advertisement


Cricket 2023

A great finish for England, just saw the results and highlights. An excellent series all round, Australia rode their luck to hang onto the urn. Plenty of sporting memories that will go down in the books, Cummings 'drop', Bairstowe's 'keep walking' and Broad summoning wickets but turning the bails. Hopefully this helps test match cricket live on.
 
I got that wrong thinking Ali would not be able to bowl much ,he turned in a top performance !
Great end to the series and if we had played bazball lite from the start we cold have won the series .
Overall I was pleastanly surprised how well England improved over the series and a shame the weather gods were not in our favour for 1 test .I am glad Broad went out on a high ,but very sorry to see him retire as there does not seem to be a replacement with good fitness levels
 
From The Barmy Army on Twitter:

The Crawley first ball 4
The first declaration
The Edgbaston finale
The Jonny/Carey incident
The Stokes century
The Woody spell at Headingley
The nail biting run chase in Leeds
The Crawley 189 at OT
The rain
The shock Broady retirement
The perfect ending
Every session unmissable
 
Last edited:
Having watched the last Ashes down under, I was worried that Bazball wouldn't work against a very strong Oz team, their best since 2007 imho. I feared La bureau de change and Smith would bat for days but in the event their runs came from Kawasaki, Head and Marsh. I also thought our batters would not be good enough against the accuracy of Borland, Hazelwood and Cummings but the openers have been a revelation and all our batters got runs with Borland being dropped for the last two tests. A great series anyway marked by the contrasting styles - England bringing one day techniques in to the test arena, Oz looking a bit dated.
 
I think most of the die hard Crawley haters had come round by the end of last series. The bowling proved to be the weakness for both sides, as expected really with such a congested series. Nearly all of the bowlers ended up with a 'niggle' or worse by the end.
 
Did anyone catch the conversation on TMS during the rain delay yesterday?

Really interesting to hear the commentators discuss who would be playing in the next ashes abroad, and indeed in four years time. They were very on the fence or worse regarding if Stokes would be here in four years time.

Next immediate test question is Anderson. Wood will want to play in the ODI world cup. Stokes operation needs to be a success, so he is ready for arguably the hardest tour abroad - India.

i just need a few numbers to come up, so I can go see them play abroad!

PS - I did say Woakes is my favourite player;)
 
One thing I loved, was Glen McGrath saying 10 mins before the start on TMS "the bit of rain might hamper england, as when the ball gets damp it does absolutely -nothing- afterwards". It must have got a tiny bit damp early on but obviously dried, then swung & seamed beautifully all day!! Haha- wishful thinking from the great man.

The Aussies were good to go for that win though, positive, & Murphy's batting I thought was some of the @ best no.9 I've ever seen: those 2 hooks of Wood for six?! Almost Pontingesque pulling too, he did them proud I thought.

The end for me, was up there with Billy Bowden flicking the bails off in 2005. Similar elation, curiously, considering they retained the urn & we only drew the series. Remarkable day. Yet another remarkably good Ashes day's cricket.
 
There are certain players who can 'take the game away from the opposition'. Their play is more risky than the Steady Eddies so maybe it works only 50% of the time.
But when you have 6 or more players in the team like that 3/4 will win a match more often than not. That is what Stokes meant when he said "We choose players based on the best they can play." It is the foundation of Bazball and if it can demoralise the World Champions and give us absorbing exciting matches how lucky we are.
Stokes is an inspirational Captain.
 
wacko said:
There are certain players who can 'take the game away from the opposition'. Their play is more risky than the Steady Eddies so maybe it works only 50% of the time.
But when you have 6 or more players in the team like that 3/4 will win a match more often than not. That is what Stokes meant when he said "We choose players based on the best they can play." It is the foundation of Bazball and if it can demoralise the World Champions and give us absorbing exciting matches how lucky we are.
Stokes is an inspirational Captain.
Click to expand...
Lots of people were clamouring for Crawley to be dropped, sometimes you have to admit that we don’t know as much as those around the team.
 
Pretty even by the end. Ashes could have gone either way. I'd prefer a safer sex version of Bazball though next time up. An England with a bit more discipline and focus would be very hard to beat.

(PS I won't miss Vaughan's commentary).
 
The psychology involved should not be underplayed. Leadership, and dealing with stress, has created a different mindset. Including Root.
 
England have lost two-thirds of the World Test Championship points they earned in the Ashes after bowling consistently slow over rates.

Ben Stokes' side did not bowl at the required rate in four of the five Tests and have lost 19 of the 28 points they won for two wins and a draw.

Australia have lost 10 points for a slow over rate in the fourth Test.

England and Australia players have also been fined 5% of their match fee for each point lost.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/66384125
 
Kirk said:
Pretty even by the end. Ashes could have gone either way. I'd prefer a safer sex version of Bazball though next time up. An England with a bit more discipline and focus would be very hard to beat.

(PS I won't miss Vaughan's commentary).
Click to expand...
They're already very hard to beat. In reality is came down to a few dropped catches.
 
gavreid said:
England have lost two-thirds of the World Test Championship points they earned in the Ashes after bowling consistently slow over rates.

Ben Stokes' side did not bowl at the required rate in four of the five Tests and have lost 19 of the 28 points they won for two wins and a draw.

Australia have lost 10 points for a slow over rate in the fourth Test.

England and Australia players have also been fined 5% of their match fee for each point lost.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/66384125
Click to expand...

19 times 5 = 95% of match fees lost?

Hope they didn’t buy too much Champagne on Monday.
 
I would assume that the 19 points are spread over the 4 games they were slow in and that the fine is 5% per point of the match fee for that particular game. Still a good wodge though, lucky they have their central contracts.

They really should have got a move on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top