England Cricket 2017

kentaddick said:

think it was a shame the umpire didn't give it and it had to go for review, it was absolutely plum

what a shame it would have been if it had ended up being umpires call and denied Moeen of his hatrick.

£20 was worth it as play lasted for nearly 3 hours, and the Saffers did (in the main) make England fight for the wickets. Strange how the innings had a hat-trick PLUS two other bowlers both with hat-trick attempts

You wait ages for a hat-trick attempt then 3 come along at the same time

Anyone who hasn't seen Aggers wind up Boycott should take a look at this.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/40781223

redman said:

Anyone who hasn't seen Aggers wind up Boycott should take a look at this.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/40781223

Full ten minutes here - brilliant:

http://aod-pod-uk-live.bbcfmt.hs.llnwd.net/mpg_mp3_vlow/modav/bUnknown-b4551686-1877-4507-8c19-5832ea59748f_p05b5gn7_1501503840918.mp3?s=1501497983&e=1501541183&h=3895897b81df9b8432f11518224b944a

kentaddick said:

Both hick and ramprakash were two brilliant batsmen utterly ruined by the bizarre selection policy in the 90's. I think they both were constantly moved up and down the order and never left to settle to nail down a position. Thus the number of tests they played and their averages don't tell even half the story.

No, totally disagree. Both were the only English qualified English batsmen who averaged over 50.00 in First Class cricket but both did not have the mental strength to succeed at the top. They made their debuts together against the West Indies in 1991 and neither of them ever held down a place. They both had good patches, both scored Test centuries and both saw England through to victories. But neither could hold down a place with consistent performances. Atherton captained both of them and in his autobiography gives a very interesting insight to Ramprakash. The lad was a bag of nerves, he'd moan that he had to bat 6 and end up having to farm the tail, then he'd moan about batting 3 because he kept getting exposed to the new ball. Hick suffered massively from the qualification rules of the late 80's early 90's. He had dominated county cricket for years but was ineligible to play for England for years, far more than now. He finally made his debut against a good, not great, but good West Indies side and struggled from the off. He never held down his place by scoring loads of runs at Test level and was identified rightly and probably wrongly exposed, by Ray Illingworth as mentally weak at the top level.
Hick and Ramprakash were the last two and probably the very last two players to score one hundred First Class 100's. I think that says it all about the gulf between our 1st Class game then and Test cricket, a gulf that 10 years later is now a chasm.

NomadicAddick said:

kentaddick said:

Both hick and ramprakash were two brilliant batsmen utterly ruined by the bizarre selection policy in the 90's. I think they both were constantly moved up and down the order and never left to settle to nail down a position. Thus the number of tests they played and their averages don't tell even half the story.

No, totally disagree. Both were the only English qualified English batsmen who averaged over 50.00 in First Class cricket but both did not have the mental strength to succeed at the top. They made their debuts together against the West Indies in 1991 and neither of them ever held down a place. They both had good patches, both scored Test centuries and both saw England through to victories. But neither could hold down a place with consistent performances. Atherton captained both of them and in his autobiography gives a very interesting insight to Ramprakash. The lad was a bag of nerves, he'd moan that he had to bat 6 and end up having to farm the tail, then he'd moan about batting 3 because he kept getting exposed to the new ball. Hick suffered massively from the qualification rules of the late 80's early 90's. He had dominated county cricket for years but was ineligible to play for England for years, far more than now. He finally made his debut against a good, not great, but good West Indies side and struggled from the off. He never held down his place by scoring loads of runs at Test level and was identified rightly and probably wrongly exposed, by Ray Illingworth as mentally weak at the top level.
Hick and Ramprakash were the last two and probably the very last two players to score one hundred First Class 100's. I think that says it all about the gulf between our 1st Class game then and Test cricket, a gulf that 10 years later is now a chasm.

That's well said, it's always been the case that mental toughness is as important and probably more important than technical ability however in the last decade unless you are Ali cook or Joe Root and display obvious, immediate class then the test match is an almost impossible place to slide in. I'm not saying root and cook are the only guys who have shown this class but its getting visibly harder for decent county cricketers to become test players. In my opinion anyway

Ramprakash seemed to relax in his later years. Indeed going on and winning Strictly Come Dancing did help him in this respect, as he after doing a Samba in front of 9m viewers, batting for Surrey must have seemed like a doddle!

killerandflash said:

oohaahmortimer said:

Popped down there with my 11 year old , £20 for an adult, £1 for u-16 good value , although £2.70 for a small bottle of water is taking the piss , 2 plain burgers and one chips came to £24!!
I had 5 pints of pale ale which was nice at £5.20 a pint so feel a bit pissed .
First time I've been to The Oval in a while and I liked it , although wouldn't want to be there when the ground is full cos it was less than half full and the food and drink queues were a joke .

There were water dispensers around the ground, with Sky giving out plastic bottles to refill during the match

Food and drink prices are a bit steep, but how else will Surrey be able to poach Durham's best players

Oi!