Lucas

To be fair, it must be impossible trying to play White Ball cricket in the snow.

Knowing Everton's luck, he'll be more Cack than Kaka.

That's actually a bad analogy. Sorry, I would never compare Maradona to Ben Stokes. 1. Maradona intentionally cheated and never apologised. Stokes incident was a complete freak accident and he still apologised for it. 2. To label Stokes a cheat, which is effectively what it is with that comparison, would be an insult when you have Australians caught on camera trying to rough up a ball or the 3 Pakistani players spot-fixing, not to mention the biggest cheat of all, Hanse Cronje.

The comments on this thread Classic Englishness. Always choose the negatives over the positives. Anyway, we are jammy, jammy fucks. We had so many level's of luck our way. You will never see that Stokes deflection ever again. It was a moment, like Aguero winning the PL title for City in like the last second of the season. And to win on boundaries is like winning a World Cup in Football on corners. Pretty ridiculous really. If anything, they should have just said as England won the group game between them, that would be the differential. But you know what? We've been so unlucky across all form's of Sport that when we do get the rub of the green, we should take it. You have to. All the best sides sometimes need a bit of luck to win, it can't be all purely on skill and ability. We deserve to win it to be frank. The journey this team has been on and given we've been spanking teams out the park on a regular basis for the last three years in this format, we deserve to have something to show for it. I cannot remember many big Sporting tournament's where we have come in as favourites and despite the added pressure (And I still don't think we really truly ever reached our very best level in most the games), we still had enough. Feel terrible for NZ, they have won a lot of friends along the way though and were worthy final opponent's. Now to smash the Aussies in the Ashes. We need to use this momentum and crush them into the ground, no mercy (Sorry @Toinho, love you really)

Well, I like Cricket and personally, I think T20 has revolutionised the sport. I don't care if there is more glitz and glamour, music, fireworks, or big hitters smashing four's and sixes all over the place. I love seeing the batsmen going ape shit all round the ground with ridiculous strike rates. The sport has changed with the times to remain current and appeal to a modern audience. Test cricket is absorbing but I can understand why some people wouldn't want to watch 6 or 7 hours of blocking. Some people love a good tactical 0-0, and some love a 4-3 thriller. It is what it is. You cannot be afraid of change. It is good to evolve the sport and encourage the next generation to play it. There is no doubt cricket is seen in a more positive light these days to a watching audience. But for T20, we wouldn't be in this position now. Chance to be World Champions. And if we win the World Cup, there will be loads of kids wanting to be the future Jason Roy, Joe Root, Jos Buttler etc. All big hitting stars. All this means nothing if we do not win the final on Sunday. We have to win it, simply have to. We have played three must win cup finals since losing to Australia and we have passed the test. Now for the biggest game of our history. Hope we've saved the best performance for last.

Sorry for the ass whoppin' petal x

Brilliant bowling performance from England. That was exactly what was required. As I mentioned yesterday, it's all on Starc. He is our nemesis. We play well against him and we are looking good.

That's put the cat among the pigeons. Fully expect to see England chuck in a collapse tomorrow after 2 solid wins. Mitch Stark is our nemisis.

Kyrgios is the Ravel Morrison of the Tennis world.

At the risk of being disrespectful, he was a bigoted, male chauvinist prick. The worst thing he could have done was gone on reality TV because it painted him in an extremely negative light. It ruined his TV career from a horse racing perspective which is a shame because he did have a big impact on Horse Racing presenting.

Hottest day of the year yesterday called for a nice little paddle.

Looks beaut. I'd love to do some snorkelling there with the water that clear. Kinda reminds me of the Whitsundays and Fraser Island when I was there.

Kovacic smells of a desperate signing to boost the numbers before the ban applies. The fact it needed to be completed by this weekend to go through only strengthens that thought for me. Did he really knock anyone's socks off last season? I find it very hard to believe Chelsea envisage a future with him at the forefront of their team. Waste of a fee and wages really in my eyes for someone that isn't even a guaranteed starter.

Happy 1st Birthday to our litttl'un today. Got a nice little Birthday Cake for her later (Yeah, I know...)

Haven't been to Gran Canaria actually but have done Tenerife, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. Agree on the latter, definitely not on the level of the others, more quieter for sure. Fuerteventura is my favourite purely for the beaches, sand dunes and snorkelling aspect.

Can't go wrong with the Canaries to be fair. Brilliant water park there if that's your thing.

I think it's a good call. There were signs in his game last season that the progression and demands of the team are stretching his capabilities but someone like Silva can adapt because he's so intelligent and calm on the ball. He'll forever go down as one of the greatest PL players of all time and certainly one of the best foreign imports we've inherited. But more importantly, he is an exemplary role model and I think we all felt for him and admired the way he was able to carry on playing when his son was born early and fighting for his life. Without doubt, one of my most favourite players to watch in the current era.

Looks as though Spurs are going to sign Jack Clarke from us. Obviously a massive loss, I hope we get at least 12m for him and a sell on clause. Anything else would be a robbery when you see the state of the market.

With the greatest respect to Chelsea and Lampard, whilst I understand the transfer ban isn't ideal for a new manager, you'd like to think that with around 30 odd players returning to the club from loans, at least three or four will have the quality to contribute to the squad given a shot. Chelsea have talent, they just need to nurture it better and that is one of Lampard's strengths. It's not as horrendous a position as it's made out to be frank.

I like to keep you on your toes.

Went to Hamburg last weekend on a Stag. Underrated. Some nice sights to be fair.

Never understood the Joshua hate, especially from fellow Englishmen. None of us know the bloke truly do we? I've always thought he's been quite humble. It's not like he takes part in all those theatrics before the fight like many others. He stays cool, believe's in his ability, has the fight and shows his opponent respect where deserved. It's easy to confuse confidence with arrogance. There's no doubt he underestimated his opponent, as did pretty much most the general public pre fight, let's be honest. No one was talking up Ruiz and he shocked us all. Fair play to the bloke. Let's see what AJ is made of now. Forget Wilder for now, let him make all the noise he wants. AJ's got a must win fight to keep the undisputed dream alive. You learn a lot more about yourself in defeat than you do victory and all the greats have tasted defeat and come back stronger.

Hope Jason Roy makes a significant contribution with the bat. That drop on Hafeez whilst he was on 17 has proved costly.

Well, I don't think I was too far away really. You could see that was roughly going to happen. I'm not disappointed to see Dany turn bad either. It was always hinted at. But maybe it could have been done differently. I'm still mixed on the episode really. If I'm being perfectly honest, I feel the show has lost the 'wow factors' that made it synonymous. There wasn't a stage where I was like "Oh Shit...", it all just happened and felt a bit bland. I think it was missing emotion. Cersei and Jamie's deaths were a cop out for me. I'd rather Dany just charge at the Red Keep and burn them both whilst they were sharing an embrace, if she's gonna fly round the whole city burning every nook and crevice. That would also have produced more emotion i feel. And The Mountain being nigh on indestructible was a bit too much for me. I'd like to have seen Arya come back after being persuaded to go, and help The Hound in some way defeat his brother, then die from his wounds in front of Arya, that would have been more fitting given what they have both gone through. Dany won this battle too easy for me also. There should have been more resistance to her than what there was, especially from the Golden Company but it was a complete drubbing. Ah well, here's to next week, last episode. Was always going to split opinion and polarise the fan base but let's see how they leave it before fully judging Season 8.

Agreed. That was insane. Will that ever be done again? Probably not. I had a terrible La Liga. Out Week 1 and that was probably game, set and match. Up to then, we'd been level pegging in Premier League, Bundesliga and just nicked Serie A. Well played to you, very worthy winner, and Rando for running it, been good fun and I think as the comp has gone on, it's been well fine tuned to prevent endless weeks.