England's Summer of Cricket against Sri Lanka and India

[Buzzo]

5-2-2-10

A 13-year-old Somerset boy has taken 10 wickets for only two runs during an under-14s school game.
Tommy Stewart and his Sexey's School team-mates needed to stop The Gryphon School from reaching a target of 104.
The Yeovil teenager stepped up and clean bowled nine batsmen, also taking a caught-and-bowled, as Gryphon were all out for 24.
The only two runs Stewart conceded during his five overs went down as extras, after he bowled two wides.
“
After the sixth wicket I thought, with the lower order, I could go in and take a few more. I hoped then I could take all 10 and become famous
”
Tommy Stewart

"I've been out of form with the bat - I got out to a terrible shot - so I was frustrated. My coach told me to channel that into my bowling," he told BBC Somerset.
"I thought to myself 'don't muck up, keep them under 104'. I wasn't trying to get wickets, I wanted to keep to dot balls.
"I thought I'd take a few, then the middle order will hit a few runs and that would be the end of the game.
"I never thought anything amazing would happen."
Stewart finished with bowling figures of five overs, three maidens, two runs and 10 wickets - and twice found himself on a hat-trick.
"After the sixth wicket I thought, with the lower order, I could go in and take a few more.
"I hoped then I could take all 10 and become famous."
In Test cricket, only two players have ever taken 10 wickets in an innings - Jim Laker (10-53) for England against Australia in 1956, and Anil Kumble (10-74) for India against Pakistan in 1999.
The best figures in first-class cricket belong to Hedley Verity, who finished with 10-10 in 1938 while playing for Yorkshire.

Link

[Shaggy]

Jonathan Agnew @Aggerscricket
Cook tells me that Warne’s criticism of his captaincy is ‘personal’ and ‘something needs to be done’ about it

[captainfog]

Lolz

Warne is a tit, but really! Grow a ****ing pair.

[Buzzo]

What could possibly be done? Ban Warne from having an opinion?

He just wants it to be him and his mates where noone is allowed to say a bad word.

What a fkn tart.

[captainfog]

Cook is cracking under the pressure. We'll have a new captain for the next ashes series.

[Chris]

He knows Warne has him nailed thats why its gets to him so much. Captain ****house.

[Alex]

What can be done about someone criticising you?

Just ****ing win and stop pushing a brand of boring, zero risk cricket on the side.

[RichC]

I dislike Cook more and more, utterly spineless!

[Buzzo]

Hard to see anything to disagree with here. If Cook can't handle criticism, and he clearly cannot - he should not be captain. You can't just eliminate everyone who disagrees.

England v Sri Lanka: Alastair Cook's battlers have the firepower to win Headingley Test, says Shane Warne
Battling spirit, Yorkshire conditions and James Anderson's return to form all point to victory despite need for a front-line spinner

There are positives England can take from the Lord’s Test, even though they should have won, and I expect them to go on to victory at Headingley.
The conditions there will suit England’s attack and they will have too much firepower for the Sri Lankans. They showed some fight at Lord’s, and had England in a bit of trouble in the second innings, but they rely on too few players to carry them through.
England have to play a lot more cricket before you can say they are the real deal again, but I thought they showed a lot of spirit at Lord’s.
The bottom line was that they did not want to lose and that is understandable after their winter. But I always believe you should never let an opportunity to win a Test go to waste.
They are hard to achieve so if you get the chance to win, try and do it at all costs. England had an opportunity without even being overly aggressive. Declaring their second innings earlier would not have been too risky.
It was always going to be hard to bowl Sri Lanka out in just 90 overs on that docile pitch. Sri Lanka were 189 runs short by the end and Alastair Cook could easily have had six to eight overs or more at them the night before the final day and still set them 350. That is a lot of runs in a day, especially under pressure on the final day of a Test. Teams do not score that many because they are just trying to survive, particularly on an overcast day like we had on Monday.
England showed good fighting spirit on the last day. When you need seven wickets in the final session it is easy to stop believing, but England gave it a crack and nearly got home. I thought it was fantastic bowling from James Anderson and it is great to see him back to form, but where England fell down was their lack of a front-line spinner.
Moeen Ali is a good cricketer. The expectations on him are not too high because he is a top-six batter who bowls a bit of spin. That is it. You cannot expect to see him roll teams over on the last day with four or five wickets. He is a perfect foil for a front-line spinner. In the top Australian sides I played in, we would have a top-six batter who could bowl a bit of spin or seam, such as Greg Blewett, Damien Martyn or Darren Lehmann.
It is just a matter of England finding that front-line spinner to pair Mooen with. As I said before at Lord’s, any spinners out there should be working extra hard and warming the fingers up to give the ball a rip because there are Test caps to be won.
Matt Prior played well but it just shows you how small margins in sport can change careers. He could have been out for a pair if the umpires had given him lbw to the second ball of each innings. Even if he had reviewed he would have gone because the ball was hitting the stumps, but you need a bit of luck and the important thing is making the most of it. He did just that by batting beautifully and he kept really well, too. It is the best I have seen him keep, actually.
At Headingley this week, we really want to see the teams bowl their overs much quicker. The 17 overs lost at Lord’s were huge in the context of the game but England have only themselves to blame because they were just as guilty as Sri Lanka.
There is no excuse. You should be able to bowl 90 overs in 6½ hours. There is too much fluffing around and dawdling in between overs which means they start a minute or two late all the time. Then we see players run out on the ground after lunch and have a chat for three minutes. Why didn’t they do that during the break?
Players have to be conscious of the over rates and entertaining the public. There needs to be more urgency and intent rather than what we have at the moment, which is players just shrugging their shoulders and accepting they lost a few overs.
Everyone playing Test cricket now, and in the past, is worried about the state of the game, so you should not short change the public when they fill the ground at the weekend by not bowling the full overs.
If you do that then you cannot whinge about the state of Test cricket. What should be done about it? I promise if the ICC started banning captains for the next match or docking 25 runs for every over not bowled, it would soon speed up. The penalties have to be harsh otherwise nothing will change

[captainfog]

Cook is a ****house, but the declaration is being overplayed. He did the right thing in the circumstances IMO.

[Alex]

They were only that amount short because they were playing within themselves. Arguably if that had gone for more singles/doubles then it would have been closer to about 80.

They could have declared with a few overs in the evening. But thats about it.

[Shaggy]

Warne is absolutely spot on IMO. Cook's making a total fool of himself.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/10911980/Alastair-Cook-hits-out-at-criticism-by-Shane-Warne-and-says-something-has-to-be-done-about-personal-attacks.html

Alastair Cook has hit out at the criticism of his captaincy by Shane Warne and said “something has to be done” about what he has perceived as personal attacks on him.

Cook revealed today in his pre-match press conference that he has consulted Nasser Hussain on captaincy but prickled when pushed on whether he would turn to Warne or other former England captains for advice.

Then when asked by Jonathan Agnew of the BBC if he would be willing to chat to Telegraph Sport columnist Warne, Cook’s frustrations came to the surface.

“Something needs to be done because for the three years that I’ve been England captain I have in my eyes been criticised for a hell of a lot of that time. Yes, when we lose games of cricket as captain, you will be criticised. But I’ve also won a lot of games of cricket for England and more one-day games than anybody else as England captain. I’ve won an Ashes, I’ve won in India away, which I’m very proud of.

“So to be criticised for three years totally with those results I find quite hard to take, to be honest with you. Support and positivity is what this England team needs. The crowd at Lord’s were brilliant and the public were fantastic behind the lads and they really drove off it. A bit more support like that will hold everyone in good stead.”

When asked if he thought the criticism was personal Cook responded “I think it is, yes.”

It is part of the job description for an England captain to find his decisions dissected, particularly with so many of his predecessors commanding influential media positions. Cook is clear that he wants to rebuild England his own way and probably feels too much advice can be just as damaging.

“I think we keep it in house. With cricket tactics there is always a different way of doing it,” he said. “I spoke to Nasser the other day at a benefit game. About everything. Nass is a good friend of mine and made some good points.

It wasn’t all about captaincy. I thought we did a good job last week.”

Before the first Test against Sri Lanka, Warne wrote that he hoped Cook would not revert back to his “boring” ways. He was a lone voice last summer criticising Cook while winning the Ashes series and has called for him to be replaced.

England believe his comments were designed to unsettle Cook and Warne was using his media profile to help his friend Michael Clarke gain an advantage.

Warne has denied this writing for Telegraph Sport in March: “I am not an "Australian cheerleader". I call it as I see it. When Australia played poorly in England last year I was hard on them. I called them embarrassing after losing the second Ashes Test to England at Lord’s.

“They were weak and poorly led. I was surprised and disappointed by that. I wanted Alastair Cook to captain well but I saw how defensive he was when England were winning last summer and thought that if Australia just improved a little bit then results could be reversed.

“I was proved correct as England made so many poor decisions in the field. Some of it was basic stuff. For example, when Australia need four runs to win at the MCG you do not have six people on the fence.”

[captainfog]

He is an Australian cheerleader and he does as much sledging as he does actual commentary.

[Shaggy]

I don't think he's a cheerleader. He absolutely laid into them for years. He has a great cricketing brain and sees things Cook seemingly cannot.

[captainfog]

I don't think he's a cheerleader. He absolutely laid into them for years. He has a great cricketing brain and sees things Cook seemingly cannot.

Of course he is. He has great cricketing brain, that's true, but he's a total arse sometimes on coms. That whole prepare to lose to win thing was so annoying. He doesn't commentate he just uses the microphone to sledge to a bigger audience.