in fairness he's filling in. spearman is injured, his replacement hodnett also got injured. marcus north may have stepped up the order, but he's gone back to oz.

we've also lost our best 2 bowlers, lewis & kirby, to injury as well.

the whole thing's fucked.

You're obviosuly a mind reader as well. You answered my question about Tango/Mad Dog (alias Kirby) before I asked it.

the rise and fall of steve harmison

wkts 0-50: 50-1,288 @ 25.76
wkts 51-103: 52-1,235 @ 23.75
wkts 104-153: 49-1,684 @ 34.37
wkts 154-194: 44-1,794 @ 40.77

This will go down as probably the worst test ever. England bowled awfully yet the Windies commited suicide to give us a big lead. England then tried to givewicketsaway to some very wayward West Indies bowling. Both keepers should be issued with extendable armsto takesome of the balls that are coming past them

So England finally won the match & series.

let's face it, without monty we'd be fucked trying to bowl a side out twice.

i'd send plunkett back to county cricket for at least a year to see if he can remember where the stumps are.

sidebottom has done ok, but he can't keep his place once hoggard and flintoff are fit, can he?

i think allan donald will be able to repair harmison.

it will be interesting to see how we fare against india's stronger batting line up later in the summer.

Moster says 'send Plunket back to county cricket'.

The problem is that Plunket didn't spend enough time in CC over the last year. In 2005 Plunket spent half the summer not playing for England (i.e sitting on his rear end at England games) rather than getting overs under his belt for Durham (who nearly got relegated because of it). Even the boys in 'Sky box' have now realised that the only way for bowlers to get 'match fit' is to actually bowl rather than spend time 'practicing' .... which is what I've going on (& on & on) about for years. AsI've said before most of Harmi's problems last winter was that England wouldn't let him bowl for Durham at the end of the 2005 season so by the time he got to Aus he was massively undercooked.

In a way I agree. On the other hand, it would do him no harm to have some coaching from Allan Donald. I think, given Hoggs is fit, he ought to go to bowl some overs in county cricket. Donald can still pay him a visit. I think it's also time to look at a couple of other players. In the end, I'm not convinced that Plunkett's good enough.

Any danger of Plunkett playing tomorrow? I'm going down Edgbaston to watch his boys play the Bears, if Harmy was playing then i'd be pretty confident of lots of runs.
Really looking forward to it, only problem is the forecast predicts fecking rain. Really don't want to spend too much time in the pub with work the following day.

I had a very jolly day at Trent Bridge today (until it piddled down)

Edgbaston yesterday was a great day until the heavens opened also.

I witnessed one of the best one day innings I've ever seen down there from Tim Ambrose. He scored his second fifty in just 22 balls, pelted the ball all over the park and out-scored a pretty aggressive Jonathan Trott who'd entered the fray a lot earlier.
It was that good i'd put it on a par with a couple of Lara's innings that i'd seen, really folks it was that good.

Anyone have any idea if the Bears semi final is gonna be on the box Wednesday? I keep looking but i can't find out.

Cheers.

according to the sky sports website, they still haven't decided which semi will be shown.

but given that the cameras are already in durham, it's unlikely that the warwickshire game will be shown.

Good point.

No excuse for me to go down the pub after work then.

According to Cricket AM on Saturday morning Sky are going to show the Hants/Warwick game. It struck me as odd because I'd also expected that the Durham game would be shown.

Excellent, I hope you are right Red Star.

Vaughan resigns as Captain !!



( But only for the one day matches )

Hants v Warwickshire IS on tv tomorrow.
Watching Kevin Peterson bat against our bowling attack could be very interesting.

I'm surprised when Vaughan said he'd continue to play 1day cricket for Yorks. In the last few years 'Virgil' has played 1 or 2 limited overs games a year for the county if we were lucky.

It looks likely that Collingwood will replace him as one day captain. He does appear to have little captaincy experience but is ideally placed being of the middle order and bowling as well.
Does anyone else here have a preference or a tip? Boycott's backing KP.

i don't think the captaincy is so important in the 1 day game. you haven't got time for tactical masterplans, it's about being able to react to what's going on around you in the field. as the side's best fielder, you'd think that collingwood has the best reading of such situations.

I'm not explaining it well, but I know what i mean, and it makes sense.

Out for 18.

sounds like we've got em on the ropes here, maybe ole KP was jetlagged lol.
i have to get out of work early if this continues.

early exit from work secured, 207 the target, game on.

fucking hell. essex all out for 71. durham 38-7 in reply. sounds like a good pitch.

On TMS whilst talking about KP, Boyc's said " I don't care what colour his hair is or if he's got danglers on his ears and chest"

if anyone did catch that game then look no further than jim troughton for the blame. less than a run a ball and he tries to put warne over his head, nice one.

coincidentally, i watched it with an england international who had some very interesting things to say about a fellow international (who, ahem, played) and Warwickshire CCC. He is a top man by the way, let me answer the door hold on....

Hold fast - If we're going for 'interesting things' My sister in law works with a Vet who's brother is a sports writer.






If what he has told her is correct (although he says that they don't quite have enough evidence to publish) then I know why Trescothick is having 'stress' problems.







But of course this is all hearsay .

Swingers and Aqua. Please be aware the my PM box is available for all scurrilous rumours, I am very discreet.

Tresco is local enough for me to have stories too, we should compare notes. Really.

Mine was a drunken attempt at discretion really hence how badly i managed it.

Ian Bell was watching the game in the same boozer as we were. 'Apparently' (nudge nudge wink wink) he said that KP didn't want to play in the semi final but played cos he had to. He also said that our coach is pretty much forcing him out of Warwickshire cos he's playing for England and he didn't want to leave. A top New Zealand spinner (think about it, there ain't many) told him that he was responsible for finishing his international career as well. This Greatbatch sounds like a right fascist (even tho he is doing a super job).
Oh and don't expect to see Michael Vaughan in the one day squad, he's not in it.
He's a top man by the way, showed more discretion in an hour then i did in one post ey?

This Trescothick thing is well intriguing tho, how about you both allude to it and i'll guess the rest?

p.s. i haven't said anything too outrageous have i?

pm for you

.........and one for you too Mo !

Can a mere Yorkshireman ask for the details in PMs please ??

bt What exactly is wrong with Steve Kirby please? Is it his back again.

slogout

anyone else playing this?

i've only played 7 games but i'm already ranked 13,829 out of over 50,000.



last report i remember seeing was shin splints. that was at the start of the month though.

I've just had a quick go on the 5 over game.
England just beat the West Indies by scoring 36 in 1.5 overs.
Vaughan 18* ( 6 balls)
Joyce 18* ( 5 balls)

Good day for Nott's in the 20 : 20 yesterday.
They beat Lanc's by 6 wickets with 3 balls spare.

i saw the notts innings. lancs could and probably should have had them, but notts took full advantage of some terrible fielding. with the depth of batting I'd say notts are a good shout for at least one 1-day trophy this summer.

sky are in bristol for the second time this season.

and for the second time this season it's going to fuck down with rain all day when sky are here.

i'd be surprised if there's any play whatsoever today. second wash out in a row for Gloshire.

The 'big' game of the day Yorks vs Lancs has already been called off. The ECB have been lucky with the weather for the 20/20s since it started. This year could show what happens if it's wet. This should also shut up all those people who say 'we should play less cricket in England' . In many summer a significant number of county championship game are disrupted by rain. Less games could easily mean that someplayers hardly ever play

yeah, big game if you're a northern monkey.

the real BIG game is at bristol and that is why sky are here to witness the might of the GLADIATORS.

it's actually brightened up a lot. the pavements are dry, and it might be possible to see some action later on.

actually given our injury and form crisis, i'd rather it started to rain again and we take a share of the points.

Excuse me but Yorks vs Lancs is big because it' s agrudge match. You often get Glouc people watching cricket at New Road so tonight's game can never be anything but a 'normal' 20/20 game. Sky prefer to show Glous 'cos they are good at the 1 day game in general wheras most Tykes have to admit that Yorks are crap. The disapointment about today is that the Roses game is the only one where we get a big crowd. The other 20/20 games get the 5/7,000 that attend Yorks games get for a longer 1 day game on a sunny day.

yeah, but nobody south of crewe cares.

they played and they won.

the weather was fucking awful. there's no way it would have finished had it not been televised.

on the injury front. one back in with the return of spearman, one possibly out with an injury to marshall. it's getting beyond a joke now.

Believe or not there are actually Yorkies south of Crewe. You'd find this out when Glous play Yorks in a championship game as they all come out of the closet when the White Rose team hits town.

Same about New Road, Worcs. We're used to seeing the ground under water in the winter, but just before they play 'The Bears' at 20-20 (the ground would have been somewhere near full) is a disaster for 'The Pears'.

The rain saved them from a pummelling Red Star, they've clearly employed the services of a rain god, lol.

Typical Bear quote. Worcs think are going to lose over £150,000 which isn't funny to a small club like them.

jeez Red Star, lighten up and put the handbag away. did i sound like i was being serious ffs?
you make me sound as partisan as a Kent fan, what exactly would a 'typical bear quote' consist of?

The typical bear was actually meant to be semi joking ... I know what the Warwick/Worcs rivaltry is like, any chance to do each other down. But in this case it's one joke too far for me. Worcs aren't exactly the richest of clubs & this could derail a significant part of their season. I've also a soft spot for Worcs as Yorks tend to do well there (& then lose to them at home) ...... whilst we normally get hammered when we play at a large ground just up the M5 from Worcester

Here'swhat the ground looked like yesterday

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/image/299785.html

Bears boy gets call - up