The cricket thread

scrumhalf

Broad is bowling better than I've seen him bowl for a while. None of the repeated bang-it-in-short stuff that doesn't work. 

Heartfeltdawn

@earwighoney the injury resulted from a genetic abnormality from birth. After the injury the surgeon found I had very shallow grooves on the femur that help keep the kneecap in place and very long tendons. This gave an element of hyperflexibility to my legs. Unfortunately in this case the hyperflexibility kicked in as I was chasing a ball from short extra cover to deep extra. The left leg flexed the wrong way in full stride, I heard a snap, a quick thought of "This is going to hurt" went through my head followed by a series of barrel rolls. The operation to repair everything involved both an osteotomy and tibial tubercle transfer.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/knee-osteotomy/about/pac-20394514

In the words of my surgeon: you have pubescent girls knees. he said that my knee had dislocated to a small degree every time I'd bowled. Given that I'd bowled some 600 overs in matches when I was 21, let alone practice where i'd bowled for six hours just at some stumps on my own sometimes, we're talking micro-dislocation in the hundreds of thousands. It was a matter of when, not if, my knee would eventually collapse. It's more akin to a stress fracture than the conventional trauma shock-type kinee injury like Jones had in Australia. 

Martin Crowe had the same surgery done when he was 40 and said this at the time: 

"After retirement, Crowe underwent an operation to his knee. "By the time I was 40, I couldn't even walk. I had a major operation called an osteotomy; it gives you 15 years of interim relief until you are old enough to have an artificial knee. I have felt good with this operation in the last 4-5 years. I have been playing regular golf and walking with no discomfort. I just feel I need to do a little bit more as I am lacking focus on something. So I have come up with this."

I was 27 when I had my operation: I'm 42 next year and I'm doing everything possible to avoid a knee replacement. Changed my diet, changed how I exercise, everything.

I was a pretty good cricketer, played in a good league, played for a Minor County at all age groups available to me, and had two county coaches say they'd have given me a summer contract had I been to a private school. Back in those days there was a lot of class snobbery in the West in cricket. I bowled leg breaks with a bizarre action that was very repeatable and stemmed from having very flexible shoulders and arms. Used to get a lot of bounce and actually put quite a few people (batsmen and keepers) in hospital with the overspin bounce I could get. I completely miss bowling and haven't done so since 2011 when playing in a Ministry of Defence match. I bowled alright but couldn't walk for two days. There's so little cartilage left in the left knee that I don't road run any longer. Remember Ledley King with Spurs and how he couldn't train conventionally and two matches a week was a stretch for him? That's how my knee is. With the screws and metal in there, temperature changes can cause it to lock up. The number of times I've had to hop through the chilled sections in supermarkets... 

Virdi is going to be one hell of a bowler. Living as I do in Sutton, I waited to see him play for his Surrey league side at a venue close to me and was not disappointed. He's not a gym bunny and there is talk of his overall fitness but he has so much natural ability as an offspinner, excellent control and flight and seems to find the right pace to bowl on a wicket very quickly. 

Sigh. All this talk of cricket makes me want to return and become a piechucker for a 4th XI somewhere  
 

scrumhalf

Poor umpiring. 

earwighoney

Heartfeltdawn said:

Virdi is going to be one hell of a bowler. Living as I do in Sutton, I waited to see him play for his Surrey league side at a venue close to me and was not disappointed. He's not a gym bunny and there is talk of his overall fitness but he has so much natural ability as an offspinner, excellent control and flight and seems to find the right pace to bowl on a wicket very quickly. 

Sigh. All this talk of cricket makes me want to return and become a piechucker for a 4th XI somewhere  
 

Bloody hell that sounds brutally painful.  Thanks for the info though and sorry to hear of your troubles. 

Regarding the class snobbery, I'd say it's still around!  Probably as bad as it once was though. My nephew plays a fair amount of cricket and some of the insights seem to suggest for junior cricket there is still a hierarchy, eg public school/grammar, then club politics. 

What club does Virdi play for?  I'm not a million miles from Sutton, my nephew plays down the road. 

As for being a Piechucker, go for it if your knees can handle it?  You thought about umpiring though? 

earwighoney

scrumhalf said:

Poor umpiring. 

Aleem Dar's finger going up has no correlation to what actually has happened? 

Seriously if this is the best standard of officiating then it bears very poorly for the standard of the game. 

Heartfeltdawn

earwighoney said:

Bloody hell that sounds brutally painful.  Thanks for the info though and sorry to hear of your troubles. 

Regarding the class snobbery, I'd say it's still around!  Probably as bad as it once was though. My nephew plays a fair amount of cricket and some of the insights seem to suggest for junior cricket there is still a hierarchy, eg public school/grammar, then club politics. 

What club does Virdi play for?  I'm not a million miles from Sutton, my nephew plays down the road. 

As for being a Piechucker, go for it if your knees can handle it?  You thought about umpiring though? 

The snobbery thing dissipated for a while and the zenith was 2005. Fun fact: only two privately educated players represented England that summer in Tests. One was Simon Jones (Millfield). The other was KP who I recall being educated privately in SA. 

Virdi plays for Sunbury. Been playing quite a bit for them this season after his back injury before Surrey brought him back into the ranks. 

http://rp.play-cricket.com/website/player_stats_widget/fielding_stats/1153825?rule_type_id=179

scrumhalf

Should the teams be given an extra DRS appeal if the umpires are overruled a certain number of times?

earwighoney

Heartfeltdawn said:

earwighoney said:

Bloody hell that sounds brutally painful.  Thanks for the info though and sorry to hear of your troubles. 

Regarding the class snobbery, I'd say it's still around!  Probably as bad as it once was though. My nephew plays a fair amount of cricket and some of the insights seem to suggest for junior cricket there is still a hierarchy, eg public school/grammar, then club politics. 

What club does Virdi play for?  I'm not a million miles from Sutton, my nephew plays down the road. 

As for being a Piechucker, go for it if your knees can handle it?  You thought about umpiring though? 

The snobbery thing dissipated for a while and the zenith was 2005. Fun fact: only two privately educated players represented England that summer in Tests. One was Simon Jones (Millfield). The other was KP who I recall being educated privately in SA. 

Virdi plays for Sunbury. Been playing quite a bit for them this season after his back injury before Surrey brought him back into the ranks. 

http://rp.play-cricket.com/website/player_stats_widget/fielding_stats/1153825?rule_type_id=179

That's a good stat. 

Good info about Virdi.  Cheers. 

Heartfeltdawn

earwighoney said:

That's a good stat. 

Good info about Virdi.  Cheers. 

A wrong stat too: I forgot about Strauss (Malvern) and Bell. FAIL on my part. But still...

scrumhalf

Siddle's getting a bit too comfortable, we need to knock them over for about 180 and not be four down at the close. 

Heartfeltdawn

scrumhalf said:

Siddle's getting a bit too comfortable, we need to knock them over for about 180 and not be four down at the close. 

Sorry, it's written into the contract with Sky that we will be four down by the end of the day, thus ensuring maximum nerves tomorrow. 

Stuckfast

Told you we were right to keep faith with Mo! Good knock from Siddle though.

VimFuego

I actually could live with losing the series 5 - 0 just so long as we can get Warner out for 2 every innings. 

crunchman

Stuckfast said:

Told you we were right to keep faith with Mo! Good knock from Siddle though.

So that rank full toss was your fault!

Leach is still a better bowler.  If Ali was that good, why was Denly bowling a while back?

RandallFlagg

England leaking runs here, the ball has gone off with the moisture but it's just a matter of time and a bit more discipline and patience from the bowlers. I reckon up near 250 will be challenging enough for England though tomorrow.

camf

300 looming.

RandallFlagg

Weary bowling, Aus off the hook here. 122-8 is now 267-9 and as @camf says 300+ is on the cards. This last 1/2 hour could be very costly.

Steve Smith is annoyingly excellent.

Heartfeltdawn

Stuckfast said:

Told you we were right to keep faith with Mo! Good knock from Siddle though.

And if Mo ends up scoring less runs than Siddle in this Test, will the faith be challenged? 

Heartfeltdawn

RandallFlagg said:

Weary bowling, Aus off the hook here. 122-8 is now 267-9 and as @camf says 300+ is on the cards. This last 1/2 hour could be very costly.

Steve Smith is annoyingly excellent.

Dear Stuart Broad,

You have nearly 450 Test wickets. A lengthy career. A wealth of experience. Next time Joe Root gives you an awful bowling plan and field placings, tell him to piss off back to the slip cordon and focus on matching his oppo skipper's batting performances. 

PS: Do it. You're bigger than him. 

shrinkwrap

Typical gritty, Wickes P80, innings from Smith.