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Post by partickpotter on Aug 23, 2015 8:10:15 GMT
A quick summary of the test to date - from an Australian perspective: A step towards resurrection for the Baggy Greens after an inconsistent Ashes series performance If Mitch Marsh can continue his development in international cricket then we have the makings of a one very good all rounder. Siddle, as always, gave his all and was superb. It could be his last test for Australia, that is, if the young quicks can hold their bodies together. Rod Marsh's position as head selector on this tour must surely come under scrutiny. This team should have played in the fourth test. Smith and Warner have the tools to become the core of the on field management team for many years to come. Smith has clearly worked hard at improving his death shuffle across to the off stump. This match has him now mostly locked in to English conditions - too late, but experience he couldn't buy. Warner, likewise, has stopped chasing the ball and has benefited with an improved first innings performance. Watson has now been consigned to the bench as a squad player. A great pity for a man blessed with enormous talent. The Duke ball has played a significant role in taming what was going to be a dominant series for Australia, as have the sideways moving pitches. Not to put too strong an emphasis on the ball, but it went a long way to emasculating the batting line up. Perhaps the ACB will consider changing the Kookaburra for the Duke. The chase to replace Rogers continues. We have a number of likely candidates in the 'A' side so there shouldn't be any panic. We have a sound 'keeper as Hadds replacement. Rod Marsh and Boof will have to face the music when they get back into Sydney regarding their treatment of Haddin. It was shabby to say the least. Hopefully Clarke will retire as a winner. He didn't win a series in England but he should go out with his head held high.... and he did enforce the follow on for the first time in his last test. In the end it could be that rain that might spoil his party. To end, will someone please provide Warne with a bottle or two of Valium. He's beginning to bleat like Boycott, only he's louder and has a more irritating, whining quality to his voice. To make matters worse he's also beginning to repeat the message. I'd like to swap him for Sir Ian in the Channel 9 broadcasts, at least he makes sense most of the time. I think there are quite a few similarities between the sides come the end of the series; The top order batting has been, at best, inconsistent. We could say it has been very poor. Just two from each side can be certain of their places going forward (Warner & Smith and Cook and Root). The all rounder and wicket keeper spots are occupied with exciting players of significant potential - but much still to prove. The quick bowling looks strong for both teams with good depth. The main difference is you have a good spinner. Ali is still learning his trade. I do hope when we next meet up both sides will have figured out how to bat in test matches because this series has been a big disappointment in terms of competitive test matches - although the series as a whole has been competitive. Each test has been a hammering with neither team showing resilience to get themselves back in a test once they've gone behind. On the subject of the ball - it seems to me the Duke is a "better" ball than the Kookaburra? In that it gives the bowlers something better to work with. Maybe the Kookabura manufacturers could be persuaded to make a ball with a more pronounced seam? Anyway - to today's play. One word and one number... Headingley 81. Oh yes - Butler is going to produce a Botham-esque knock. We're going to race past your total and give you a run chase of 140 + that you'll choke on. Cue fireworks and Ashes celebrations. Well, it's a thought. Has Rodney Marsh placed a bet yet on England winning?
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Post by partickpotter on Aug 23, 2015 20:27:30 GMT
Blimey - this thread has petered out just like the series. Last day - not one post.
Of course, not much to say about today. We lost the last few wickets and the test, but the series, and the Ashes are ours. It's in the books. Well done England.
So onto the ODIs and a T20. Could be interesting.
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Post by ukcstokie on Aug 23, 2015 23:38:32 GMT
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Post by ukcstokie on Aug 24, 2015 8:55:15 GMT
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Post by partickpotter on Aug 24, 2015 11:28:54 GMT
Now that is interesting. Hopefully part of the deal is they won't have Shane Warne in the commentary team.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2015 14:19:49 GMT
Blimey - this thread has petered out just like the series. Last day - not one post. Of course, not much to say about today. We lost the last few wickets and the test, but the series, and the Ashes are ours. It's in the books. Well done England. So onto the ODIs and a T20. Could be interesting. The whole test had a "dead rubber" feel to it from day one unfortunately and England had been enjoying a few too many glasses of bubbly in celebration by the looks of it. Be interesting to see if Bell decides whether now is the time to call it a day on a superb test career. Probably is in my opinion, be good to blood someone over in the UAE with a view to the South Africa series. I personally would push Moeen up the order as a temporary measure in the UAE against Pakistan to allow us to play 3 spinners. Not ideal but Lyth's technique against the new ball appears suspect. As I say only a stop gap unless we revert back to someone like a Carberry or Compton who could feel a little aggrieved that they got dropped in the first place. Hales is an option but is a massive front foot player and won't get much change from Steyn and Morkel looking ahead to the SA series, definitely one worth watching though. I'd take the following touring party: Alistair Cook (c) Moeen Ali James Taylor Joe Root Johnny Bairstow Ben Stokes Zafar Ansari Joss Buttler (wk) Adil Rashid Stuart Broad Jimmy Anderson Ansari and Moeen are the finger spin options (with Root if required) and Rashid's wrist spin plus a 3 seam attack should cover all bases. Bairstow as back up wicket keeper with Alex Hales, Gary Ballance, Mark Wood and Steve Finn waiting in the wings. Someone like Mason Crane the young up and coming leggie possibly will go as a net bowler and for the experience of touring. Be massive if we get a result against Pakistan or South Africa to be fair......
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Post by ukcstokie on Aug 24, 2015 14:32:56 GMT
Blimey - this thread has petered out just like the series. Last day - not one post. Of course, not much to say about today. We lost the last few wickets and the test, but the series, and the Ashes are ours. It's in the books. Well done England. So onto the ODIs and a T20. Could be interesting. The whole test had a "dead rubber" feel to it from day one unfortunately and England had been enjoying a few too many glasses of bubbly in celebration by the looks of it. Be interesting to see if Bell decides whether now is the time to call it a day on a superb test career. Probably is in my opinion, be good to blood someone over in the UAE with a view to the South Africa series. I personally would push Moeen up the order as a temporary measure in the UAE against Pakistan to allow us to play 3 spinners. Not ideal but Lyth's technique against the new ball appears suspect. As I say only a stop gap unless we revert back to someone like a Carberry or Compton who could feel a little aggrieved that they got dropped in the first place. Hales is an option but is a massive front foot player and won't get much change from Steyn and Morkel looking ahead to the SA series, definitely one worth watching though. I'd take the following touring party: Alistair Cook (c) Moeen Ali James Taylor Joe Root Johnny Bairstow Ben Stokes Zafar Ansari Joss Buttler (wk) Adil Rashid Stuart Broad Jimmy Anderson Ansari and Moeen are the finger spin options (with Root if required) and Rashid's wrist spin plus a 3 seam attack should cover all bases. Bairstow as back up wicket keeper with Alex Hales, Gary Ballance, Mark Wood and Steve Finn waiting in the wings. Someone like Mason Crane the young up and coming leggie possibly will go as a net bowler and for the experience of touring. Be massive if we get a result against Pakistan or South Africa to be fair...... I was convinced about opening with Moeen in the UAE too... until I watched the Ashes verdict last night. Mark Butcher (who's always excellent) made the point that we're not going to open with Moeen in SA, so we need to bed in the new opener ASAP (so that we don't make the same mistake as we did in the West Indies with Lyth and Rashid). I think we need to play Hales, see how he does. Play two spinners, or even consider dropping one of the seemers to play a third spinner.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2015 14:41:01 GMT
The whole test had a "dead rubber" feel to it from day one unfortunately and England had been enjoying a few too many glasses of bubbly in celebration by the looks of it. Be interesting to see if Bell decides whether now is the time to call it a day on a superb test career. Probably is in my opinion, be good to blood someone over in the UAE with a view to the South Africa series. I personally would push Moeen up the order as a temporary measure in the UAE against Pakistan to allow us to play 3 spinners. Not ideal but Lyth's technique against the new ball appears suspect. As I say only a stop gap unless we revert back to someone like a Carberry or Compton who could feel a little aggrieved that they got dropped in the first place. Hales is an option but is a massive front foot player and won't get much change from Steyn and Morkel looking ahead to the SA series, definitely one worth watching though. I'd take the following touring party: Alistair Cook (c) Moeen Ali James Taylor Joe Root Johnny Bairstow Ben Stokes Zafar Ansari Joss Buttler (wk) Adil Rashid Stuart Broad Jimmy Anderson Ansari and Moeen are the finger spin options (with Root if required) and Rashid's wrist spin plus a 3 seam attack should cover all bases. Bairstow as back up wicket keeper with Alex Hales, Gary Ballance, Mark Wood and Steve Finn waiting in the wings. Someone like Mason Crane the young up and coming leggie possibly will go as a net bowler and for the experience of touring. Be massive if we get a result against Pakistan or South Africa to be fair...... I was convinced about opening with Moeen in the UAE too... until I watched the Ashes verdict last night. Mark Butcher (who's always excellent) made the point that we're not going to open with Moeen in SA, so we need to bed in the new opener ASAP (so that we don't make the same mistake as we did in the West Indies with Lyth and Rashid). I think we need to play Hales, see how he does. Play two spinners, or even consider dropping one of the seemers to play a third spinner. I'm with him to a point, in saying that Hales will find it really tough out in SA unless he tweaks his technique. He takes a massive stride on the front foot and Steyn and Morkel will give him a real going over. I'd be happy with either to be fair, if Bell retires you could open with Hales, push Moeen up the order and still accomodate another two specialist spinners, Pakistan have played 3 or even 4 spinners at times, they blew us away last time.....
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Post by bayernoatcake on Aug 24, 2015 21:46:22 GMT
Why the fuck have we dropped Bairstow from the ODI's?
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Post by ukcstokie on Aug 24, 2015 23:34:19 GMT
By my calculations England will be playing up-to 110-120 days cricket next year! About 10-20 days more than this year.
We have... December 2015-February - England in South Africa (4 Tests (3 tests in 2016), 5 ODIs, 2 T20s) March 11-April 3 - ICC World Twenty20 in India May-June - Sri Lanka in England (3 Tests, 5 ODIs, 1 T20) July-September - Pakistan in England (4 Tests, 5 ODIs, 1 T20) October-November - England in Bangladesh (2 Tests, 3 ODIs) November-December - England in India (5 Tests)
So that's 17 tests next year. I was only listening to the tribute to Richie Benaud on TMS yesterday. When Richie retired from Test cricket he said 63 tests was enough for anybody. You could play that number of tests now by the time you're in you mid 20's!
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Post by ukcstokie on Aug 25, 2015 0:24:39 GMT
Why the fuck have we dropped Bairstow from the ODI's? Strange. Bairstow is a one day batsmen who has done OK (just) in the tests. It would seem sensible to allow him to try and regain some of his form in the shorter form.
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Post by partickpotter on Aug 25, 2015 6:03:49 GMT
Why the fuck have we dropped Bairstow from the ODI's? Strange. Bairstow is a one day batsmen who has done OK (just) in the tests. It would seem sensible to allow him to try and regain some of his form in the shorter form. They clearly think other players are better prospects - Billings for example. Maybe they've seen stuff in the tests that has worked against him. He hasn't looked the part. I wonder if his new technique (high backlift) while ok for domestic cricket isnt good for internationals. Hard on him though. The one thing I'd say is they've picked a young side so it's not like Bairstow lost his place to an old timer being picked on reputation (something that's killed us in the past). All in all it's an exciting squad England have. The one worry is Morgan. This could be his last series.
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Post by greenhoff74 on Aug 25, 2015 6:56:40 GMT
I've read that SKY have lost the next Ashes tour to BT sport, apparently BT have bought rights to all Australia's home matches from next year for 5 years including the BIG BASH league.
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Post by bayernoatcake on Aug 25, 2015 8:10:49 GMT
Strange. Bairstow is a one day batsmen who has done OK (just) in the tests. It would seem sensible to allow him to try and regain some of his form in the shorter form. They clearly think other players are better prospects - Billings for example. Maybe they've seen stuff in the tests that has worked against him. He hasn't looked the part. I wonder if his new technique (high backlift) while ok for domestic cricket isnt good for internationals. Hard on him though. The one thing I'd say is they've picked a young side so it's not like Bairstow lost his place to an old timer being picked on reputation (something that's killed us in the past). All in all it's an exciting squad England have. The one worry is Morgan. This could be his last series. He was excellent vs the Kiwi's in the ODI's though. It's a pretty backwards decision imo.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2015 12:11:43 GMT
I've read that SKY have lost the next Ashes tour to BT sport, apparently BT have bought rights to all Australia's home matches from next year for 5 years including the BIG BASH league. I never watch the Ashes when it's in Australia as we usually lose and due to the time difference, so I'm not particularly bothered BT have won the rights. I hope Sky retain all England's home games in all formats.
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Post by greenhoff74 on Aug 25, 2015 14:09:47 GMT
I've read that SKY have lost the next Ashes tour to BT sport, apparently BT have bought rights to all Australia's home matches from next year for 5 years including the BIG BASH league. I never watch the Ashes when it's in Australia as we usually lose and due to the time difference, so I'm not particularly bothered BT have won the rights. I hope Sky retain all England's home games in all formats. Oh I watch it, I record and time shift it to our time and watch it, after all its deepest darkest winter here and bit of sunshine does no harm even if it's from the telly. And the Big Bash is great too at that time of the year.
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Post by partickpotter on Aug 31, 2015 16:49:42 GMT
The first limited overs game is well underway, a T29 - and it looks like a thriller. But I'm stuck on the Edinburgh - Glasgow train.
Cmon boys - you posted a great score. Finish them off with the ball.
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Post by estrangedsonoffaye on Aug 31, 2015 17:13:20 GMT
Stokes was absolutely brilliant in that final over, and well done Willey for getting Smith at the crucial moment.
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Post by partickpotter on Aug 31, 2015 17:19:40 GMT
That was close - and exciting, even following it on the BBC text commentary!
Win by 5 runs.
Thanks to Australia for bottling it. 6 runs for 3 wickets of the last over, 14 runs for 4 wickets from the last two. Well bowled England.
And as old Brucie was wont to say - Good Game. Didn't they do well.
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Post by ukcstokie on Aug 31, 2015 19:15:36 GMT
The first limited overs game is well underway, a T29 - and it looks like a thriller. But I'm stuck on the Edinburgh - Glasgow train. Cmon boys - you posted a great score. Finish them off with the ball. I know there's continuous developments in cricket, but a T29? If this works they'll be trying a T37 next. A good win. Didn't look as though they'd do it until the last couple of overs. Another good performance from Moeen and a great over from Stokes.
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Post by partickpotter on Aug 31, 2015 20:13:55 GMT
The first limited overs game is well underway, a T29 - and it looks like a thriller. But I'm stuck on the Edinburgh - Glasgow train. Cmon boys - you posted a great score. Finish them off with the ball. I know there's continuous developments in cricket, but a T29? If this works they'll be trying a T37 next. A good win. Didn't look as though they'd do it until the last couple of overs. Another good performance from Moeen and a great over from Stokes. A T29. A beast! Might entice Bish back. A bit of military hardware.
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Post by ukcstokie on Aug 31, 2015 20:37:59 GMT
I know there's continuous developments in cricket, but a T29? If this works they'll be trying a T37 next. A good win. Didn't look as though they'd do it until the last couple of overs. Another good performance from Moeen and a great over from Stokes. A T29. A beast! Might entice Bish back. A bit of military hardware. Where's Bishp when you need him to comment on cricket and tanks?
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Post by estrangedsonoffaye on Sept 3, 2015 10:24:50 GMT
Just read that Australia are no longer going to play at the WACA, we should be happy because we always cop a battering there but it's an immensely sad day for such a great ground in my opinion.
It's also led to the resignation of Dennis Lillee as president of Western Australia CA.
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Post by partickpotter on Sept 3, 2015 18:22:04 GMT
Good run chase underway by England in the first ODI; 106-1 off 16 overs in response to Australia's 306.
Impressive so far by England.
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Post by partickpotter on Sept 3, 2015 20:00:01 GMT
Oh dear - rather less impressive recently. 152-2 is now 195-7.
So time for the Ali / Rashid show.
100 odd runs of 10+ overs.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2015 20:14:19 GMT
Rashid gone game over.
Never mind this limited over bollocks lets get them out the way and back on the test cricket........
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Post by ukcstokie on Sept 3, 2015 23:29:18 GMT
Just read that Australia are no longer going to play at the WACA, we should be happy because we always cop a battering there but it's an immensely sad day for such a great ground in my opinion. It's also led to the resignation of Dennis Lillee as president of Western Australia CA. Yes heard that on TMS too. They're moving to a new purpose built ground with drop in pitches. The character of the WACA pitches will be missed immensely. Will they be able to recreate the fastest bounciest pitch in the world with a drop in? The next Ashes tour will see the last match at the WACA. Very sad.
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Post by partickpotter on Sept 4, 2015 5:51:04 GMT
Rashid gone game over. Never mind this limited over bollocks lets get them out the way and back on the test cricket........ Indeed. That said, these ODIs have some significance for the test side as something of a proving ground. Players that perform and look the part in ODIs will put themselves in a strong position for future test selection. I'm sure Bairstow's selection in the Ashes was more down to how he performed against NZ in the last ODI than the stacks of runs he scored for Yorkshire in the county championship. After yesterday's disapointing performance all the batsmen have work to do to convince the selectors that are up for the challenge of test match cricket.
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Post by partickpotter on Sept 5, 2015 17:05:48 GMT
Well into the second ODI and a second heavy defeat looks more than likely.
Similar to the first game in that we're chasing a score just north of 300, made a good start but lost our way. The top order failed to carry on good starts while our middle order looks soft. Seems to me we are a specialist batsmen light. What we have is a sequence of all rounders from #5 down.
Need something extraordinary from Morgan.
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Post by partickpotter on Sept 6, 2015 5:57:50 GMT
So we lost - and a second heavy defeat it was lightened by a brief entertaining 9th wicket stand.
Interesting to hear Michael Holding make the same point about missing a specialist batsmen at 5. Too many all rounders. Hmmmm - been there before!
Anyway on the subject of #5 bats - was Stoke's right to be given out?
IMO - yes.
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