Ashes 2025/6
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I heard Chris Scott (arguable the best modern day AFL coach) make an interesting point on a show once. In a professional environment, monday should look the same no matter what happened on the weekend.
Throwing the plan for the tour out the window after two admittedly disastrous days would be remarkably unprofessional and probably throw a sense of panic in to the players.Now, whether you think a warm up pink ball game should have been part of the original plan (especially given the two teams' respective records in these games) is a different proposition, but i don't really see much wrong with sticking to how they had the tour mapped out.
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I'm not as down on England as others. They are still very talented and these tests are going to be closely fought.
There's a tendency to swing too far after game one of a series. After game one last year Australia was old and washed, India resurgent and the series was teetering on the edge. India didn't win again.
If England come out and it clicks in Brisbane, it's 1-1 and they have the momentum. The Gabbatoir hasn't been that for quite some time, but it would be an enormous mental boost for them. Pink ball tests can be erratic.
I'd still rather be us than them, but I think $6 for England to win the Ashes is still a touch overs.
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I'm not sure if on catch up I caught the highlights or the whole match!. In such low scoring match, it only takes one good innings to decide who wins and who loses and naturally that will be decided in pretty short time. So hats off to Travis Head, a great, match winning knock.
But it was not all one way traffic. Let's not forget that Aus were rolled for the lowest total in the match. For sure it is advantage Aus but I have a feeling England will not be quite so despondent as some of us fans are.
As regards England's (overly) aggressive strategy with the bat (I refuse to use that word), I really think it just needs some fine tuning. In the past we were so negative, timid even. It was like we were playing for a draw from the first ball sometimes, so I welcome the approach and I also welcome the backing for the players that are adopting that approach. You can't say "go out and play" in such and such a manner and then get shitcanned for getting out doing so. So, something of a reset. Yes let's continue to be aggressive but at the right times.
Then maybe we get a contest.
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That's it Cato. It's not that aggression is bad, it's just that being aggressive all the time is just silly.
Take the flurry of wickets in England's second innings that turned the game. In that period, Brook and Root were both dismissed cheaply driving on the up with hard hands at balls going across them. On that pitch, at that time of the game, it was a really poor decision. So you lose your best two bats at a crucial time to just shit decisions.
Shoulder arms, get to the next ball and use your brain. And yeah if it's short, or full then throw the bat at it, which is what Head did in the early part of his innings.
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Stewie Clarke raised a good point on radio this morning, the drop off in pace for the England attack after very little bowling was alarming, and spoke to them being underdone. To not give them more overs may do far more harm than good.
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Must be a great era to be an Australian bowler in an Ashes series. Just bowl a good length outside off and let the batsman do the rest.
There was a time when batsmen protected their wickets and openers would dourly try to see off the first session. These days it's waving the bat 20:20 style safe in the knowledge it takes a couple of years of failure before you have to worry about not having that multimillion dollar contract.
And then you can fuck off to the IPL.
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@mariner4life said in Ashes 2025/6:
Stewie Clarke raised a good point on radio this morning, the drop off in pace for the England attack after very little bowling was alarming, and spoke to them being underdone. To not give them more overs may do far more harm than good.
Yep, Archer and Wood especially look like they'll be cooked by the fourth test.
Especially if the Australian selectors finally wake up to Khawaja and they're made to bowl repeated and sustained spells.
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@canefan said in Ashes 2025/6:
@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:
The Aussies have a way with headlines
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@antipodean said in Ashes 2025/6:
Must be a great era to be an Australian bowler in an Ashes series. Just bowl a good length outside off and let the batsman do the rest.
There was a time when batsmen protected their wickets and openers would dourly try to see off the first session. These days it's waving the bat 20:20 style safe in the knowledge it takes a couple of years of failure before you have to worry about not having that multimillion dollar contract.
And then you can fuck off to the IPL.
Yeah I think that scoring rates increasing are good for the game on the whole. The days of Boycott, Tavare and our own Bruce "you'll never die of a stroke" Edgar are long gone.....but ( and this is the beauty of test cricket ) there still has to be instances where teams buckle down, weigh anchor and tough it out.
Not sure any English guys have the mindset to do this anymore.
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@MN5 Exactly. At some point the shed should've realised that the game was back in the balance and they needed to stop trying to force it, and toughed out a session to get the pendulum back in their favour.
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@antipodean said in Ashes 2025/6:
@MN5 Exactly. At some point the shed should've realised that the game was back in the balance and they needed to stop trying to force it, and toughed out a session to get the pendulum back in their favour.
I should have actually used one of my 80s favourites as an example.......
"Trevor John Franklin (born 18 March 1962) is a New Zealand former cricketer who played 21 Tests and three One Day Internationals for New Zealand. He played first-class cricket for Auckland from 1980 to 1993.
Franklin was known for his stoicism as a right-handed opening batsman. He scored his only Test century against England at Lord's in 1990, when he reached his century after 431 minutes and was out next ball.[1] Over his Test career he had a meagre strike rate of 26.44.[2] He was also known for strange injuries, including shattering his leg when he was run over by a motorised luggage trolley at Gatwick Airport in 1986 which kept him out of cricket for 18 months.[3]"
Enough digression. Brook is a dasher when conditions are good, he is a generational player but not sure of his temperament when the chips are down. I guess in that middle order a huge amount will depend on Root to be the "glue" player.
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@Catogrande said in Ashes 2025/6:
I'm not sure if on catch up I caught the highlights or the whole match!. In such low scoring match, it only takes one good innings to decide who wins and who loses and naturally that will be decided in pretty short time. So hats off to Travis Head, a great, match winning knock.
But it was not all one way traffic. Let's not forget that Aus were rolled for the lowest total in the match. For sure it is advantage Aus but I have a feeling England will not be quite so despondent as some of us fans are.
As regards England's (overly) aggressive strategy with the bat (I refuse to use that word), I really think it just needs some fine tuning. In the past we were so negative, timid even. It was like we were playing for a draw from the first ball sometimes, so I welcome the approach and I also welcome the backing for the players that are adopting that approach. You can't say "go out and play" in such and such a manner and then get shitcanned for getting out doing so. So, something of a reset. Yes let's continue to be aggressive but at the right times.
Then maybe we get a contest.
I think anyone claiming this is the perfect version of Bazball probably hasn't watched much of England in the last year, they've definitely tempered the 'throw the bat at everything' approach in the last 12 months, this test was more of an aberration. I still think we'll lose the series but this team have proven me wrong more times than I care to admit by bouncing back in series.
I go into the next test worried about the batting line up, worried that the bowling attack will break down or drop off in pace v quickly, worried about the style of cricket. So in many ways, the same as I usually feel watching England. Would love to see us turn them over, don't think it will happen but can't entirely give up the hope that this team has earned. Bastards
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England's Mark Wood is injured and won't play in the Second Test.
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@mariner4life Truth. If you’ve suddenly had to change your Monday, and then consequently your whole week you ain’t doing it right.
