New Zealand's tour of England

**Lord Snooty** · 24-05-2015, 14:44

No more wickets before lunch though and England lead bytes 41.

**Lord Snooty** · 24-05-2015, 16:21

A ton for the skipper. Thumb up

**Lord Snooty** · (This post was last modified: 24-05-2015, 18:04 by Lord Snooty.)

Bloody hell. Cook's been batting all day and Stokes has nearly caught him up.

Fastest hundred at Lord's. 85 balls.

Stairs · 24-05-2015, 23:17

A wonderful day in so many ways.
- Captain in fine form pre Ashes
- Stokes at No.6 is a revelation. Aussies are very different but a huge plus
- Confidence in squad lifting

If we have a good bowling performance then all very very good.

**Lord Snooty** · 24-05-2015, 23:48

Close Day 4:
England 389 & 429-6 (Cook 153no, Moeen Ali 19no )

New Zealand 523
England lead by 295 runs with 4 wickets remaining

jjamez · 25-05-2015, 01:21

Difficult to review the day really. Root came in and continued where he's been for a while. Stokes showed what he can do, he bats higher up for durham so he is technically a batter who bowls and if he keeps going as he has been he will be up at 5 in no time.

Bell looked error prone throughout his innings last night so the fact he chased a wide one with no foot movement is no surprise. He has scored 42 runs in total since his hundred in the first test in West indies, he's seeming like a fair weather batter now but he's always had that feel about him but pulls a big score out in adversity every now and then. Dont think england will change him but he and ballance will have some serious question marks over their heads, atm ballance is the one i fear for the most.

Buttler has been struggling but he's always moving up and done the order so once he's settled he should deliver hopefully.

Moeen could be and possibly should be higher up the order too, but he's down because he is the 'specialist' spinner but in all fairness he could be number 3 and second spinner. However boy does he have a problem with the short ball, even at 78mph. Mitch will eat him if he gets fired up.

Not mentioned cook. He was solid away and let root and stokes play their game whilst he kept his own game and it shows how hes changed little aspects of his technique since last summer and it does show, hes looking more like the cook who average 80 odd in 2011 than the one who averaged 30 odd the last few years.

Tomorrow hopefully cook and ali continue and get us a few more runs, hopefully broad can confront his fears with the bat. I do think that this test is one we have to look at giving them a carrot to chase but also one that we cant really lose from purely on the basis of how this test has gone for us

**Lord Snooty** · (This post was last modified: 25-05-2015, 11:30 by Lord Snooty.)

Give them a carrot and we could easily lose this with their batting line up. I think the idea will be to make sure we don't lose first.

England have decided not to offer the job to Gillespie and will be offering it to Trevor Bayliss instead.

jjamez · 25-05-2015, 12:42

They havent offered it to bayliss yet. Its only the aussie media that has said that. Gillespie mentioned that the ecb wanted to talk to 2 or 3 other candidates and i wouldnt be surprised if bayliss was maybe just another candidate that the media has blown out of proportion.

Cue bayliss announced today!

Also just seen broad bat and it is rather embarrassing. In fact remove the rather and you are closer to it.

Stairs · 25-05-2015, 12:55

I feel sorry for Chris Broad. That was a horrid incident last year and it will take some guts to get the head sorted and not be scarred of the ball. A brilliant bowler and so naturally in the team and so you have to go out and face the music.

Maybe an aggressive therapy of being in the nets and having bowlers try to knock your block off is the answer.............

**Lord Snooty** · 25-05-2015, 13:24

Wowzers! Just been gardening for the last hour. Come in for a cuppa and NZ are 2-2. What's happened there?