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Couldn’t agree more Cork. I am fairly sure England have been odds on to win at some point in every match. If you can only convert one of those winning positions from four into a victory then you’re not going to win a series. No sporting event rests on one moment, much less one that lasts 25 days.
Series used to go into September, I remember being in our Sixth Form common room watching the anticlimax to the 2005 Ashes.
Even as a Lancashire member, I do have a lot of sympathy for ID’s assessment of Old Trafford. Aside from the weather, I am sorry to say it is not a particularly good ground. The large stand square to the wicket looks awful and the ground has resembled a building site for about a decade.
I actually preferred the ground when the wicket faced the other way and was side on to the old pavilion. The new pavilion is bland and the players dressing rooms are in a separate building at the opposite end of the ground, which means they do not walk out from the pavilion through the crowd. None of the membership like it.
Anyway, I will be there on Tuesday for the first day of Lancashire v Northamptonshire, when the weather is forecast to be better, at least by Manchester standards.
This seems like an appropriate place to mention this morning’s Test Match result. The Bazball bandwagon rolls on with a quite extraordinary win in India. Pope and Hartley the heroes in their respective second innings after both fluffing their lines in the first.
India remain odds on for the series and rightly so but it does set things up nicely.
A good win for the Windies in Australia too. Can’t be often that India and Australia have lost at home at the same time.
“Bazball” is all very well but as “The Guardian” says:
“England started the day with momentum behind them, a set batter on a ton and eight wickets in hand on a flat deck.
When you look at it like that it’s hard not to feel they’ve thrown away a golden chance to stamp their authority on the match and indeed the series. Those eight wickets all fell for 112 runs.
What’ll frustrate England fans most of all is the manner of those dismissals. Root was out reverse-scooping when a more pragmatic approach would have sufficed. Duckett spooned a pie to cover. Stokes gifted a catch out in the deep while on the slog and Foakes chipped a seemingly innocuous ball to mid-on.
Apart from Bairstow, who misjudged the length of a lovely spinner from Kuldeep, every other England batter today was the primary culprit in his own demise.”
Of course, one bad shot does not overshadow a player’s overall career – but Root’s shot was one of the stupidest I have ever seen in the circumstances. He knows it was, too!
Not watched any of it but going off Corky’s above post its a good job they are NOT a results driven team as throwing your wickets away isn’t test cricket in my book
Entertainment is one thing but at the end of the day its the results that will keep you in a jobI’d in-fact have them down as powder puff losers when things are going against them
Bazball is great when things are going your way or can change a game into your favour but against the better sides you get found out more often than not. Surely they can adjust for the occasion results driven or not..
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
Like any tactic, if it loses the element of surprise then it loses its effectiveness. Clearly there is a time and a place. It worked for a day and then was the time to change tactics a bit (easy to say in hindsight I know).
Its a great watch and very entertaining, granted but somewhat childish to a degree…
Was it 2005 the ashes winning series that beat that great Australia side? I’m trying to think how bazball would have worked against the likes of McGrath and Warne. I don’t think they would have done well. That England side was very positive but not naive to just go gung ho attacking
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
T20 was in its infancy back then. Players are much more used to to the highly attacking style now. That must have something to do with it.
Joe Root has anchored in, in terms of bazball its slow going a run every other ball but has hit a century.
Simple really, protect your wicket with your life..
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
A good job England are NOT a results driven team off the back of that
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
Poor-to-dreadful bowling from England
Just the 26th Test to end within two days, 11 of which have happened this century
I subscribed to TNT for the snooker and cycling after free-to-view Eurosport folded. Them showing The Ashes and the rugby internationals is an unexpected but welcome bonus
To my mind, England walked off the field on Friday looking like they thought they had won the game. They seem to have forgotten that their batting was atrocious. At only 40 runs behind, Australia still had to fancy their chances – especially if England batted as poorly again.
Only two England teams have won the Ashes in Australia after going 1-0 behind. The last was Len Hutton’s tourists in the 1950s.
I feel sorry for anyone who had tickets for days 3 and 4. At least they will get a refund.
One of the main talking points is: how many more chances is Zak Crawley going to get? Why is he so indulged by the selectors? He has now played 59 Tests, only scored 5 centuries and has an average of just over 30. In this Test, he lasted a combined total of 11 deliveries and bagged a pair.
OK, he is not a glamour batsman coming in at 4 or 5. But they are still poor figures for a modern day opening batsman.
Plenty of players have been chosen to open the batting for England, only to be discarded after a match or two. They are entitled to wonder what they did wrong while golden boy Crawley gets selected time and time again.
The second test in Brisbane is a day/night match apparently which should mean plenty of action later than 10am our time, despite Brisbane being two hours ahead of Perth
Good to see you back in the lounge’s old leather armchairs Corker
I feel sorry for anyone who had tickets for days 3 and 4. At least they will get a refund.
If the goal is entertaining people over winning then they’ve failed at that too.
Drone mentions the rugby, that’s now 11 wins in a row and counting for England’s counterparts there. A team who certainly couldn’t be accused of always playing the most entertaining rugby but they are getting the results. I know which I prefer.
Also 11 successive matches as Raeburn Shield holders, having ‘won’ it from France in the first of the current run. I wonder if anyone has ever traced the equivalent back through the cricket archives.
For the uninitiated, it’s worked out on a boxing style challenge basis so the first team to win an international match became the holders and the first team to beat them gained it from them and so on to the present day.
I don’t support them (in fact, I am not sure anyone does) but it is just as well the non league side City of Liverpool FC is not a results driven team.
In its last five matches it has lost by scores of 6-1, 8-0, 8-0, 11-1 and 7-0. That is a combined score of 2 scored, 40 conceded!
There are rumours that the club is in severe financial trouble (Southport is refusing to play them in the Liverpool Senior Cup over alleged unpaid bills) and that the players have not been paid for over a month. Going by the results, it seems highly likely.
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