Posted by There’s been a fair amount of whinging about the slowness and lowness of the pitch – and not without cause – but it strikes us that really good bowling attacks don’t happen across dead pitches very often. England’s is not a really good bowling attack.
The point of Test cricket is that you’re presented with conditions and a particular situation and you then have to respond to them, no matter what they are. England’s bowling attack has actually performed pretty well today. It’s just that they’ve performed pretty well ‘considering’ – and therein lies the problem. They are able to respond to a relatively narrow span of circumstances and beyond that their limitations become apparent.
On the other hand, it’s a five-day Test and a five-Test series. Let’s not get too downbeat yet. There’ll be plenty of time for that from Lord’s onwards.
If there is a man who’s had a good day, it’s Murali Vijay – or ‘Myurali Vijaaaay’ as David Lloyd would have it. We had a vague notion that we’d written something insightful about Vijay once, but all that came to mind was a vague sense of approval for the straightness of his bat. A quick Google and we found the piece in question. Pretty much all we said was that we liked the straightness of his bat.
The fantasy league is already proving a disaster for some of us. Can we start again?
Sorry, no.
I’m sure your team will get some momentum. They just need to start playing as a unit.
I picked Alastair Cook. That’s clearly a sign of diminished capacity, in which case I demand a do-over.
By “bowling attack” do you mean “unit”?
Sorry, yes.
Why did I leave murali out of my fantasy team. Anyway the media seemed to be moaning about the pitches after the opening days against the lanka. Claiming to be bore draw pitches. Neither turned out that way. Judge a pitch by the end of the match.
How the fuck do you get 2000 points after one day? I’ve got 55. How is 2000 points even possible?
I thought this was going to be fun, but that was on the assumption that I would win. I’m 40th out of 42! This is worse than Adelaide 2006.
I don’t recall anything happening in Adelaide in 2006. You must be confused.
Looking at the rules, it seems Murali Vijay alone would’ve netted someone 813 points today.
This is stupid. When will I win?
As a (sorry, THE) 2000-er, I expect to do much worse once England come to the crease. I have a glorious four players who will make an impact. So unless my batsmen make double centuries, my bowler ties England down no end, or Dhoni takes a stonking amount of catches, I imagine everyone else will catch up.
Oh, and I currently have 838 points from Vijay. Watch him do naff-all for the rest of the series.
Yes, we were struck by the fact that all our players were in action today. A day of pointless inaction beckons.
Actually, that last sentence serves as a kind of a life philosophy as well.
Actually Vijay’s points depend on where you have selected him:
opener: 813
nurdler: 516
hitter: 982
allrounder: 688
bowler: 24
I clearly haven’t given enough of an arse about this series so far. I managed to pick 3 players who aren’t playing (Buttler, Gambhir and Ashwin). Where do I claim my prize?
On a less fantasy-ish note, Alistair Cook set some interesting traps for the Indians, and got three men out despite England’s not-bad-considering attack. Maybe this will gain him the respect of Shane Warne?
Sorry, veering back into fantasy at the end.
And there was me thinking that “The Bert’s” and “The Laurence Elderbrook’s” were bringing up the rear by design.
Excellent use of apostrophes by both team names, btw.
You’re right – add 1,000,000 points to my team.
your link on Murali’s straight bat is not working. I think I too have to Google it now.
Fixed.
Probably not worth the wait, if we’re honest.
thanks for the link. that was an excellent piece
on Vijay, the straightness of his cover drive, reminds me of Sunny Gavaskar himself, while his silken touch is similar to Laxman’s style.
He is very similar to Cook in that, as long as he play only Test Matches he will grows as a batsman, but playing short-form matches will corrupt his style.
India need Vijay the test-match opener more than Vijay the T20 hoicker. I hope he is never picked again for Indian T20/ODIs anymore so that his batting doesnt go the Cook way.
Indeed. Adaptability is overrated. We’d like to see Jimmy Anderson play nothing but Tests as well.