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


ZeeZee said:
We need wholesale changes, from Key to McCullum and Stokes and at the ECB an entire focus shift back to the CC and red ball cricket. Make it more attractive and make pathways for players doing well in the CC to make the test team. At least have the test players with some kind of worry that should they fail to perform they’ll be replaced, not backed regardless.
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I agree with this. There's a bit in the papers today about the spinners bowling filth and that the state of English spin bowling is dire.

And this is in an environment where spin bowling in short form cricket is widespread and pretty effective.

The obvious conclusion from that is that the problem is spin bowling in the 1st class game and the problem with that is that the ECB's future plans won't improve the situation given that their best idea is to reduce the number of 1st class games and play what they've allowed at the start and end of the season. We've complained about this for ages and they don't listen, preferring Circus cricket.

In all of this I'm disappointed for and by Stokes. He's the best all round cricketer in the Country and he's got a great cricketing brain. But we can't put all of this on McCullum, Stokes was fully into this. The strategy of fast bowling above all else and then a batting approach birthed in T20 just won't cut it. And rather than Carse and Archer (and Woods) we'd have been better with Anderson and Broad.

Anyway, I'm beating and drum that's already been beaten to death.

A healthy Test team requires a healthy 1st class competition.
 
mackembhoy said:
Nope it's lazy to blame the bowling

It's happened after the last 3 series here too.

It's pure laziness to blame the bowling.

We knew before the series our bowling wasn't as good as Australia. As we did in the last two.

Our batsman failed to take a single moment in this series even when the Aussie attack has been depleted.

Despite of our bowling all the tests were there to be won.

Batting, fielding, preparation, snicko and then then the bowling is the order I'd put it for the failure of this series .
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If anything is lazy it's ignoring the complete failure of the bowling unit. You win tests by taking wickets. We haven't looked like taking wickets thanks to these stupid short pitched bowling plans. Aggers made the point that the bowlers have been selected because they've taken wickets - not for banging it in halfway down.

The batting has generally been weak and idiotic but just look how often the Aussies are putting the ball in the right areas. If we'd done that, the likes of Head snd Carey wouldn't have had anything like the number of tuns they got.
 
Randy Ostrich said:
If anything is lazy it's ignoring the complete failure of the bowling unit. You win tests by taking wickets. We haven't looked like taking wickets thanks to these stupid short pitched bowling plans. Aggers made the point that the bowlers have been selected because they've taken wickets - not for banging it in halfway down.

The batting has generally been weak and idiotic but just look how often the Aussies are putting the ball in the right areas. If we'd done that, the likes of Head snd Carey wouldn't have had anything like the number of tuns they got.
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So the captaining is more at fault than the bowling too.

I've not ignored it at all it's just been a less important facet for our failure this time.

If you know your weaker in one area than the other. The strength should come to the fore more.

Actually healthy averages from most of our bowlers this time. Shows you not a particularly strong Aussie batting attack and we've failed to capitalise when we've had the bat in hand ourselves.

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Mr Redknapp said:
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Quickest Ashes win in OZ on balls bowled :lol: , Baz wasn't lying about speeding the game up at least!
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The points made about the lack of cricket the England players play are particularly pertinent. You barely see England players play county cricket whereas the Aussies played a lot of Shield cricket before this series.

Unsure where and why this idea has taken hold within the ECB that England players need to be protected from playing County cricket. Nobody is saying they should play 7 County Championship games in a row before the first Test of an English summer but for goodness sake there is no reason why they can’t play in 5 or 6 - ESPECIALLY- the batsmen.
 
Inside Forward said:
The points made about the lack of cricket the England players play are particularly pertinent. You barely see England players play county cricket whereas the Aussies played a lot of Shield cricket before this series.

Unsure where and why this idea has taken hold within the ECB that England players need to be protected from playing County cricket. Nobody is saying they should play 7 County Championship games in a row before the first Test of an English summer but for goodness sake there is no reason why they can’t play in 5 or 6 - ESPECIALLY- the batsmen.
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I reckon some of the Australian players have played more county cricket than the English ones. Green was at Gloucestershire this summer, Marnus has spent a good few seasons at Glamorgan, Webster at Warwicks and Khawaja and Neser have been around the county circuit on and off.
 
Very disappointing all round but i think this is far worse than previous series defeats over there. It is infuriating how the Aussies have exploited pretty much every chance by doing the basics well and England just keep walk willingly into the traps because they dont value their wicket or wont change their approach until its too late.
The guff that has come out from the team/management for the last few years they have justified everything by targeting this tour and they have failed miserably by their own objectives with very few exceptions. Full of hot air really and the Aussies have put them in their place. A bit like the Lions in 2005 they have been terrible tourists and the stupid comments they keep coming out with just end up motivating the other team and making them look even sillier when they are being hammered on the field.
What worries me is what the review that will follow on will say. It needs to address scheduling, lack of preparation and all the problems the Hundred causes to the Test team and the game in England as a whole. But given it will be led by the ECB it wont touch the elephant in the room.
 
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The only time this lot show a modicum of application to the task at hand is when there is a fourth innings run chase. Even then, given the shit that preceded it, it often fails, as it did in this game.

But at least more players apply themselves. But when they bat first its just 'hey-ho' lets have a thrash.

The team has a collective attention deficit disorder. They simply can't apply themselves to test cricket in a gerneral sense. Only when forced by an actual number of runs to get to stave off defeat does a message seep through.

The whole set up is juvenile
 
mackembhoy said:
Nope it's lazy to blame the bowling

It's happened after the last 3 series here too.

It's pure laziness to blame the bowling.

We knew before the series our bowling wasn't as good as Australia. As we did in the last two.

Our batsman failed to take a single moment in this series even when the Aussie attack has been depleted.

Despite of our bowling all the tests were there to be won.

Batting, fielding, preparation, snicko and then then the bowling is the order I'd put it for the failure of this series .
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Even when they bowlers do create chances it seems like a 50% chance to be dropped. Bowlers have been ran into the ground vs India with no time to really chill after an innings. Most of those selected coming into the series from an injury layoff and lacking any real practice. Only practice most of them out was one day cricket which is a completely different bowling approach. Preparation for this series has been a complete disgrace, considering this whole cycle has been leading up to this series
 
vinegar hill said:
We can go on about the preparation which admittedly was shite, the system which let’s face is probably shite,but at the end of the day the Aussies produce better more rounded cricketers than us.
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Which kind of is why preparations are so important to make up the difference. To me we have been so blasé about things, theyve gone into it thinking they can just turn up and perform. It's no suprise its taken 2 games to put in atleast a fighting performance
 
vinegar hill said:
We can go on about the preparation which admittedly was shite, the system which let’s face is probably shite,but at the end of the day the Aussies produce better more rounded cricketers than us.
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Fair enough but you have a choice, either don’t prepare and get humiliated or prepare properly, put up a fight and narrowly lose with pride and dignity.

I know which one I prefer
 
hudson88 said:
Woakes is dreadful away from home, so no issues with him not being involved in this tour.

But the Anderson thing still pisses me off today as much as it did back then. Probably more actually given how things have gone
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The way Jimmy got treated sickened me, he deserved to go out on his own terms and he was given a token test match against the West Indies
 
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