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ASHES WATCH 2015
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Pete’s Picture Palace
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:11 am 
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Thought I'd say it again:-

OH DEAR!!

So what caused this 4-day humiliation?

Too much one-day &/or T20 cricket?
Complacency after the win at Cardiff?
A distinct lack of bottle in the England dressing room?
Brilliant opposition from Day 1?

And.....

What must happen between now and the Third Test starting 29th July?

Plenty of questions, and I don't have all the answers. If I did I'd be Trevor Bayliss.
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wandererpaul



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PostPosted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 7:56 am 
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A shocking performance from England's batsmen - a disgrace actually.

Thing is, there aren't many English Test standard batsmen in our County game. Carberry, Rogers, Compton, have all failed as an opener. Is Bairstow Test standard? I don't think so. Eoin Morgan? Maybe.

I'd stick Bell in as an opener with Cook, give Ballance another Test, Ali in at 4, Root, Morgan, Buttler, Stokes, Broad, Wood & Anderson. Another bowling option could be Rashid instead of Morgan and hope the batsmen pull their fingers out!
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Pete’s Picture Palace
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 4:20 pm 
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And so to Edgbaston and at 16:00 hrs we are already into the game's second innings.

This time the poor old Aussies were sent reeling and the Burnley Express James Anderson grabbed 6 wickets, his best-ever haul in an Ashes Test. Well bowled, Jimmy!

Today being Wednesday, and with England batting with a rhubarb stick, what chance this match doesn't reach the weekend - weather permitting?

On a separate cricketing note, how sad to read about the passing of the great Clive Rice, aged 66. A superb player robbed of more fame and kudos by the noxious apartheid regime, and there was a long line of those. Nottinghamshire won the championship twice with Rice & Richard Hadlee in tandem and his career stats put him right up there with the likes of Botham, Imran Khan etc.

RIP, big fella.



Nice obit in today's Indy....

http://www.independent.co.uk/n.....22675.html
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derby1884
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 11:43 pm 
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I'd a lot of time for Geoff Boycott as a player and just as much time for him as summariser on Test Match Special.

He rightly laid into the shambolic Australian "performance" today (Chris Rogers excepted)....he made the obvious observation that, on a pitch like this, if the ball is going wide of off stump, just leave the bloody thing alone!

Both teams are as guilty as each other. Grind the bowler down. Don't give him any encouragement.

I blame the one-day game for the lack of patience nowadays.

I may have said that once or twice already Smile
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Auchinleckian
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 7:19 am 
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The one day game is undoubtedly killing the test matches as a spectacle.

There has always been the odd player who has hit sixes as par for the course, but they were usually the ones who were deemed maverick in some way, Botham, Pietersen, etc.

I've never understood why batsmen have not used having a crack at scoring six when the opportunity presents itself. John Reid the old Kiwi captain, not one normally known as swashbuckling, used to hold the record for the most sixes in one innings (13 I think) and that was over 50 years back.

Some test series have even gone the whole 5 games without a single six from either team, so why has everything suddenly changed? One day cricket of course, and concentration a la Boycott, Barrington, Cowdrey has gone out of the window meaning a first innings rarely last anything like two days as the norm now. Like everyone else I love to see a positive result in a 5 day match, but for me an exciting draw is every bit as positive as a win.

Clive Rice, what a superb all rounder - and he had to step into Sir Gary Sobers shoes as a major international all rounder. That he was much more successful, in terms of trophies won, is testamanet to his capabilities. Can remember always being excited when watching the old John Player League on BBBC 2 on a Sunday when Notts were playing and he was due to bat. Obituary in yesterday's Guardian well worth reading Peter, see below.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCMQqQIwAGoVChMIivHB45qCxwIVB-8UCh1VIgWQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fsport%2F2015%2Fjul%2F28%2Fclive-rice&ei=vMG5VYqjJofeU9XElIAJ&usg=AFQjCNETPSVZntzSamrsbQ8wkjbTZNmDoA&bvm=bv.99028883,d.d24
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derby1884
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:08 pm 
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Didn't even bother watching the highlights of today's "play".

Let's just pack in the 5 day format and let the players indulge themselves in a never-ending series of 20 over slogfests whilst dressed in colourful pyjamas splattered all over with the logo of whatever is currently "trending" in mobile technology.

That way, Sky will be happy, the spectators won't have to take too much time out of their busy day, the sponsors will be delirious....and I can stop tuning in hoping to see a proper game of cricket.

Bah!
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:25 pm 
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Maybe you have to be English to enjoy Australia being 23-7 or whatever they are.

Could be interesting if the Aussies get up to about 100 in front, though it's a shame we don't have Boycott and Trevor Bailey to spend 3 or more sessions getting them.

Seriously, nobody on Earth, in any format of the game, could play the 2 balls Johnson got Stokes & Bairstow out on and if you didn't see them, that's a pity.
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derby1884
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:53 pm 
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Johnson, Starc (if he's in the mood), Anderson and Finn are top-notch bowlers.
But surely the point of test match cricket is to "test" the bowlers' skill against that of the batsman - and it's too one-sided due, in my opinion, to the complete lack of knowhow from these batsmen when it comes to building an innings.

I'll grant you I have a bee in my bonnet about the effect the one-day format has had upon Test match technique but, even if I exaggerate, I still reckon there's a connection.
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 1:35 am 
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The game is heavily loaded in batsmen's favour, but this match has 3 bowlers with over 300 test wickets plus Starc so the batsmen are in for a tough time on this pitch on a cloudy day - and they always would have been no matter which generation.

However, the attitude now is more towards "hit ourselves out of trouble" instead of "grind them down" and I agree that there is a time and place for the latter in a 5-day test match. Peter Nevill showed a bit of that tonight and Chris Rodgers did in their 1st innings but nobody else has in this game. Alastair Cook is due a long knock and he's capable of it but not on Thursday unless the Aussies get 200 in front. But with Johnson bowling throat balls that won't be easy.

Sometimes you have to admit the bowlers are better than the batsmen and in this test match, on this pitch, we have that situation. "Grind them down" would probably mean the same sort of scores achieved over 5 days. Jos Buttler, a T20 batsman if ever there was one, scored 9 runs in about 40 balls. But he tried to bed himself in and just looked short of the quality needed to do that. Modern cricket has meant players have to learn the reverse sweep and scoop instead of the forward defensive. He showed that today. David Warner, while Australia were falling like skittles to Finn, scored 77 in 65 balls, completely out of context with the state of the game. Yet without his knock they'd have probably been all out by now. So what should he have done? Got his head down and been 25 not out at close, so the Aussies would have been 100-7? He reasoned that while he was in on that pitch, against those bowlers, he might as well whack it.

I could sit and watch all 5 days of a test match, all 4 days of a Championship match, no matter who's playing - and I wouldn't cross the road to watch a T20. I'm with you, Steve, in hankering after a decent 5-day test match. But sometimes you have to say that the pitch and the bowlers are just too much for the modern batsmen and this is one such game. When Australia were 357-1 after Day 1 at Lords, we wouldn't have had this conversation. In fact, we didn't!
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derby1884
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 9:48 pm 
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Pete, if you ever get fed up dealing in press photos, you should take up cricket journalism.
That's a more cogent and incisive analysis than any I've read in any of the broadsheets today.
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