It's been pretty entertaining throughout, but we were well beaten in the end, if a little unlucky in the second test with the weather, as would have won that one with more time. Smith has been outstanding to be fair & too many of our batsmen haven't been good enough.
Congratulations Aussies. Deserved it. Hope England selectors show a bit of forward thinking for the final test. Roy is not a test batsman. And as average as Denly has been he is not the future. Sibley and Pope in please.
Smith has completely bamboozled our bowlers. Even Broad becomes wayward when Smith is in the middle moving about the crease. They ought to watch videos of the Aussies line and length and how they rarely stray from it.
We weren't far off drawing this test. Half an hour's more application in our first innings and Australia wouldn't have had those seven crucial overs at the end of Day 4 which earned them those two wickets. I wish our specialist batsmen would get their heads down more and stop playing so many flash shots.
Fair call. They didn't include him to start though! Both Bancroft and Warner have been as bad as our openers, and Harris hasn't shone since coming in. I think I'm just annoyed as it feels like we lost by being worse than them, rather than because they were better than us, with the exception of Smith, who is on another level (both now and in comparison to the past). Going to SA in the winter is going to be difficult.
Roy will never be a test player as much as they try and make him one like they did with Alex Hales. Root has a poor record as a captain and doesn't covert enough half centuries to centuries for him to be a true great. Buttler is another who doesn't have the mental fortitude to show patience in the five day game. Archer wasn't the same player this time around as he was at Headingley and needs to try and chip in with runs. Guys like Pope, Curran and even Mallan must wonder what they have to do to get near the team.
They should pin this on the dressing room wall at The Oval next week https://www.news.com.au/sport/crick...h/news-story/5c0bf0eb71ba7d7a1798080908f63507 Let's win the last test and salvage some pride.
Yes. Ashes have gone, but players should be playing for pride & selection in the next test, which won't be easy either in SA.
I said before the series started that selectors, coach, captain and batting line up weren't good enough. Australia are a poor team, and they are considerably better than we are. Player by player, we've become more inferior since the height of 2010/11. I don't know how many warning signs we've needed. Multiple sub 100 batting performances.. including Ireland. Losing 2-1 to a poor windies side and many inadequate series in the years of this coach. I'm sure some will disagree, but the Ashes is the pinnacle. Its all that matters. Pyjama cricket is quickly forgotten and part of the problem. But there are aspects of pitches, preparation, coaching, county schedules and selecting players in the right place who are in form and doing well. When you start moving players around to try and make it easier for them because you're too gutless to drop them, you're done. If you can't bat, you're going to lose a lot. And looking at Roots loss percentage, its double that of Vaughan and Strauss. Our bowlers are generally decent, especially in the UK, but for some reason we're making pitches for bang in bowlers and spinners. Bizarre. I can't imagine the Perth curator creating a nice soft green top for us on our next visit. And as a result, in this test, we've picked bowlers who are more bang in bowlers, rather than the classic swing bowlers that have bowled out the likes of India and the convicts on our soil in the past. All I can think is a fear of our batsmen being knocked over cheaply. We'll we've been toppled on flat pitches, fast pitches, dry pitches and spin fests. So why we wouldn't give our bowlers more advantage, its backward thinking. The era of bayliss has been an abject failure. Though of course, nobody will admit it. And if the selectors and head of the ECB allow that failure to continue, then they are just as much a part of the problem.
Roy, Denly, Bairstow and Buttler have walked out to bat 32 times and scored three fifties between them. If they all play in the final test I give up.
Same squad for the final test. Pretty disappointed there aren't going to be any changes. Let's hope the Aussies turn up piss*ed up from all the celebrations and then we may stand a chance of getting a result! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/49634736
I'd love to watch Cummins and Hazelwood bowl against Smith on similar surfaces, think it would make for fascinating cricket and I reckon they'd do a bit better than our lot are currently doing.
Another major difference is, when the aussies are indifferent with form, they are always competitive, where we seem to capitulate pretty easy. They deserve their win but having one good/ pretty good quickie and the best batsman in the game has proven too easy against our lot.
