Another century for Jonny Bairstow - brilliant knock

Punishing conditions in Sri Lanka. Superb century.

Stokes is also doing well especially after surviving a few LBW shouts. Ooops and then he gets himself out for 57 seconds after I posted!

 

An absolute hoik across the line on a spinning pitch. 255-5. We don't half make it hard for ourselves with terrible decision making. Keep pushing to 300-4 and see the bowlers confidence dip and then cash in.

Pleased for Bairstow, but you've done all the hard work, go big.

 

JB bowled out for a very good hundred. He'll be pleased with that, but he was struggling badly towards the end (health wise I mean).

Stokes is such an infuriating player. Brilliant one ball, rubbish the next. His main function is batting in this series seeing as we are concentrating on spin so he should have got more than his 50. Up to Moeen and Buttler now to take us to the end of the day and then give Foakes the chance tomorrow to blast a few more.

 

Suspect all out for 300-320.

I think we badly need to get rid of this coach, we're just scraping by against a truly awful Sri Lanka side (pity when you consider the greats they've generated). Too many one day players who don't have the right temperament for test matches.

 

The English hierarchy will be seething at Bairstow's knock because they were desperate to drop him at the first opportunity . I think 375-400 is a decent enough total , you never know what a good total is until both sides bat .

 

I think before we went out to bat , a total of 350 plus would be the target so I think they will be happy with their days work & as for JB , he was excellent , a great knock .

 

There’s some strange things in this thread!

We aren’t “just scraping by” we’ve comfortably beaten them, only 2 teams have ever won 3 nil out there and we are handily placed

The management will be so far from seething it’s laughable, our form batsman for the last 2 years and capable of batting anywhere in the top 7 won’t be getting dropped anytime soon.

If Ben stokes made 57 every innings I’d be quite pleased, no fear cricket on another day that “shot goes for 4, can’t hade it both ways, don’t get me wrong there’s differering balls to attempt a certain shot at but that’s the modern way I guess.

 

The pitch is slow, the ball is turning slowly, several batsmen have got in and got themselves out and thankfully Bairstow got 3 figures before throwing his wicket away. Ali should have been out 4 times already. Stokes was lucky Sri Lanka had no appeals or he was out for a duck.

Sri Lanka are a poor poor side. I feel for them as long gone are the days of Vaas, Murali, Jawardene and Sanggakara. All time greats. So yes, you can see why history shows they've never been beaten 3-0.

Struggling to score 300 against the worst team Sri Lanka have fielded is no measure of success. I've said it before, there are some dreadful players nowadays at test level, and we have most of them in our batting line up. A decent team would be posting 500+ and batting once on such a pitch like this.

Some people only consider the result, not the play, not the opposition, not the overall quality and the context of where a team finds itself.

I quite like the look of Foakes, but Buttler, Bairstow, Stokes, Ali, Root as a middle order is wonderful in ODI cricket... but in tests, on a pitch doing a bit with an opposition that have a bit of bowling talent, history repeatedly shows that 300 is a stretch. And 300 in a first innings is generally a poor outcome.

 

I’d hazard a guess you are old enough to remember Sri Lanka before Aravinda da Silva, before sanath jayasurya , before muralitheren? To call this team, one especially playing in home conditions the worst they’ve had is so far wide of the mark. It’s true they aren’t great but then I agree neither are we, the advent of T20 cricket is slowly eating into technique and will one day cause test cricket to eat itself if it doesn’t stop.

We have however some very talented batters who often get slated without giving credit to the opposition or conditions. The English way is to criticise someone getting out for 57 not praise him for getting 57.

Moeen Ali was dropped twice, he shouldn’t have been out 4 tines as the umpire obviously made mistakes. Foakes is a good cricketer but if we had a better batsmen Bairstow would keep wicket and Foakes who lets face it wasn’t even in the squad for this tour wouldn’t get a game.

 

I certainly agree with you re T20 and the slogfest training teams go through.

We're effectively playing ODI cricket at test level. The run rates are pushing 4 at times, and that's because we have such dreadful technique. You could praise that fast scoring, but like with other nations with poor technique, we're leading towards 3 day games. Again, some may welcome that. And as we're so poor, in some ways it makes sense to have a slog and try and get a few runs before getting out for very few fiddling around and not having a clue. It's fairly rare we bat more than a session and a half these days.

And Sri Lanka are dreadful, anyone can see that if they choose to look. Even in their own conditions. Against a very poor England side. That sums it up very much. It's a shame. I've seen Sri Lanka a number of times and their supporters are wonderfully friendly and love their cricket, but this is yet another test team barren of much talent, and certainly no world beaters like they've had. But that's the same the world over, barren in the extreme.

 

The only way test cricket can survive is by being more entertaining so if that means scoring at 4 an over but losing 10 wickets per day well that's fine by me . The days of 650-5 and declaring after 2 1/2 days should be a thing of the past . One of the saddest things about this series is that there are more England supporters than Sri-Lankan because frankly apart from the purist ,test cricket can be dull . I think the first innings of a test match should be restricted to 110 overs per side .

 

I'd be interested to see what the pricing is and if its increased for locals the last few years, a great shame not more there.

Must admit, I'm a purist. I get as much satisfaction from a player negotiating a brilliant over, scoring no runs and being tested to the limit, as someone smashing a 20 ball 50. It's a shame, not only that the techniques of players are much diminished, but also the dumbing down of crowds. Indian fans especially celebrate a sketchy slice, edge or scuff for runs, and don't distinguish between a chanceless crafted innings, and one full of luck and streaky edges.

All things change, just a shame if cricket ultimately becomes a baseballesque swing and hope kind of game.

 

Are you Chris Tavare's one and only fan ?. I also love test cricket but without the supporters it becomes pointless and supporters want entertaining. There's nothing better than seeing a few boundaries to put the bowler under pressure or a few quick wickets that turns a match on it's head . I often watch test cricket on my sad little self and think ' why doesn't everybody love this sport' , then look at the scoreboard and it 450-2 after 2 days .

 

We are playing in the sub-continent and historically we seldom play spin well. We have scored quickly throughout this series and i do believe this approach has been lauded by the majority. The conditions in sri lanka do not suit players who have been brought up in traditionally english conditions so i welcome the approach they have taken during this series. In fact for me it has been an enjoyable series. Sri Lanka are a team in transition but so too are England.