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Australia v England, 3rd Test, 16th December , 23.30

Watched up until the lunch interval. Despite England being about 50/3, I still expected to wake up to them scoring more than 213 as the pitch looks so good.

Crawley and Duckett got good deliveries, but it is still a failure for Crawley. Pope - I thought I was watching Courtney Walsh bat, don't think I have ever seen a number 3 in test cricket play a worse shot, and potentially a worse innings. He looked like a rabbit against Boland and that shot to get out, an absolute shocker. Barring something huge in the 2nd innings, that has to be the end of his test career. Just as well we have someone waiting in the wings to take his place, who has rattled off runs all summer...

I think we might need to drop Smith for our reserve wicket-keeper, who is erm..Ollie Pope?

5-0 written all over it if we don't pull something out of the bag here.
England batting averages so far this series:

Root: 45
Archer: 39
Stokes 30.50
Brook: 28.60
Crawley: 25.80
Jacks: 22
Pope: 21.60
Duckett: 18.60
Smith 14.80

Starc: 47.66
Boland: 35

:lol:
 
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I feel like today is as big an advert for Bazball as we’ve seen for a while.

The team have clearly had a shift in mentality to try and bat longer and more sensibly than in previous games, but it’s clear they just don’t have the technical or mental capabilities to do so.

Bazball was clearly a way to combat this and say right we’ll play to our strengths and attack for 80 overs, hopefully score 350-400 and the bowlers will do the rest.

The results being exactly the same no matter what we try will surely mean the end of the road for Crawley and Pope come the end of the series. Smith is in danger as well unless he turns up at some point this tour as well. Feel like Root is going to go his full career without a single test win in Australia, incredible really.
 
i was hoping boxing day would have something riding on it, eventually have some time off and can stay up and it will be meaningless at this rate
 
Dexter said:
I feel like today is as big an advert for Bazball as we’ve seen for a while.

The team have clearly had a shift in mentality to try and bat longer and more sensibly than in previous games, but it’s clear they just don’t have the technical or mental capabilities to do so.

Bazball was clearly a way to combat this and say right we’ll play to our strengths and attack for 80 overs, hopefully score 350-400 and the bowlers will do the rest.

The results being exactly the same no matter what we try will surely mean the end of the road for Crawley and Pope come the end of the series. Smith is in danger as well unless he turns up at some point this tour as well. Feel like Root is going to go his full career without a single test win in Australia, incredible really.
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Probably some truth in what you are saying but if McCullum can be in charge for 3 and a half years and not be able to improve a single batsman's technique then he is stealing a living. Crawley and Pope in particular are the same players he inherited, they have not progressed or regressed. Root has gone up a level but you can argue being free of the captaincy has done that as he's not made any obvious technical shifts. Stokes' batting has at best, stagnated and new introductions into the side like Smith look totally lost when facing up to consistently high quality seam bowling.
 
The Breen Machine said:
Probably some truth in what you are saying but if McCullum can be in charge for 3 and a half years and not be able to improve a single batsman's technique then he is stealing a living. Crawley and Pope in particular are the same players he inherited, they have not progressed or regressed. Root has gone up a level but you can argue being free of the captaincy has done that as he's not made any obvious technical shifts. Stokes' batting has at best, stagnated and new introductions into the side like Smith look totally lost when facing up to consistently high quality seam bowling.
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This
I actually don’t blame the players
They’ve been ‘coached’ to just go out and be ultra positive and whatever happens you’ll play
Take Crawley they could of took him out the side told him to work on his flaws, get runs and come back in but no they’ve just let the lad carry on regardless, it’s the same with pope
There should be balance between backing players and making them earn the shirt, this setup there isn’t, all feels very cliquey and face fits mantra
They seemingly snarl and snigger at people who question them
The Aussies have the whole thing sussed
 
Safc1987 said:
This
I actually don’t blame the players
They’ve been ‘coached’ to just go out and be ultra positive and whatever happens you’ll play
Take Crawley they could of took him out the side told him to work on his flaws, get runs and come back in but no they’ve just let the lad carry on regardless, it’s the same with pope
There should be balance between backing players and making them earn the shirt, this setup there isn’t, all feels very cliquey and face fits mantra
They seemingly snarl and snigger at people who question them
The Aussies have the whole thing sussed
Click to expand...

I agree, it has felt very much like a closed shop with the ongoing selections of Crawley, Pope and Bashir. It has come back to bite them as the world and it's dog could see there were huge question marks over those 3 in particular and Crawley and Pope have so far failed in the series, and Bashir can't get picked behind a part-time white ball spinner.

McCullum has openly admitted he doesn't coach the players, and we certainly don't seem to cover much in terms of preparation, he also barely fronts up to the media - what is he actually doing? I look back at Duncan Fletcher who's coaching improved so many players like Vaughan, Trescothick, Collingwood and even Peter Moores was very hands on (Probably too much so) with actual coaching. How can a coach of a cricketing side have so little input on players styles and techniques? The captain is responsible for everything on the pitch so all the coach should be doing to working technically with the players. He is an absolute fraud.
 
I know that the first three games this time were in a slightly different order venue wise than normal but why is Sydney always last? When was the last time they saw a match that meant anything?
 
So frustrating as we’ve all known the issues with the batting line-up for so long and have had ample opportunities to blood new players in place of Crawley and Pope.
 
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“Mate, don’t complain about the field placings when you bowl s***,” Stokes appeared to tell his teammate.

He then seemed to add “bowl on the stumps and look what happens” before also appearing to tell his leading quick to “shut the f*** up” when he fired back.
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Holy shit. We are at the infighting stage. It really has a feel of an imminent implosion of a moribund regime.


They can lose 5-0 now, if that's what it takes for the Key, Strauss and the rest of them to either change or go. They planned for this series for four years, everything they did was about either this series or the Hundred millions.

Where the hell do they go now? Another coach with the same "pathway" bollocks will have the same results, or are they actually going to respect and utilise the County Championship for which they have such disdain? Because this Chosen Few bollocks clearly isn't working.
 
chunkyshanhawk53 said:
As much as I love Stokes, if he is “angry” again he probably needs to realise that it’s his team.
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Yep he's taken far too long to realise they needed a more nuanced approach, the "bazball with brains" as it's been called.

Not like every man and their dog were screaming about it after the capitulation at Lords in 2023

It's a bit too late to go you know how I've told you for 3 and half years to play positive aggressive however the fuck you want to cricket.

Well you need to stop that now and follow me in scoring 45 off 151 balls.
 
scotch said:
It's the quality of the attack, Cummins and Lyon have been as good as their records suggest, throw in Starc and Boland then Green comes in bowling the same speeds as Carse.

We blew this series in the first two games.

Lost 4 wickets today to good balls.
Pope the exception and the wicket that led to Ducketts dismissal
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We did lose 4 wickets to goo
Dexter said:
I feel like today is as big an advert for Bazball as we’ve seen for a while.

The team have clearly had a shift in mentality to try and bat longer and more sensibly than in previous games, but it’s clear they just don’t have the technical or mental capabilities to do so.

Bazball was clearly a way to combat this and say right we’ll play to our strengths and attack for 80 overs, hopefully score 350-400 and the bowlers will do the rest.

The results being exactly the same no matter what we try will surely mean the end of the road for Crawley and Pope come the end of the series. Smith is in danger as well unless he turns up at some point this tour as well. Feel like Root is going to go his full career without a single test win in Australia, incredible really.
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Good post I agree. The reason Bazball was ever a thing was because of the lack of technically proficient batsman that are test match quality. While Brook, Duckett and Crawley didn’t throw their wickets away a lack of good footwork and defensive technique led to their dismissals (and good deliveries tbf). The chasm between the bowling attacks was perhaps predictable but has been bigger than I expected. I didn’t expect Carse wouldn’t be able to bowl two deliveries in the same spot and though Atkinson would be better. All in all we have been woefully disappointing in all areas.
 
Dexter said:
I feel like today is as big an advert for Bazball as we’ve seen for a while.

The team have clearly had a shift in mentality to try and bat longer and more sensibly than in previous games, but it’s clear they just don’t have the technical or mental capabilities to do so.

Bazball was clearly a way to combat this and say right we’ll play to our strengths and attack for 80 overs, hopefully score 350-400 and the bowlers will do the rest.

The results being exactly the same no matter what we try will surely mean the end of the road for Crawley and Pope come the end of the series. Smith is in danger as well unless he turns up at some point this tour as well. Feel like Root is going to go his full career without a single test win in Australia, incredible really.
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It worked when we had a really good bowling attack, Anderson Broad Woakes Wood Stokes (before his body started letting him down). I don't even rate Archer let alone Carse Tongue and Atkinson. Wood is old and crocked. Potts is out of the picture and trying anf failing to find his feet again at Durham.

That attack look like County plodders, except County plodders bowl a lot of balls and know what to do in the long format. Whereas these bowlers hardly play any matches.
 
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Voice of fair play said:
There is no way mind that Smith is finished as a test player, he has bags of talent.

He will come again while agreeing he has terrible series.

Others I agree
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He'll punish minor test bowling attacks as he's proved. His technique has been found lacking against top class attacks. No sign that he is able/prepared to make the necessary adjustments.Has he the desire?
Problem is there's nobody in the England coaching set up to provide the required guidance.
 
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