I can't see how anybody will ever beat 800. Amazing total really, and a product of many freakish things conspiring together (including, most probably, the period in time when most Test cricket was played).

Personally, I have to mark no-balls against him to some extent. When he started bowling the doosra regularly, he got tested and some balls showed a 14.5 degree straightening. They then changed the rule from 5 degrees to 15, as loads of bowlers would have been over 5, but the testing is a joke. He had to bowl 6 balls only, knowing they were being tested. If he was still borderline even then, then then what was he doing in a match when he was bowling 30-40 overs in a day sometimes in extreme heat? He's obviously bowled a huge number of no balls in his career.

lol watson with 6 for australia, if pakistan manage to lose this game lol.

also broad has taken the first 7 wickets in a county game today, chance of a 10 wicket haul.

I laid Pakistan when they were 1.33 to win after being 65-0 in the first inning.

They have such a mental block against beating Aussies right now that there was bound to be atleast one collapse. If Aussies make >300 they'll have a decent chance as Pakistan battin can collapse <100 easily.

Slim chance now........
Warwickshire 100 all out (25.3 overs)

SCJ Broad 13 - 3 - 52 - 8

Not bad...



Pakistan's tail is so long, Aamer batting at 8 is lolbad for them. So much pressure on top six it's unbelievable. Still well played by Watson though.

lol County cricket, its a shame how little following it gets

Will be interesting to see how Aus squirm out of this hole ,hopefully the weather doesnt play around much.

its a shame all state, county and provincial sport has gone down the pooper, mainly because of the tv deals for tests and the ipl. Not just cricket, but rugby, footy and basketball in australia....

3rd day starts in minutes.

Yeh you're right, I still like the county game but it's struggling financially at the moment. Especially with T20's popularity falling in the last couple of years. Doesn't really help that international players never get to play for counties much anymore.

I think Aus-Pak could be all over today. It's going to take some good batting down the order for Aus to take it to day 4. Weather's good today though so batting should be a little easier.

Don't know what people feel the solution for the Sheffield Shield might be ashley, not too sure of the setup you have over there, but I think they really need to slash the number of English counties. There are simply too many spaces in too many teams, allowing relatively mediocre players to play first class cricket.

Here's how I would promote excellence in performance......


If there were, say, ten counties, or regions, there would be a greater competition for places in the first class game, which would lead to a higher standard of cricket, which would be more watchable. Also because of less counties there would not need to be so much central funding to subsidise the counties just to enable them to stay afloat. Many of the counties aren't really financially viable organisations any more, and would go under anyway without the money from the ECB which it gets from Sky for broadcasting England matches.

You could then go back to a single division championship, with home and away fixtures against nine other teams, for an 18 game season. Also scrap stupid batting and bowling points, which don't achieve anything. Getting points for achieving arbitrary scores is so dependent on the pitch and the conditions, for instance, almost every team batting at Taunton always gets all the batting points, because it's usually good weather and the pitch is as flat as a pancake.

We should also scrap the stupid 40 over competition, whatever it's called this season, and replace it with the standard 50 over format.

Also, schedule the competitions so you play the 4 day cricket season, preferably when the weather is likely to be at its best, and get used to excelling at that, then have the hit and giggle stuff in separate blocks at the beginning and end of the season; start with the 50 over competition in late April/early May, get that out the way, and finish with the T20 in late August and early September. Too often now there is a 4-day game, then a trip up the motorway to a 1-dayer the next day, then back to 4-day and so on. How on earth are players supposed to get into the right frame of mind for a first class game when they're playing slog-and-run the day before, or vice versa?

I also think the T20 competition has grown to too many games, and also afaik they are always in the same geographical groups, so for instance, Kent never play Durham, or Essex never play Yorkshire. With ten teams, you draw two random groups of five, round robin home and away, top team in each group goes straight to a final.


They also need to start ignoring the idiotic Kolpak ruling and enforce a minimum number of English players in the team, preferably ten out of each starting XI, but definitely at least nine.

Also they need to get cricket back into schools, but I haven't yet got a plan for funding that though

^^About the Kolpak rule. You're sort of right, but without that we probably wouldn't have either Pietersen or Kieswetter. It's not ideal but some genuinely improve the standard, which can't be a bad thing.

The regional T20 thing is because they think it leads to bigger crowds because people have a shorter distance to travel, but yeh, not many people do anyway I don't think. Def agree they should cut down on the games though, it just gets boring now.

And there's pretty much no chance or reducing the number of counties. Can't imagine any counties wanting to merge with others for instance. It would be better financially but I know I'd hate it if we had to merge with Derby or Lancs for instance.

So glad we use the Kookaburra here in OZ.Would hate to see the Poms come over here and destroy us with the Duke.Honestly the whole batting order just looks fragile at the moment.I might have to have a punt on the poms to win the ashes here in Aust.How embarassing.

Theres nothing wrong with hedging.

Pak to beat Aus imminently, or maybe no?

barring a shane warne 99 game cheat, we lose this almost all the time. Will post my thoughts on domestic cricket when i get home, its a solid topic imo.

Also, slowly beginning to love steve smith

how india are the no.1 test team i dont know. i mean terrible seamers, ageing batting who don't perform well on bouncy pitches, players who are more concerned about the ipl than india etc etc. i guess its an indicator of the mediocrity of all the current nations, no superpower at present

Think it's more to do with the way the rankings work being bollocks. Can't see how England are only the 5th best test team at the moment.

For instance the recent game between Pak and Aus, Pak gained less ranking points for winning than what Aus lost for losing. That doesn't really make much sense.

finally the first test of the summer

hopefully a couple of questions answered in this series:

is eoin a test batsman?
how good is pak's bowling unit? (or did aus make them look world class?)

Im going for 3-0 eng

Pak bowling is really really good especially in English conditions, thier batting on the other hand is unpredictable at the best of times and embarassingly bad at the worst.

aamer is really wasim akram junior... Lethal when the ball is moving, particularly in overcast english conditions. The rest arent super hott imo

Their bowling unit isn't too bad, the real problem for them is their batting; their tail is very long, with 8, 9, 10 and 11 virtually interchangeable, and all bona fide No. 11s. With Imran Farhat somewhat shaky as an opener, and two very inexperienced players in the pivotal positions at 3 and 4, I'd say they will get skittled quite a lot by Anderson, Broad and Finn. Especially if it's a bit cloudy.

[?] In b4 forfeit at Oval

Grats to Morgan on the ton. Ian Bell must be feeling a bit sick about his broken foot now, and Morgan could have just taken his place in the starting XI at Brisbane in November.

And when will bowling teams get the hang of appeals on the TV replay? Pakistan totally wasted their two appeals today.

it will take a while in the same way that tennis players have taken time to learn to make correct hawkeye calls, weighing up risk with limited challenges vs rewards...

Lol sri lankan test matches. Make 640+ batting first, dont even have a first innings lead... Tendulkar a lazy double century vs players who could pass for his kids...

Peterson(?) needs to be dropped.

OOPPPSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS Bring on the Aussies.....

Barring a miracle England to go 1 up.

Pakistan really failed with the bat.

Anderson on fire mind you.

Also good to see Prior get us out of a hole yesterday.

flintoff out for rest of the summer- not making his comeback as anticipated. i think he should just retire, jees your body is obviously telling you you can't play. my guess is hes quite attached to the current lifestyle he leads(houses in dubai et all) and is hoping for one final payday with the ipl otherwise im sure he would have retired especially as there is very little chance of him getting back into the england team.