Cricket... the game, not the insect

[Jimmy Higgins]

Pakistan and West Indies are playing T20I's. In the first, West Indies got Babar out for a duck very early. That'd be the extent of their highlights as Pakistan would smack 200 at bat and Windies just never got anything going until it was too late. West Indies looked like a B squad for the most part, as in their lineup, a bunch of newer names.

 

[Tigers!]

Finally my skills and talent have been recognised, and I have been asked to play a pivotal role in the First Ashes Test, starting tomorrow at the Gabba.

Spoiler

I shall be driving a shuttle bus to and from the stadium from the Eight Mile Plains Park & Ride.

Gotta start at the bottom Bilby, gotta start at the bottom.

 

[Tigers!]

England had a relatively weak opening in the first ODI against Australia in The Ashes competition. A first ball wicket took out Roy Burns right at the start. In fact, England conceded three wickets after scoring only 11 runs. To make matters worse, Jack Leach out scored their captain Joe Root (taken out for duck), which is definitely a canary in the coal mine. Stokes never got going... in fact only one partnership started up (Buttler and His Holiness Pope Francis) but was snuffed out by the Aussie bowlers.

All in all, 147 isn't a great haul for an ODI, but it isn't the en.... wait.... what was that? This is a Test? You mean England was bowled out in 50 overs?! Well... ... ...fuck.

England did finish the day very strongly, not giving up a single run to the Aussies. Joe Root faced a lot of criticism adding a Meteorologist to the lineup, but it paid off. Three more days of that and England should get a much deserved draw.

Jimmy
need to clarify a couple of things
ODI = One Day international (50 overs per team) which is not the same as the Ashes.
The Ashes are a series of test matches = 5 days cricket each test.

For a purist like me test cricket is the pinnacle whilst OD1 are acceptable but T20 is an absolute travesty.

 

[bilby]

England had a relatively weak opening in the first ODI against Australia in The Ashes competition. A first ball wicket took out Roy Burns right at the start. In fact, England conceded three wickets after scoring only 11 runs. To make matters worse, Jack Leach out scored their captain Joe Root (taken out for duck), which is definitely a canary in the coal mine. Stokes never got going... in fact only one partnership started up (Buttler and His Holiness Pope Francis) but was snuffed out by the Aussie bowlers.

All in all, 147 isn't a great haul for an ODI, but it isn't the en.... wait.... what was that? This is a Test? You mean England was bowled out in 50 overs?! Well... ... ...fuck.

England did finish the day very strongly, not giving up a single run to the Aussies. Joe Root faced a lot of criticism adding a Meteorologist to the lineup, but it paid off. Three more days of that and England should get a much deserved draw.

Jimmy
need to clarify a couple of things
ODI = One Day international (50 overs per team) which is not the same as the Ashes.
The Ashes are a series of test matches = 5 days cricket each test.

For a purist like me test cricket is the pinnacle whilst OD1 are acceptable but T20 is an absolute travesty.

I think he knows.

It was a humorous reference to the English being bowled out in 50 overs.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

England had a relatively weak opening in the first ODI against Australia in The Ashes competition. A first ball wicket took out Roy Burns right at the start. In fact, England conceded three wickets after scoring only 11 runs. To make matters worse, Jack Leach out scored their captain Joe Root (taken out for duck), which is definitely a canary in the coal mine. Stokes never got going... in fact only one partnership started up (Buttler and His Holiness Pope Francis) but was snuffed out by the Aussie bowlers.

All in all, 147 isn't a great haul for an ODI, but it isn't the en.... wait.... what was that? This is a Test? You mean England was bowled out in 50 overs?! Well... ... ...fuck.

England did finish the day very strongly, not giving up a single run to the Aussies. Joe Root faced a lot of criticism adding a Meteorologist to the lineup, but it paid off. Three more days of that and England should get a much deserved draw.

Jimmy
need to clarify a couple of things
ODI = One Day international (50 overs per team) which is not the same as the Ashes.
The Ashes are a series of test matches = 5 days cricket each test.

For a purist like me test cricket is the pinnacle whilst OD1 are acceptable but T20 is an absolute travesty.

Wait, what?! Are you telling me Joe Root didn’t name a meteorologist to the squad either?

 

[Tigers!]

England had a relatively weak opening in the first ODI against Australia in The Ashes competition. A first ball wicket took out Roy Burns right at the start. In fact, England conceded three wickets after scoring only 11 runs. To make matters worse, Jack Leach out scored their captain Joe Root (taken out for duck), which is definitely a canary in the coal mine. Stokes never got going... in fact only one partnership started up (Buttler and His Holiness Pope Francis) but was snuffed out by the Aussie bowlers.

All in all, 147 isn't a great haul for an ODI, but it isn't the en.... wait.... what was that? This is a Test? You mean England was bowled out in 50 overs?! Well... ... ...fuck.

England did finish the day very strongly, not giving up a single run to the Aussies. Joe Root faced a lot of criticism adding a Meteorologist to the lineup, but it paid off. Three more days of that and England should get a much deserved draw.

Jimmy
need to clarify a couple of things
ODI = One Day international (50 overs per team) which is not the same as the Ashes.
The Ashes are a series of test matches = 5 days cricket each test.

For a purist like me test cricket is the pinnacle whilst OD1 are acceptable but T20 is an absolute travesty.

I think he knows.

It was a humorous reference to the English being bowled out in 50 overs.

Fair enough.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Jebus Australia! Time zone difference is killing me! Malan and Root keeping it from running away, but they have a long way to go. Based simply on time, I don't think England can technically win the second test. It'll take through Day Four just to keep even.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It's the weekend. Up early. See that England started very swell, then it just fell apart. There is an old Native American saying, "you can't win a test after giving up nearly 500 runs in the first innings". Put yourself in such a hole and good glob... you starting thinking like a Clevelander... "Maybe next time".

Warner just run out after realizing a ball moving a short distance isn't a good time to run. Not much else in the way of goof ups for the Aussies, who are embarrassing England.

 

[Tigers!]

Warner just run out after realizing a ball moving a short distance isn't a good time to run. Not much else in the way of goof ups for the Aussies, who are embarrassing England.

Certainly if you are not awake nor is your partner then the observation is correct.
But if both batsmans are fast between the wicket and the fieldsman slow then fast singles are away to keep the scoreboard ticking over and cause the fielding team to bring in men closer to the bat thus opening gaps further out. But if you are facing a first rate strike bowler on song i would not try it.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

First off, the big news, USA beat Ireland in the first of 2 (or 3?) T20I's. And it didn't appear like that was going to happen at all! The US had their top batters out in 5 overs, 16 for 4. I was thinking that Ireland wouldn't need 5 overs to win. And then some players (mainly Singh and Modani) just had the absurdly best matches of their lives and the US ultimately went 188-6, dropping only two wickets for the remainder of the game, after exhausting most of their limited talent.

Ireland, not exactly deep themselves, had Balbirnie and Sinclair out by the fifth over. They would finish 161-6. It was quite remarkable. Ireland aren't Cricket powerhouses (and I'm surprised Ireland doesn't have Celtic Cricket), but still, Ireland are the largest victory I think the US have had in recent times.

Ireland would go onto win the 2nd T20I. An ODI starts tomorrow.

The Ashes? Well, the British bowlers finally had a good innings. The Aussie bowlers had two better innings, and the Aussies crushed any hopes of a miracle comeback on the fourth morning, taking the last of six wickets to win out by an Innings. England just have no answer against the Australian bowlers.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Soul Searching Begins For Australia

The results in Melbourne have forced the Australians to begin some serious soul searching. While initially the prospect of capturing the Ashes after just three test matches are positive, the Aussies have been blindsided with needing to reconcile the ugly truth. Steve Smith admitted as much in the press conference. "Well yeah, we are happy, I guess... but it is just England."

While the history of The Ashes runs deep, the talent of the English side does not. And as the British are trying to come to terms with what the rest of the world has known for a few years now, Australia too needs to come to the realization that England just sucks and defeating them has become nothing but a juvenile chore.

Even on the pitch in the third test match, Pat Cummins seemed almost disgusted with himself after he got another wicket. David Warner shaved his mustache after not being able to look himself in the mirror in the run up to the very likely dismantling of the English side.

England's performance during the Ashes was predictable as it was unfortunate. For years now, they have relied on too much luck and atypical individual performances unbecoming for the class of the English squad. It wasn't disappointing because it is obvious that test cricket for England is apparently a hobby. And Australia needs to ask itself whether they have to start looking around for another partner, who takes Test Cricket seriously enough not to get bulldozed in a series of test matches.

 

[atrib]

Soul Searching Begins For Australia
And Australia needs to ask itself whether they have to start looking around for another partner, who takes Test Cricket seriously enough not to get bulldozed in a series of test matches.

They have the series with India, which I think they lost 2 or 3 times in a row. I don't think Australia will be dropping England anytime soon - there is way too much history there.

 

[bilby]

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Soul Searching Begins For Australia
And Australia needs to ask itself whether they have to start looking around for another partner, who takes Test Cricket seriously enough not to get bulldozed in a series of test matches.

They have the series with India, which I think they lost 2 or 3 times in a row. I don't think Australia will be dropping England anytime soon - there is way too much history there.

True, but not quite as humorous.

 

[bilby]

A modest proposal posted on Facebook from Simon Harris, author of the UK Blog 'Man Behaving Dadly':

After our incredible performance in The Ashes, it’s clear that shorter-form cricket isn’t having a detrimental effect on the Test game. Therefore, after the recent success of The Hundred, I am proposing a new annual event at Lords called One Ball Megablast Death Chuck.

The format is simple - instead of building teams based on counties or cities, just two squads are put together according to players’ preferred method of making tea. On the one side, you would have the Milk First Megalodons, and they would face off against the Milk Second Megamegas. Each team would be expanded to 75 players, but only 69 of them would be on the field at any one time.

For the match itself, each team only faces one delivery, but the ball has that binary liquid explosive filling that was made famous in Die Hard With A Vengeance. Therefore, the viewing public are guaranteed two major explosions per match and multiple casualties - players score double, triple or quadruple runs respectively if they successfully reach the other end of the wicket while one or more limbs cross the boundary. The fielding team gets twenty bonus points for a successful LBW dismissal - leg behind wicket, like fifty metres behind.

In spite of both teams only having one delivery, each broadcast lasts for two hours to satisfy Sky Sports by having Sir Geoff Boycott and Jonathan Agnew sat around a table trying to talk each other into a boredom coma.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

To make one minor thing clear... Australia were in the semi's of the ODI World Cup, and won the T20 World Cup. So the whole, England is concentrating too much on ODI and T20 and not enough to Test cricket seems to be missing the point here.

But kudos for "leg behind wicket".

 

[bilby]

To make one minor thing clear... Australia were in the semi's of the ODI World Cup, and won the T20 World Cup. So the whole, England is concentrating too much on ODI and T20 and not enough to Test cricket seems to be missing the point here.

But kudos for "leg behind wicket".

Test batting performances are noticeably less conservative than they used to be, for all major national teams. This is not a problem that is uniformly distributed amongst those nations, but it's definitely a problem. The Poms just have it worse than the Aussies.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

England continue having moments of goodness while bowling, which fade away. They gave up over 400 in a declared first innings for Australia. Batting is even worse. Stokes and Bairstow had very good outings, with the later getting a century. Stokes is clearly fighting serious pain, but still managed over a half century.
Sadly, Mark Wood was their third best, batting an ODI worthy 39 from 41. I'm still catching up on the sport, and am having difficulty determining if the Aussie bowlers are just awesome or the batters can't manage the bowling, but the Brits have just been on the heels at bat for the entire tournament, and this Test is no different with only a trio looking comfortable (and one of them is mainly a bowler).

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

British Glory after all with the Brits managing a wondrous draw. Down by too many runs in their second innings, England backed up the bus and withheld an onslaught of overs to keep from going down 0-4, and instead are a proud 0-3 with a draw.

Player of the game was Leach, the English bowler who managed to stay alive. And much better than in the World Cup final where his job was to get Stokes back to bat. Crawley, Bairstow, and Stokes rode out long periods of play not to lose (though Stokes and Crawley were 60ish and 70ish percent strike rates). Eventually they were taken out but Leach managed an incredible short outing that kept the game going.

The Aussies needed just one more wicket with way too long to go, 10 or 20 overs, but it didn’t happen. Even after the crushing duck to Wood.

England’s next goal will be to bowl out Australia twice in a single test match and not have them declare.

 

[Tigers!]

Watching the Hobart test. Greenest pitch of the whole Ashes. The bowlers of both sides are doing quite well but the batsman are having much trouble.
The ball is swinging (~1.2deg) with variable bounce.