The Ashes
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@mariner4life lol shunt.
But you have a point - this promises to be one of those situations in which we expect SMarsh to fail. But the prick will lock in his Test career to the age of 50 with a fighting ton or some bullshit...
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50 to Smith. That fluffybunny is so fucking good, and such a crazy path to worlds premiere test batsmen. Most players of his calibre come through the ranks where everyone knows how good they are, like Kane or Kohli, but the fact Smith started his international career as a bits and pieces allrounder known more for his bowling than batting is just crazy.
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Yep, playing a real captains knock to keep Aussie in it here. Cummins with handy runs too.
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@no-quarter was listening to radio this morning - Kerry O'Keeffe saying Smarsh needed a big score as the other options for 6 are all bowlers and making runs in SS right now
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Pretty good fightback. Changes the series, and maybe even the decade.
Smith is just a champion, but the tail batted really well too. Once again showing up a few top order guys.
I'd say the game is really even right now. A few early wickets puts us ahead, but if England can get to 0/40 then the advantage swings back to them.
Going to go all 5 days, that's for sure.
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What a strange test. Looks like we'll shit it in, by 8-10 wickets.
It's an ominous sign for the series. England have played pretty well and Australia pretty poorly, and yet we're going to win in a canter.
It's hard to see a scenario where England can win 2-3 of the next 4 tests. Not impossible, but it would be one of the great comebacks. And with the Bairstow 'headbutt' allegations surfacing, the fractures in the England camp may be further exacerbated.
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@barbarian said in The Ashes:
What a strange test. Looks like we'll shit it in, by 8-10 wickets.
It's an ominous sign for the series. England have played pretty well and Australia pretty poorly, and yet we're going to win in a canter.
It's hard to see a scenario where England can win 2-3 of the next 4 tests. Not impossible, but it would be one of the great comebacks. And with the Bairstow 'headbutt' allegations surfacing, the fractures in the England camp may be further exacerbated.
Broad and Anderson are great bowlers but the other 3 really offered nothing in this match. Woakes bowling 140 straight up and down is not good enough for Australia. Moeen was injured but who else can they pick? Worry about nearly the whole batting order against pace on a fast wicket - this wasn't a fast wicket ..... and they need to find some way of getting runs from 6 wickets down without just closing the eyes and swinging.
For Aus, batting order is shaky but deep. Smith looks like he will never get out. Lyon is doing to England's left-handers what Swann did in his prime - get them out. Starc wasn't at his best but all 3 of the pacemen had their moments - and all 3 can bowl quick with hostility.
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@barbarian said in The Ashes:
What a strange test. Looks like we'll shit it in, by 8-10 wickets.
It's an ominous sign for the series. England have played pretty well and Australia pretty poorly, and yet we're going to win in a canter.
It's hard to see a scenario where England can win 2-3 of the next 4 tests. Not impossible, but it would be one of the great comebacks. And with the Bairstow 'headbutt' allegations surfacing, the fractures in the England camp may be further exacerbated.
As I alluded to earlier there seems to be an abundance of really, really average players in the squad. Obviously Cook, Root, Broad and Anderson are class but none of the rest are anything to write home about. Perhaps I need to retract my views on Stokes.
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Fair to say both sides have 3 or 4 class players surrounded by average ones.
Difference in this test the class ones like Smith etc fired whereas the poms didn’t
If England can’t get Cook and Root to score big runs they are pretty well fuckedI'm sure Root has at least one massive innings this series. Mind you it seems whatever he can do Smith can do even better.
Also worth noting that the other three I mentioned are all getting a bit long in the tooth.
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Question - where on Cricinfo do you click to find the summary of career records of everyone playing in the match? In the old format it used to be linked to the match card under "statistics".
Supplementary question - why do web designers feel the need to update perfectly functional formats and, particularly, why do they then fuck them up?
It's like Cricinfo decided to hire the team who brought you Windows 8!
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Question - where on Cricinfo do you click to find the summary of career records of everyone playing in the match? In the old format it used to be linked to the match card under "statistics".
Supplementary question - why do web designers feel the need to update perfectly functional formats and, particularly, why do they then fuck them up?
It's like Cricinfo decided to hire the team who brought you Windows 8!
Agree!
It’s shit now, where’s the live and current stats?
How are we supposed to track Williamson’s quest to break a test average of 60.. -
@chris-b Because what else would designers do if they didn't keep changing things?
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@antipodean That's the sort of question that tripped up Harvey Weinstein!
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Crushing 10 wicket win in the end, but England weren't that far off. They certainly had the upper hand at various stages of the match. If Root went big in their second innings, as we know he can, then England are in the box seat and the pressure is all on Aus.
Both teams have a heavy reliance on 2 - 3 players, and as @Virgil says in this test Aussies big guns fired. Bancroft getting 80 not out and some confidence at this level is a pretty big negative for England though - they really needed to take at least a couple of wickets in the final innings.
Also, Anderson will go from being very classy to world beater with the pink ball - he will be nigh on unplayable with it hooping around. That will give England a decent shout in that test at least.
