The Ashes
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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.
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Lyon is a big difference. The others sort of cacel each other out but with NATHAN you can rest a quick and rotate them around him. The poms will have to get after him
However, the angry lesbian is on another planet. What an innings that was!
These may be called the Smith ashes
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Lyon is a big difference. The others sort of cacel each other out but with NATHAN you can rest a quick and rotate them around him. The poms will have to get after him
However, the angry lesbian is on another planet. What an innings that was!
These may be called the Smith ashes
Hahahaha. 'Angry Lesbian'.
So fitting.
But fuck he's a good player
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Smith is rewriting test batting. Why play in the v when you can bat like it's the back yard and average 60? Guck he's fun to watch. And unflappable as well. The poms bowled out of his areas for ages so he just waited. What a career turnaround
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@mariner4life said in The Ashes:
Smith is rewriting test batting. Why play in the v when you can bat like it's the back yard and average 60? Guck he's fun to watch. And unflappable as well. The poms bowled out of his areas for ages so he just waited. What a career turnaround
Best batsman in the world. No doubt.
Still looks like a dick with the headband though.
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Of the batsmen who have played most of their team's tests in the calendar years 2016 and 2017
Kohli 21 tests, average 70.75, 8x100s
Smith 19 tests, average 68.60, 8x100s
Pujara 21 tests, average 63.46, 7x100s
Taylor 12 tests, average 61.38, 3x100s
Williamson 15 tests, average 55.50, 4x100s
{then Faf, Azhar Ali, Rahul)
Root 25 tests, average 51.63, 5x100s
