The ashes

[nimrod]

Good 1st day for England, lets hope more confidence today
I'm off to The Gabba in an hour 

[Lekos]

I can't handle cricket...bores me to death. Having said that - have a great time and get pissed in the sun!

[Hesperus]

Facing a big l10 wicket oss in the first test. We kind of competed for a couple of days but our weakness in bowling and batting badly exposed today. We needed to step up for the 2nd test or this series could end up a 5-0 whitewash.

[Hesperus]

Day nighter test match starts in the early hours of tomorrow morning.  Not really got much confidence in England for this game.

[gavin]

I used to love staying up to watch the cricket. I wish I could still do it.

[nimrod]

We could do with the white Mike Tyson here.

[Hesperus]

Putting them in to bat was a bit of a left field decision. If we can nick Smith out today though we’ll be happy.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

England got the two wickets they needed (Warner and Smith) but the quicks (Anderson especially) bowled too short and outside off stump too often. Overton at least managed to find a line and length to trouble the Aussies.

[Hesperus]

How well we bowl with the new ball tomorrow morning could prove key. Woakes worries me, if he is rally one of the best we’ve got real problems.

[Hesperus]

At the end of the day. You win the toss and put the opposition in to bat, you need to be taking a lot of wickets. That didn’t happen today. Big call when you lost by 10 wickets in the first match.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Some damning stats on Australian TV news this morning. Warner was able to leave 40% of the balls he faced, and for the first 13 overs England only managed to bowl one ball on the stumps! As you say Hesperus - if you decide to put an opponent into bat, you're supposed to make them play and get them out!

[Hesperus]

The Aussies have gone past 400. Root will be very disappointed wth his decision now.

I imagine they’ll put us in to bat today and have  an hour at us under the lights with a new ball..... and take about 3 wickets.

[bluebrendan]

I used to love staying up to watch the cricket. I wish I could still do it.

Lightweight!  Hopefully City's match is interesting or I may doze off in the stand. 

Aussies declare at 442-8, could be a lively last session for the England batsmen.

[Hesperus]

Difficult start for our openers. Come on lads, dig in. We need Cook to put an innings in.

[Hesperus]

Good fight back from the bowlers, but the Aussies missed a trick not enforcing the follow on.

History suggests there is zero chance we reach the target unfortunately.

[nimrod]

Good fight back from the bowlers, but the Aussies missed a trick not enforcing the follow on.

History suggests there is zero chance we reach the target unfortunately.

They certainly did miss a trick and now look under pressure, need a big innings from Root

[Hesperus]

Well, records are there to be broken. So there is always a chance. Root will probably need to hold his bat to the very end though.

[nimrod]

Even if England lose, its shown they will not necessarily lose the tour 5-0, (as I thought)
There is fight in the old dog so to speak, ohh and the barmy army were fantastic in that last session.

[Hesperus]

Batsmen blown away this morning. I got a bit giddy yesterday and seriously thought about a 3am alarm call. Glad I didn't now. The Waca next up, where we last won in 1978.... 🤔

[nimrod]

Its about this time when I tell people here Im not really interested in cricket 

[Hesperus]

Its about this time when I tell people here Im not really interested in cricket 

It must be painful for you. Just tell them we're gonna win 3-2.

[gavin]

Maybe we'll do better on the next tour of the Windies..

[bluebrendan]

England appear to be a collection of pissheads masquerading as professional cricketers - Ben Duckett suspended after pouring a beer over Jimmy Anderson after a curfew on their nights out was lifted for a day.

[Hesperus]

Another poor performance in Perth. We will need to bat very well in the 2nd innings to save a draw.

The comments from the England management about us playing well are just laughable. Some damning stats about how often we've conceded scores greater than 500 under the current coaches.....

[Rowley Birkin QC]

And I don't think these two teams are quite as far apart as the scores might suggest. Smith makes a huge difference. I'm not saying Smith props the rest of the Aussie's up or anything like that, but his batting is so far ahead of everybody else's (both teams) he makes a big difference. Without him the two batting line-ups wouldn't be that far removed from each other. England's biggest deficiency is the bowling attack. It's OK, but the England quicks are all too similar in pace, angle and style. The Australian pace attack has more variety and a touch more mongrel.

Shame about Stokes of course (silly boy...)

[Hesperus]

Totally agree with all of that Rowley. Spot on. We're making this Aussie team look amazing but bar Smith, they are average.

Root looks a forlorn figure at the moment.

[bluebrendan]

The Aussies are indeed nothing special, apart from Smith and possibly Hazlewood, but England are stinking the place out. Win the toss, bat first and the top order subside to 131-4 on a near perfect batting surface, as Malan, Bairstow and most of the Aussie batsmen went on to show. Cook looks to have lost interest, Root seems weighed down by the captaincy and Stoneman and Vince can make neat little 50s but big hundreds are needed to win tests. Throw in that the tail now seems to start with Moeen at 7 and the chances of batting first and making 600 on a 600 pitch are pretty slim.

Twice in India last year England won the toss, made 400 or more in the first knock and lost each by an innings because the opposition made 6/700! Not playing a specialist spinner is mad, Lyon is hardly an off-spin version of Shane Warne but he chips in with some handy wickets.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

I hear this morning that certain Australian players are publicly saying they are looking forward to crushing England and even "ending some careers". Charming. I've always been a bit of an internationalist when it comes to my test cricket - no particular allegiance - but it's hard to like the Aussies when they carry on like this.

[Hesperus]

To be fair to the Aussies they were talking about ending careers before the series even started!

Watching Root interview after the game. He looked like a little boy lost. He was trying to say the right things but there was no conviction in it. I really felt for him.

The inexperienced players have done ok, in fact pretty well. The experienced players have been incredibly poor. Maybe some careers are about to be ended.

[gavin]

I'm pretending cricket doesn't exist until April now

[bluebrendan]

I'm pretending cricket doesn't exist until April now

That attitude will get you picked for England. 

[Swiss]

Cricket is boring.

I go once a year to Lords for the cider and a chat.

[goat]

can do that on a park bench and avoid fucking cricket

[Lekos]

can do that on a park bench and avoid fucking cricket

100% this

[Swiss]

can do that on a park bench and avoid fucking cricket

It's a work do. Also not proper cricket, it's the tri-service match. 3 games of 20/20

[nimrod]

100% this

You two do it together or separately ? 

[goat]

id rather watch cricket

[The Blue Blooded Maniac]

Not fancy a bum?

[goat]

no ta

[bluebrendan]

If you don't like cricket stay off the thread!   

After a poor first session England got their act together a bit though the Aussies still ended the day on top with 244/3.

[Hesperus]

Good come back with bat and ball. Broad finally turning up and Cook and Root in the runs. England on top now. Too little too late though unfortunately, it would be good to try and get a couple of wins though to take a little of the wind out of the Aussie sails.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

England bowlers suddenly found a bit of verve, and the batsman slowly, but steadily worked themselves in. Root and Cook especially were very patient - but positive (the latter positive attitude has been conspicuous by its absence this series).

Good. this is a proper contest now, on a very flat track.

[Hesperus]

Glad that’s over. 4-0. A serious series trouncing.

Some proper head scratching required by Strauss on the way forward for England.

I see Bayliss has said he’s stepping down at the end of 2019.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

England definitely second best by the end.

By the time they got to Sydney the fight seemed to have gone out of the bowlers, with the notable exception of Anderson - who at least showed some pride and bowled a tidy line and length in difficult conditions. Moeen Ali has looked like a man who wanted to be anywhere but on the tour since Perth.

There's been some media criticism here in Aus about England's selection choices (too many left handers? Nathan Lyon loves getting out left handers...), perhaps with the benefit of too much hind-sight, but comments regarding England's poor preparation and lack of competitive warm-up matches prior to the 1st Test have some merit I think. There's also a belief here that England's County system is "broken".

Not saying it would have made any difference to the final result, but in the end England were devoid of luck. Almost everything went against them - from the weather, almost every wicket review (or failing to review!), the thickness of painted lines, to a late-night brawl outside a nightclub in Bristol.

[bluebrendan]

England definitely second best by the end.

By the time they got to Sydney the fight seemed to have gone out of the bowlers, with the notable exception of Anderson - who at least showed some pride and bowled a tidy line and length in difficult conditions. Moeen Ali has looked like a man who wanted to be anywhere but on the tour since Perth.

There's been some media criticism here in Aus about England's selection choices (too many left handers? Nathan Lyon loves getting out left handers...), perhaps with the benefit of too much hind-sight, but comments regarding England's poor preparation and lack of competitive warm-up matches prior to the 1st Test have some merit I think. There's also a belief here that England's County system is "broken".

Not saying it would have made any difference to the final result, but in the end England were devoid of luck. Almost everything went against them - from the weather, almost every wicket review (or failing to review!), the thickness of painted lines, to a late-night brawl outside a nightclub in Bristol.

I think it's been broken partly by the central contracts for established England players - who play hardly any County cricket nowadays - and partly by the reduced number of top class overseas players playing in County cricket so young English players get barely any first class cricket against top class opposition until they're tossed into the Test team, and then the ECB wonders why many of them struggle. It's only the outstanding natural talents such as Root and Stokes who flourish in those conditions and there aren't enough of them to make a top-notch Test team. A batsman like James Vince rarely comes up against 90mph+ bowlers on the County circuit and it showed in the Ashes series.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Broken then... 

[Hesperus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/42590656

Interesting link from the BBC on how Cricket is becoming the most difficult sport to win away at. Some really good points i there on pre series preparations, types of ball and wickets.

I don’t so much think county cricket is broken (agree it isn’t great though) more that it just produces cricketers only suited to the wickets and conditions in England.