Sam and Dave - Soul Man

India 319 - 4 at close of play. Well done England . Get Kholi early on tomorrow morning and the game opens up .

England toiling, but keeping a lid on the scoring. New ball after tea, a couple of wickets puts the pressure back on India

For the time being I'm more than happy with the 3 W's , wins against Scotland , Italy and Ireland. I'll add another D to your 3 , the Dark arts as practiced by New Zealand for many years. If Eddie Jones can get our lads to master a few of those, we might be able to compete against the Southern Hemisphere who are currently playing a different game to us .

Well done England and what a first full debut by Maro Itoje. The guy oozes class . If Joe Launchbury recovers from his injury , Eddie Jones has a selection dilemma for Wales. If we win that one , the Grand Slam is there for the taking. France look out of sorts and all over the place at the moment.

If we take the positives out of the Ireland game , we beat them playing with one less for 25% of the game and conceding 12 penalties to their 10. It's not vintage , but Jones is on a 3 year journey and he's made a good start

I shall attempt that challenge good sir.

In the meantime try Mother Hubbards on Preston New Road in Blackburn for chips.

I tried that soon after it opened.I had fish and chips , not sure what sort of fat/oil they cook them in but I could still taste it the following day. Gave the wife a " funny tummy " . Hope it's improved since then, but back to Holly Tree for me

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/35657340

A case of the biters being bitten .

No excuse for the behaviour of the NZ supporters if Warner's accusations are correct , the last thing we want is " cricket hooligans" . However the Australians should be careful when they complain about over the top verbals

Pretty hollow victory for Australia , bearing in mind the nonsense from Hazlewood and Smith on the 4th day .

Adam Voges not out again, further boosting ( by a fraction ) his already amazing test average

Indeed, I was watching a few overs of it last night.

The Kiwi commentator was aghast.

I think Hazelwood was mouthing 'who the f*** is the third umpire?'

Worst I've seen for a long time.

You're right the commentators weren't impressed . I think there was also a bit of chat from Hazlewood to the batters on the way off for tea. Just read Hazlewood has pleaded guilty to dissent and fined 15% of his match fee. Not sure if Smith has been fined too.

Is Steven Smith fit to captain an international cricket team? His behaviour yesterday in blatantly questioning the umpires decision when Kane Williamson was given not out , even after it was shown to be the right one by the TV replay , was nothing short of gamesmanship and against the spirit of cricket . Josh Hazelwood's dissent was appalling too and both players should receive heavy fines and bans .

OOT, Have a look at the situation NZ is in now! 4 down and still behind with two days to go. It's all very well going hell for leather, but if, at the end of the match, you lose, it was all for nought. Except for the glory of having your name in the record books.

BTW, check out Dave Warner's catch to get him out in his second dig.

While you're there, have a look at Adam Voges' test average.

I know they're in big trouble . Having said that we need to celebrate an extraordinary cricketer. It's not his fault NZ are losing , they just haven't got enough players of the quality to make the most of McCullum's genius. Let's hope Williamson , Anderson and Watling can stick around, get a lead of 250 and see how the Aussies fare chasing that, but somehow I don't think it'll happen.

Wow , Adam Voges' test average is Bradmanesque, thanks for pointing it out ! I refuse to look at anything David Warner does , still haven't forgiven him for lamping Joe Root .

What a depressing weekend. Rovers out of the cup and England annihilated in Johannesburg . The lads need to dust themselves down and get ready for Derby County and the World T20 respectively .

On a brighter note a superlative innings by Brenden McCullum in his last test match. Forward and backward defensive ? Nope, just try to hit every ball for a four or six . The day when T20 merged with Test cricket !

Just another point about T20 , if franchises are introduced, I could never see myself watching/supporting Manchester Maniacs v Leeds Lunatics , that really would be the end for me

as i said to you previously OOT, the ICC is turning cricket into a circus with T20. I hate the format of the game, because imo its just not cricket. I dont care what people say, whether it be a refreshing change or something else, it becomes a problem, because what the kids see, is throwing the bat at ball, and not being taught proper technique and concentration.

As I imply in my post, I agree with you to an extent . However would elimination of T20 mean that more kids would take up the longer form of the game ? I just think cricket would end up as an even more minority sport than it is now.

Test cricket is thriving in Australia and England , despite T20 . Ticket sales for the first 3 days are going well for the England v Sri Lanka and Pakistan test matches this summer . They are struggling to sell for the 4th day but that's due to last years 3 day Ashes matches and people thinking they'll not last more than 3 days ! ( probably due to the influence of ODI and T20 with players moving from one to the other )

What makes these two countries different from the rest?

As a lover of test cricket , but with an understanding of the pull of T20, this worries me

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-3449798/It-s-real-fear-no-Test-cricket-10-years-Sportsmail-s-experts-threat-posed-rise-Twenty20.html

Scotland and Italy are the 2 weakest teams in the 6 nations statistically over the last few years.

It was a very close game vs Italy until the interception try, at which point their heads dropped and England pro-fitness showed. After 60 minutes vs Italy we had given away 12 penalties, which if against Dan Biggar or Jonny Sexton, would have been far more harshly punished. It's early days after the world cup, under new management, and bedding in a few youngsters, but the next 3 games will be a much sterner test.

I fail to see how thats somehow worthy of the 'some fans' stuff above.

You need to look at the positives instead of constantly seeking out the negatives. You've analysed the game, highlighting the 12 penalties but fail to mention we haven't conceded a try yet , which says a lot about our new defensive coach Paul Gustard. Any England fan worth his salt will be delighted with that .

I really hope you didn't find any negatives last night against Fulham Ok ,I know we should have won by a lot more , but 3-0 is good !

It's the worst thing about not having Sky. Absolutely no chance of watching cricket! Have to catch it at my folks' gaff. Granted it's only a mile down the road but it's just a chore!

I resisted Sky for many years but then they bought the cricket coverage and I had no choice but to subscribe . It annoyed me and it still does. If it ever goes back to free to air , I'd cancel my sky subscription in an instant.

Biggest problem is the sport's complete move behind the paywall.

When I was a kid, I used to watch Test matches on TV throughout the summer holidays. Now, as the majority of kids don't have Sky, we've a lost generation.

Think back to the 2005 Ashes team, they were household names, 9 million people watching on Channel 4.

Now the Ashes gets around 900k watching.

Rugby Union now has a much higher profile than cricket- why? because the big events are on free to air television year in year out.

If Joe Root walked down the street, how many people would recognise him?

Yes I agree , cricket has sold it's soul, just like football and a number of other sports. Having said that , in my opinion Sky coverage is fantastic. Just like you as a kid I used to watch Test cricket on the BBC, but they took cricket for granted. I remember hating tennis because cricket coverage was severely restricted in Wimbledon fortnight and unless my memory is playing tricks , if there was some important horse race , they'd interrupt the coverage to cover that !

OOT, thats the biggest problem for me. ie T20 being the reason why kids want to play cricket, rather than the hard slog and patience of test cricket. Im a big fan of test cricket myself, and im not a fan of either the 50 or T20 formats. I was brought up watching test cricket, and have played 3 day cricket locally on an amateur level, but its great the longer format.

T20 has imo destroyed the test scene when it comes to young kids

I take your points, but I think we have to accept that a match lasting 5 days in the modern era, is for the purists. I was brought up on test cricket but love watching cricket in any form . I also played " one day " cricket in the Lancashire League . The question is, if T20 didn't exist would more kids watch or be interested Test cricket ? I'm not so sure. My hope is that the young kids get into to cricket through going to watch T20 or watching it on TV and then as they get older learn to appreciate the longer form .

Congratulations to South Africa , any team that comes from 0-2 down to win 3-2 deserves the plaudits. We had chances to put this series to bed , but dropped catches cost us, on top of two catastrophic batting collapses.

In response to an earlier post I think we have to be careful about down playing ODI cricket. Granted , for England , South Africa and Australia, test cricket is still the holy grail. Personally I much prefer us to win the Ashes than win an ODI world cup.

However for India , the great cricketing powerhouse, and most of the rest , one day cricket is where it's at. One of the reasons Trevor Bayliss was appointed , was to improve our performances in the ODIs. He's made a good start ( ironically in the Test arena !) and we are playing better cricket, but there will be falls along the way.

Having said that I'm much more optimistic for the T20 world cup under the new management. I agree with Iceman , T20 is more tickle, but hopefully if it gets young kids into playing cricket then that can only be a good thing.

Although my first love is test cricket , I'm an armchair fan. The only first class tickets I've bought so far in 2016 are for the T20 Lancashire v Yorkshire on 3rd June. If last seasons games are anything to go by , we'll have another great night of cricket followed by another great night of celebrations in Manchester ! Come on Lancs !

PS It's time to forget about KP

Wales 27 - Scotland 23

France 23 - Italy 21

Weaker teams? Evidently not that weak! England have clearly made the best start, the reluctance of some of our fans to ever fully praise us is bewildering at times.

You beat me too it ! England will certainly face tougher opponents in their grand slam quest, the Celtic nations always raise their game against " the enemy " . However England gave Italy a good hiding on their own turf , just like Eddie Jones asked them to. An Italian team that pushed France very close on the opening day in the Stade de France. Like Husky said " top of the League" .

I think you have to be question the term " our fans" , as some of them much prefer to criticize than support .

I say let's celebrate a good start to the campaign . Come on England !!!

it was 5-0 now 4-1 next it will be 3-2 lol

As long as it doesn't end at 2-3 !

Go on Saffers

4 - 1 ?

Josh Buttler is their nemesis ( well apart from that unlucky dismissal yesterday - catches win matches! ) but Quinton De Kock is ours. His knock yesterday was world class. He's one of those batters that seem to have all the time in the world to play his shots and never looks like he's going to get out. How South Africa must regret starting with AB as wicketkeeper in the Test series

Although I'd have liked a 5 - 0 whitewash , South Africa's win yesterday sets up the series nicely .

Can anyone recommend a chippy in Rishton?

Nelly's used to be the good but that shut down about 20 years ago ! Get a fast car and go to Holly Tree Chippy, the best fish and chips around !