Quite heart-breaking what Gus Atkinson and his family have been through over the past four years. Court hearings in recent weeks to sentence the driver who killed his mother. All while he turned in record-breaking performances in his first tests.
Had no idea, absolutely horrific way to lose someone close to you.
Glad they caught up with and extradited the scumbag.
In the Blast, I see Sibley scored 67 at a strike rate of 139.58 with 2 sixes. Quite a transformation from the England snail!
Was there tonight and without taking anything away from his innings - and I certainly am due some humble pie after things I said about him pre game. But, a couple of points.
Durham clearly had never heard of him as they set fields to him as though he was peak Jo's Buttler which allowed him to largely play proper cricket shots throughout (with a couple more unconventional as the game was nearly done -see ramp shot for his 50). Blocking his areas could have dried him up and created pressure.
As relatively low chase suits his game and he spent periods anchoring the innings without ever really going under a run a ball. If we were chasing 200 he wouldn't have been able to have those periods without building pressure for the other guy.
There was a period when Parkinson and Sowter started bowling in tandem where for about 4 overs him and Sam Curran were becalmed. 4 overs without a boundary if I'm correct. They knocked the 1s but there were dots and the required rate was climbing. Sam then suddenly took them on which created the freedom for Sibley to score a bit quicker as gaps appeared in the field. Had Sam got out at that point it could have been a different story
We will likely feel hard done by when he's dropped for finals day but it will be the right call as Pope, Smith, Lawrence and Atkinson return from England duty. Not sure who we lose to the white ball squads but likely a few of Sam Curran, Jacks, Topley, Tom Curran, Jordan.
Josh Hull will make his debut in place of Potts on Friday.
Harsh on Potts unless he's unfit, and while I can understand having Hull in the setup to give him experience, it's quite another thing to give him a game ahead of many other bowlers around the country.
Will be interesting to see tonight's Blast QF - Lancs with Jennings ,Salt, Livingstone,Luke Wood, Saqib Mahmood and Tom Hartley all allowed to play Vs Sussex with the Archer,Robinson,Mills attack all available.
Josh Hull will make his debut in place of Potts on Friday.
Harsh on Potts unless he's unfit, and while I can understand having Hull in the setup to give him experience, it's quite another thing to give him a game ahead of many other bowlers around the country.
I guess Potts gets 2 tests, Stone gets 2 tests and they get to look at Hull in a test match. I can understand the logic
A 20 year old fast bowler in Josh Hull who is over two meters tall is being fast tracked to the England team to see if he can emulate the teenagers Shoaib Bashir and Rehan Ahmed when the two spinners were fast tracked to the squad when they had hardly played much first class cricket.
Now the right arm off-break bowler Bashir at 20 looks to have a long career ahead of him and Ahmed also just 20 the wrist spinner will bounce back.
Potts shouldn't be discarded and will Stone stay fit ? Wood will always need to be used sparingly despite being the express bowler.
Atkinson is just off the radar and it might be best if Gus retired now to keep his average high 🧐😀
We are using these Tests to throw "fast bowlers against the wall" and see who sticks. Anderson and Broad have retired, Archer probably won't be fit for a Test series again, Robinson has been discarded and Woakes won't be going to Australia either. So, it really is a case of giving as many as possible a chance especially in the knowledge that some of them will be out injured anyway come the time of selection.
Does feel like Key has a "type" with the quicks they're picking , seems like they want to go to Aus with a group of pace bowlers that can all hit high 80s or 90mph+. Of course that comes with risks - Archer,Wood , Tongue and Stone have all had injuries. If Josh Hull can bowl late 80s early 90s at 6ft 7 I can see why he's an interesting prospect to have a look at, just a bit concerned that he's barely played any red ball cricket at all.
McCullum has an enviable knack of picking the right bowlers at exactly the right time to make their debuts. I hope Josh Hull turns out to be a continuation of this run of awesome picks.
Two years ago, Will Jacks was picked for his first Test and returned six first innings wickets as England won in Pakistan. A couple of weeks later, Rehan Ahmed took five, second innings wickets (and seven in the match) to seal a series whitewash on his Test debut. Last summer, Josh Tongue's debut saw him on the Lord's honours board, with a second innings 5-66. This year, Tom Hartley bowled England to a victory in India with 7-62 on his debut. And this summer, Gus Atkinson's debut saw him make the honours board, twice, with 7-45 and 5-61 at Lord's on debut, versus the West Indies.
McCullum's record of picking bowlers who perform brilliantly, immediately on elevation to the Test team is spectacular. Yes, he may have been forced to bring in new players due to a plethora of injuries and a brace of retirements. But he's done a bloody good job so far.
I know it’s mad but I have a hunch they’re going to take Woakes down to NZ and use it as a tester for Aus
I still think there's a place for a Woakes type seamer in Australia - Scotty Boland I know was a complete non factor over here but he caused all kinds of problems in Aussie conditions. With the amount of injuries we seem to get to fast bowlers I don't really think it's feasible to just take a group of big quicks so there's definitely a chance for a Woakes.
Absolutely ridiculous that the finals day sides won't have their England players because of some meaningless T20 series with Australia.
Could the ECB not have picked a bloated squad then allowed any players in the 4 teams at finals day to not play. To my reckoning its:
Surrey - S.Curran, Jacks, Topley (plus Atkinson & Smith if the ODIs mean they can't play)
Sussex - Archer
Northants - None.
Somerset - None.
Birmingham Bears - Mousley, Bethell
Gloucestershire - None.
So I think there's 5 players that can't play. Surely England could've selected a few more players then release those players to play for their counties?
Before they went out to bat, their captain probably said, "well we can't bat any worse than when we were all out for 17 against Hong Kong last week".....
Spare a thought for anyone who has a ticket at the Oval tomorrow..including me
We're going, the forecast has improved and it could even stay dry, with maybe just a shower (maybe heavy) in the afternoon. It could be quite warm.
I haven't seen the latest forecast but at lunchtime it seemed like rain until early afternoon tomorrow......and then more rain throughout the day Sat & showers on Sunday.
England head coach Brendon McCullum has admitted he and his team are in the dark as speculation mounts over whether their three Tests in Pakistan in October could be moved to another country.
England are due to play Tests in Multan, Karachi and Rawalpindi from October 7 but, according to reports in Pakistan, some or all of the tour could be moved to the United Arab Emirates or Sri Lanka because some venues are being refurbished.
Rawalpindi was recently the venue for both Tests in Pakistan’s series against Bangladesh – which they lost 2-0 – but upgrades are taking place there, and in Karachi and Lahore, with an eye on the 2025 Champions Trophy, which is due to take place in the country.
Absolutely ridiculous that the finals day sides won't have their England players because of some meaningless T20 series with Australia.
Could the ECB not have picked a bloated squad then allowed any players in the 4 teams at finals day to not play. To my reckoning its:
Surrey - S.Curran, Jacks, Topley (plus Atkinson & Smith if the ODIs mean they can't play)
Sussex - Archer
Northants - None.
Somerset - None.
Birmingham Bears - Mousley, Bethell
Gloucestershire - None.
So I think there's 5 players that can't play. Surely England could've selected a few more players then release those players to play for their counties?
Overton called up now as well. Apparently Stewart has said ECB haven't yet said whether they will release test players or insist they rest so potentially Lawrence and Pope also unavailable. Makes a mockery of the whole thing really. 8 players potentially unavailable due to England. Couple injuries and Roy swanning off at the CPL or wherever he is this month and that's a whole team missing.
I know it’s mad but I have a hunch they’re going to take Woakes down to NZ and use it as a tester for Aus
I still think there's a place for a Woakes type seamer in Australia - Scotty Boland I know was a complete non factor over here but he caused all kinds of problems in Aussie conditions. With the amount of injuries we seem to get to fast bowlers I don't really think it's feasible to just take a group of big quicks so there's definitely a chance for a Woakes.
A Woakes type bowler , yes . Not Woakes . I think he’s only there because he bats . He seems a great guy and he has a great record here
Absolutely ridiculous that the finals day sides won't have their England players because of some meaningless T20 series with Australia.
Could the ECB not have picked a bloated squad then allowed any players in the 4 teams at finals day to not play. To my reckoning its:
Surrey - S.Curran, Jacks, Topley (plus Atkinson & Smith if the ODIs mean they can't play)
Sussex - Archer
Northants - None.
Somerset - None.
Birmingham Bears - Mousley, Bethell
Gloucestershire - None.
So I think there's 5 players that can't play. Surely England could've selected a few more players then release those players to play for their counties?
Overton called up now as well. Apparently Stewart has said ECB haven't yet said whether they will release test players or insist they rest so potentially Lawrence and Pope also unavailable. Makes a mockery of the whole thing really. 8 players potentially unavailable due to England. Couple injuries and Roy swanning off at the CPL or wherever he is this month and that's a whole team missing.
Rob Key is going to call up the entire Surrey squad for the England white ball series to make sure Surrey don't win the Blast
Seriously, the scheduling of the Blast this summer has been ridiculous. Crazy to have the long gap between the group phase and knockout games (so that most of the overseas players have disappeared) and scheduling the England white ball series against it shows the lack of respect for the competition now.
I think we can safely say that the experiment of Lawrence opening is one of the few that hasn't worked for McCullum
I think that was sort of the plan really. He gets a go having been the spare bat for ages but now can’t have any complaints if an opener is brought in in front of him in future. Never any chance we’d lose the series so worth the punt just in case it worked
Seriously, the scheduling of the Blast this summer has been ridiculous. Crazy to have the long gap between the group phase and knockout games (so that most of the overseas players have disappeared) and scheduling the England white ball series against it shows the lack of respect for the competition now.
A lack of respect to ALL county competitions. They've already dictated that most of the CC is played at either end of the season, consigned the 50 over comp to becoming a 2nd XI contest and now totally reduced the importance of the T20. But then they're trying to sell their main asset to the highest bidders and don't want the distraction of anything else interfering.
Comments
Glad they caught up with and extradited the scumbag.
Durham clearly had never heard of him as they set fields to him as though he was peak Jo's Buttler which allowed him to largely play proper cricket shots throughout (with a couple more unconventional as the game was nearly done -see ramp shot for his 50). Blocking his areas could have dried him up and created pressure.
As relatively low chase suits his game and he spent periods anchoring the innings without ever really going under a run a ball. If we were chasing 200 he wouldn't have been able to have those periods without building pressure for the other guy.
There was a period when Parkinson and Sowter started bowling in tandem where for about 4 overs him and Sam Curran were becalmed. 4 overs without a boundary if I'm correct. They knocked the 1s but there were dots and the required rate was climbing. Sam then suddenly took them on which created the freedom for Sibley to score a bit quicker as gaps appeared in the field. Had Sam got out at that point it could have been a different story
We will likely feel hard done by when he's dropped for finals day but it will be the right call as Pope, Smith, Lawrence and Atkinson return from England duty. Not sure who we lose to the white ball squads but likely a few of Sam Curran, Jacks, Topley, Tom Curran, Jordan.
Harsh on Potts unless he's unfit, and while I can understand having Hull in the setup to give him experience, it's quite another thing to give him a game ahead of many other bowlers around the country.
Now the right arm off-break bowler Bashir at 20 looks to have a long career ahead of him and Ahmed also just 20 the wrist spinner will bounce back.
Potts shouldn't be discarded and will Stone stay fit ?
Wood will always need to be used sparingly despite being the express bowler.
Atkinson is just off the radar and it might be best if Gus retired now to keep his average high 🧐😀
Two years ago, Will Jacks was picked for his first Test and returned six first innings wickets as England won in Pakistan. A couple of weeks later, Rehan Ahmed took five, second innings wickets (and seven in the match) to seal a series whitewash on his Test debut. Last summer, Josh Tongue's debut saw him on the Lord's honours board, with a second innings 5-66. This year, Tom Hartley bowled England to a victory in India with 7-62 on his debut. And this summer, Gus Atkinson's debut saw him make the honours board, twice, with 7-45 and 5-61 at Lord's on debut, versus the West Indies.
McCullum's record of picking bowlers who perform brilliantly, immediately on elevation to the Test team is spectacular. Yes, he may have been forced to bring in new players due to a plethora of injuries and a brace of retirements. But he's done a bloody good job so far.
I still think there's a place for a Woakes type seamer in Australia - Scotty Boland I know was a complete non factor over here but he caused all kinds of problems in Aussie conditions. With the amount of injuries we seem to get to fast bowlers I don't really think it's feasible to just take a group of big quicks so there's definitely a chance for a Woakes.
Could the ECB not have picked a bloated squad then allowed any players in the 4 teams at finals day to not play. To my reckoning its:
Surrey - S.Curran, Jacks, Topley (plus Atkinson & Smith if the ODIs mean they can't play)
Sussex - Archer
Northants - None.
Somerset - None.
Birmingham Bears - Mousley, Bethell
Gloucestershire - None.
So I think there's 5 players that can't play. Surely England could've selected a few more players then release those players to play for their counties?
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/icc-men-s-t20-world-cup-asia-qualifier-a-2024-1447465/mongolia-vs-singapore-14th-match-1447490/full-scorecard
At that point things were even stevens.
Before someone says it's ITV, their forecasts are far more reliable than BBC.