Cricket

I reckon Pakistan have got enough here.

Superb from the young lad.

Viva La Bazball

58-0 in 6 overs.
Not a bad T20 powerplay.

Mmm…

Telly playing compilation of innings highlights after 5 overs.

Collapse is on...

Sending Rehan in at first drop, fucking yes.

Absolutely classic.

Weeeeeee! Amazing. Square leg ump was in danger of copping the bat!

I reckon Pakistan have got enough here.

To take it into the fourth day... ;)

Amazing series. So entertaining to watch.

Feel for Pakistan. They played with heart.

How are they going to get their spirits up to play NZ next week?

It's an extraordinary achievement to win the series 3:0. With any other team it would have been 1, probably 2, draws.
Pakistan have never lost 60 wickets in 3 home tests before. Playing the game so fast has made that possible.

What a time to be alive

The commentariat's various views on England's current approach to playing are amusing.

Will it last? Will they crash?
Wait till they get to Oz

The theoretical background of risk v benefit has shown in other areas, like poker, that it produces more wins. It works.

I suppose the value of wickets over runs in test cricket makes it harder to find the right balance, or courage to experiment

At the moment it's creating a lot of success - the opposing teams are still trying to play in the traditional test manner, and seemingly can't cope when England constantly attack them.
As they are being successful it's only a matter of time before other teams adopt the same approach.
Whether they will be as successful will be interesting to see, but clearly teams like India have the players to do it.

Especially if you look at the Australian attack, they aren't used to being attacked - it's not so easy to bowl consistently good balls if you're getting carted for 8 an over. It put the pressure on the bowlers to come up with alternative plans, rather than the batters trying not to nick off to good deliveries the whole time.

Talking of nicking off, any chance of a James Vince recall? Can't see where he would fit in at the moment but I reckon he would enjoy the positive approach.

I'd guess he's behind Bairstow, Livingstone and Jacks. One of the quietly pleasing aspects of the past 12 months has been Pope's development - with him and Root now you feel that the batting line-up is more balanced than it has been for a while. Bowling strength also looking healthy with Broad, Archer (?), Potts etc waiting to come back into the mix...

Yeah I was thinking about Potts the other day. When Robinson was out it felt like Potts could take his spot, but he's come back even better. Guess it's just biding his time until Broad/Anderson final bid farewell.
Is Woakes totally out of the picture now?

Kinda forgotten about Archer but he would be useful against the Aussies. Wood has really stepped up in his absence but you can't see him playing a whole 5 tests.

Pope has really started to get settled but it probably helps take the pressure off when you've got Brook coming in behind you.

I totally forgot about Woakes! Mr Burns will not thank me for that oversight. I'm sure he'll come back into contention in England and possibly in NZ too where we should see some lateral movement. Sam Curran has to be an option too if his development continues. I doubt we'll ever see it due to injury records, but we could have Wood, Stone and Archer to rotate through a series for express pace and look to protect their bodies. I wonder if there was something about Potts not fitting in the group because his performances certainly didn't suggest he would have been dropped as abruptly as this.

Talking of nicking off, any chance of a James Vince recall? Can't see where he would fit in at the moment but I reckon he would enjoy the positive approach.

Instead of Crawley? Still not convinced he's the answer.

As they are being successful it's only a matter of time before other teams adopt the same approach.

Though (as Butch said on Sky), those teams will need the players able to play like that, and that country's press/fans able to forgive a fail or two

Other cricketing countries aren't coming off of a single victory in 17 Test matches.

No variation of 'bat long', 'daddy hundreds', 'crease occupation' or blaming the bowling attack for another batting collapse had worked, so something different was needed.
The Key/McCullum/Stokes change has released English cricketers from the existential fear of failure, (that was meant to be reduced, but clearly wasn't, by Central Contracts).

There is bound to be a massive failure of this approach at some point (at least in one innings) but the confidence they now have to battle from any position will be key to how they bounce back from that. Not going to be dull - that's for sure.

Wonder what Mike Brearly thinks if this approach