Only if you don’t have a mind to history.
WG Grace was a man for whom the sobriquet was just a euphemism for fucking cheating prick and never worried about money interfering with his amateur status.
In the 1882 Test, English legend W.G. Grace ran out Australian Sammy Jones who wandered out of his crease after completing a run “I taught the lad something.”
At the recent Britain-Australia Society dinner, topically titled The Politics of Cricket John Major and John Howard were the keynote speakers. Neither covered the incident in their speeches but the question was asked of them afterward:
John Major: “I think the breach of the spirit of cricket was done by the MCC members.”
John Howard wouldn’t be drawn on the specific question but in relation to Sunak: “Loyalty is the secret weapon of the Conservatives.”
Given the player seemingly most singled out for targeted abuse from the Long Room guys in porkpie ties was Pakistan born Muslim Usman Khawaja, I wonder if Sunak will double down on his commentary?
With Nathan Lyon now injured and probably heading home, the Australians needed to select another to lead the teams victory chant “Beneath the Southern Cross”. Their choice; Alex Carey.
Pope is injured so as well as the expected bowler rotation we have an enforced change. Is it time to bring in our best wicketkeeper, who is also no mug with the bat?
No, it is not.
England team: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Harry Brook, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, Ollie Robinson.
Anderson and Tongue make way for Ali and Woakes, Brook drops to number 3 in place of Pope.
We’ve got decent bats down to 8. Wood has real pace so that’s a very positive change. Woakes feels like a more or less like for like replacement. I say I want Foakes but where would I put him? I might just swap him straight for Bairstow - we’ve got a lot of batting and lot of big hitters among them - or arguably Woakes, as we have a spinner to hold up an end for Stokes, Wood, Broad and Robinson.
After some timewasting work in Excel, it looks like we could lose by 31 runs and still qualify. Not that we’ll need it!
ETA - no idea what this means in terms of how long we would need to make them bat in a losing match, but I’ve noodled around with Excel enough at this point.
You and literally everybody else, but it seems I have a deep seated and irrational intuition that lower numbers are “down” that flies in the face of centuries if cricketing wisdom.
I certainly wouldn’t object!
Yes, an important lesson. Fast 40s are all very well but they can’t be the whole story.
AUS two changes.
Borland in for Hazelwood. Think that’s fine.
Green out (injured) with Marsh coming in. Oh fuck no.
Seems we like leaving doors open.
Green’s injury was due to excessive bowling. A future batting centrepiece.
Replaced by a guy who’s future was 10 years ago and specialises in bowling 4 overs per Test.
But he is very well connected politically, has a great rig and provides good chat.
No idea what the pitch is like in Bulawayo, but Scotland have 277 to defend. Netherlands have made a strong start with 17 runs for no loss off the first 2 overs.
In other minor international games, England are this time round reaping the rewards of putting Australia in, with 3 wickets in the first session. Broad taking Warner cheaply, Wood’s pace too much for Khawaja and Woakes getting Labuschagne caught at slip.
Commiserations. It’s no consolation I know, but seems to have been an excellent deciding game worthy of producing a qualifier.
Congratulations for some excellent reverse mockers, there. Aussies all out for 263, with Marsh getting nearly half of them. Now it will be interesting. With a relatively low total this time, hard to imaging England will change their strategy at this stage. Aussie quicks will be looking forward to exacting revenge. Seems impossible to call but I’ll predict England are 150/4 at the close.
Five for Wood, who was on a different level, and 3 for Woakes. Robinson has picked up a back spasm, which the selectors may see as fortuitous when they pick the Old Trafford team. Only consolation for the Aussies is that now is probably a better time to bowl than tomorrow, when it’ll be fine and sunny.
Meant to say - can you imagine if Archer had been fit as well? What a loss.
Yes, we’ve all been robbed of a proper World Cup is the main conclusion here. But fair play to the Dutch, they went for their shots when they needed to and they got them.
(Haven’t seen so many Scots gutted by the Dutch since William III ordered the Massacre of Glencoe.)
My emotions on watching Stokes single-handedly drag England’s score towards respectability/victory have shifted from “This is amazing, the greatest sport possible” to “Why does this keep happening, what’s wrong with everyone else?”
