GC Cricket

I've blogged about cricket for 12 years. Loved the game all my life. But I've hardly watched a ball this summer. And it's mostly down to The Hundred. It's not the format. It's not the new audience. It's not the damage to counties. And it's not even the damage to the England teams

Top work from @dwainep__29 in taking 5/17, the best ever bowling figures for South Africa in a T20 International. Previously, he had never taken more than 1 wicket in an innings, with 7 from 12 matches (11 bowling innings) #PAKvSA

Usually with that sort of Day 1 score, I'd say the match was evenly-poised with the first session tomorrow being very important. But with the way the pitch behaved, I think Rohit has already played the crucial innings and put India solidly, though not totally, on top #INDvsENG

With the amount of turn Root was getting, I'd be worried for England even if Rohit opens the bowling! #INDvsENG

Yes, but slighly less politely #INDvsENG

Were you wondering the same? es.pn/2021INDENGT2D1 #INDvENG

Individual 'Batsman x vs Bowler y' stats aren't necessarily the most useful in the world, but I imagine Pant's numbers vs Leach could be quite fun by the end of this series #INDvsENG

And apparently England do now have that review back. All's well that ends well, I guess (unless they go on to lose by 1 run!) #INDvsENG

Thankfully there was no real cost to that incorrect call, but is there any provision for a team to get a review back in situations like this. At the request of the opposition captain, maybe? #INDvsENG

@Ian_Bell Do certain results make subsequent changes feel more disruptive or does it more depend on whether players are rested/rotated rather than dropped or just how each indiviudal case is handled? (2/2)

Big call to change a winning team. I wouldn’t have done it, but England have got a lot of their decisions right so far. Time will tell if it’s the right one this time. Thoughts? #INDvENG

@Ian_Bell As you played in a lot of test matches, across various runs of success and struggle for the England team (and also alongside a great number of different players), I'd be curious for your opinion of how changes to the team affect morale etc at different times. (1/2).

Explains why he seems to be stuck as a fringe player in the England setup #bobwillistrophy

Changes for the next test: our lunch, for whatever Pakistan have been having. They've consistently dominated us in every afternoon session #ENGvPAK

Well done to Billings and Willey for guiding us home and having the game sense to play the match situation #ENGvsIRE

For anyone yet to discover the @CricketWebNet forums, I really recommend taking a look. Excellent forum for quality cricket discussion and plenty of laughs too!

After taking a day to reflect, I've now written up my thoughts on the England players in series just gone in mini-summary form. Feel free to disagree as vehemently as you like! My thoughts on the West Indies' players to follow soon. gccricket.com/2020/07/29/eng… #ENGvWI

So, the West Indies drop Alzarri Joseph and the two English batsmen called Joseph get their highest scores of the series. Massive tactical error by the WI selectors #ENGvWI

Stuart Broad is now the 27th player to score a half-century and take 10 wickets in the same match. #ENGvWI

The worst thing about this test for England is we haven't had the chance to find out whether we were correct to stick with Bess. That's how good a match it's been for us. #BBCCricket #ENGvWI

"West Indies relieved to lose their review after inexplicably using it on Sibley" etc... #ENGvWI