2019 Ashes, England (etc.) versus Australia

[Nineteenx]

That was incredible, it was like the second leg v Barcelona at Anfield, the cricket world cup super over all over again, edge of the seat, heart thumping out of your chest action, awe inspiring, a brilliant come back together with some incredible play.

Leach not getting nearly enough credit for his role, not scoring except for the crucial 1, but coming in as last man and showing our top and middle order how to defend and hold down an end and leave the ball really well when it's tough to score, which is what all our one day players need to learn to do early in each innings instead of trying to come out blasting wafting the bat at things as soon as they're in like they have to start scoring instantly, it's test match cricket, not a 50 over game.

Stokes was simply awe inspiring, and on the flip side, in that situation his one day play and shots were absolutely necessary and exactly the time to turn it on and use it. He needed to be though, because his woeful call to Butler is what got him run out and had he not done that, there wouldn't have been so much onus on him.

England still have a lot of problems to solve, it should be pretty straight forward to drill the one day players in the art of leaving and when and when not to play and occupying the crease and letting the bowlers wear themselves down until their accuracy starts to wain. Roy's a problem, what to do with him? I think for a start, given how he's got out most of the time, trying to have him take a starting position slightly further forward, just on the edge/outside of his crease like Warner does for Australia should stop the Aussies bowling the length to him he constantly gets out from and potentially make it easier for him to score.

They need to develop better plans for getting the Aussies right handers out, Smith and Labuschagne in particular and Root needs to be a lot more aggressive with the field at times, especially when they're just in with a couple of wickets down early. Archer has a great bouncer that the batsmen can't see coming because his action doesn't change, but he gets it too high, it is nice to see the Aussies get battered around the head and imagining it's Rupert Murdoch granted, but when Smith and Labuschagne are just in he should get Archer on, get men around the bat and catchers close in either side and get him to bowl that inswinging bouncer that follows them, but around sternum so they can't get out of the way, it's too low to duck and they struggle to get their hands out of the way and it could well nick off the gloves or the shoulder of the bat. Couple of outswingers or balls bowled just outside of the stumps, them BANG inswinging bouncer right in there

[Nineteenx]

Need to be looking favourites to win throughout to get the crowd behind them at Old Trafford in the next test, we all know what these fair weather glory hunting Mancs are like, get behind the team that's winning, I've heard given their fickle nature there's even talk of the sale of a special reversible shirt ahead of the next test, with England on one side and the Aussies on the other, so the locals can quickly switch their allegiances depending on who's winning, just as so many swapped red for blue

[redebreck]

Tremendous win for England. I hope they can move on from this - middle order and tail-enders showing the openers how to handle test cricket.
Jofra Archer could be our ace IF the batsmen have learned how to play test cricket.

[miller0863]

Thank you Sky for changing the 10pm highlights programme to an hour of Willis and Stewart talking bollocks.
Arseholes.

[Nineteenx]

Tremendous win for England. I hope they can move on from this - middle order and tail-enders showing the openers how to handle test cricket.
Jofra Archer could be our ace IF the batsmen have learned how to play test cricket.

I hope so too, there's been a huge lack of test match savvy from England's players, I think due to all the emphasis England have put into the one day game. A lot of them really don't know what to leave, when to leave or especially how to defend really well for sustained periods, they've been playing test match cricket like it's one day, the balls completely different and gives all sorts of movement you don't get in the white ball game.

I'd like to see the players 'get in' when they first arrive at the crease, you really need to do that in test match cricket, you can't just come in and start trying to blast away and waft your bat at every ball, really need to cut out playing ridiculous shots, they've got out so many times all series playing at stupid things that they should be leaving all day long

Look at Labuschagne for the Aussies, he's not spectacular, he scores really slowly, but he is a very good disciplined and organised test match player, very disciplined, the amount of balls outside the stumps he leaves and the high stuff that England's batsmen keep getting out wafting a bat at is unreal and a good example for them to follow, Stop playing at shit outside the line, stop playing at stuff up around your head, unless you are very good at playing those sort of deliveries and are already very well in and set

[Nineteenx]

In fact, just stop hooking altogether, leave the short stuff and practice getting out of the way of it, even Smith, when he's well in and the ball's dead doesn't attempt to hook anymore, the quality and speed of deliveries in test match cricket are just too good now, all our players should be banned from hooking in test match cricket, it's rapidly disappearing from the test match game for a reason

AND somewhat embarrassingly, we're in England for fucks sake, our bowling in the last test was pretty awful, it's Headingley! Every single test we play at Headingley we always bowl a little too short, it's a pitch where you have to bowl a bit fuller and it gets the results, it's all the Aussies did, bit fuller, bit of seam making the batsmen play, and yes, we need to make them play more too.

I don't know what the pitch does at OT, what the right length is, but we're in England, the coaches and players should bloody well know and have the bowlers practicing what the perfect length and line is ahead of the next test

[Nineteenx]

Personally I'd move Denly up to open with Burns and let Roy bat in the middle order or bring in someone more capable of playing test match cricket in the middle order. I'm pretty up for giving Roy more time to adapt

If England can strike the right balance between test match play and switching to one day mode when the ball's old and has gone dead they could yet become a truly awesome test side. Imagine, the required sensible 'grinding' batting in the early overs against the new ball when it's moving a fair bit and then having seen that off, quickly taking the game away from the opposition in the 30-40 overs when the ball's gone dead and really isn't doing much at all

[Kev0909]

needing to last final day, ausy's got chance to bowl at us today for 30 mins

already 0-2 lmao

[Nineteenx]

Well, the Aussies deservedly retain the Ashes outstanding bowling and Smith outstanding and with Jimmy missing through injury England sorely lacked any sort of plan to get Australia's right handers out throughout the series.

You have to remember that Jimmy has had the same devastating bowling and performance to right handers that Archer and Broad have enjoyed to the left handers. Jimmy does what all the Aussie bowlers do so well, put it's on the same spot with the right line and length aiming for the top of off stump off the seam and going the other way extremely consistently and England really missed that, with their inability to trouble and get the right handers out ultimately ending in defeat to Australia.

Poor bowling and fielding by England in Australia's first innings, very sloppy, missed and dropped chances and really should have had Australia out for no more than 350

I think England need a change of captain, for me Root simply isn't attacking enough, every test was the same, England got 2 or 3 very early wickets and instead of getting short leg and silly point in and 3 slips bowling at the wickets or short to nip up into the batsmans body rather than over their heads when they can easily duck and really applying the pressure and going after the new batsman Root relaxed the field and let them get a start and get settled every single time, whereas the Aussies and Paine kept the pressure right on.

Moving forward it has to be a worry for England on the bowling front, I don't really know about who's good or up and coming in county cricket who can do the job or something near it that Jimmy did and judging by the players tried in Jimmy's absence it would appear there isn't anyone.

Archer's still young so maybe the option is to develop and practice that line and length bowling inswingers at the top of off stump to right handers with the odd ball nipping the other way or vice versa as I'm sure it's well within his capabilities to develop that, I also really want to see him work on that bouncer to be nipping the odd one back in to the batsman's ribs at pace where they can't duck it and struggle to get bat and gloves out of the way of it, I think Archer doing that would be absolutely devastating, although you'd need a captain other than Root who actually has balls for that to work

[redebreck]

One issue for England is, how much longer can James Anderson continue to bowl effectively?

James Anderson and Jofra Archer as opening bowlers could be devastating.

Let's hope Jimmy has a few more years in him.

[Martyboy]

Pretty predictable 4th test result with Smith back in the Aussies' line-up....Despite the Stokes heroics in the last test England were pretty much 2nd best all series,it'll probably continue in the same vein at the Oval.....

[reddownunder]

2-1 job done. The difference has been Smith's batting and the collective bowling attack of Australia.

Losing Anderson was a huge blow for England as a pace attack of him, Broad and Archer would be quite daunting.

One wonders if Anderson has played his last ashes test...

[Kev0909]

2-1 job done. The difference has been Smith's batting and the collective bowling attack of Australia.

Losing Anderson was a huge blow for England as a pace attack of him, Broad and Archer would be quite daunting.

One wonders if Anderson has played his last ashes test...

One wonder if roy has played his last ashes test, lols.

Root 3 ducks is unacceptable, a great show of leadership, time for someone else to take the reigns.

[redebreck]

One wonder if roy has played his last ashes test, lols.

Root 3 ducks is unacceptable, a great show of leadership, time for someone else to take the reigns.

"Ashes 2019: England unchanged for final Test against Australia"

link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/49634736

oh dear, oh dear, oh dear

[RedNoodle]

It's almost as if cricket was a sport dominated by the middle-upper classes and as a result who you know/who you are'in' with matters more than how you actually perform when it matters. Colour me shocked!!!