England in Sri Lanka 2021

[Piginapoke]

I don't think there's a thread up yet. Any thoughts on the likely team for Thursday?

[Mike Jersey]

I think England have a great chance of winning this series. Sri Lanka are not the force they once were

[spikeyhead]

We've started well enough, lost the toss and Sri Lanka are now 83/5

[Gargamel]

Now 132/9

Broad adding easy wickets to his monstrous total.

I’d suggest Sri Lanka are short of test level players all looking a bit county at the moment.

[jbswagger]

Sri Lanka 135 all out.

England now 20 for 2.

[yorky500]

Mike Jersey said:

I think England have a great chance of winning this series. Sri Lanka are not the force they once were

They were hammered here in South Africa. They did have a number of players going out injured though.

[spikeyhead]

Day two, very satisfactory. Shame about the rain, but I suspect that we won't run out of time.

[Gargamel]

Was great to see Lawrence so well, he is FEC and certainly has all the right stuff.

[gooner1]

What a pearl of a venue that ground is.

[Nobby Diesel]

With no travelling fans and most specifically, any Barmy Army, it was a lovely story, seeing the lone Barmy Army supporter there, who travelled pre COVID, in March 2020 and has waited there ever since, for the tour to start.
Good lad!

[Piginapoke]

Interesting session, 101-6. Well played Root. I think we could finish this today with 2 sessions left.

[Gargamel]

gooner1 said:

What a pearl of a venue that ground is.

It’s on my bucket list to go an watch a game there. Such a beautiful setting

[DeejRC]

I keep trying to persuade my wife about a trip there but she is absolutely against it unfortunately.

[Piginapoke]

I really cannot work out why Bess is in the team; a spinner who cannot bowl a consistent length.

[Gargamel]

Piginapoke said:

I really cannot work out why Bess is in the team; a spinner who cannot bowl a consistent length.

Taken 8 wickets though so far.

I guess if he doesn’t know what length he is going to bowl, the batsman have no chance

[spikeyhead]

We need 74 to win, nothing can go wrong from here

[SydneyBridge]

spikeyhead said:

We need 74 to win, nothing can go wrong from here

Er..... 16-3. No pressure then...

[Gargamel]

Well considering the lack of preperation, and Englands long established habit of losing the first match of any series. This was a pretty decent result.

Its always hard to win away, regardless of the talents of the opposition. SL threw this away in the first Innings, but its good we were made to work for it.


Positives
Both spinners with a Pfiefer, must be a collectors item for the statoes. That and Lawerence making a superb debut bodes well. Skipper looked in great nick against the spinners. (This must be some of our best ever batting line ups for taking on the spinners) Few years ago we had literally no one who could play spin


Negatives
Curran and Wood, two wickets. OK maybe not their kind of pitch, but they need to learn fast.


Satisfactory

[Piginapoke]

Pretty positive for me too, but the spinners need to improve next Test- 1st innings was more SL giving it away than quality spin bowling.

I'm surprised that Root already has the same number of Test victories as Strauss and Cook (24). How did that happen?!

[Gargamel]

Piginapoke said:

Pretty positive for me too, but the spinners need to improve next Test- 1st innings was more SL giving it away than quality spin bowling.

I'm surprised that Root already has the same number of Test victories as Strauss and Cook (24). How did that happen?!

I think the standard of test teams has declined pretty steeply in the last five years...