Cricket

Shocked to hear the sad news, of this great cricketer. RIP Shane Warne

F***ing shattered when I read the news Saturday morning local time.

Legend and he's a Victorian just like me

Naming the Southern Stand at The MCG the Shane Keith Warne Stand in his honour.

RIP Warnie you absolute Legend.

Gone to soon. RIP.

The Roses match tonight was a F***ing belter.

I'll always be a Test match man first but you can't help but love the good last ball drama in a T20 match.

Yorkshire need 10 off 3. Hit a four to require 6 off 2. Lancashire bowl a no-ball for waist high, resulting in a free hit for Yorkshire leaving them needing 3 off 2. They get 2. One off the final of the innings and Lancs bowl a cracker, hitting Harry Brook's pad plumb in front for a LBW.

Match drawn.

In much more sombre news, today was also the funeral of former Aussie all-rounder Andrew Symonds who died in a car crash a couple of weeks back. Hasn't been a good couple of months for the Aussies with Rod Marsh, Shane Warne and Symonds all leaving us in such a short space of time of one another.

Sky and Lord's will be paying tribute to Warne during the first Test between England and New Zealand, which starts next Thursday. I'm sure they'll mention both Marsh and Symonds as well.

Yes Lancashire didn't field very well..but this Yorkie Harry Brook looks like a decent player, bit one dayish but he's in the test squad for New Zealand. Not a great test of what he can do but still looks Ok.

Same old England in this first Test. Whittle the Kiwis down to 36-6, then struggle against the lower order as usual. End up dismissing them for a 132, which if offered at the start of the day we'd certainly of taken.

Then, for a change, our opening batsmen realise that they're in the team to score runs and actually do so. Given us a decent start of 59-0. And then it's back to same old England. Joe Root coming to the crease with us two down before we've hit three figures. His dismissal left us 92-3. And then they just kept falling, all out for a 141 with a lead of 9.

After the opening stand between Crawley (43) and Lees (25) only Root (11) scored double figures.

Not expecting miracles from the Stokes/McCullum combination straight away but something has to change mentally because these batting collapses are all too common with this group of players. Root's captaincy gets slaughtered and rightfully so with some of the decisions he made as captain but if the players you're leading are constantly having collapses like 8 wickets for 49 runs then you're not going to win many Test matches no matter which bowlers you pick.

Time for the New Zealand second innings to start. So I'm gonna go and catch an hour or so before I go to work.

Weather permitting,  don't think we will see much play at the weekend

NZ 128-4 second innings. Decent position going into tea.

Joe F***ing Root lad.

10,000 Test runs.

England win by 5 wickets. Basically NZ made a mess of their second innings. Lost last 6 wickets for 34. Still great knock by Root 115no.

Stokes can thank Root for a great start.

So pleased for Joe Root it was very fitting he got the winning runs 115 of them think we bowled very well at times with our two pensioners being brought out of retirement.

So pleased for Joe Root it was very fitting he got the winning runs 115 of them think we bowled very well at times with our two pensioners being brought out of retirement.

Bad reflection on up and coming pace bowlers that the two old timers still getting a game. They can still do OK in England but they're not the future. No decent spinners knocking about really. Parky's not going to be anything long term either.

Excellent win for England in the end, where we would be without root is anyone's guess. Good start to the new regime but a long way to go

What an innings from Root.

That de Grandhomme no ball was massive, England probably would have collapsed again had Stokes gone at that point.

Bad reflection on up and coming pace bowlers that the two old timers still getting a game. They can still do OK in England but they're not the future. No decent spinners knocking about really. Parky's not going to be anything long term either.

just pick the best men for the job age isnt a barrier in sport now as it used to be if they get wickets they should be picked same for all bowlers

Bad reflection on up and coming pace bowlers that the two old timers still getting a game. They can still do OK in England but they're not the future. No decent spinners knocking about really. Parky's not going to be anything long term either.

To be fair, we've got six or seven pace bowlers out injured at the minute. Archer, Woakes, Robinson, Stone, Wood, Curran, Mahmood are all long-term absentees. On top of that, Broad and Anderson are still two of the best bowlers in the world - not just for England. And that's why they're still getting a game because they're that good.

The spinning issue has been around for donkeys because they don't get enough help in the county game. The early weeks of the season are played when the balls hooping around with the cloud cover so it's the seam and swing bowlers who get the majority of bowling time. Then it's time for the white-ball portion of the season. And with the addition of The Hundred, it's only getting worse for spinners in first-class cricket. Parkinson is the only spinner with over 15 wickets in Division 1 this season, closest two to him are Danny Briggs (13) and Jack Leach (12). So almost by default, he has to be our spinner. And I wouldn't write him off just yet.

With Moeen's retirement though, a lower order batsmen and part-time spinner has potentially become available and one man who could fit that bill is Liam Livingstone. I know he's becoming more a white-ball specialist but there's certainly a place in our Test team for him. At the very least we need to give him a chance. Also with another all-rounder in the team, I can see Stokes becoming more of a batsman than an all-rounder. It was evident in the first Test that he didn't really want to bowl himself.

Another quality Roses match just then.

Lancs beating Yorkshire at Headingly isn't going to sit well with the White Rose.

Lancashire make an impressive 214 off 20 then try their best to hand victory to Yorkshire. In fact Yourshire deseved to win it. And nearly did thanks to sloppy bowling and some poor fielding by Lancashire.

We’ve won the toss and will bowl first in the second Test.

We’re unchanged but New Zealand have lost Williamson to covid, which is a shame because it not only weakens the Kiwis considerably but it also prevents us getting the chance to see one of the worlds batsmen

We’ve won the toss and will bowl first in the second Test.

We’re unchanged but New Zealand have lost Williamson to covid, which is a shame because it not only weakens the Kiwis considerably but it also prevents us getting the chance to see one of the worlds batsmen

Ok then maybe it hasn’t weakened them at all because they’re F***ing twatting us in this Test.

434-5 on a game where we won the toss and elected to bowl

Finally bowled them out for 553 with all 10 wickets coming from catches.

Our reply is already one down with Crawley going early.

6-1.

Lees dropped in the slips by Mitchell - who himself was dropped by Root on 3 and went on to make 190. Can Alex do the same now?

Lees dropped in the slips by Mitchell - who himself was dropped by Root on 3 and went on to make 190. Can Alex do the same now?

Gonna need to. Bang up against it here England. You just feel it will be down to stokes and root again though. So much better than the other batters.

Love the unbridled optimism of England cricket fans, 1 wicket down and people are talking about an innings defeat, contrast to a lot of england football fans and the sense of entitlement