The Ashes 2021/22

[Starshine]

Pathetic, with a few exceptions....they can all f***k off back now to their 20-20 franchises 

[galenkia]

2 hours ago, Starshine said:

Pathetic, with a few exceptions....they can all f***k off back now to their 20-20 franchises 

Way they been batting they already think they are there now. 

[Jambo]

5 hours ago, Painter said:

 

Today can only get better

It starts raining and doesn't stop?

Follow the TV money.  Anything other than white ball cricket is a dead man walking.

[Chang_Paarp]

The Poms did not get the Aussie total.

All out for 68, got to be a record, or very close.

Boland getting 6 wickets for 7 runs on debut helped.

[fygjam]

20 hours ago, thegrogmonster said:

A little quiz:

Obviously Australia will be all out soon so how many wickets will England/Wales be down when they pass our total?

I’m thinking 3.

 

18 hours ago, fygjam said:

Bit of a bold assumption there. That England/Wales will actually pass the Aussie total.

 

 

48 minutes ago, Chang_Paarp said:

The Poms did not get the Aussie total.

All out for 68, got to be a record, or very close.

Boland getting 6 wickets for 7 runs on debut helped.

So I win the set of steak knives?

 

[AJSP]

1 hour ago, Chang_Paarp said:

The Poms did not get the Aussie total.

All out for 68, got to be a record, or very close.

Boland getting 6 wickets for 7 runs on debut helped.

Has to be a record I reckon

4 overs, 7 runs , 6 wickets ! Wow a wicket every 4 balls !!

Boland	4.0	7	6	1.75

[galenkia]

Beyond abysmal. 

Our priority with white ball has finally shown us the damage it has caused the red ball game. Championship was once In the middle of the summer, this year it was bookended at the start and finish to accommodate the Hundred. Batsmen are trying to bat in bowler friendly conditions so spent little time at the crease. Only got to look at the low scoring games and many others finished within 3 days or drawn through weather affected loss of play. 

Players like Buttler and Bairstow etc are white ball players trying to last more than a dozen overs, but they don't have the restraint needed to build a test innings, can't resist the chance to hit out at everything. 

After that performance, if it was someone like Bangladesh, we would be questioning whether they should lose their Test status!. 

Let's just award it 5-0 and come home in disgrace. 

Well played Australia, you showed the desire and passion to win that Ashes series deserves, we just acted like it was something we wanted to get over with as soon as possible. 

Excellent performance from Scott Boland, superb figures, probably some of the best ever for a debutant. 

[galenkia]

Wise word's from Steve Finn. 

'Players have indecision'

Steven Finn

Former England bowler on BBC Test Match Special

In the Championship you get batsmen defending half way up their stumps to 70mph bowlers, but to come down here and play you have to be able to play off the back foot, be proactive and sold in defence.

Rather than batting with a solid, simple defence and then expanding your game from there, because of white-ball cricket, players are encouraged to play their own game and work it out for themselves. That creates indecision in yourself as a cricketer and if you're doing that whilst playing international cricket it makes it ten times harder. 

[Painter]

Well that went well then....

[coxyhog]

Joint 4th top score was extras on 5....

[Painter]

Suggestion to the England management...

You've got an extra 2 days off. Find a pitch. Not nets. A real ground, even if it's a concrete strip with coir matting on it. Get hold of the local, decent clubs. Arrange for their best prospects, any age, even under 18s,  to come and bowl proper overs at those that pretend to bat for England. Pay them. Offer them bonuses if they get the batsmen out. If you think the team's fielding is ok, employ th rest of the local teams to ball chase, even if the "fielding team" has 20 players. 

Forget nets. Forget throwing balls at batsmen using those dog ball throwers. Get them in the middle of a ground, with real bowlers, real fielders, real slating, for hour upon hour. 

Alternatively,  go to a restaurant or 5, the beach, have a good time, watch a few videos and criticise each others techniques, have a 20 minute net session, tell everyone how hard you have worked to improve your game....

But what do I know? I'm just a frustrated cricket fan.

 

[galenkia]

49 minutes ago, Painter said:

Suggestion to the England management...

You've got an extra 2 days off. Find a pitch. Not nets. A real ground, even if it's a concrete strip with coir matting on it. Get hold of the local, decent clubs. Arrange for their best prospects, any age, even under 18s,  to come and bowl proper overs at those that pretend to bat for England. Pay them. Offer them bonuses if they get the batsmen out. If you think the team's fielding is ok, employ th rest of the local teams to ball chase, even if the "fielding team" has 20 players. 

Forget nets. Forget throwing balls at batsmen using those dog ball throwers. Get them in the middle of a ground, with real bowlers, real fielders, real slating, for hour upon hour. 

Alternatively,  go to a restaurant or 5, the beach, have a good time, watch a few videos and criticise each others techniques, have a 20 minute net session, tell everyone how hard you have worked to improve your game....

But what do I know? I'm just a frustrated cricket fan.

 

We can try everything in the net's, practice games etc., but the problem is our obsession with white ball cricket.

Until we treat the county championship with the respect it deserves,this shit show will continue.

Yes, there is no attractions for the casual fan, they want a quick 3 hour game with a result. But if we want to take Tests seriously we won't do it without scheduling the season properly.

The EWCB should just admit Red ball cricket is not a priority anymore,we can see that in the performances.

[Starshine]

1 hour ago, Painter said:

Suggestion to the England management...

You've got an extra 2 days off. Find a pitch. Not nets. A real ground, even if it's a concrete strip with coir matting on it. Get hold of the local, decent clubs. Arrange for their best prospects, any age, even under 18s,  to come and bowl proper overs at those that pretend to bat for England. Pay them. Offer them bonuses if they get the batsmen out. If you think the team's fielding is ok, employ th rest of the local teams to ball chase, even if the "fielding team" has 20 players. 

Forget nets. Forget throwing balls at batsmen using those dog ball throwers. Get them in the middle of a ground, with real bowlers, real fielders, real slating, for hour upon hour. 

Alternatively,  go to a restaurant or 5, the beach, have a good time, watch a few videos and criticise each others techniques, have a 20 minute net session, tell everyone how hard you have worked to improve your game....

But what do I know? I'm just a frustrated cricket fan.

 

Send Ryanair over and bring them all home

[galenkia]

At least there was one positive to come out of it, and that was Jimmy Anderson. 

In the little amount of cricket he played, he took seven wickets at an average of 14.4,his best bowling down under for 10 years. 

And from a bloke who is 40 in July. 

 

[Painter]

1 minute ago, galenkia said:

At least there was one positive to come out of it, and that was Jimmy Anderson. 

In the little amount of cricket he played, he took seven wickets at an average of 14.4,his best bowling down under for 10 years. 

And from a bloke who is 40 in July. 

 

Agreed but how many years has he got left in him? In theory, england's bowling is in better shape than their batting.... if only the bowlers can keep fit! 

[Starshine]

35 minutes ago, galenkia said:

At least there was one positive to come out of it, and that was Jimmy Anderson. 

In the little amount of cricket he played, he took seven wickets at an average of 14.4,his best bowling down under for 10 years. 

And from a bloke who is 40 in July. 

 

A proper red ball cricketer...no white balls for Jimmy

[galenkia]

38 minutes ago, Painter said:

Agreed but how many years has he got left in him? In theory, england's bowling is in better shape than their batting.... if only the bowlers can keep fit! 

I like Robinson, he looks very good. Who knows how Archer is gonna fair when he gets back playing. Possibly another Wood and gonna have injury problems.

Need to put more faith in Woakes as well. Broad seems pretty much done at his best, bowling declining like his batting has.

Spinner not even worth mentioning,we ain't got a half decent one.

[Painter]

Predictably...

https://wisden.com/series-stories/ashes-2021-22/there-are-positives-coming-out-of-this-chris-silverwood-after-england-are-bowled-for-68-and-lose-the-series/amp

although Mr Boycott thinks heads should roll...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2021/12/28/england-have-dreadful-time-joe-root-stops-treating-us-like/

behind a paywall, apologies if the size offends anyone.

 

Some or all may have played a part - but none of these can excuse such awful performances over three Test matches.

None.

How Haseeb Hameed plays is too simplistic and sadly he looks vulnerable. Dawid Malan stays on the back foot, which is good but he was undone before he could get going with a fast one from Mitchell Starc. He just misread the length. It happens when you first go in.

Before he could get going, Ben Stokes got a corker from Starc at pace that jagged back into him and knocked his castle down. Jonny Bairstow was trapped on the crease lbw to a ball he needed to play forward to but when you are starting an innings you are vulnerable to picking the length and the line. Root was out driving to a well pitched up ball. It was there to drive but he nicked it. He is probably still trying to work out why.

Jos Buttler looked all at sea. But before he could score any runs, or get out, the tailenders were blown away.

Now Australia are 3-0 up and the Ashes have gone, will Root please stop saying Australia are not much better than us? I don’t mind him living in cuckoo land but stop trying to kid us. If he really believes what he says then maybe it is time he gave up the captaincy of the England cricket team.

The facts are staring us all in the face, except Joe doesn’t want to see it. England can’t bat. Our bowling is ordinary. The catching, particularly by the wicket keeper Buttler, has been poor.

Joe’s captaincy lacks imagination. His team selection and decision making has been staggeringly off the mark.

Winning the toss and batting first in Brisbane on a seamer-friendly pitch! That was always risky with this England batting unit.

Leaving out Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad - England’s  best and most experienced seamers - at the Gabba made no sense. Over 1,100 Test-match wickets between them. At their age if they don’t play Test matches why take them to Australia? And by pure good fortune the Brisbane pitch was seamer friendly which is their forte.

David Warner must have been so apprehensive of having to face Stuart Broad bowling at him from around the wicket because in 2019, in England, Stuart made his life a nightmare. He had no idea where his offstump was and kept getting out cheaply. Warner is a key batsman and it was crucial to see if Stuart could get him cheaply again. If he did get him out quickly the psychological damage to Warner and Australia would have been immense.

So far this series England have not performed anywhere near their best. We wanted some fight. Something to lift our spirits. We can accept losing if we are in a contest but so far it has been men against boys.

Ian Chappell was right when he recently said that Joe is a super batsman but a poor captain.

Ricky Ponting said ‘he nearly fell off his chair’ when he heard Joe say Broad and Anderson bowled too short at Adelaide on the first day. Ricky went on to ask why Joe didn’t give them a rollicking and insist they pitch it up or otherwise take them off? What is the point of having the stripes of authority if you don’t use them? Can you imagine Joe swearing or telling off a player? I can’t.

Many of us are tired of these interviews where Joe says England will learn from a bad day or Joe says he expects a response after a poor performance. We have had enough of this rubbish. Stop treating us ex-players and cricket supporters as idiots.

The facts are England are very ordinary with most of their success depending on Joe or Stokes batting well, or Broad and Anderson bowling well on English-type seaming pitches. 

Before the series, I expected Australia to win because they have better bowlers in Australian conditions. But England are being trounced, not because Australia are a brilliant team but because we have been poor in all departments.

It’s every cricketer’s dream to captain England and Joe has had 59 Test matches to mould and stamp his authority on this set of players. He has had 13 Tests against Australia with only two wins and nine losses.

Nobody would want to give up the captaincy, but it is not about Joe - it is about getting guys to perform better.

At the end of this series the question should be asked: would England benefit from a change of captain? That’s not me trying to be hurtful to Joe or just being controversial. We all love Joe. It is impossible not to like him, but before the squad left the UK Joe said players and captains are defined by Ashes series, particularly in Australia. So far this series we have been dreadful and if Joe believes what he has been saying then it is time for someone else to be given the opportunity to try and galvanise the players. 

Captains accept the accolades when their team wins so they have to accept some blame or criticism when they lose. And let’s be honest - we haven’t just lost, we have been smashed.

 

[Starshine]

Well said Sir Geoffrey....we could do with Geoffrey and Chris Tavare on the tour...even if at ages 81 and 67

[Zeb]

[Aqualung]

8 hours ago, galenkia said:

We can try everything in the net's, practice games etc., but the problem is our obsession with white ball cricket.

Until we treat the county championship with the respect it deserves,this shit show will continue.

Yes, there is no attractions for the casual fan, they want a quick 3 hour game with a result. But if we want to take Tests seriously we won't do it without scheduling the season properly.

The EWCB should just admit Red ball cricket is not a priority anymore,we can see that in the performances.

I've never been a fan of white ball cricket because basically, well, it's just not cricket. It's more akin to feckin baseball IMHO and has done more to damage the skills needed in the true sport of cricket mainly the 4 and 5 day games. 

Who would want to be a bowler in 20/20 cricket? It's a joke and it's only here to make money. I know the clubs need the brass and I don't know what the answer is to fix the mentality of test match batsmen... But English cricket is only going one way, whether professionally and more commonly at amateur levels.... And I'm sorry to say..... Downwards. 

[Starshine]

Cheer up everyone.. we have the IPL and the Hundred to look forward to

[coxyhog]

[Chang_Paarp]

12 hours ago, coxyhog said:

Joint 4th top score was extras on 5....

If you look at the totals for the calendar year, extras are there too, 3rd or 4th. Root did very well for the year, then the drop off is dramatic, should have heard Botham cough and splutter when the Aussie commentators pulled the numbers up.

[Aqualung]

1 hour ago, Starshine said:

Cheer up everyone.. we have the IPL and the Hundred to look forward to

The hundred should be scrapped immediately imo. 

We will be playing feckin Rounders next!