The Ashes (Australia tour of England)

[Dutch]

Overton’s taken a wicket in fairness

And the control he is given is well worth it

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Great shot by Smith

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/cricket/49579654

 

[Ed Smith]

The more I see of him. The more I realise I hate watching Steve Smith bat

 

[LiveLoveABD]

And the control he is given is well worth it

At last someone else. Bowling in England is often extremely extremely under rated as a skill. I've been watching cricket here for the better part of two decades and perception is that the ball hoots around in England. The reality is, there is always nip, tuck and the overheads determine if it hoots around. I have seen some of the best spells of bowling yield a wicket, at best two but the control they render in terms of accuracy opens the gates at the other end. There was this bloke called Hoggard and he was just relentless in English conditions. Just a workhorse who ran in all day and he would put it in that one box and let the wicket and the batsman do the rest for him. THAT is England. There's a reason the great Warne has always said that bowling is about bowling defensively with attacking fields. They will always yield more consistent results because the magic ball might happen but in it's pursuit you leak a hundred runs and before you know it, that's the test match. That's why I rate Stokes' bowling in the last game above his batting.

I know Australia have made a knee jerk reaction by opting for Starc hoping he mops up the tail, but I often see him leak truck loads in tests. I would have never left Siddle out for even one test match in England. He is exactly that bowler who can bowl long long spells and just keep it in that one box.

 

[Dutch]

Well would you believe it, the day was severely truncated by rain! Who would have thought? It's only feckin' Manchester in September.

England looked decidedly blunt. But feck me, Smith is an effin' WALL!

 

[Dutch]

We as English and as cricket fans should absolutely love the way in which Ben Stokes single-handedly rescued England in the last innings but it must not hide the fact that there is a serious serious problem in English cricket around decision making and who is pulling the strings and why. Might sound like a treacherous and perhaps even traitorous thing to say but the best thing that can happen to England is to get absolutely and categorically thumped in this match. I want them to do well but the whole fairytale magic is covering up a lot, a lot, a lot of bullshit.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

Well would you believe it, the day was severely truncated by rain! Who would have thought? It's only feckin' Manchester in September.

England looked decidedly blunt. But feck me, Smith is an effin' WALL!

I seem to remember reading that the best month for avoiding rainfall in Manchester was February.

 

[Dutch]

I seem to remember reading that the best month for avoiding rainfall in Manchester was February.

I heard that the best months to avoid Manchester are those with at least one vowel in them.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

I heard that the best months to avoid Manchester are those with at least one vowel in them.

My mate who went today has been complaining about Old Trafford, primarily the £5 they charge for Foster's.

 

[Dutch]

We as English and as cricket fans should absolutely love the way in which Ben Stokes single-handedly rescued England in the last innings but it must not hide the fact that there is a serious serious problem in English cricket around decision making and who is pulling the strings and why. Might sound like a treacherous and perhaps even traitorous thing to say but the best thing that can happen to England is to get absolutely and categorically thumped in this match. I want them to do well but the whole fairytale magic is covering up a lot, a lot, a lot of bullshit.

And then of course you can always watch Boris Johnson playing Prime Minister and know it gets a lot lot worse and that our beloved country is seriously fecked......My fellow Britons...congrats, you have been Trumped![DOUBLEPOST=1567628708][/DOUBLEPOST]

My mate who went today has been complaining about Old Trafford, primarily the £5 they charge for Foster's.

He could have just held his plastic cup out in the rain and saved himself five quid!

 

[wasteyouryouth]

And then of course you can always watch Boris Johnson playing Prime Minister and know it gets a lot lot worse and that our beloved country is seriously fecked......My fellow Britons...congrats, you have been Trumped![DOUBLEPOST=1567628708][/DOUBLEPOST]
He could have just held his plastic cup out in the rain and saved himself five quid!

Tory leaders are like England openers, no matter how bad the last one was there's a worse one waiting in the wings.

 

[Yorkshireman]

I’ve got tickets for Old Trafford on Saturday (day 4) so I’m not overly fussed about the rain delay today. Saturday looks decent weather wise so hopefully I get to see a full days cricket! Fingers crossed.

Regarding England I agree with the post a couple above this about some serious bullshit with this England team. I really really want us to win the ashes but would losing it help us in the long run? Maybe. The batting is a serious problem. We need separate coaches for red ball and white ball cricket that’s for sure. We also need to find some proper batsmen from the county circuit too, our test batting really is on it’s arse. That labuschagne was from the county circuit and seems to be an excellent find for the Australians.

 

[wasteyouryouth]

I’ve got tickets for Old Trafford on Saturday (day 4) so I’m not overly fussed about the rain delay today. Saturday looks decent weather wise so hopefully I get to see a full days cricket! Fingers crossed.

Regarding England I agree with the post a couple above this about some serious bullshit with this England team. I really really want us to win the ashes but would losing it help us in the long run? Maybe. The batting is a serious problem. We need separate coaches for red ball and white ball cricket that’s for sure. We also need to find some proper batsmen from the county circuit too, our test batting really is on it’s arse. That labuschagne was from the county circuit and seems to be an excellent find for the Australians.

Good point about Labuschagne. Don't think it's any coincidence the second best batsman in the series has been the one who played the most country cricket this summer.

 

[NILAYSHAH60]

At last someone else. Bowling in England is often extremely extremely under rated as a skill. I've been watching cricket here for the better part of two decades and perception is that the ball hoots around in England. The reality is, there is always nip, tuck and the overheads determine if it hoots around. I have seen some of the best spells of bowling yield a wicket, at best two but the control they render in terms of accuracy opens the gates at the other end. There was this bloke called Hoggard and he was just relentless in English conditions. Just a workhorse who ran in all day and he would put it in that one box and let the wicket and the batsman do the rest for him. THAT is England. There's a reason the great Warne has always said that bowling is about bowling defensively with attacking fields. They will always yield more consistent results because the magic ball might happen but in it's pursuit you leak a hundred runs and before you know it, that's the test match. That's why I rate Stokes' bowling in the last game above his batting.

I know Australia have made a knee jerk reaction by opting for Starc hoping he mops up the tail, but I often see him leak truck loads in tests. I would have never left Siddle out for even one test match in England. He is exactly that bowler who can bowl long long spells and just keep it in that one box.

Very well said. Playing in England you need a long batting line-up and equally good bowling line-up. If you don't have quality as a bowler in these conditions then you can't succeed. At times in England even the bowler doesn't know how much the ball is going to swing and that is where accuracy comes into play. If you are accurate you can trouble any batsman. That is why I feel Overseas bowlers like Siddle, Pattinson, Hazelwood, Philander, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Bumrah, Kemar Roach, Trent Boult, Wagner, etc have better chance to perform in England than the rest. And the reason why I called for a long batting line-up was because nobody has any idea how much the ball would swing at times. And in such cases your top order batsman can't be doing everything and that's where your lower order resistance comes into play.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

I still can't believe England are continuing with Bairstow as a WK. He is just terrible!