Be Excellent To Each Other

we've got this on the screens at work at the moment.

Jimmy Anderson takes a wicket second over.

3-1 after three overs.

Come on England!

Sorry, didn't see this. Any chance we can force a result today? I'm saying it's looking unlikely. I can't see us bowling them out and then having enough time to knock off the runs - we needed two or three wickets last night to stand a chance.

I agree. We needed a couple of wickets last night. Monty got close, but their batsmen looked fairly comfortable. I think if we hadn't lost the best part of two days to rain, we'd have managed to get a decent lead over the Kiwis and would win the match. As it is, barring a spectacular collapse, it's a draw.

NZ effectively 17 for 2 at the moment.

We need 2-3 more wickets by lunch. The draw is still looking favourite by a long way.

It's been a painful weekend in the cricket it seems with Flynn taking that ball in the visor and losing a couple of teeth as a result. Last night it was Chanderpaul in the WI vs Aus match getting smacked on the back of the head by a bouncer and getting knocked out cold. A few minutes later he was up and completing his 100!

Excellent stuff from England this morning with them winning the match by an innings and 9 runs with the best part of two days left.

Myoptika might disagree with the joy as to how quickly it ended.

But yes, it was nice to see.

Yesterday's match was rather good too. Although Kevin Pietersen's two left-handed sixes seem to have led to a fair bit of debate as to whether the shot should be allowed.

I say allow it, as it is frikkin' awesome.

Either way though, the lbw law will need to be amended.

It takes more than a small amount of skill, and I'd guess most people who attempt it would get it horribly wrong. I'd say if anyone is that good, by all means let them.

No it doesn't. The laws of the game states that the batsman's offside and legside will be set when the ball is in play. This is when the bowler starts his run-up, rather than at the time the ball's bowled as most people think.

Therefore, if KP switches his grip and the ball goes down legside as a left-handed batsman, it's not a legside wide as it's still his offside.

Phew. I hope you understand that. I'm not sure I do.

I watched a bit of a twenty20 game yesterday where one bloke attempted it twice.. worked the first time, looked a fool the second.

Makes perfect sense to me, though given that switchign stances is an advantage for the batsman, I'd like to see them change the lbw law so that if you do it, it doesn't matter where the ball pitches as long as it hits you in line with the stumps, removing the 'outside leg stump' rule.

Doubt that it'd ever really be put to the test though.

Still, nice for cricket to make a few headlines.

P.S. Nice bashing by Luke Wright until the rain came in...

A complete farce there, really. Both teams still could've won it if they'd bowled six more balls.

Yup. Bet the fans weren't too impressed at that. Ian Botham certainly wasn't during the commentary.

That was effing useless. Broad bowls beautifully and Tremlett supports him well... we get them on the rack... and then decide to just let them sedately rack up a competitive score, amply aided by Jimmy Anderson's 975th shitty match with the ball.

Still, an easily gettable total unless people play a lot of rash shots... oops there goes Wright... and KP out to a lazy shot... God knows what Bell was thinking... au revoir Bopara... Shah... Ambrose (get him out of the one day side please!)... dear God!

Terrible performance from all but about three or four of our players.

64-2 off 14 overs so far for England - not a great start.

Anyone see the Twenty20 game on Sky 1 last night with Napier getting 152 from 58 balls.

Didn't see the Twenty20 game.

Pietersen is getting more and more annoying though. Didn't try to play himself in at all, just tried to hit a six from his second ball and got caught out. Muppet.

Now we're relying on Ian Bell, whose only redeeming feature is that he supports Aston Villa.

Plenty of ill-feeling at the end of that one. Made for an exciting finish but I'd rather have seen that run-out as a dead ball or something.

England=rubbish.

Meanwhile, in Daylight Britain... England are handing out a spanking in the 3rd test.

92-5 currently

100-6!!!

Considering this is reckoned to be one of the greatest batting lineups of all time we're playing (though not as strong as when they were in their pomp, perhaps), to have skittled them for under 300 in four successive attempts (with surely a 5th to follow) is extremely impressive from our bowlers... and without Swann even having to contribute!