Ugh! Only a few more precious days until the bloody football starts again.

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Originally Posted by Burney

I'm struggling to remember the last time we successfully batted to save a test. Cardiff in 2009? We must have done more recently than that, surely?

Mind you, I think batting to save matches is a dying art.

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Was that The Panesar Innings?

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Originally Posted by Ash

Was that The Panesar Innings?

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That's the one.

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Originally Posted by Burney

Mind you, the prospect of watching Smith bat endlessly for four more tests makes me think I might not bother with the rest of the series.

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He's the reincarnation of Donald Bradman apparently. Anyway, proper technique is for people who don't have the ability to slow down time.

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Originally Posted by Rich

It's OK - the lads have been practicing their range hitting this morning :-|

If it's not on the line of the stumps I want every single ball left alone. Also, we should just run down the pitch at the seamers and pad everything away. No way are you getting out lbw if you're 3 strides down.

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Oddly enough, I think the best advice anyone could give Jason Roy right now is to play as he would in 50 over match. Watching him try to bat the way he thinks a test batsmen should is painful.

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Originally Posted by Ash

He's the reincarnation of Donald Bradman apparently. Anyway, proper technique is for people who don't have the ability to slow down time.

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By all accounts, Bradman was pretty dreary to watch as well. :-(

But no. Dreary batsmen I can live with - even ugly ones like Smith or Chanderpaul. But there's an almost wilful lack of elegance and an unnecessary, awkward ungainliness to Smith's batting that I find genuinely offensive to watch.

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Originally Posted by Rich

It's OK - the lads have been practicing their range hitting this morning :-|

If it's not on the line of the stumps I want every single ball left alone. Also, we should just run down the pitch at the seamers and pad everything away. No way are you getting out lbw if you're 3 strides down.

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With the umpiring in this match, yes you will

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Originally Posted by Burney

By all accounts, Bradman was pretty dreary to watch as well. :-(

But no. Dreary batsmen I can live with - even ugly ones like Smith or Chanderpaul. But there's an almost wilful lack of elegance and an unnecessary, awkward ungainliness to Smith's batting that I find genuinely offensive to watch.

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Surely it goes without saying that if you're going to hit a big score consistently, the best way to do this to only go after the bad balls. Those that, as a certain Yorkshire-man might say, are asking to be hit.

There something I like about he way he sometimes points his stick at the bowler though after his shot though, as if part of a magical ritual.

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Originally Posted by Ash

Surely it goes without saying that if you're going to hit a big score consistently, the best way to do this to only go after the bad balls. Those that, as a certain Yorkshire-man might say, are asking to be hit.

There something I like about he way he sometimes points his stick at the bowler though after his shot though, as if part of a magical ritual.

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Of course. But there are ways of hitting the bad balls that are pleasant to watch. Nothing Smith does is pleasant to watch.