Quote Originally Posted by chrisp_1927 View Post
All for ballsy attacking cricket when it's required, and I'm always happy to defend a player who 'has thrown his wicket away' . But sometimes the game situation demands you dig in. Sometimes that's for half hour when a top bowler has helpful conditions, or like yesterday when you need to dig in and bat out a draw.

I look to someone like AB deVilliers, more skill and talent than anybody in that England side when it comes to clearing the boundary (or in any other facet of batting). But he also had that ability and desire to dig in and block for hours if a game needed saving. Not wanting to lose, and making it hard as possible for the opposition to finish you off is part of being a great player

Throwing away games like that are just going to lead to drawing/losing series that could have been won.
They were talking about how A B DeVilliers had something like three innings in the top ten most defensive innings in test history on Test Match Special yesterday. I rate DeVilliers right up there among the best attacking batsmen I’ve seen and if he was willing to put all of that to one side and graft to save his side from defeat, i can’t see why the England team can’t at least try to bat out for a draw.