Ashes 2023
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@Machpants said in Ashes 2023:
@nzzp said in Ashes 2023:
@Machpants said in Ashes 2023:
I'm not bitter, I just hate cheats.
So, with absolutism you'd include Martin Crowe and Chris Pringle on your hate list? They took a bottle cap on the field to scratch the ball up
As well as Atherton of course, with the dirt in the pocket.
Yup
Funnily enough I'm ambivalent about Lance Armstrong. There a reason they didn't award the TdF titles to second place for his 7 stripped titles, cos they know so the top riders were doing it.
Fair
I thought the Aussies copped everything they deserved - not just because of the act, but the 'hard but fair' 'keeper of the line' bullshit they trot out to excuse being collossal arseholes. And of course, believing that this was a one off thing, and that none of the bowlers or rest of the team knew anything about it is naive.
It is a matter of degree though - factually, what Crowe (one of my favourite cricketers did) was similar; taking a sharpened bottlecap onto the field to screw the ball. The fact that everyone (well, the Pakistani team) was doing it may morally make a difference, but the reality is that every cricketer will push the line at some point.
WHat has happened is reverse swing has large disappeared from teh game. Which makes you look at all the really good bowling units in history and wonder.
Anyway, Bairstow's dismissal was fine, Murali's runout was fine, and I clutch at pearls over SandpaperGate far more than scratching up a ball in the subcontinent in front of the umpires. I'm morally comfortable with my stance. Lance was a filthy cheat, in an era of everyone else cheating as well - but it enabled him to succeed; you still had to be a seriously tough bastard to do what he did.
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England will probably be happy with the state of the Match, especially from where they were after the first couple of wickets in the morning session.
They just have to wait until they are five down with bat, and then Australia will likely send the field back to the boundary and feed short balls and long hops to them for runs. Of which Australia will need to score a few more with the bat first.
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Grey and raining in Wales
Hope Leeds isn't the same
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M. Marsh, 3 overs 1/9 was strangely underbowled on Day 2.
With Stokes and co trying to bash everything after lunch, I wondered if it might be better to throw the ball to a T20 expert first, ahead of an early career offspinner, once Starc and Cummins started leaking runs.
Credit to Murphy as he got Stokes in the end though.
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@sparky said in Ashes 2023:
I think Australia will be the happier of the sides. England will struggle to chase down anything much over 200.
Recent history would suggest otherwise
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Rain delay
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Oz 206-8. This pair putting on 30 or so runs to give a lead of 233. Could be gold dust.
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Won’t get a better opportunity to keep the series alive
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@MiketheSnow said in Ashes 2023:
Won’t get a better opportunity to keep the series alive
Yep, great opportunity for England.
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I'd go about 70/30 in favour of England from here, possibly higher. They've chased well over the last two seasons.
If Australia don't get an early breakthrough in the weather conditions, Cummins will have to come up with more imaginative captaincy than he's shown so far. Not enough runs in the bank to buy wickets from here against the likes of Stokes and Root.
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@Donsteppa said in Ashes 2023:
I'd go about 70/30 in favour of England from here, possibly higher. They've chased well over the last two seasons.
If Australia don't get an early breakthrough in the weather conditions, Cummins will have to come up with more imaginative captaincy than he's shown so far. Not enough runs in the bank to buy wickets from here against the likes of Stokes and Root.
Fair enough but I still ( perhaps unfairly ) factor in Englands ability to fuck up and collapse like no one else.
