5th Test: England v Australia at The Oval Aug 21-25, 2013

[Umair7]

Congo England Fans

Copied from Cricinfo "England won 3-0, nearly 4-0, despite losing on first innings 4-0."

 

[cricket_icon]

aw man just a terrible end to what was a great, great run chase. England must feel gutted right now and Clarke, just a shameful display as not only a cricketer but a captain.

 

[Chief]

aw man just a terrible end to what was a great, great run chase. England must feel gutted right now and Clarke, just a shameful display as not only a cricketer but a captain.

Shameful is harsh. He did what he needed to do to salvage something. But yeah, it's not in the best spirit with 4 overs left.

 

[cricket_icon]

Shameful is harsh. He did what he needed to do to salvage something. But yeah, it's not in the best spirit with 4 overs left.

Not just the time wasting, that I can understand, every captain I have seen has done the same, but I was talking about the way he reacted to the umpires, the way he behaved around them, it is totally unbecoming of an international captain.

It's a trait, if you don't mind me saying, of Australian captains, I have seen a heck of a lot of moaning, whinging, captains in my team but Waugh, Ponting and now Clarke top the list lol and they're all Aussie.

 

[whiteninness]

Awful. I agree with Boycott on TMS - Clarke declaring was sportsmanlike and ambitious - but to then constantly moan to the umpire about the light once that gamble didn't pay off was a bit childish and not really in the spirit of the game in my opinion...

Farcical.

Complaining that he wanted the rules to be implemented correctly? Clarke is the captain and is within is right to ask the rules to be implemented correctly. They should have gone off earlier.

You may disagree with the rules and the lack of day/night test cricket (I personally do) but the only farcical decision would have been if they didn't go off. Luckily it didn't get to that.

Absolutely embarrassing performance from the English crowd. Fine, boo Warner and have a bit of fun with that but boo the man of the match, captain and every player on the presentation?

Utterly embarrassing and completely unsportsmanlike.

If it weren't for Australia this game would have ended in a boring draw. That was what England was gunning for the entire match until we game them a chance to make it interesting.

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Shameful is harsh. He did what he needed to do to salvage something. But yeah, it's not in the best spirit with 4 overs left.

You think they should have stayed on to gift England a win?

Dreaming.

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aw man just a terrible end to what was a great, great run chase. England must feel gutted right now and Clarke, just a shameful display as not only a cricketer but a captain.

Clarke was the only captain out to win this game. England fans should be pissed off with Cook's negative captaincy and the rest of the English batsman, not Clarke who wanted the rules implemented and the umpires who implemented completely objective rules.

 

[bigred]

Don't have a problem with Clarke slowing the game down. Broad would have been far worse. I do have a problem with him talking to the umpires like Roy Keane used to talk the premier league referees. Totally out of order. Fair play to him though on his declaration. Something Cook wouldn't even think about in the same situation.

 

[Chief]

Complaining that he wanted the rules to be implemented correctly? Clarke is the captain and is within is right to ask the rules to be implemented correctly. They should have gone off earlier.

You may disagree with the rules and the lack of day/night test cricket (I personally do) but the only farcical decision would have been if they didn't go off. Luckily it didn't get to that.

Absolutely embarrassing performance from the English crowd. Fine, boo Warner and have a bit of fun with that but boo the man of the match, captain and every player on the presentation?

Utterly embarrassing and completely unsportsmanlike.

If it weren't for Australia this game would have ended in a boring draw. That was what England was gunning for the entire match until we game them a chance to make it interesting.

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You think they should have stayed on to gift England a win?

Dreaming.

Not at all - The rules are the rules. But then the umpires are the adjudicators, not the captains - No need to remonstrate with them *before* they had made a decision (they were already looking at the light meters, non?)

He would have been within his right to complain had they NOT gone off. That would have been them breaking the rules. But to stamp up and down BEFORE they had taken the decision, having taken a risk in declaring and giving England the chance to win... Well....

The (completely separate) issue: I think the batsmen should be offered the light, as has been traditional. It should be their choice to take the risks and not left to the umpire to read a number on a meter. Is my 2p.

Finally, the crowd booing IS ridiculous. It's been a great series and a shame it ended like that - I thought better of cricket fans.

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Fair play to him though on his declaration. Something Cook wouldn't even think about in the same situation.

Totally.

 

[Simbazz]

Finally, the crowd booing IS ridiculous. It's been a great series and a shame it ended like that - I thought better of cricket fans.

Absolutely, wouldn't have that happening up north here. We're much more civilised people

 

[whiteninness]

Not at all - The rules are the rules. But then the umpires are the adjudicators, not the captains - No need to remonstrate with them *before* they had made a decision (they were already looking at the light meters, non?)

He would have been within his right to complain had they NOT gone off. That would have been them breaking the rules. But to stamp up and down BEFORE they had taken the decision, having taken a risk in declaring and giving England the chance to win... Well....

The (completely separate) issue: I think the batsmen should be offered the light, as has been traditional. It should be their choice to take the risks and not left to the umpire to read a number on a meter. Is my 2p.

Finally, the crowd booing IS ridiculous. It's been a great series and a shame it ended like that - I thought better of cricket fans.

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Totally.

They said at the end that they went off o the third day at 8.1 and it was 9.7 at the time they went off today so Clarke was well within his right to complain because according to that they should have gone off 20-30 minutes earlier (guessing a bit as I don't know the light measurements well)

 

[Chief]

They said at the end that they went off o the third day at 8.1 and it was 9.7 at the time they went off today so Clarke was well within his right to complain because according to that they should have gone off 20-30 minutes earlier (guessing a bit as I don't know the light measurements well)

In the same way that footballers wave imaginary yellow cards at the referees?

Umpires know the rules. No help or advice from the players is necessary.

 

[whiteninness]

In the same way that footballers wave imaginary yellow cards at the referees?

Umpires know the rules. No help or advice from the players is necessary.

No idea. I don't watch much soccer. Sounds a bit dumb but the treatment of umpires in soccer is embarrassing so it doesn't surprise me.

If they were meant to go off at 8.1 and they went off at 9.7 then the umpires clearly don't know the rules or how to implement them correctly. Luckily they went off before it was too late and the result changed. I mean the game was planning on ending at 7.45 or whatever, why the hell didn't they carry the lightometer after tea? Why did they need some English sub fielder to bring it on? It's hardly a big device. If they checked it after every over they would have gone off 20 minutes earlier before Clarke had to argue.

In terms of offering the light to the batsman, I'm not quite sure what the best scenario is. It may not be dangerous to the fielders, except for maybe the bowler in his follow through and close-in fielders, but it's still very difficult to see the ball in poor light. Is that enough to warrant going off? Not sure.

We have also seen cases of them going off because it's supposedly dangerous, but perhaps in that case the fielding captain should be given the option to just bowl spinners. Maybe have two light reading levels, one for pace and one for spin. Maybe this is too technical though.

Another thing that would have helped would have been starting the game slightly earlier to make up lost time, rather than just adding it on at the end. That's what we do in Australia and I think it works well.

 

[Chief]

No idea. I don't watch much soccer. Sounds a bit dumb but the treatment of umpires in soccer is embarrassing so it doesn't surprise me.

If they were meant to go off at 8.1 and they went off at 9.7 then the umpires clearly don't know the rules or how to implement them correctly. Luckily they went off before it was too late and the result changed. I mean the game was planning on ending at 7.45 or whatever, why the hell didn't they carry the lightometer after tea? Why did they need some English sub fielder to bring it on? It's hardly a big device. If they checked it after every over they would have gone off 20 minutes earlier before Clarke had to argue.

In terms of offering the light to the batsman, I'm not quite sure what the best scenario is. It may not be dangerous to the fielders, except for maybe the bowler in his follow through and close-in fielders, but it's still very difficult to see the ball in poor light. Is that enough to warrant going off? Not sure.

We have also seen cases of them going off because it's supposedly dangerous, but perhaps in that case the fielding captain should be given the option to just bowl spinners. Maybe have two light reading levels, one for pace and one for spin. Maybe this is too technical though.

Another thing that would have helped would have been starting the game slightly earlier to make up lost time, rather than just adding it on at the end. That's what we do in Australia and I think it works well.

No, agreed totally. And we DO do that in England, but for some reason not for this series!

I think the big thing was the wicket: Bell clearly didn't see the ball and that's when the umpires decided it was too dull to continue TBH. I think they did their best to get the game to a conclusion, but when that happened they had little choice but to end it there.

 

[whiteninness]

No, agreed totally. And we DO do that in England, but for some reason not for this series!

I think the big thing was the wicket: Bell clearly didn't see the ball and that's when the umpires decided it was too dull to continue TBH. I think they did their best to get the game to a conclusion, but when that happened they had little choice but to end it there.

I think that the objective should be to get in as much cricket as possible. This game deserved a result, one way or another. This would have to be written into the rules though, one way or another. I don't think that breaking the rules to achieve this is the way to go.

Unfortunately I didn't actually see the Bell dismissal because my Youtube coverage decided to have technical difficulties at the time Took a few minutes to load crictime.com

If they're going to have a light metre though I think they have to use it, not just call for it when it feels dark, or on the other hand avoid calling for it because the game is interesting.

Just another case of the rules being flawed and it leads to a lose-lose situation because Australian fans would have been just as pissed off if the game kept going, probably even more so since the rules said they should have gone off.

Same goes for the DRS, without watching a full discussion here. Imagine if Trott were given not out. He was plumb, the ball was smashing leg stump, but the DRS says it would have stayed not out.

I think cricket has found itself dragged into modern times, and is still either resisting (night cricket) or dumbfounded by how to use it (DRS).

 

[barmyarmy]

Crazy scenes going off for the light but to be honest Australia didn't deserve to lose after that bold declaration.

 

[Umair7]

WTF Shane Watson is the highest run scorer in this series for Australia