We dont like Cricket.....

First topic message reminder :

After the dust has settled on another amazing chapter in the life of MCFC my focus now turns to the busy summer of Test Match cricket. With the retirement of Collingwood all the early season talk has been about his replacement in the side, who can bring what Colly did? Grit, Determination, Impossible catches and some canny bowling when needed. The ECB chose Morgan, i'd have gone for Bopara personally because of the bowling option he gives, but no doubt Morgan is going to be a wonderfull player. so the line up for the 1st Test v Sri Lanka is likelly to be :

Strauss (c)
Cook
Trott
Pietersen
Bell
Morgan
Prior (wk)
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Tremlett

This side should be capable of beating Sri Lanka on home soil, despite the talent they still have in their squad even with the retirement of Murali (thank fuck). Dangermen IMO are : Jayawardene, Mendis and, after a great start to his Lancs career, Maharoof (if selected).

Here's to a great summer, and a little reminder of our last succesfull Test series win

What a fantastic end to the season, brilliant display......i'll join you Den

Oh Lanky Lanky.....Lanky Lanky Lanky Lanky Lancashire

What a win.

Lanky are CHAMPIONS!

Really pleased for chappy,top fella

Hey Si, along with Yorks getting relegated yesterday's it's turned out to be a perfect season.

After getting slapped within 2 days by Worcs, they really have shown some character since winning games that looked beyond them.



Well done lads, absolutely superb effort.

Just listened to some interviews with Keedy and Moores, the Lanky chants in the background, brings home the emotion of it. Another up and down season finally turns out in our favour. Very proud day for all involved.

another unbelievable win from out of nowhere

Absolutely fantastic ! First City, now Lancs, all I need now is England to win something & I'll be a very happy bunny



Didn't think I'd ever see the day when Lancashire won the title or City won anything!

England 189/9 on the first day, Matt Prior rescuing us from a terrible start. Looks like we have got the selection wrong, 2 spinners were a must (especially after Monty's performance in the warm ups) but the stubborn selection of Morgan (never a test player imo) will cost us in this match. 7 wickets for the spinners on the first day tells its own story. Lets hope the seamer's get more out the wicket than theirs did.

AMDP - most of the early wickets were down to bad shots. The spinners hardly spun the ball at all.

morgan attacked - which was needed - then he was out to a terrible shot.

prior has saved england's biffa.

I think our seamers will get a bit more out of the wicket than theirs did Si, so all's not lost just yet. The non-selection of Monty is a baffling decision if i'm being honest, we should definately have gone into this game with 2 spinners and 3 seamers as both Broad and Swann can hold a bat.

I think there's a case for dropping KP aswell as Morgan, he's done absolutely kak all for ages now.

We have never played spin/slow bowlers well, and i think most sides know that, but that was a particularly poor effort this morning. Only seen 4 of the wickets, but Sports Extra, and Vaughan in particular has criticised shot selection.

We do start series very poorly so i'm still hopeful, but they have not done much with the ball yet. I'm baffled they left out Monty, we have made this mistake so many times.

I'm with you on KP Den, the occasional ton when he is under pressure for his place is no good to us.

I watched the first hour or so before work
Why don't they use their feet to the spinners,playing back in their crease all the time invites trouble and lets them get on top.
Poor technique seemed to be the biggest problem

62 runs this morning in 80 minutes. long day in the field ahead methinks.

You could be right Dawg but the 1st wkt's just gone down at 114, we need 2 or 3 more before lunch to get back into this game.

lunch is in 20 mins, so don't really see that happening.

broad and swanny look most likely.

i expect a couple of wickets at least by tea.

I expect atleast 6 by tea, if not this game's gone. Positive thinker me .

this game is far from done as the tail don't wag.

pressure, or how to deal with it, is what will decide this game now.

1st innings deficite of 146, good opening stand required to get back into this.........what's the chances?

good stand and good chance. less than 50 and big trouble.

16-1 at lunch, brilliant, just brilliant!

26-3, we're gonna lose by an innings.

Pietersen should bring on the half-time oranges in the next test , fuckin useless.

he'd make a mess of that job too shaken.

the comms were saying that he doesn't like not scoring and starving him of runs could be his undoing. hey presto.

and another one down as i speak.

another review for a plumb lbw - what a waste.

Very dissapointing showing with the bat again, after all the hard work of the bowlers. Trott, Morgan and Prior can save this, lets hope they can bat time and not play the scoreboard.

Why do they review them Dawg? is it just arrogance or do they really think the umpire is that bad? Ridiculous review.

KP should be fucked right off out of this squad, never mind the team, not even good enough for 1 day.

they do it because of the situation but when it's plumb what's the point?

it may mean that someone down the line misses a chance to bat on.

Looking down the barrel at tea. I am impressed with pakistan but we have made them look better then they are. Is it just the awful batting? or the old 'england cant play in the sub-continent' debate.

I think we've proved we've got decent batters Si, so i'm putting it down to rank bad batting/shot selection. However, too many of the top 6 haven't been in form going into this series and it's showing, some may be need to get back to County Cricket and get some runs under their belts sooner rather than later.

1000 posts up.lol

it is just awful shot selection for most of them.

Lets see how we come back from this. The batting couldn't get much worse, and the only positive is we bowled tight in tricky circumstances, and kept us in the game till another batting collapse. Time to show the character of a No1 side.

Tbh Si, our bowlers still conceeded 338 runs, which isn't exactly brilliant. Ok, i accept it was batting friendly conditions but we didn't exactly keep things that tight. However, our batting in this test was the problem and has been utter woeful with only 143 runs coming from the top 6 in BOTH innings, which simply isn't good enough. Certain people in that top half need to start stepping up a couple of levels and showing some character, if not they should be out.

i don't think the bowlers should shoulder any blame as the par score was supposed to be 400.

the last 3 wickets scored as much as the first 7 wickets overall. how crap is that?

it was a good bowling showing under the circumstances, but still not a balanced attack, i hope monty gets a crack next test, if the conditions suit. Reports ive read say is its a seamers wicket so cant see any changes, but you never know.

The worrying thing for me is, Bell, our best player of spin, was out twice on a none turning wicket to ajmal. The focus of the next test will be discipline, lets hope we apply ourselves a little better.

Looks like Tremlett will struggle to make the 2nd test tomorow, seeing mixed reports on how the pitch will play, but monty is expected to miss out again.

Favourite for a recall in aggers and bumble world is the President (onions). Things can only get better.....i hope.

They should play 5 bowlers and put both Onions and Monty in, drop 1 of the top 6 batsmen (take your pick which) and tell them to score at a faster rate. Easy peasy!

last two test matches at abu dhabi have seen plenty of runs scored (over 500 twice i think).

spinners didn't fare too well and seamers took most wickets.

We've gone into this test with these 4 bowlers, Anderson, Broad, Swann and Monty, i reckon i could see that attack off. Tremlett and Bresnan have been sent home and i presume Finn's not fit, so why is Onions not playing?

Anderson and Broad are going to be knackered, this is gonna be a long day in the field.

Jeez, i'm being made to eat my words here, 104/4 .

good day all in all, another disciplined bowling show, if it wasn't for misbah we'd have cleaned this up. Finish it off in the tommorow, and then get the bating right. Pressure will be on all of them.

It's all ifs and buts Si, i can't fault your optomism though mate .

Pretty even day imo, if they score 300+ i doubt we'll get a 1st innings lead.

I'm optomistic most of the time Den. I just don't think much to this pakistan team, i rekon if we apply ourselves we can score 500. The only worry for me is the slow/spin bowling.

Slowly putting ourselves into a good position, but it has been a struggle for the last hour, if we take a 100 run lead in to their 2nd innings we can set up a win. Monty and Swanny will tear through them on this wicket.

Can we get a 1st innings lead 1st Si?

Fuck Pietersen off!

We were well set to get one Den, but slow bowling the downfall again. Morgan has gone last ball of the day and now its a struggle, still capable of scoring runs, i just wish we'd play some shots instead of playing so defensive.

Pietersen and Morgan can both fuck off, not test players imo.

Bloody hell, i didn't know Morgan had gone, but it really doesn't suprise me that he has.

You're right mate, fuck um both off!

Another good all round performance today, early wickets tomorow are the key, as always. As long as were chasing less than 170 i'll be confident, but ajmal will not be easy to play on that wicket. It could be a nipper

As you say Si, early wickets are the key tomorrow.

Good chance of squaring the series here.

Squeaky bum time......poor shot by Cook, then Bell allowing the ball to spin on through his legs.....come on KP!!

A fuckin bysmal

Disgusting showing, that is the worst i have seen from england, and ive seen some shite down the years. Those times we were undone by genius, either murali, warne or ambrose, but that yesterday was against average toss.

Some of those players need to take a long hard look in the mirror before they play for us again, if they get another chance.

Too little too late, but at last showing some character, much more positive today. It would be nice to win by an innings and lay to rest some of the demons from the last 2 tests. KP will save his test career today....


Or he will be out next ball to a left arm spinner again......