Cricket

[Devil-Dick Willie]

He most certainly should not 'be in jail' and I'm sick of seeing it from Australian fans who have no idea what crime he was even charged with.

[Lucas]

Let's forget Stokes a minute, as genius as it was.

The Aussies completely ballsed that up. We were incredibly lucky that they lost their heads.

1. Stokes being dropped by Harris. Not easy but he had his hand under it. It was a chance.

2. Harris again, losing his bottle by throwing to the bowler end to get Leach out, when Stokes was well out at Tim Paine's end.

3. The absolute waste of their last review. Cummins knew it was iffy, you could see that, but Paine went for the review. A sign of desperation.

4. Nathan Lyon bombing that run out. I mean you will not get many easier. Pressure got to him and he fumbled it.

5. The LBW on Stokes. The one bit of bad luck for the Aussies. It was pretty plum for me and I was shocked at the time the Umpire didn't give it. Of course, it all goes back to that waste of a review mind...

Very unusual from them really not to deal with pressure but sometimes, it's just meant to be.

Would never have seen the McGrath's/Warne's etc fuck that up.

Mentally its great for us because really we have been second best overall in this series and we've managed to scrap to 1-1 with two to go.

Need to raise our game now and press home the momentum swing.

Edited August 26, 2019 by Lucas

[Azeem]

On 19/08/2019 at 13:18, Stick With Azeem said:

Misbah and Dean Jones in line for the new head coach 

Waqar Younis and Courtney Walsh also in for the role. 

[IgnisExcubitor]

Australia proper blew it. 

Has been a good fortnight or so for Test cricket. The matches between Ind/WI and SL/NZ don't come close to that Ashes encounter, but they have been good matches. Stokes played a magical innings. And, yes, Aussies blew it, but Stokes was incredible. 

Bumrah's 8-3-7-5 was special, and was unsurprisingly not spoken about. 

Edited August 27, 2019 by IgnisExcubitor

[Stan]

59 minutes ago, IgnisExcubitor said:

Australia proper blew it. 

Has been a good fortnight or so for Test cricket. The matches between Ind/WI and SL/NZ don't come close to that Ashes encounter, but they have been good matches. Stokes played a magical innings. And, yes, Aussies blew it, but Stokes was incredible. 

Bumrah's 8-3-7-5 was special, and was unsurprisingly not spoken about. 

In amongst all the Ashes fervour and the fact West Indies aren't as strong a nation these days, not surprised it wasn't spoken about as much, despite how good those figures are!

 

[Burning Gold]

Anderson's ruled out for the rest of the Ashes, and a few seem to be suggesting that might be it for his England career.

It's a massive blow to lose him for the series, but I'm going to be devastated if this is it and we never see him and Archer bowl together. It's Suarez and Torres all over again

Edited August 31, 2019 by Burning Gold

[IgnisExcubitor]

I know it's the Windies, but 6 for 27 that includes a Hattrick. Bumrah is special. 

[Stan]

@Stick With Azeem thoughts?

 

[Azeem]

Just now, Stan said:

@Stick With Azeem thoughts?

 

Waqar has had problems with the players before as a head coach so i have doubts whether it's a good appointment from a player-staff relationship point of view.

Misbah on the other hand seems a breath of fresh air but I'm a bit surprised he gets to be both the selector and coach. 

[Stan]

Yeah I thought that seemed to be a bit of conflict of interest. Obviously the coach is involved in selections for squads but to be chief selector is unheard of? 

[Toinho]

Busy day, just finished dinner, grabbed a beer and wanted to rug up and watch the cricket... but noooo rain again.

Any roof tilers or anything here? You’d work about 20 days a year in Britain surely. 

Edited September 5, 2019 by Toinho

[Toinho]

Smith is just an exceptional cricketer. 

[CaaC (John)+]

5 hours ago, Toinho said:

Smith is just an exceptional cricketer. 

Here we go again...England I mean, Smith hit 214, Australia declares at 497-8, now England are 20-1 already, I bet they will be praying for rain tomorrow and a draw in this match and I understand magic man Stokes went off injured?

[The Artful Dodger]

I'm going to old Trafford on Saturday. Praying get to watch Smith bat. I'll be able to bore young relatives in 40 years with it. 

[Azeem]

Abdul Qadir passed away at 67, according to Graham Gooch during his days he was better than Warne

[Devil-Dick Willie]

In Tennis there was a big 3. Djoker, Fed and Nadal. The British just added Murray and called it a 'big 4' in spite of the fact that Murray was never even near that level, just to feel important. 

Joe root is the Murray of crickets big 4. Way behind Smith, Kohli or Williamson 

[The Artful Dodger]

Watching Smith bat. Yes. This is like watching messi.

[CaaC (John)+]

2 hours ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Watching Smith bat. Yes. This is like watching messi.

Watching England Captain Root is like watching Pogba doing a jig with ear-phones on.    

[Fairy In Boots]

 

On 06/09/2019 at 23:51, Devil-Dick Willie said:

In Tennis there was a big 3. Djoker, Fed and Nadal. The British just added Murray and called it a 'big 4' in spite of the fact that Murray was never even near that level, just to feel important. 

Joe root is the Murray of crickets big 4. Way behind Smith, Kohli or Williamson 

Think that’s a bit Harsh on Murray injuries aside I think for an 18 month period he caught them up. 

Agree on Root though, personally think his captaincy has been poor and has distracted from his batting. Where do you go now though? They will give it Stokes and he’ll not do as well. Need a stable player in the Strauss/ Vaughan model who’s not the best but can let the best players play. 

Also well done to Australia although I feel England have helped them I think they’ve (Australia) been good not spectacular 

Edited September 8, 2019 by Fairy In Boots

[CaaC (John)+]

  

 

Ashes 2019: Joe Root says he is the right man to lead England after Australia defeat

Joe Root said he is still the right man to captain England despite failing to regain the Ashes from Australia.

FULL REPORT

[Toinho]

I’ve got to see Steve Smith bat. 

[Devil-Dick Willie]

2 hours ago, Fairy In Boots said:

 

Think that’s a bit Harsh on Murray injuries aside I think for an 18 month period he caught them up. 

Agree on Root though, personally think his captaincy has been poor and has distracted from his batting. Where do you go now though? They will give it Stokes and he’ll not do as well. Need a stable player in the Strauss/ Vaughan model who’s not the best but can let the best players play. 

Also well done to Australia although I feel England have helped them I think they’ve (Australia) been good not spectacular 

 

Murray sucked by comparison. Only when compared to 3 all time greats of course, but he was closer by far to Stan or Kei than to Novak and the boys.

As for england. They need...

1. A leader. Someone who can bat with no pressure.

2. An opener

3. To move Root to 4. 

4. Less bits and pieces players in the middle order. 2 keepers and an all rounder are your 5-6-7 It's crazy.

1.????

2.Burns

3.????

4. Root

5. Stokes

6. An actual fucking batsman 

7. Bairstow 

 

[Lucas]

Frustrating series. Personally feel we lost it on Day 1 of the 1st Test.

Can't have the Aussies at 122-8 and let them escape like that. You need to be clinical. Go 1-0 up and the momentum changes.

Don't even think it was a case the Aussies were that special. Smith was outstanding but bar Labuschagne, no one else really got runs for them. We had Warner, the other dangerman on toast.

Yes they have decent bowlers but at the same time, they aren't McGrath, Warne and Lee here.

Difference for me was we made them look better by inviting pressure on with poor shot selection. Our mentality was shocking. This isn't one day cricket, you have to be patient and we weren't. 

Poor choices giving away our wickets, especially at times when the wickets were doing little for the bowlers. Roy, Root, Buttler and Bairstow should know better.

I also think we relied too much on Broad and Archer. Woakes didn't deliver, Leach for all his efforts is not a world class spinner, Moeen Ali has completely lost it, and poor Stokesy can't do it all.

Losing Anderson was unlucky too. If we had him available for the series then it could have been different but then the Aussies were missing Starc for a three tests too.

Not a vintage Aussie team at all and yet they have been all over us.

This will hurt but emotionally, I thought it was always going to be hardwork after the World Cup. Mentally, it was just too much to ask.

[IgnisExcubitor]

Anyone else watched Afghan's win over Bangladesh? Was an exciting match.

I keep saying this, these have been a fabulous few weeks for Test cricket. A lot to do with bowler friendly pitches, and partly to do with good bowling and poor batting skills. 

[CaaC (John)+]

I see Geoff Boycott got knighted and there is a lot of backlash about him being made a Sir but as he said he 'doesn't give a toss' about knighthood criticism, in a way he is right, he played Cricket as a profession over the years where a lot of young kids growing up watched him play and learnt from him.

When you see people like Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Mick Jagger receiving knighthood's fuck all is mentioned all the drugs they experienced with and young kids getting influenced in copying them in their drug relates antics, I would rather see a young kid growing up playing Cricket as a sport than a young kid growing up blowing his/her mind out with LSD etc. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49639222

Edited September 10, 2019 by CaaC (John)