Off Topic Sport Other than Football - formerly the Ashes Thread

England dominated the whole day with bat and ball!
Too little, too late, but never mind

 

Cook 244*
Another good day.
England well on top.
Shame it counts for little

 

It's like Arsenal for so many years .........once the title is way beyond reach, they become unstoppable.

 

England batsman Alastair Cook believes he could have been dropped for the final Ashes Test had he not returned to form in Melbourne.

He should still be dropped-turning up after the event doesn't excuse him. In my View.

 

Whilst I completely agree with the sentiments of your post - he has hardly been alone in under performing in the first 3 tests and dropping him after he has just carried his bat and at least stopped the rot would be akin to cutting off our noses.....

I remain unconvinced by Stoneman and Vince, and Root doesn't go onto make big the really big scores that he should. Malan has been an unexpected plus one big score and some bad luck - but overall we have made a very average Aussie side (Smith and Stark apart) look very good.

 

Did the rain on day 4 save Australia from defeat or England from humiliation?

 

The pitch was very slow. I think a draw was likely even if there had been 5 full days.
However, had those 45 overs or so not been lost to rain, the Aussies might have been tempted to push on once they were 150 ahead, leaving England with a session or so to bat on the last day. England would probably have finished up 70-6.

 

Root out again for a score between 50 and 100
Disappointing end to the day.
Why no night watchman?

 

Don't worry, Moeen's got it sorted

 

Only if the Aussies bowl tomorrow with the West Indies' attack.

The frustrating thing with Root is that he has forgotten when/how to play pragmatically.
It's great that he's positive and looking to score runs all the time, but when the opposition's best bowler has the new ball and there are two or three overs left in the day's play, he should have the common sense to just defend and play for stumps.

 

Agreed. Got to turn more 50s into 100s

 

Think we've already been here

 

Why am I watching this at this time?

 

Smith is out.

Smith is out

 

Dismal

 

Match good as done.
Mind you the old phrase mad dogs & englishmen .... certainly applied the last couple of days - 38 degrees yesterday and 44 today now thats hot- I think cricket is the only sport that would continue in those temps.
Should have called in the RSPCA cruelty to 3 lions

Interesting article from Fox Sports Website re player safety and other issues.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricke...g/news-story/a45f6902c579d715ef01681026ae7310

 

Toothless bowling, brittle batting.
It's been painful to watch.
The problem for Test cricket is that almost all countries are now great at home, but hopeless away.
Cricketers are not being produced to play in alien conditions. How often are Indian batsmen going to face the swinging ball or England batsmen have to face mystery spin at the start of the innings?
And there is no time to prepare and adapt to these conditions.
And no time between games to rest, reflect and learn from the previous game.
At least Anderson is guaranteed a bagful of wickets and Root a ton of runs this summer - because they're playing at home.

 

Exactly what I was going to say. But with more detail and knowledge. My version went something like "we beat them in our conditions, they beat us in their conditions". Perhaps we should think about picking a team better suited for the conditions they will face - I'm not even sure if that's possible - but it also seems a bit too radical for the cricket establishment to contemplate.

 

A lot was made in the media about the type of ball used. Apparently there isn't a world standard for cricket balls, teams use what the host country makes and one of the excuses made was that the England bowlers couldn't swing the Australian version and vice versa the Aussies were unable to make proper use of the English made ball in England.Any thoughts on this?

 

It's true - and was a factor, but not a significant one. It is just part of a number of things which worked against England.

The beauty of Test cricket is all its subtle variations; the overhead conditions, the condition of the pitch, the type and condition of the ball can all have some bearing, to a greater or lesser extent, on the outcome of the game.

If we start to standardise the ball and the pitches only when atmospheric conditions are benign, Test cricket becomes a longer version of one day cricket. Batsmen will rule and 600-4dec in every first innings will become very tedious, very quickly.
The best players can learn to adapt to all the variations in the game, but some get found out. Few get the chance to play in alien conditions for long enough or often enough to get the chance to improve though.

If a batsman has spent his whole career knowing that a ball bowled at a certain length will bounce to waist height, he can instinctively play the shot. When the same length ball bounces to chest height in Australia, it takes a lot of adjusting to. Hence, the number of English batsmen caught fending the ball off to first or second slip. To compete, they just have to be given the chance to learn.
Similarly with bowlers, there's no point taking a group of swing bowlers and hoping that they can make an unresponsive ball swing and move off an unresponsive pitch in unhelpful overhead conditions. You need to produce and select a battery of 90mph bowlers, who are tall and get bounce. The Aussie wickets were pretty flat this time, but their quicks still got something out of them.