GRcade

Bhogle seems to be one of the very few press people who are looking to defend Ashwin. Even Indian fans seem very split on his behaviour. Personally, I thought it was pretty poor and taking win at all costs beyond what is acceptable. It also marred what was a good final few overs for his team because there is no way you can look at the game and not say that what he did changed the result. Cricket has this image of fair play and the spirit of the game at the forefront far more than most other sports but it does leave too many grey areas in the rules that can be manipulated.

The rules are fairly clear that mankading is completely admissible. If batsmen stopped taking the urine then this wouldn’t happen. Buttler’s chuffing terrible at it.

twitter.com/thejoshya/status/1110403431364263936

More to the point Ollie Pope just scored 251 against a ‘best of’ county side.

He's barely out the crease though. It's still a dick move. Isn't the etiquette for the bowler to warn the batsman first?

So how often does he need to be ‘barely out of the crease’ to add up to one full ‘taking the piss’? He’s been done before, too, against Sri Lanka. D**k move or no, Buttler’s a chronic crease-wanderer and can’t be too miffed.

Hope he gets done in the World Cup Final. That would be hilarious.

It should have been ruled a dead ball because Ashwin has stopped his run up and aborted his delivery. That's the rules of the game. So 1) umpires have made a bad call, 2) Ashwin is still a banana split for actually appealing for it in the first place.

The Indian lot on Reddit are hapless. A post I made yesterday became "controversial" (i.e. it received a shedload of upvotes and downvotes)... except nothing about it was controversial in the slightest. All I said was that Ashwin should be prepared to lose the respect he has earned in the last five years.

Rex Kramer wrote:Bhogle seems to be one of the very few press people who are looking to defend Ashwin. Even Indian fans seem very split on his behaviour.

There seem to be plenty of them defending his behaviour in my notifications now

twitter.com/bhogleharsha/status/1110420608893050883

twitter.com/chaphya/status/1110537375069831168

twitter.com/amanjain_101/status/1110419854815723520

twitter.com/tickerscricket/status/1110560027515981825

That's either porody or... Yeah, it must be parody.

It's not even close to the same thing.

Of course it’s parody, but bar a possible umpiring error I can’t see much difference.

Anyway, the MCC are saying the law needs to be re-examined. Goodie. https://www.lords.org/lords/news-storie ... match-betw

Balladeer wrote:The rules are fairly clear that mankading is completely admissible. If batsmen stopped taking the urine then this wouldn’t happen. Buttler’s chuffing terrible at it.

twitter.com/thejoshya/status/1110403431364263936

More to the point Ollie Pope just scored 251 against a ‘best of’ county side.

Another season like last year for Pope will really set the cat amongst the pigeons in terms of test selection.

MCC have reversed their position on the mankad.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/201 ... ion-think/

That u-turn was so fast it gave me whiplash.

Re. Pope, he’s obviously very talented, but if he goes for England then he’s going for one of the three spots (4,5,6) in the batting line-up that I reckon are absolutely nailed on.

Balladeer wrote:Re. Pope, he’s obviously very talented, but if he goes for England then he’s going for one of the three spots (4,5,6) in the batting line-up that I reckon are absolutely nailed on.

Yeah. He was deployed at 6 last season for Surrey and that seems to be where Stokes is going to bat in the Test team, since he switched with Buttler who is now at 5, and clearly Root isn't going anywhere at 4.

Maybe they'll ask him to bat at 3.

Would that be better or worse than Jason Roy at 3?

I'm unsure, but I'm definitely sure that both options are better than recalling Gary Ballance.

(pours one out for the big man)

Balladeer wrote::( (pours one out for the big man)

Rest assured, he'll excel at County level again this season, against bowlers that aren't Test quality, leading to calls for reinstatement to the test squad.

Vince wants to open for Hampshire now. Pope next?

Bairstow scorched a century at the weekend for Sunrisers, now a Sam Curran hat-trick.

County Championship starts today. Some quick thoughts.

Most people seem to have Surrey as favourites to defend their title, with some opting for the Leicestershire A-team Notts. as dark horses. I’m going with Essex and their ‘Two Many Cooks’ strategy. It’s one down, and without Matt Henry I can’t see Kent staying up.

It’s three up instead, because everything is stupid; and I’m tipping Lancs., Middlesex, and Worcs. for the rise, with Sussex unlucky to miss out. There seems to be a fair amount of optimism around my team Durham due to its new status as ‘Second Chance Saloon’, featuring Cameron ‘Sandy’ Bancroft and Jack ‘Coke-fiend’ Burnham. Can’t see it myself.

It’ll probably rain all day today everywhere, but assuming it doesn’t, it should be a good day!