Ashes 2025/6
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@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:
@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:
@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:
@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:
That Khawaja not being able to open situation was weird. Is this some sort of new rule ? I thought guys could saunter off an on as they pleased assuming the 12th man is ready to fill in.
Story is khawaja injured his back due to playing golf the day before. Because he was off the field for so long it meant he had to stand down for a period before being able to bat. Which lead to the new guy facing archer in the first over. For which he only lasted a couple of balls. And it meant Smith coming in at 3 and so on
Hardly a great lookSeems really amateur hour and completely fucked their order ( not that I think it made a huge amount of difference in the final wash up )
Reminds me of this ( thanks cricinfo )
"For Richard Hadlee, the Bangalore Test should have been memorable for entirely different reasons. His first-innings haul of 5 for 65 carried him clear of Ian Botham at the top of the world Test wickets table, but he did not feature in the second innings, after he and a number of his team-mates were hacked down by a violent stomach bug on the rest day of the Test. As India batted themselves into a match-winning position, an SOS was sent up to the TV commentary box where the former New Zealand captain, Jeremy Coney, was called out of his 18-month retirement along with his fellow journalist, Ken Nicholson, to act as substitute fielders"
England are going to be batting REALLY early on day 2. Welcome to modern test cricket.
Delhi belly is a real thing, been several cases of players on tour struck down due to eating something dodge. Other international sides have had the same thing happen to them.
From memory even Bryan Waddle has had to help field on one black caps tour to Asia because so many were doubled up on the toilet..I think Hadlee only toured because he wanted to get his 400th test wicket ? he got sick every time he went there according to his book.
Hard to gauge what England will do second time round. Will they go full Bazball thinking they fucked up first time around, they'll probably have a small lead and backing their guys to do better ? or will they be much more sensible and realise there is still so long to go in the test ?
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https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/41944444
Google throws up this article, with several individual teams at the bottom. Interestingly, in the stats guy's team Laker makes it over Warnie, Keith Miller over Botham and the other allrounders, and Mike Hussey over endless batsmen you'd think were greater than him.
Someone like Greg Chappell doesn't even feature in the voting. Maybe he never had a great Ashes series?
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@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/41944444
Google throws up this article, with several individual teams at the bottom. Interestingly, in the stats guy's team Laker makes it over Warnie, Keith Miller over Botham and the other allrounders, and Mike Hussey over endless batsmen you'd think were greater than him.
Someone like Greg Chappell doesn't even feature in the voting. Maybe he never had a great Ashes series?
He "only" averaged a shade under 46 against England vs his career average of 53.86. I guess others did better ? He retired before I got into cricket but my old man advises me he was one of the absolute best to ever do it.
Graham Gooch is another, would be no chance despite being one of the best batsmen of his generation towards the end of his career. He wasn't that good overall vs Oz.
Laker took 19 wickets in a single test. None of us would have seen it but fuck a duck, that's absolutely remarkable.
Boycotts comments about himself made me laugh.
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@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:
@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:
@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:
That Khawaja not being able to open situation was weird. Is this some sort of new rule ? I thought guys could saunter off an on as they pleased assuming the 12th man is ready to fill in.
Story is khawaja injured his back due to playing golf the day before. Because he was off the field for so long it meant he had to stand down for a period before being able to bat. Which lead to the new guy facing archer in the first over. For which he only lasted a couple of balls. And it meant Smith coming in at 3 and so on
Hardly a great lookSeems really amateur hour and completely fucked their order ( not that I think it made a huge amount of difference in the final wash up )
Reminds me of this ( thanks cricinfo )
"For Richard Hadlee, the Bangalore Test should have been memorable for entirely different reasons. His first-innings haul of 5 for 65 carried him clear of Ian Botham at the top of the world Test wickets table, but he did not feature in the second innings, after he and a number of his team-mates were hacked down by a violent stomach bug on the rest day of the Test. As India batted themselves into a match-winning position, an SOS was sent up to the TV commentary box where the former New Zealand captain, Jeremy Coney, was called out of his 18-month retirement along with his fellow journalist, Ken Nicholson, to act as substitute fielders"
England are going to be batting REALLY early on day 2. Welcome to modern test cricket.
I recall on the radio commentary Wads calling out asking if they needed any more fielders
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@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:
@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:
@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:
Just watched the highlights, wickets are almost a perfect split of great aggressive fast bowling and utterly stupid shot selection. Getting caught on the boundary day 1 of a test match is quite the thing..
Is Geoff Boycott still compos mentis?
He would have been furious watching this! Marnus, Smith - maybe Stokes and Green the only guys looking like they were trying to dig in.
Boycott is quite a strange guy by most accounts. Seems to have played for his own stats far more than for the good of the team.
I have a feeling he wouldn't have a place in this current England team.
Might be a bit of exaggeration in his reputation, because there are endless Boycott stories.
Definitely a bit of a maverick character, but he'd take Crawley's spot in the current team and England would be much the better for it - unless Baz decided he wasn't having any truck with anchors in his team.
I've got at least one of Boycott's tour books and it was a good read in its day.
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@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:
@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:
@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:
@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:
Just watched the highlights, wickets are almost a perfect split of great aggressive fast bowling and utterly stupid shot selection. Getting caught on the boundary day 1 of a test match is quite the thing..
Is Geoff Boycott still compos mentis?
He would have been furious watching this! Marnus, Smith - maybe Stokes and Green the only guys looking like they were trying to dig in.
Boycott is quite a strange guy by most accounts. Seems to have played for his own stats far more than for the good of the team.
I have a feeling he wouldn't have a place in this current England team.
Might be a bit of exaggeration in his reputation, because there are endless Boycott stories.
Definitely a bit of a maverick character, but he'd take Crawley's spot in the current team and England would be much the better for it - unless Baz decided he wasn't having any truck with anchors in his team.
I've got at least one of Boycott's tour books and it was a good read in its day.
Probably been posted on here before but absolutely hilarious.
Hadlee rated Boycott the toughest guy he ever bowled to. That's enough endorsement for me, an absolute great of the game.
Australia all out for 132.
England will bat with a lead of 40. There HAS to be pressure on Crawley, fuck me, this guy has a ridiculously long leash to try and "find form"
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@NTA said in Ashes 2025/6:
@Virgil Khawaja wouldn't have lasted much longer against Archer.
If you're in your late 30s and golf gives you injuries, time to quit international cricket.
Yep. Khawaja is turning himself into a (barely) playing food bill.
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Not to defend Bazball entirely but I always figured that if you can't bat time, you basically have to score runs quickly since you're effectively there for a good time, not a long time. That might be because of poor technique, or because the bowlers have the ascendance currently (for whatever reason e.g. bowler quality, pitch, weather conditions etc.). Lord knows how often I watched average NZ teams in the 90s and 00s try to bat time to avoid losing, and just not having a defendable target so it was all for nought and predictably nought at that...
Boycott has said more recently that given today's pitches and bowling techniques etc, he would probably score faster than he used to because batting time is harder than it was.
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@Godder said in Ashes 2025/6:
Not to defend Bazball entirely but I always figured that if you can't bat time, you basically have to score runs quickly since you're effectively there for a good time, not a long time. That might be because of poor technique, or because the bowlers have the ascendance currently (for whatever reason e.g. bowler quality, pitch, weather conditions etc.). Lord knows how often I watched average NZ teams in the 90s and 00s try to bat time to avoid losing, and just not having a defendable target so it was all for nought and predictably nought at that...
Boycott has said more recently that given today's pitches and bowling techniques etc, he would probably score faster than he used to because batting time is harder than it was.
Definitely depends on the situation. But crikey, we're early on day 2 and England are batting again. Surely they reign it in a bit compared to the first innings.
DIsclaimer: Would not be surprised in the slightest if they have a heave.
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@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:
@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:
@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:
@Chris-B said in Ashes 2025/6:
@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:
Just watched the highlights, wickets are almost a perfect split of great aggressive fast bowling and utterly stupid shot selection. Getting caught on the boundary day 1 of a test match is quite the thing..
Is Geoff Boycott still compos mentis?
He would have been furious watching this! Marnus, Smith - maybe Stokes and Green the only guys looking like they were trying to dig in.
Boycott is quite a strange guy by most accounts. Seems to have played for his own stats far more than for the good of the team.
I have a feeling he wouldn't have a place in this current England team.
Might be a bit of exaggeration in his reputation, because there are endless Boycott stories.
Definitely a bit of a maverick character, but he'd take Crawley's spot in the current team and England would be much the better for it - unless Baz decided he wasn't having any truck with anchors in his team.
I've got at least one of Boycott's tour books and it was a good read in its day.
Probably been posted on here before but absolutely hilarious.
Hadlee rated Boycott the toughest guy he ever bowled to. That's enough endorsement for me, an absolute great of the game.
Australia all out for 132.
England will bat with a lead of 40. There HAS to be pressure on Crawley, fuck me, this guy has a ridiculously long leash to try and "find form"
Him and McCullum are just taking the piss now
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@Gunner said in Ashes 2025/6:
@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:
Fun fact.
We've just witnessed a first in test cricket, anyone wanna guess what it might be ?
First time that the opening partnership has failed to score a run in the first three innings.
Winner winner chicken dinner.
No pressure on Weatherald or Khawaja ( if he can be bothered opening )
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@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:
@Godder said in Ashes 2025/6:
Not to defend Bazball entirely but I always figured that if you can't bat time, you basically have to score runs quickly since you're effectively there for a good time, not a long time. That might be because of poor technique, or because the bowlers have the ascendance currently (for whatever reason e.g. bowler quality, pitch, weather conditions etc.). Lord knows how often I watched average NZ teams in the 90s and 00s try to bat time to avoid losing, and just not having a defendable target so it was all for nought and predictably nought at that...
Boycott has said more recently that given today's pitches and bowling techniques etc, he would probably score faster than he used to because batting time is harder than it was.
Definitely depends on the situation. But crikey, we're early on day 2 and England are batting again. Surely they reign it in a bit compared to the first innings.
DIsclaimer: Would not be surprised in the slightest if they have a heave.
You would think so, but if they don't think they will last, they may as well hit out - no difference in balls faced, but maybe a few more runs on the board instead of dot balls.
