Ashes 2023

People are also assuming we would have got another 40ish runs, for all we know we’d have been all out for 400 we will never know.
Cummins sends one up the Chimney on 1 and evades Pope at square leg by not very much, if that goes to hand again we win. He also hit one just short of mid off shortly after. So many ifs buts and maybes in this game. Can’t help but think Aus just had the rub of the green over the 5 days (Brook dismissal, Broad no ball, Bairstow’s keeping etc)

 

Cummins and Lyon did get lucky early on, with various mis hits evading fielders. But I wouldn't put the no balls / keeping down to luck. One is poor play from the bowlers and the other was a rank bad selection. Unfortunately, after that expensive Root over, Stokes seemed to revert to Root / Cook type captaincy, and gave away too many easy runs.

 

Team I'd go for (but no there's no chance of happening) at Lords

Duckett, Brook, Pope, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Foakes, Ahmed, Broad, Robinson, Wood

That's the 11 I'd pick, not fussed about what order the top 4 play in.

 

Some awful stats in the paper today. It was the second highest ever unbeaten 9th wicket Ashes partnership in a 4th innings. The highest being in 1907.

It was the 4th highest Ashes chase of all time for Australia and the highest since 1948.

Khawaja is only the second Aussie ever to bat all five days of an Ashes test, the first being Kim Hughes in 1980. He is the 13th overall and of the other dozen batters only Boycott was on the winning side.

 

That edge that went through Bairstow and Root was very expensive.

One team needed 20 (or 18 I suppose) wickets to win the match, while the other would've effectively needed 25 or 26 because of missed chances. That's where the game was lost. Take chances in the first innings, and don't bowl no balls, we have a lead of 50-100, and they probably end up being set 400.

 

I am by no means an expert although I do love cricket.....my take on yesterday’s play is that we should had more fielders in close and use the new ball str8 after Root took that wicket.......we should have pressed that way for me and not just banging it in short and not hoping for their batsmen to make a mistake trying to get their bat out of the way. Surely a more attacking field was needed around the bat

 

That's how I saw it. But I am also no cricket expert. It looked at one stage like we were hoping to give Cummins the single and bowl at Lyon. After suffocating the aussies all day, they just released the pressure a bit I think. Not taking the new ball until so late also effectively took Anderson out of the game. Take it after the Carey wicket and you have the option to throw the ball to him if Robinson and Broad don't get the wickets.

 

Well I thoroughly enjoyed 5 days of absorbing, top class entertainment. A good number on here really need to chill....

 

Thanks for that …. I’ve been dreaming about Khawaja for last 4 nights and now you mention him again !
As I’ve said before, he was annoyingly good at his job but he can’t be consistent or he wouldn’t have been in and out of the test team.
Perhaps we underrated him and concentrated on the other top four batsmen ?
Anyway, it’s food for thought for our “team” to work on for a week.

I didn’t think we were permitted to change the squad for the first two games except for injury so that rules out Foakes doesn’t it ?
Maybe someone else knows more ?

 

You'll soon be dreaming of the Aussie ladies when from tomorrow the best sports team in the world make our decent side look average. Meg Lanning is a huge miss for them, but doubt we will get close. If the women somehow win the Ashes they should get SPOTY team of the year over Man City.

 

Pretty sure you can change as many as you like (we'll surely add a spinner?), Think the 2 game squad was to give clarity to the counties for the last and next rounds of Championship matches

 

Still think Stokes and management have to take the brunt of the criticism.
Moeen brought out of 'retirement'- why? Bairstow rushed back to test match stumping too soon, Stokes, unwilling or unable to bowl enough overs and hardly producing with the bat, ridiculous first innings declaration, Joe Root given an over too many, should have taken the new ball and hammered the tail enders with an attacking field.

 

Cheers

I have no idea.

 

Thanks.
It’s rare to play 2 spinners at Lords but agree that we need the option.
It always sticks in my mind that Warne never got a 5for at Lords

 

Well if you go back and read my initial post I was talking about giving Root the extra over, after he had just taken a wicket, when I used the word hindsight

 

Not sure it was even hindsight. Once he got the left hander in, it was pretty clear who Cummins and Lyon would rather face. Root with the old ball, or Broad with the new. He'd created a couple of chances against Carey, so could understand the first extra over, the second one was a very poor decision and it was that over that gave them a sniff.

 

I think Stokes was trying to buy a wicket for one over after Carey’s wicket but didn’t realise Root bowled 2 after it.
I was proper watching as well.
Perhaps it’s why I was a rubbish cricketer

 

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/b...-cricket-no-longer-means-crisis-for-australia

Good article that. Those who aren't bothered about women's cricket, give this a watch and you won't be disappointed. Fairplay to England already announcing the team. I am surprised Izzy Wong is missing out. Australia still to announce their team. The three that miss out will be quality players.

 

Oh I’m not saying we were unlucky, but I do think they were lucky that we made so many basic errors.