English cricket thread

If the conditions are the same as that period yesterday, England are well on the way. Hope the match gets a conclusion.
 
Khawaja becomes the 11th player in history to bat on all 5 days of a match. Previous one to do that was Rory Burns against Australia.
 
England are actually slightly shorter with the bookies but it’s tight
 
What a fabulous days play in a fabulous test match. The game a swung one way and the other seemingly every hour and it's right in the balance still.

Test cricket at its best, it's gonna go to the wire I feel. England will be hoping it's grey and overcast when they start play tomorrow that might swing it in England's favour, if the weather clears early and well and we see blue skies that might swing it in Aussie favour.
 
The forecast tomorrow is heaven for Anderson, rain in the morning and supposedly 100% cloud cover in the afternoon. If that's the way it plays out I'd put England as slight favourites.

What an opener for the ashes though.
 
Brilliant test match this. I fancy England to get the job done. Although it is very close. Chasing 160 plus on 5th day with Smith gone could be a tricky one
 
I hope they keep this up for the entire series. Probably for the best that Bazball is ever, so slightly, flawed. Knock over a team chasing 400+ with no jeopardy? Pfft, let’s dick around and set 280 so we can make it nice and tense.
 
The contrast of the two styles makes for such great cricket. I am hoping that England will realise that they only need to make small changes to their approach and that could be more fruitful. That first hour today was one of the breathtaking counter attacks that I can remember in test cricket
 
ArmchairCritic said:
I hope they keep this up for the entire series. Probably for the best that Bazball is ever, so slightly, flawed. Knock over a team chasing 400+ with no jeopardy? Pfft, let’s dick around and set 280 so we can make it nice and tense.
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Hmm...I'm not sure if this test proves England's approach is flawed; the McCullum/Stokes method is predicated on working with the players they have and utilising their strengths rather than having them play conventional test cricket, which diminishes them. Only Root and to a lesser extent Stokes remain outstanding players when the overall tactic is to play conservatively and nullify attacking instincts.

Yes, they fell slightly short today, but they're still probably more likely of hitting 400 by playing aggressively and attempting to dominate bowlers than by being conservative.

The problem is is that Australia are bloody good and the best side in the world; but it doesn't mean that England are going about things the wrong way per se, imo.
 
LDUred said:
Hmm...I'm not sure if this test proves England's approach is flawed; the McCullum/Stokes method is predicated on working with the players they have and utilising their strengths rather than having them play conventional test cricket, which diminishes them. Only Root and to a lesser extent Stokes remain outstanding players when the overall tactic is to play conservatively and nullify attacking instincts.

Yes, they fell slightly short today, but they're still probably more likely of hitting 400 by playing aggressively and attempting to dominate bowlers than by being conservative.

The problem is is that Australia are bloody good and the best side in the world; but it doesn't mean that England are going about things the wrong way per se, imo.
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I did qualify it extra hard by saying ‘ever, so slightly flawed’. I completely agree it’s getting the maximum out this team as a whole and I’m all in on it, but I do still think Joe Root doesn’t need to wander down the wicket like that when he’s such a gun player of spin. Sometimes Bazball finds wickets when it doesn’t need to, I’m not asking them to revert to type but just do a little tweaking along the way and in certain moments.
 
Gutted to have been travelling today and missed everything.
All set up for an amazing last day. Feels inevitable this will go right to the wire but even if we don’t win this has been way more exciting than most test matches.
How long until other countries try to copy? I agree with the general sentiment that we could dial it down a notch and it would still be effective but I don’t mind losing this one being the aggressor.
Australia cannot set a proper field after 3 overs of an innings, must be messing with their heads.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
I did qualify it extra hard by saying ‘ever, so slightly flawed’. I completely agree it’s getting the maximum out this team as a whole and I’m all in on it, but I do still think Joe Root doesn’t need to wander down the wicket like that when he’s such a gun player of spin. Sometimes Bazball finds wickets when it doesn’t need to, I’m not asking them to revert to type but just do a little tweaking along the way and in certain moments.
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Joe Root has done that once ever for England its his only ever stumping dismissal and that was today the way some are making it out he has done it multiple times, I doubt he does it again
 
Gavinb33 said:
Joe Root has done that once ever for England its his only ever stumping dismissal and that was today the way some are making it out he has done it multiple times, I doubt he does it again
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I mean that actually says it all no? It’s not really his shot. I know I’m being hypercritical here, but he doesn’t need to be anything other than Joe Root in these situations, done the hard bit now milk the spinner to death and put the bad ball away.
 


Can’t actually read the full piece but Dobell is bang on here. With a little bit of refinement this can work so well. I personally think that the first innings was excellent. Brook,Stokes and Bairstow is a very good 5-7 and I think Root should be the one around whom they all bat. He was batting beautifully today and I have nothing against him batting aggressively but once he is set & the field is open I would like him to be the sensible guy
 
Looking like probable rain till lunch but okay after. Would be nice to sneak in half hour before lunch if possible, which of course I’m looking at from a completely neutral view of getting in as many overs as possible.
 
Ayush_reddevil said:


Can’t actually read the full piece but Dobell is bang on here. With a little bit of refinement this can work so well. I personally think that the first innings was excellent. Brook,Stokes and Bairstow is a very good 5-7 and I think Root should be the one around whom they all bat. He was batting beautifully today and I have nothing against him batting aggressively but once he is set & the field is open I would like him to be the sensible guy
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For future reference. Go to archive.ph Copy the URL in and you can then read paywalled articles.
 
Our tail (Robinson/Broad/Anderson) has been responsible for 82 runs this test - and that's without Anderson even getting to bat in the first innings.

Makes that declaration look even more puzzling - We left a minimum of 30 runs on the table imo.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Our tail (Robinson/Broad/Anderson) has been responsible for 82 runs this test - and that's without Anderson even getting to bat in the first innings.

Makes that declaration look even more puzzling - We left a minimum of 30 runs on the table imo.
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Not sure what you mean here?
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Our tail (Robinson/Broad/Anderson) has been responsible for 82 runs this test - and that's without Anderson even getting to bat in the first innings.

Makes that declaration look even more puzzling - We left a minimum of 30 runs on the table imo.
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True, and I don't agree with the decision declare.

But - if Australia were 200+ behind whilst being 3 wickets down, there's a very good chance they just try and bat the day out given the limited playing time we're due. I feel like England need the Aussies to be proactive/take risks in order to have a chance of bowling them out. A draw is probably a fair result given the way this test has swung between the sides, but it deserves a winner.
 
DOTA said:
Ahh, fair. Yeah, definitely not an unreasonable amount to be hoping for the way things were going.
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Aye.... then again, Root could have got caught out trying to wallap a six and then Anderson on the next ball - so who knows! Odds were in our favour at the time though

groovyalbert said:
True, and I don't agree with the decision declare.

But - if Australia were 200+ behind whilst being 3 wickets down, there's a very good chance they just try and bat the day out given the limited playing time we're due. I feel like England need the Aussies to be proactive/take risks in order to have a chance of bowling them out. A draw is probably a fair result given the way this test has swung between the sides, but it deserves a winner.
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Yeah true, it has shaped basically the rest of the game, and we're probably more likely to have the chance to bowl out the Aussies today because of the declaration. We'll know for sure by the end of today.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Aye.... then again, Root could have got caught out trying to wallap a six and then Anderson on the next ball - so who knows! Odds were in our favour at the time though
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This. Plus it just didn’t work out taking a wicket that evening. Had we taken one, can you imagine the swing in momentum.

Ifs and buts, and it was always the wrong decision once a wicket wasn’t taken, but I think people need to move on.
 
No play before lunch, which will be taken early at 12:30. So 1:10 is the earliest they could possibly start now.
 
DOTA said:
No play before lunch, which will be taken early at 12:30. So 1:10 is the earliest they could possibly start now.
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As long as there’s no big disruptions, I’d be surprised if we didn’t get a result.
 
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