ENG 7-238 needing 33 to avoid follow-on which might draw the Test but lose the Ashes.
ENG make the follow-on target and declare.
Most positive tactical move of the Test.
Asking the AUS to set a target that can be chased.
This might actually be interesting! Or it might go for a dismal draw.
Looked from the highlights like it was never in the thoughts of the Aussies to declare, and with the Ashes on the line I can’t say I blame them. Imagine the outcry if they did and the miracle happened for England. No, certainty in sport is a rare thing and should be milked for all it’s worth when you have it. Unfortunately it did make for a game that was pretty dull even when made into a highlights reel, with the only point of interest being Perry looking for a century, and she apparently wasn’t able to score quickly enough to even get close. So yes, not the best advert for the game but they can’t all be like the recent cup final.
I have to say the slow scoring rate (and the series being over as a contest) rather put me off looking at tickets for the T20. And not being a close follower of the game, I was surprised by the number of full tosses being served up by both sides, is this usual? Basically some of the batting looked pretty good, the bowling less so (with a few notable exceptions). Then again, I guess you could say the same about most men’s matches too.
Maybe you cluey Northern Hemisphere types can enlighten an antipodean
OK, we are about a week from the opening Ashes Test.
Anticipated, locals as slight favourites. Just what I need to bugger my sleep patterns fro another couple of months.
AUS have had an A squad over there for a while, playing county sides of varying quality.
We also have a couple of prospects who are playing with county sides. All of these supplement the CWC2019 squad.
To separate the sheep, the black sheep, the goats and pretenders they are playing a intra squad match, the Haddin XII vs Hick XII (yep 12 a side and AUS have Graeme Hick as their batting coach, like we need another sub Test standard flat track bully).
For their warm-up ENG are playing IRE.
What the hey? Ireland? Really?
Haven’t the ten Test status nations just been playing over there in Blighty?
The ECB doesn’t have the dosh to get a Pakistan or New Zealand, Bangladesh or Afganistan to hang around for a week for a trial against test standard opposition?
Or a Possibles v Probables?
Ireland?
Am too confounded to compose a coherent question.
First Irish test againt England, and only their third overall. Its been a long time coming. An ENgland v Afghanistan might be interesting, but seriously playing Pakistan v England or NZ for the 400th time won’t be a good post WC hangover cure.
Plus arranging even a couple of tests against established nations off the cuff is problematic. Nobody wants to be the appitizer to the Ashes, I know Pakistan and or NZ won’t want to be, and thats before dealing with the complicated issue of sponsorship and broadcast rights.
Re: Ireland.
The World Test Championship is starting, so there is a schedule to keep (in which every series has to be 2 matches long at minimum - Ireland and Afghanistan are currently exempt from this I believe, whilst they ramp up their Test match status); this match is almost literally being shoe-horned in. England played Pakistan and India last year, so there’s not much appetite for that. In 2005, England’ played Bangladesh in a one off match as a warm up for The Ashes, This fits into that pattern and doesn’t mess the schedule up as any other opponent bar Afghanistan would warrant 2 matches in the series.
We only play 7 Tests at maximum per English summer and the World Cup got in the way this year, so there’s only really time for one match given the 5 match nature of the Australia series (this year’s Ashes is already finishing later in the English summer than it ever has done).
Also, money. The biggest ex-pat community in this country is Irish. I’d imagine that they’re hoping to sell out by getting a rivalry going between the two countries and marketing to the Irish community. It remains to be seen how successful this will be - I was being marketed tickets at the back end of last week through my email, suggesting that there are plenty available. Starting on a Wednesday doesn’t help - they should have tried for both weekend days (but that then has knock on effects as to when The Ashes can start).
Ireland might wind up giving England a bit of a scare. The team is a mix of first and second string, the top 3 aren’t secure and Ireland have Tim Murtagh, who plays for Middlesex, knows Lord’s like the back of his hand as a result, and takes his wickets in the CC at a very low average. He’s your classic 80 mph at best seamer, the likes of which tend to do well in English conditions. A potential banana skin for the batsmen, but you’d think that England should have too much firepower with the ball for an Irish batting unit that will need to play fairly far above itself to put up a big score. Ireland will want to make it a low scoring shootout, I imagine.
Re: Hick - his record wasn’t good but I sometimes wonder what England’s batsmen in the 90s would have done in another era. He had to go into every match facing Ambrose and Walsh, or Warne and McGrath, or Wasim and Waqar or Donald and Pollock. Atherton, for instance, has the worst average of anyone to score 6000 Test match runs, largely because he kept facing the likes of this lot. Meanwhile, England were putting out people like Angus Fraser, Peter Martin, Dominic Cork and Alan Mullally to share the new ball with Andrew Caddick (Caddick and Gough would share the new ball if the latter were fit, but he got injured quite a lot). Anyway, I don’t see why a player’s Test match record is a bar to them being a good coach - otherwise the likes of Trevor Bayliss, Tom Moody and John Buchanan wouldn’t be good coaches.
I’m trying to get my head around the World Test Championship. Thankfully there’s two years to figure it out I guess. At least the final tie break rules seem pretty clear.
Hopefully there will be no ludicrous case like a team getting through to the next round vide some mathematical formula despite being whipped senseless by the other team…
Team Haddin got dismissed for 105. Team Haddin seemed to comprise of the second string bats plus David Warner though - the batting line up for Team Hick looks far the stronger. Team Haddin seems to have the bulk of the front line bowlers with the exceptions of Lyon and, possibly, Pattinson though, so now it will be interesting to see how the first string bowlers go against the better bats. To be honest, this is probably the most interesting thing about the game.
Of the 105, the one guy playing County Championship - Marnus Labuschagne - got 41. It’s almost like doing proper preparation for red ball matches works.
[shrug]Oh dear Australia’s selections 17-201 in a single day. [/shrug]
105 all out off 42.5 overs and 96/7 off 36.4.
It probably reflects more that the batsmen know this is mainly for show, that Langer has already made up his mind for his top 6 while there is at least one bowling spot up for the taking.
The women bat out a dour draw over four days.
You wouldn’t trust these roosters to bat out 50 overs.
Who said there was only room in the calendar for 5 Tests? At this rate we could play 10 two day Tests and win the Ashes 5-4 with one drawn.
Business as usual for England at Lords, 3 down within an hour. Great bowling from the Irish, making the most of good conditions.
I think it’s probably not the done thing to quote oneself but this was predictable. England’s bowlers are going to have to really come to the party.
42/6 currently.
7 now.
58/7.
Quick, someone take Cumbrians blood pressure…
Pretty calm to be honest. As I’ve said, predictable. Plus I went through 8 hours of torture a week last Sunday; this just elicits a sigh.
Murtagh getting on the Lord’s honours board is a great. He’s had to hang in until the very tail end of his career to get to play Test match cricket and he’s made it count. For a real county cricket stalwart I think that’s great - really pleased for him.
Given what happened in the opening innings of the Haddin/Hick game, The Ashes could be two one legged men in an arse kicking contest.
Would Geof Boycott or Brian Close be still available for selection?
Why didn’t England [del]steal[/del] call up Murtagh 12 years ago?
Could have used him then.
This is the new Test cricket in England - 2-day matches, with 3 reserve days in case of rain.
This is one way of cementing the legacy of the World Cup in generating interest in cricket amongst kids. Morgan as captain of the World Cup winners, Ireland defenestrating England at Lord’s - we’ll have kids picking up bat and ball all over the Emerald Isle.
9-77 with 10 and Jack at the crease.
Words fail me