The Ashes 2019

[PatowalongaPirate]

I think we have enough now, all runs from here a bonus.

[twe]

yep agree love the fight from day one at 8 /122 those extra runs have been gold .. hope wade goes one to ton up as well trav missed the boat unfortunately but should be looking to have a crack at the poms after an hour our so from here any thing over 300 will be enough !

[Armchair expert]

Well done Wade

[stan]

Still baffled at why no Woakes before lunch. Strange, seemed alright after lunch.

On a interesting point, there was a discussion about this version of the duke cricket ball, it's to the same spec as all the previous balls, however for some reason it's just not swinging that much, well it still swings but not like it has in the past.
Now that is an interesting little turn of events if that keeps up through the series.

[LaughingKookaburra]

Its not swinging as much as now every country is being watched like a hawk when it comes to conditioning the ball. Funny that.....

[stan]

Its not swinging as much as now every country is being watched like a hawk when it comes to conditioning the ball. Funny that.....

<<< Please turn on sarcasm dector now >>>

No no no, only the dirty nasty Aussie flogs did this. Nobody else would even dare.

I mean I know old mate Flintoff came.out and said what they used to do with the ball and well Faf x 2 but but but ban Smith for life!!!!

<<< End of transmission >>>

[LaughingKookaburra]

It’s not just this series. World wide reverse swing has dried up considerably and balls aren’t dancing anywhere near as much as they were up until 2 years ago.

[heater31]

It’s not just this series. World wide reverse swing has dried up considerably and balls aren’t dancing anywhere near as much as they were up until 2 years ago.

Funny about that hey......

England were tbe modern masters of the dark art now can't bowl a hoop down hill on lifeless decks!

[LaughingKookaburra]

It’s not just this series. World wide reverse swing has dried up considerably and balls aren’t dancing anywhere near as much as they were up until 2 years ago.

Funny about that hey......

England were tbe modern masters of the dark art now can't bowl a hoop down hill on lifeless decks!

It’s not hard to pick it out, seriously. England play Australia, NZ home and away, India home, West Indies away ect. All pace friendly conditions and Moeen Ali miraculously bowls 5 overs an innings more on average than he did prior to 2018. Pace bowlers don’t get the results, then you turn to your spinners and he gets more wickets because he gets more overs. They ain’t alone though, were obviously doing the wrong thing and got caught.

[FlyingHigh]

Awesome innings by Wade. Certainly put me back in my box, coz that's the situation I thought he'd let us down in. The intent of his first 20-30 runs really turned the game.

Staggering captaincy by Root not to open with two seamers when two wickets in five overs would have just about been game over. Similarly to bowl Woakes so late and then defer the new ball by a few overs, only to give it back to the spinners after a couple overs.

Also, wonder if we batted too long. An extra 3-4 overs last night would have been worth more than the last 30 or so runs, and if Poms get 360 off 100 overs in the last innings then good luck to them. Our fast bowlers will need to be better, from what I've seen, and granted it hasn't been heaps, it has been too much back-of-a-length

[The Dark Knight]

.

[Lightning McQueen]

I'm getting sick of Steve Smith getting to the 140's and just throwing his wicket away, we really need him to go with one of these starts.

[RB]

Has anyone noticed the English commentators are a bunch of frontrunners?

They were up and about when we were 8-120 in the first innings, then when Root and Burns had that big partnership, before England went from 4 down to 8 down in the space of 20 minutes, after which they became extremely quiet. They were a bit chirpier when England had their ninth wicket partnership, and when Warner and Bancroft got out early, before returning to form when we started piling on the runs yesterday.

Bumble is the worst offender, Atherton and a couple of others are pretty bad. David Gower isn't too bad, mind you he's one of the few who'd have a triple-figure IQ.

You'd expect it from the Barmy Army, very amusing though the way the home commentators jump on and off the bandwagon as the match ebbs and flows.

[The Dark Knight]

Refreshing to see the English press are starting to change their tune away from the sandpaper carry on.

[DOC]

I am praying that the last wicket is Broad, dancing down the pitch to Goat, stumped Paine.

[Brodlach]

Anyone give the Poms a chance?


I think they might give the total a shake

[batmanbegins]

Anyone give the Poms a chance?


I think they might give the total a shake

No chance for a win. Decent chance to draw if we bat well, pitch has bugger all in it for the seamers so Lyon will be the key.

Pretty depressing performance after the strong position we have been in firstly at having you 8-122 and then us being 4-280. Missed Jimmy hugely last night and his omission going forward will be tough for us to overcome.

[Gozu]

Anyone give the Poms a chance?


I think they might give the total a shake

In theory they're a chance but they would need to smash the Edgbaston highest ever successful 4th innings chase by 100+ runs according to a graphic they showed last night. These records are usually in place for a reason so therefore they likely won't come close. Ali who to be fair is garbage was getting some big turners happening last night, Lyon will probably go through them like a knife through butter.

[whufc]

Slightly disappointed we didn't declare a tad earlier in what was a great day for us.

Our bowlers are our strength by and absolute mile and we may not get a better chance to get a test win than putting the game in the hand of our strength.

I could understand us pulling out of a run chase early and playing for the draw but with the ball in hand we need to back our bowling line up.

Interestingly under a Michael Clarke/Lehmann side I reckon we would have declared with 330-350 on the board.

Hopefully it counts for nothing and we take the 10 wickets tonight.

[Trader]

In the third innings we scored 7/487d, from just 112 overs (run rate of 4.34)
England have been set 398 off 98 overs (run rate of 4.1).

This pitch is flat, and if you get through the new ball, then its easy batting. Don't get me wrong, the new ball lasts longer in England than it does in Australia, but the point still remains. Slow English decks are easy to bat on once the ball stops swinging. Look at the runs we scored with Siddle and Lyon against the old ball in the first innings, or even the second innings, where we lost 1/250 between overs 21 and 84, before they finally took the new ball.

For mine, our declaration has been generous enough.
We've given ourselves enough overs to have the first ball, then another 17 overs with the new ball to have a second crack at them. If we haven't bowled them out in 97 overs, then there is every chance England would have the total somewhere in the vicinity of 300 (if not more) and we'd be looking down the barrel of a loss had we given England 115 overs to chase 330.

I get you need to be brave and entice the opposition to chase, but there is a difference between brave and reckless.