xceleryx Posted June 20, 2023 Posted June 20, 2023 Anyone else been watching? First test is poised nicely for a good finish with both sides in with a shout still. 2
Michael Tucker Posted June 20, 2023 Posted June 20, 2023 24 minutes ago, xceleryx said: Anyone else been watching? First test is poised nicely for a good finish with both sides in with a shout still. I'll put my hand up!
xceleryx Posted June 20, 2023 Author Posted June 20, 2023 38 minutes ago, Michael Tucker said: I'll put my hand up! It's nice having it on to watch of an evening here. Thoughts on "Bazball"?
My Blood Is Blue Posted June 20, 2023 Posted June 20, 2023 I’m not a big cricket fan at all, but something about the ashes always draws me in. Been great so far!
Bob Singleton Posted June 20, 2023 Posted June 20, 2023 5 hours ago, xceleryx said: Anyone else been watching? First test is poised nicely for a good finish with both sides in with a shout still. Every minute so far.
Blue Moon Posted June 20, 2023 Posted June 20, 2023 Managed England vs Ireland at Lords and India vs Australia at the Oval, but the price of Ashes tests was simply prohibitive so I've had to limit myself to watching on TV. And it's gripping. Covers still on, though .....
Bob Singleton Posted June 20, 2023 Posted June 20, 2023 Just 2 wickets (or 53 runs if you're an Aussie) to win
Ham Posted June 20, 2023 Posted June 20, 2023 Squeaky bum time. If only we hadn't declared on day one.
Bob Singleton Posted June 20, 2023 Posted June 20, 2023 Not sure what Root was doing in his last over. Not sure why England didn't take the new ball earlier. 1st Innings declaration was about 20 or so runs short
Blue Moon Posted June 20, 2023 Posted June 20, 2023 I can take Australia winning - grudgingly - but could someone please get Ricky Sodding Ponting off the box? More irritating than Carragher and Richard’s rolled into one.
Ham Posted June 20, 2023 Posted June 20, 2023 2 hours ago, Bob Singleton said: Not sure what Root was doing in his last over. Not sure why England didn't take the new ball earlier.1st Innings declaration was about 20 or so runs short My thoughts exactly. Fine margins. Perhaps that decision was more arrogant than confident. He'll learn. Gets more right than wrong, that's for sure. 1
xceleryx Posted June 21, 2023 Author Posted June 21, 2023 Love it! Great win by the Aussies. Spewing I fell asleep and missed the last session, missed a cracking end to the game but caught up with the highlights. The second test can't come soon enough.
Ham Posted July 2, 2023 Posted July 2, 2023 Not against the rules but also not in keeping with the spirit of the series. Very poor sportsmanship from Australia. 1
xceleryx Posted July 2, 2023 Author Posted July 2, 2023 Cannot believe Australia have bowled so poorly to let Stokes dictate thing and get England back into it. Although, Smith should've swallowed the catch earlier.
boratsbrother Posted July 3, 2023 Posted July 3, 2023 On 02/07/2023 at 14:56, xceleryx said: Cannot believe Australia have bowled so poorly to let Stokes dictate thing and get England back into it. The great Glen McGrath would have been apalled by all that short ball crap! However, they got away with it in the end and it did make for another great match. No team has ever come from 2 down to win the Ashes, so England are obviously very much up against it now. But this is only a good, rather than great Aussie team and we could just as easily be drawing or even winning the series. I wouldn't completely rule out England winning the next two and setting up a fantastic 5 test. Naughty of those Aussies though with that run out. Golf and Cricket are the two sports where shithousery doesn't sit well with me. 1
Bob Singleton Posted July 3, 2023 Posted July 3, 2023 29 minutes ago, boratsbrother said: The great Glen McGrath would have been apalled by all that short ball crap! However, they got away with it in the end and it did make for another great match. No team has ever come from 2 down to win the Ashes, so England are obviously very much up against it now. But this is only a good, rather than great Aussie team and we could just as easily be drawing or even winning the series. I wouldn't completely rule out England winning the next two and setting up a fantastic 5 test. Naughty of those Aussies though with that run out. Golf and Cricket are the two sports where shithousery doesn't sit well with me. That wasn't shithousery. There was no gap between the wicket keeper taking the ball and throwing it at the stumps. It was 100% Bairstow at fault. And don't start invoking 'the spirit of the game' . Just one reminder... Atherton and the sand in the pockets incident. England need to stop having brain-fart moments. The two teams are evenly matched (maybe the Aussie batting is a bit deeper and the ball hasn't swung as much as England might have hoped for) but the biggest difference is the Aussies haven't done anything stupid. Let's hope England learn from their mistakes during these last two tests and get their act together. 1 2
xceleryx Posted July 4, 2023 Author Posted July 4, 2023 6 hours ago, boratsbrother said: The great Glen McGrath would have been apalled by all that short ball crap! However, they got away with it in the end and it did make for another great match. No team has ever come from 2 down to win the Ashes, so England are obviously very much up against it now. But this is only a good, rather than great Aussie team and we could just as easily be drawing or even winning the series. I wouldn't completely rule out England winning the next two and setting up a fantastic 5 test. Naughty of those Aussies though with that run out. Golf and Cricket are the two sports where shithousery doesn't sit well with me. Still baffles me now why our bowlers persisted with that short line and length, particularly Green who was serving up some absolute pies. Thankfully it all panned out in the end, but I would've liked to see our bowlers bowl at the stumps a bit more during that period. England need to mix up their bowling attack, I can see Anderson being dropped for the third test and bringing someone in with a bit more pace - more so if the conditions aren't going to suit swing bowling. Australia will also be without Lyon, so that's a big blow to them. Todd Murphy looked good during his maiden tour of India, so hopefully he'll be able to hold down an end and take a few wickets. All in all I expect the third test to be just intriguing. As for the runout, @Bob Singletonsums it up for me. It's also hypocritical of England to complain when Bairstow had done similar to Marnus a few days earlier. Then there's the Board incident from a few years back when he edged one straight to slips and didn't walk, there's the Sidebottom incident vs NZ as well where the English were quite happy to run Elliot out, and a couple others in years gone by. A little rich of the English all in all.
boratsbrother Posted July 4, 2023 Posted July 4, 2023 6 hours ago, xceleryx said: Still baffles me now why our bowlers persisted with that short line and length, particularly Green who was serving up some absolute pies. Thankfully it all panned out in the end, but I would've liked to see our bowlers bowl at the stumps a bit more during that period. England need to mix up their bowling attack, I can see Anderson being dropped for the third test and bringing someone in with a bit more pace - more so if the conditions aren't going to suit swing bowling. Australia will also be without Lyon, so that's a big blow to them. Todd Murphy looked good during his maiden tour of India, so hopefully he'll be able to hold down an end and take a few wickets. All in all I expect the third test to be just intriguing. As for the runout, @Bob Singletonsums it up for me. It's also hypocritical of England to complain when Bairstow had done similar to Marnus a few days earlier. Then there's the Board incident from a few years back when he edged one straight to slips and didn't walk, there's the Sidebottom incident vs NZ as well where the English were quite happy to run Elliot out, and a couple others in years gone by. A little rich of the English all in all. Of course there's been controversial incidents before, not least from England players. The infamous Mike Gatting & Shaku Rana one, where Rana stopped the bowler in his run up because Gatting sneakily tried to move a fielder after settiing his lfiekd positions for the next ball. I also remember the controversies over Pakistan players tampering with the ball to help their reverse swing bowling. All of those incidents were wrong and go against the spirit of the game!
Blue Moon Posted July 4, 2023 Posted July 4, 2023 (edited) Meaning two wrongs don't make a right, I presume? "Tu quoque" .... tsk tsk ... poor old Brits - semper in execretum, solum profundum veriat. Edited July 4, 2023 by Blue Moon
Guest Alex Posted July 6, 2023 Posted July 6, 2023 On 04/07/2023 at 07:31, xceleryx said: Still baffles me now why our bowlers persisted with that short line and length, particularly Green who was serving up some absolute pies. Thankfully it all panned out in the end, but I would've liked to see our bowlers bowl at the stumps a bit more during that period. England need to mix up their bowling attack, I can see Anderson being dropped for the third test and bringing someone in with a bit more pace - more so if the conditions aren't going to suit swing bowling. Australia will also be without Lyon, so that's a big blow to them. Todd Murphy looked good during his maiden tour of India, so hopefully he'll be able to hold down an end and take a few wickets. All in all I expect the third test to be just intriguing. As for the runout, @Bob Singletonsums it up for me. It's also hypocritical of England to complain when Bairstow had done similar to Marnus a few days earlier. Then there's the Board incident from a few years back when he edged one straight to slips and didn't walk, there's the Sidebottom incident vs NZ as well where the English were quite happy to run Elliot out, and a couple others in years gone by. A little rich of the English all in all. I'm English and agree there was nothing wrong with the runout, it was both annoying unfortunate that the umpire also thought play was over, but those things happen. The scenes in the Long Room were the biggest disgrace. Having said that all the 'Whataboutism' from Australia since leaves a bad taste. The other incidents like Bairstow's attempted stumping of Labuschagne weren't comparable. Australians whine just as much as us Poms about perceived injustices. This was especially the case after the sandpapering, which was the absolute worst ever attempt to tamper with a ball, it was planned, a junior player was pressurised and probably more players than were punished knew about the plan. But we had all the 'What about Atherton, Tendulkar, Faf Du Plessis'...etc. when Smith and David Warner were being rehabilitated after their bans. What a lot of pub opinions didn't take into account at that time were the bans, their lengths and the legal aspect. When dealing with sports bans, like in a courtroom, previous incidents are looked at as precedent when deciding how serious the incident is and the length of the ban. The players involved are professionals, their livelihoods are at stake and sports lawyers are involved on all sides. The premeditation, the fact that it was sandpaper, (not dirt, fingernails or minty saliva), the lying (saying it was sports tape and granules), the fact so many people were involved...All this was taken into account.
Guest Alex Posted July 6, 2023 Posted July 6, 2023 Back to this series, we should have won the first one, but poor decisions batting and bad catching cost us. The second we simply couldn't capitalise on the luck of winning the toss and having the best of conditions, plus Lyon's injury. Australia deserved to win. Australia have competitive spirit, are up for this and I don't begrudge them . Wish Chelsea had the same level of competitiveness last season.
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