1st Test: England v Sri Lanka at Lord's Jun 12-16, 2014

[Buzzard Breath]

The pitch looks a real batsman's delight with England 575/9 dec. SL 140/1
Root did well to score his double century but to be fair the pitch and lack of quality seamers helped him along the way.
Unless there is a batting collapse somewhere this could be headed for a draw.

 

[Twizzle]

draw coming up

 

[Iafeta]

Poor form from Fox. Really is. Given some of the nonsense they do broadcast to not broadcast this is poor form.

 

[Red Bear]

Sangakarra is great

 

[Buzzard Breath]

Played well.

 

[Patorick]

 

[vvvrulz]

Nice to see some wickets fall, really sick of high scoring draws that plagued the 2000s

 

[Buzzard Breath]

Good knock by Ballance after another England mini collapse and some good bowling by Eranga and Herath. Cook failed again.
Though with 389 on the board Sri Lanka will have some tough moments on the final day as the pitch starts to play some tricks.

 

[vvvrulz]

Good knock by Ballance after another England mini collapse and some good bowling by Eranga and Herath. Cook failed again.
Though with 389 on the board Sri Lanka will have some tough moments on the final day as the pitch starts to play some tricks.

I'm glad Cook is failing a bit now, there was some talk back when he was in form about him breaking Tendulkar's century record.

Something *had* to be done about that kind of rubbish talk.

 

[TheParraboy]

389 ahead with one days play left, surely poms will declare overnight? Should have declared 45min before stumps last night. but looks like cook wanted Balance to get his ton

Hope SL are 9/200 at stumps tonight and match declared a draw

 

[vvvrulz]

389 ahead with one days play left, surely poms will declare overnight? Should have declared 45min before stumps last night. but looks like cook wanted Balance to get his ton

Hope SL are 9/200 at stumps tonight and match declared a draw

I think holding back the declaration was fair enough.
I don't like negative cricket but if England are good enough they should be able to bowl out a side in 80-90 overs.

Hauling down about 350 in a day and 45 mins is handing Sri Lanka a golden chance.
Sanga is in some serious form.

 

[TheParraboy]

match heading for a draw

SL 1/92 almost on lunch day 5

 

[JJ]

Great test, ultimately holding on for the ton, probably cost the Poms the win... but who knows

 

[Panther_Daz]

Hope SL are 9/200 at stumps tonight and match declared a draw

Your wish has been granted.

Cook way too negative. Need to risk losing to win.

Great finish to the Test though!

 

[TheParraboy]

suck sh*t mighty mighty Ungerland :lol::lol:

read your mob like a book

 

[lockyno1]

Cooky you suck as captain! Seriously 320 ahead was plenty! They were never going to chase it!

 

[Buzzard Breath]

England had there chances on the last day, but Cook choose to give Ballance an opportunity for a ton late on the 4th day and their over rate was terribly slow.

Sri Lanka keep alive their 23 year streak without a loss at Lords.

 

[vvvrulz]

Hope SL are 9/200 at stumps tonight and match declared a draw

:lol::lol::lol:

 

[undertaker]

Foxtel is a business, and clearly feel they can weather not having England Sri Lanka. For 14 years prior, ECB never gave C9 exclusivity, and Foxtel could air it aswell. Now they give C9 sole rights, Fox decides not to buy England Sri Lanka. I dont think its a coincidence.

Surely 7mate or one of the subsidiary channels of FTAs would jump on it, youd think. In the end I dont think Fox will suffer too much. They can afford to take a little dig.

Optus/Sports Australia/C7 Sport (whatever you wanna call them) broadcasted alongside Ch9 in 1997 and Ch7 in 2001. Optus was the only broadcaster that showed the first session of the Ashes tests since Ch7/9's broadcast didn't start until 10:30pm. The 3rd test of the '97 series at Manchester was shown on ABC (using Ch9's commentary) as Ch9 was covering Wimbledon.

Fox has broadcasted English home cricket summers since 2002 (after Optus' C7 Sport became defunct. Before that, Optus had the rights during 1996-2001) and 2005 was their first Ashes, which they showed in conjunction with SBS. That series in 2002 involving India was an absolute crackerjack, especially the ODIs. A shame they won't be showing the England/India series this time around.