England in Sri Lanka

[square leg umpire]

Sibley seemed to lead a charmed life, survived due to marginal umpires call decisions, Buttler great.

[Ali TT]

Interesting to see Root give Leach quite a talking too (in a positive sense) after one delivery where he beat Chandimal's bat. Maybe working on something from the team talk and nets - boosting Leach's confidence perhaps?

Maybe he was saying bowl wide and really full and they'll either nudge it to slip or trap it onto the stumps.

[sanskritsimon]

On the spinners (sorry Michelle), there are some interesting comments at the bottom of this article:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...tory-sri-lanka

[mustardcharlie]

Originally Posted by Sir Virgs and Zamora

Careful. Many members of this board don’t agree with the premise that a toss and conditions matter! It is like it is bad to admit that one team got an advantage based on the toss of a coin. It has been the case forever, I expect. Although obviously having murali helped SL in that!

It is quite odd that people make the argument it doesn’t matter. The champo has a rule to stop teams preparing a green top because they will just be stuck in to bat. It amuses me when people deny teams can get lucky with conditions and “it made no difference in the end”

Agreed (I think). Long since thought that the teams should take it in turns to have the choice of whether to bat or bowl first after the first toss. We can predict weather far better than used to be the case. If JR loses 4 tosses in a row in India (1 in 16 admittedly), we will lose the the series. Root would have been given the option in the 2nd test. He may have chosen to bat and England lost but it is a decision made by the team not by the toss of a coin.

[Sir Coolerking]

Originally Posted by mustardcharlie

Agreed (I think). Long since thought that the teams should take it in turns to have the choice of whether to bat or bowl first after the first toss. We can predict weather far better than used to be the case. If JR loses 4 tosses in a row in India (1 in 16 admittedly), we will lose the the series. Root would have been given the option in the 2nd test. He may have chosen to bat and England lost but it is a decision made by the team not by the toss of a coin.

Worth remembering that England lost both tosses in Sri Lanka and India lost all 4 in Australia.

I agree that the toss can absolutely be an advantage. But Sir V made a little too much of it in the CC Final and allowed himself to be trolled (sorry).

[Sir Virgs and Zamora]

Anyone who argues the toss makes no difference should lobby their county to let the oppo pick what happens at the start of each match.

Sir CK is right. I allowed myself to be trolled because some people on here did not understand that winning the toss on a grey overcast day at lords with showers throughout the day meaning your best two bowlers could bowl the vast majority of the overs in swinging conditions, have a massive advantage. I give them all the benefit of doubt and they were being trolls because the knowledge about cricket on this board is good so no one would be silly enough not to realise that it was a huge toss.

[Ali TT]

Originally Posted by Sir Coolerking

Worth remembering that England lost both tosses in Sri Lanka and India lost all 4 in Australia.

I agree that the toss can absolutely be an advantage. But Sir V made a little too much of it in the CC Final and allowed himself to be trolled (sorry).

Originally Posted by Sir Virgs and Zamora

Anyone who argues the toss makes no difference should lobby their county to let the oppo pick what happens at the start of each match.

Sir CK is right. I allowed myself to be trolled because some people on here did not understand that winning the toss on a grey overcast day at lords with showers throughout the day meaning your best two bowlers could bowl the vast majority of the overs in swinging conditions, have a massive advantage. I give them all the benefit of doubt and they were being trolls because the knowledge about cricket on this board is good so no one would be silly enough not to realise that it was a huge toss.

Great, but referring more directly to England playing test cricket in India, in 2012 we won both matches after losing the toss and in 2016 we lost 3/4 after winning it.