i'll pretend i didn't read that ...

Are you 'sickened' by the criticism of Cook?

It's not that misleading at all, it's a team he's helped mold, getting rid of some horrible influences. You can't slate people and then just not give them any credit for anything. In the end it's not like he's captaining the great Oz team of decades, or Windies of the 80s. We've about 4 (including him) very good players, the rest have just performed at surprising times, which indicate team spirit. Keeping faith with Woakes when many would have dropped him for instance.

Not sure about his handling of spinners, not sure what he can do if they keep on serving buffet balls. Not as easy as captaining Swann.

BiB - when i read that, i read that as "getting rid of anyone who isn't a yes man"

i didn't say he is captaining a great team, i said he is captaining one of the better england teams we have had when compared to the overall strength of test cricket

how do you know whether it was his decision to keep faith in woakes? woakes only got selected because of the injury to stokes, not because cook fought for him.

i'll repeat what i said, i dont think he is a terrible captain but he certainly isn't a good one.

Can someone justify why on earth we are batting ?

to give the bowlers a rest apparently after only bowling 63 overs across 4 sessions of play beacuse of the rain break before lunch

Of course you read it that way. In the end we're performing more as a team now. Bloke that caused most of the fuss is barely able to walk, let alone play Test cricket.

BIB, I don't really, but he has an influence so it's a reasonable belief, like we don't know if it wasn't Bayliss that wanted to bat again.

In the end he's turning into a very good winning captain, by no means perfect, but who is.

Nice start by us. Getting back to the cricket. quite an important innings for Hales to get some runs against this attack.

Rest the bowlers, Make sure they don't pick up injuries, Jimmeh and Stokes came into the game with injuries recently, play Hales into form, and hope that the pitch deteriorates, ATM it's flat as anything despite Pakistans poor batting.

Or they may not


It applied to all first class cricket. They played 6 days each week and often played charity or benefit games on Sunday before we had the Sunday league.

Not me. I would always enforce the follow on.

1. You have to take another 10 wickets so you might as well get on with it.
2. England have 5 front line bowlers ( If you include Ali) They only have to bowl 90 overs in a day max,
3. Cook now has to time a declaration.
4. There is now more chance they could lose the game although I accept that they will not.
5. More chance of getting a draw

India nearing a victory after enforcing the follow on as West Indies are struggling at 106/6, still 200+ behind

Bit of a role reversal going on

Cook 38* off 32 and Hales 23* off 47

Hales out for 24. That little innings didn't do him much good.

Still not convinced by Hales I'm afraid, but I guess we can't carry on chopping and changing at opener. They do all seem to be much-of-a-muchness, average-wise.

Straight from the mouth of Paul Farbrace - Nothing to do with protecting the bowlers at all, it was purely to get the runs on the board now rather than have to possibly chase later on. Wanted to bat whilst the pitch was at its best for batting

Well that makes it an even worse decision in my eyes

You don't think Yasir Shah could have been dangerous on a fifth day pitch?

It's a perfectly normal decision on a pitch that does go on the last day. Again I wouldn't have done it, but it's really not the outlandish decision people are saying.

Lots of media getting mad because there's less likelihood of a day off and a game of golf now, Botham and Warne had probably already booked the tee-time which they'd no doubt bore us with when they were next on air, so every cloud....

it comes back to the issue of attitude tho

worrying about having to face yasir shah on a 5th day pitch when your opponents would need to score 500 runs in their second innings to make it an issue is a pretty cautious approach

Im not bothered that Cook followed on England will still win anyway and now it is likely to go into a fifth day

Nothing to do with the captain then.


Irrelevant. There was no reason why England would need to bat again if they bowled well

If we were 'only' 200 ahead, I may agree with you but we were nearly 400 ahead

With no weather interuptions, Pakistan would have to score at over 3 an over to get to parity by close of play on Day 4

Not sure they are in the form ( or have the ability) to do that

I understand the reasons for batting again, I just totally disagree with them

We were never gonna get anything other then a comfortable innings win Pakistan might have dug in a bit more but they don't have the patience to frustrate for long

That's exactly it. There's logic in batting again, I just don't like it and think it sends out the wrong message.

England winning the match won't prove the decision right or wrong.

Sorry for going on one earlier.

Guess at the end of the day we are in a great position.

What kinda got me earlier was, as this is a Super Series, with the Tests, ODi and T20, all put together I was worried it could have ended as a Draw. As a draw would have us 6-2 down, at least with a win we would be 4-4

India score 566-8 dec
And won by an innings and 92 runs you need to be ruthless and kick your opponents while there down

One of the problems with central contracts is that it doesn't provide a training ground for England captains as the Test squad don't play enough for their counties to captain them. To replace Cook you either have to go for an experienced Test player who hasn't done much captaincy or a county captain who has no experience of Tests.