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Nice observationOriginally Posted by Lawnmower
Agree
That sounds a reasonable suggestion.
Except the England selectors have rarely been known to be reasonable.
I mean to say old chap, toughing it out on a sticky wicket in the home counties is just the ticket. Many come and play from overseas because its England... the home of cricket :rolleyes:
I am being slightly facetious and there's probably a lot more to it than that, more than likely money.
Looking bad now. Aussies in front with just 4 down. England bowlers knackered and no threat whatsoever.
England look a team with a couple of great players coming to the end of their careers and 1 quality player in his prime who's not firing, a couple of half decent ones and then a few new ones who are nowhere near the quality of what they replaced.
Their only other decent player is sat in the naughty chair.
It's just not cricket !
Mitchell Marsh who's still there on 150 had a test average of 21 in 20 tests before today
The "barmy army" (always makes me cringe for some reason that) will be being mercilessly taunted.
Could we see Joe Root do a Kim Hughes and break down after the series?
Looks like I massively underestimated how easy it would be for the Aussies when I predicted they'd score over 500.
They could bat another session tomorrow and take it well over 600.
England will still be left with having to bat 4 sessions to save the game- if no rain.
On this pitch it's doable, but are they mentally strong enough after being ground down for the past 2 days
Totally agree with this. Our players are too pampered.
At 526/4 Aus can score as many as they want.
The weather forecast is very poor over the next two days so I think England will escape with a draw and avoid a whitewash. They are second best and by a distance. Theoretically they can still the retain the Ashes but I can’t see them winning one Test let alone two.
As you say the only way they can escape defeat here is if they get an early Christmas present from the weather
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2063523
Had to laugh at Geoff Boycott just before the close of play.
He said that England should have negotiated 5 day-night test matches instead of the sun baked Australia favouring conditions.
He obviously forgot that England already took a drubbing in the DN 2nd test.
Yeah, perhaps if they left the floodlights off too they might well scrape a draw
At least the English bowlers had a good session in the night portion of that test, got the ball swinging. That's probably what he was referring to.Had to laugh at Geoff Boycott just before the close of play.
He said that England should have negotiated 5 day-night test matches instead of the sun baked Australia favouring conditions.
He obviously forgot that England already took a drubbing in the DN 2nd test.
Yeah, perhaps if they left the floodlights off too they might well scrape a draw
Anderson can't keep on forever, Broad seems to have now lost it bowling wise when his batting went years ago, Woakes is a T20 / on day bowler, Overton is at best a 4th seamer, all lacking real killer pace needed on Aussie pitches. Don't give me Stokes, he's a basket case. He'd improve the batting, sure. Nobody really fears Ali as a spinner.
It's probably easier to list the areas that aren't flawed in the current England side. Bairstow's a decent batsman / wk. Root can stick around but needs to convert more 50s to 100s. The rest is just shite.
Strauss needs to be kicked out. Bayliss should stay in Australia.
The series was lost as soon as they selected this squad.
Not a single feckin fast bowler, no proper spin bowler and the back up batsmen is Roots mate Gary Ballance who has shown time and again he doesnt have the technique at the top level.
Strauss needs to f off though. This started with his personal vendetta against Pieterson.
I also had to laugh at the way the coach tried to defend his team, well I suppose he has to outwardly be positive. Perhaps he's also seen the weather forecast and knows it'll end in a draw.
Australia have England where they want them in this series even if the weather may save England in this test.
The differences in the two sides are there for all to see, having been remarked upon that these are two poor sides.
England are massively flawed in attitude (and skill as it turns out) with the bat for test cricket and not much better with the ball having a now average attack.
Two poor sides maybe but Australia have applied themselves much better.
Dare I say it but a majority of people anticipated a bit of a beating but possibly not by this margin. Weather will be the only reason England will escape a clean sweep based on these first 3 tests.
The problem is that the next generation seem to be obsessed with T20 or more to the point the financial rewards in excelling in it.
Outside of England & Australia for the Ashes test cricket is slowly but surely becoming a sparsely attended event and unless a dramatic change comes about it may not be with us much longer.
Not to worry though as I see there is even a T 10 event for those whose attention span is not quite long enough for the 20 over format.
And yes, before anyone accuses me of being a miserable old traditionalist, that's exactly what I am .
Bowling as an artform is being destroyed by the ADHD generation wanting batting to become bish bash bosh hoiks into cow corner.
Drama of McGrath battering Atherton in Australia? Nah, sod that. We'd rather see Stoke woeful bowling get clouted for sixes to lose the WC final.
Peterson fell out with a lot more people than just Andrew Strauss.
Besides which, he's hardly been pulling up trees in the last few years.
I'd have liked to have seen Plunkett go, I like his bowling and he's a handy batsman who would have strengthened our tail end and I also like Wood, but he and Finn were injured so that cut the options right down.
Perhaps it might have been worth a gamble with Rashid as Ali is no threat at all in Aus and in those conditions you need to keep the pressure on whilst the quicks are resting
As for batting apart from maybe Hayes and perhaps Jennings who had a half decent knock for the Lions last week, I can't see many options.
Alastair Cook is yet to score a century this series (even when all his innings are added together). 14, 7, 16, 37, 7, 2 = 82 runs.
Time to retire?
Also, can anyone name a weedier, less inspiring captain than Joe Root?
60-3, with two more failures from Cook and Root.
I don't think we can put this latest trouncing (I'm sure it's going to be a trouncing by the worst Australia team to have ever handed England such a heavy defeat) in Australia down to things like poor selection - there were one or two selections that surprised me, but I couldn't come up with any obvious errors than had been made because there just aren't the players out there scoring runs or taking wickets in county cricket at a rate which demands inclusion.
The ECB have to decide if they still want to have a strong test match team or whether they see one day cricket as the first priority. If they feel that test cricket is still important, then they have to find a way of breaking out of the wholly inconsistent results of recent years. Much of that inconsistency is down to batting which is simply not good enough - it may be boring, but players need to be taught how to build a test innings.
Finally, a player as good as Ben Stokes is bound to improve any team, but I don't see that his absence is the defining difference between Australia and England - I think England are going to lose 5-0 because their batting line up is wholly unequipped to succeed against Australian bowling in Australian conditions, the same would have applied with Stokes in the side.
100-4, a typical "good" test match innings by a modern day England batsman from Vonce in that he gets in and reaches fifty pretty impressively, but is incapable of taking it on to the hundred needed in this situation.
I see they couldn't even sabotage the pitch properly
England lose the third test and the Ashes series...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/42391909
5 nil looks very much on the cards now
Did you see the ball he got though? What a delivery.
Also, 5-0 looked on the cards from Day 1 of the series. It was nailed on when we bowled first in Adelaide.
Tremendous delivery which I doubt any batsmen in the world from any era would have picked.
The turn he got reminded me of Shane Warne in his pomp except it was 70mph quicker!
Vince has been one of the few successes for England to date.
You make some decent points. However I believe im right in saying that Bayliss doesnt even watch County Cricket. In the past players have been identified as Test players without setting the county circuit alight. Trescothick for example. I cant believe there arent options out there other than Gary Ballance who bats like he has his 2 feet strapped together and seems to think his batting technique is ok.
Not a single fast bowler in the country?. Well i switch on the Glamorgan T20 semi and Stone is bowling at our batsmen at 93mph. I know hes just come back from a serious knee injury but can he play Tests? Are there others out there other than the 80mph merchants who rack up wickets on green wickets in this country.
May will come and all will be fine again. Anderson probably the worlds best bowler in English conditions will rip through the oppositon and Root , Ali , Bairstow and Stokes will score enough for a home series win.
If we want to go to Australia and win the batting needs to be improved i agree. But bowlers win matches and we are not winning out there without a couple of fast bowlers and a decent spin bowler.
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