The Pavel Florin Supporters Club and Cricket Thread

[WU LYF 4 LYF]

Thing is though, I can't see England taking a risk on Key, Ramps or Trott.

 

I don't get people saying it would be a risk. If Bopara and Bell play, they will both fail with the bat anyway, so if whoever comes in fails as well then we have lost nothing.

 

At the very least they will be just as bad, at best they will play a good innings and give us a fighting chance. We will never win this game woth Bell and Bopara at three and four.

[bobbins]

I've always been a fan of Rob Key, he could be an option at 3, dropping Ian Bell from the team, and Bopara down the order.

I can't imagine they'd drop Bell and keep Bopara. Bell's at least looked like a semi-competent batsman capable of scoring runs. Bopara looks completely lost, like he hasn't got a clue what he's supposed to be doing other than trying to look like a comical slo-mo parody of Sachin Tendulkar giving catching practice. Surely it'd be a straight swap of Key for Bopara.

Edited August 12, 2009 by bobbins

[Max Power]

"Its not my decision, its a team decision".

 

That bugs me big time. A team decision? Talk about The England Bubble picking the team. Bullshit. Get Ramps in. Get Tresco in . Get Key in. Get Bell out. Get Bopara Out.

 

We need to win a text match not slap each other on the backs.

 

Whilst i'm in this mood, get rid of Broad. He wouldn't get me out without pads and gloves on. Get Rid of Harmison. Get Sidebottom in. Get a second spinner in. The only way we can win this test is if the pitch is an absolute dustbowl where the spinners will boss the game, as Hauritz can't bowl a hoop down a hill. If i'm Geoff Miller, I pick.

 

Strauss

Trescothick

Key

Cook

Ramprakash

Prior

Flintoff

Swann

Rashid

Sidebottom

Anderson (if not fit, Onions).

 

Tell the seam bowlers that they will get the cat o' nine tales if they bowl short, and get the spinners on if Flintoff's leg falls off.

 

Easy.

Edited August 12, 2009 by Max Power

[PowerButchi]

Get Sidebottom in.

 

Well, I always was quite the name at Llangollen 2nd XI.

[Max Power]

They have a 2nd XI at Llangollen?

[PowerButchi]

Division Six of the North Wales league.

[PowerButchi]

Pffft. He's no Gavin Hamilton.

[PowerButchi]

Form updates! Trott and Bell looked very good today.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/counties/8200617.stm

 

Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell found form ahead of the decisive Ashes Test to bat Warwickshire back into their game with Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.

 

They had hit 1 and 15 respectively in the first innings, but shared a stand of 188 for the third wicket after the Bears had been asked to follow on.

 

Trott was out just before the close for 121, while Bell was unbeaten on 92, having faced 205 balls for his runs.

 

Warwickshire were 298-4 at stumps on day three for a lead of 129.

 

With the in-form Mark Ramprakash declaring himself keen to make a dream comeback should England's selectors shake up a misfiring middle order, the pressure was very much on Bell and Trott to deliver.

 

Trott called into England's squad in the fourth Test defeat in Leeds - though he did not play in the match - was the more aggressive of the pair and hit 20 fours from 177 balls before he was lbw to Ryan Sidebottom for 121, his fourth hundred of the season.

 

Bell, with 64 runs from three innings in this summer's Ashes, hit 10 boundaries.

 

Warwickshire began the day on 214-9 and added only five to their total before Charlie Shreck uprooted Boyd Rankin's leg stump.

 

In the follow-on, an obdurate opening partnership of 53 between Ian Westwood and Ant Botha hinted at a frustrating day for the title-chasing hosts.

 

Westwood looked hopelessly out of touch but still dug in to face 52 balls before he eventually edged Mark Ealham behind for 11.

 

That brought Bell to the wicket and after his dismissal by Sidebottom in the first innings, the left-armer was immediately brought back into the attack.

 

But Botha did a good job of protecting England's number four from the home side's premier bowler and Bell settled in with a solid on-drive for four off Ealham.

 

He survived one scare on 14 when Andre Adams was denied a confident lbw shout after lunch, but looked increasingly assured as the afternoon wore on.

 

After Botha had sliced Adams to Samit Patel in the gully for 67, his best score for Warwickshire, Trott was lucky to survive his second ball with an inside edge which narrowly missed the stumps.

 

But the right-hander remained positive with a series of drives on either side of the wicket to post his fifty from only 39 balls.

 

Read rotated his bowlers regularly in a bid to upset the batsmen's rhythm but found little joy, with Trott's edge off Samit Patel on 56 representing a half-chance which slip Ali Brown failed to reach.

 

Trott reached his century after tea by pulling Patel for four, and it took the new ball for Nottinghamshire to finally break through, with Sidebottom's sharp in-swinger trapping Trott lbw.

 

 

Interesting column from Adam Mountford at the beeb about who will come into the middle order.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adammountford/2...r_the_oval.html

 

I am not sure I can remember so much speculation ahead of the naming of an England cricket squad.

 

Seemingly every single person I have met since watching England's demise at Headingley has an opinion on which 11 players should be walking out at The Oval on Thursday, 20 August.

 

Many people don't just have an opinion, they claim somehow to know exactly who is going to be selected.

 

In the last couple of days I have been told that, without a doubt, Marcus Trescothick is going to return, that Rob Key will definitely feature and that the selectors will surprise all of us and barely make any changes at all.

 

Part of my job as the BBC cricket producer is to send reporters around the country and it has been quite a challenge to make sure all the contenders for The Oval are being watched by members of the BBC team.

 

So far apart from Key most of those vying for batting places for the deciding Test have not exactly been pulling up trees with failures for Bopara, Trott and Shah.

 

Mark Ramprakash

 

Then there is the case for the recall of Mark Ramprakash. As you may have heard in BBC Sport's special interview, the prolific Surrey batsman says he is both available and confident he could do a good job for England at his home ground - although as yet he tells us the selectors have not been in touch.

 

Although the form of Ramprakash at county level over the past four years certainly makes a really strong case for inclusion, I fear the story may go the way of the summer's other great sporting comebacks with Tom Watson, Michael Schumacher and Lance Armstrong not quite completing the fairytale returns that were hoped for by sporting romantics.

 

However I'm a sporting romantic rather than a realist, so for what it is worth I have stuck him in the side I would select for The Oval:

 

Strauss, Cook, Key, Collingwood, Ramprakash, Prior, Flintoff, Broad, Swann, Harmison, Anderson. 12th man: Panesar.

 

I have gone for Key as he is the sort of unflappable character who should be able to cope with the pressure of an Ashes decider and I have gone for Ramps batting at five. I have included Monty Panesar in the 12 just in case the pitch looks like it might be a spinner's wicket.

 

Now I would love to know what you make of this squad - but I will qualify my suggestions with the following.

 

I do not think for a moment this is what England will do and to be honest I don't really think it is what they should do. Let's face, it a week or so ago England were favourites to win the Ashes and consistency in selection is one of the major improvements in English cricket in modern times.

 

But this is a one-off cup final. England must do all they can to win this game. Like many better qualified judges I reckon that Ravi Bopara will come good and Ian Bell is surely too good a player to be discarded for long. But at Headingley, Bopara and Bell looked like players very short of confidence, and we might as well take a risk in a match like this.

 

It is impossible to predict which way the selectors will go - but it promises to be a fascinating listen on Sunday morning at 0930 BST when the England squad is revealed during BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek.

 

It should be a really good weekend for cricket fans with the ever-popular Twenty20 Cup Finals Day on Saturday filling the void while we all get geared up for next week's Ashes climax.

 

We are keeping our fingers crossed for good weather, but if the sun shines in Birmingham then Edgbaston should be a lively venue again with the supporters of Northamptonshire, Sussex, Kent and Somerset likely to make plenty of noise.

 

It is one of my favourite days in the cricket calendar and has produced some fantastic drama over the years.

 

We will have ball-by-ball commentary on BBC 5 live sports extra from 1115 BST with our team including Simon Hughes, Simon Mann, Alison Mitchell and Kevin Howells along with Chris Adams and Phil Tufnell.

 

And I can exclusively reveal that Tuffers has been specially selected to commentate on the legendary mascot race this year - it should be worth tuning in for that moment alone!

 

I would swap Harmison for Sidebottom, but otherwise I've got no real problems with that. Onions would replace Panesar at 12th man as well.

Edited August 14, 2009 by FrankSidebottom

[Devon Malcolm]

I would swap Harmison for Sidebottom, but otherwise I've got no real problems with that. Onions would replace Panesar at 12th man as well.

 

Yeah. Monty would drop the drinks.

 

There's no way Harmison should be going anywhere near the international team from now on. But just you watch. He'll go away, start plunking batsmen on the head for fun for Durham before the end of the season and everyone will be clamouring for him to go to South Africa in the winter, conveniently forgetting that he's been bollocks for England for about 4 years now. It's like he's got one of those things from Men In Black.

 

But yes, Sidebottom in for me as well. Nice bit of variety in the attack then. I still wouldn't bring in Key though. Trott in for Bell and in at 3, Bopara down to 5.

[Harvey Dent]

I just don't think you can put Collingwood at 4, especially if we lost a couple of quick wickets and he'd have to face the Aussie front line with a relativly new ball. I can't see them picking Ramps, although they probably should. Tresco has now said he definatly wouldn't do it which is a shame but not unexpected. With all that in mind I predict:

 

Strauss

Cook

Bell

Trott

Collingwood

Prior

Flintoff

Broad

Swann

Anderson

Onions

 

 

But if it were up to me, and I could do what I like, I'd go:

 

Strauss

Trescothick

Cook

Key

Ramprakash

Collingwood

Prior

Flintoff

Broad

Swann

Anderson

 

Edited August 14, 2009 by Andy Of Deth

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

It is difficult to bring in players for their test debut, let alone the last match of an Ashes series. So I would go as follows for this one test only.

 

Cook

Strauss

Ramprakash

Prior

Collingwood

Flintoff

Foster

Broad

Swann

Anderson

Onions

 

Prior is a batsman pretending to be a 'keeper despite his better showing with the gloves this series, so let him play as a specialist batsman. Bring in Foster who has played a few tests and is a better 'keeper anyway. Foster is no mug with the bat either.

 

Ramps is a tough call, but he has averaged over a hundred for the past 2 years and is a far more laid back character than he was when he last played test cricket. Back when he last played his nickname in the dressing room was Brian Bloodaxe.

[Devon Malcolm]

It is difficult to bring in players for their test debut, let alone the last match of an Ashes series. So I would go as follows for this one test only.

 

Cook

Strauss

Ramprakash

Prior

Collingwood

Flintoff

Foster

Broad

Swann

Anderson

Onions

 

That team makes no sense at all. If Prior's done a good job as keeper then why bring in another keeper who isn't even one of the best keeper-batsmen in the country. Even if you did that, which I definitely wouldn't, you'd be better off going with Steven Davies or Tim Ambrose as they are both better batsmen. But playing two keepers won't win us a test match!

 

This would be my team:-

 

Strauss

Moore

Cook

Collingwood

Bopara

Prior

Flintoff

Broad

Swann

Anderson

Sidebottom / Rashid (depending on the pitch)

 

Move Cook to 3 as he's made hundreds there for England and I like having 3 openers in the top 3. Let Bopara bat lower down and give him less pressure and allow him to play his strokes more freely. Get shot of Bell and Harmison and maybe go in with Rashid as a second spinner as The Oval often turns. He would give us more batting too and he got a hundred yesterday for Yorkshire. Stephen Moore is probably the most in-form opener around and would give us a right-left hand combination at the top which is always beneficial.

Edited August 14, 2009 by Setting Sun

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Allowing Prior to play just as batsman would bring out the best in his batting. He would be a better bet in the middle order than Bell, Trott, or Bopara imo. As for bringing in a wicketkeeper-batsman, that is not what I want to do. Foster is miles ahead of any other 'keeper in the country and as a bonus he can bat a bit as well. Prior's style is the closest thing we have to Pietersen, and that is not something you should be diluting by making him keep wicket as well.

[Devon Malcolm]

But Prior's done perfectly fine in this series with the gloves. In fact, he's done great his whole test career and the vast majority of his first class career as such too. Foster would just be a wasted position as far as I'm concerned - we need players who can win a test match and he can't or won't.

[Harvey Dent]

I agree playing Prior and Foster makes absolutly no sense. Sure Foster is great behind the stumps, especially standing up, but Prior has been solid all series with the gloves and that doesn't affect his batting at all.

 

I'd like to keep Bopara in, but I just think his confidence is shot at the moment and if anyone knows that its the Aussies, they'll be chipping away at him and I just think he needs to sit this one out, its winner take all. Of course he might play and go the other way completely and get a double hundred.

 

And as I've said many times, you just can't have Collingwood at 4. He's solid down the order but he's just not a test match number 4. Sidebottom might be a good shout, his left arm gives us variation, but I just think Onions has done well and he's been taking wickets this week aswell. Fred will come back in for Harmison, I'm pretty sure of that.

Edited August 14, 2009 by Andy Of Deth