularly with the bat) and a lot of the key players of the test side have that mindset already ingrained as a "yep, I can play that way, and get it" - Bairstow, Root, Billings, Stokes...

d) Ben Stokes - as Captain he's done exactly the same as Morgan - been selfless (sometimes seeming reckless) with his batting - by counter-intuitively throwing his wicket away a couple f times, that tells all the other players "I'm not gonna get in trouble, or dropped if I do something daft in the aim of trying to win"

e) The white ball side has played that way for ages, now and this summer England have been playing a 50 over cricket style all summer - it's what the modern England players in particular are good at. Their techniques are built on it, as well as the mentality

f) The pitches - pretty much all flat tracks

g) The balls - during Covid , apparently, the people hand making them were different from the usual staff, and the stitching is not of the same high quality and not as tight, so they get out of shape sooner and go soft sooner - great for batters. Crap for bowlers. Same has been seen in the county games.

h) The biggest thing though is that the Coach and Captain have rid us (or the players at least) of fear of failure which is very English and majored on the "have fun doing your job" aspect.

So the right style of game for the conditions, that plays to the strengths of the players in batsman friendly conditions against opponents who are away from home (and home advantage is big in Test cricket).

I'd add to that the impact that the IPL has had. Alot of England players have or are plying their trade there. Bairstow for example, so the fear to do a Boycott rather than push the run rate isn't there.

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It didn't matter how many different balls they used in that innings, Joe & Jonny were not going to be denied. What a run chase, England's best ever. Duke need to get the old chap back to sew those balls again sharpish though!

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I like Moeen, nice guy, and makes sense for him to go back to the Bears as he's a local lad.

I'd say he was a loss for us but the last time he played a List A games for Worcester was June '18 and the last County Championship game was September '19! Been decent in T20 though. 

More gutted about the Barnard loss. 

 

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well, no Bears at finals day

82 all out 13.3 overs, battered

what a moment to play your worst game of the contest

 

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Embarrassing from Warwickshire tonight, esp with how we have batted in the T20 in previous games, Sterling one decent innings all tournament, don’t get why we signed him as one as the overseas players, Braithwaite bowled well but another that was a waste of a signing all tournament 

Edited by rbcuk
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We always do poop in home 1/4 finals.. it's weird.

Once we lost Hain, hose and Benjamin it was game over, Hampshire we good though and their openers did really well and took the game from us.  That said, we've seen >200s a few times this year!

I also think teams love coming to edgbaston, which is occasionally a problem.

Still, at least it was nice and warm and it was busier than usual.  Glad I've not got a ticket to finals day this year! Save me a fortune! 

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Sterling hasn't proved a very good signing has he ! Utter shambles tonight , exemplified by the fact that they couldn't even get the scoreboard working !!!!

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11 hours ago, rbcuk said:

Embarrassing from Warwickshire tonight, esp with how we have batted in the T20 in previous games, Sterling one decent innings all tournament, don’t get why we signed him as one as the overseas players, Braithwaite bowled well but another that was a waste of a signing all tournament 

Best part of the whole game was a loud rendition to SOTV, apparently...according to another forum anyway....they'd probably been drinking in town before the game I guess 🤨

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