Cricket

[Class800]

Robinson's first class batting average is 21, but 9 in tests
Wood's first class batting average is 20, but 16 in tests

Suggests Wood has a better ability to convert his batting to Test level, but not ideal at 8

 

[Whistler40145]

Aside from the Adhes, on a sadder note is the death of former England, Yorkshire and Leicestershire all-rounder Raymond Illingworth

 

[Busaholic]

Aside from the Adhes, on a sadder note is the death of former England, Yorkshire and Leicestershire all-rounder Raymond Illingworth

Captain of England during the Ashes series down under 1970-1 that England won 2-0, a series in which the 'impartial' Aussie umpires never gave our bowlers a single LBW decision! Also captained England in the first ever ODI v Australia in 1971. A tough cookie, but a difficult man to like.

 

[Pakenhamtrain]

imgur.com

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users like cookbr92360.

imgur.com

It's a good morning from the MCG. Where we have the covers on. The coin toss has been delayed due to rain. Melbourne's weather is playing its usual game

1004 local. Covers are being removed.

1030 local. Australia win the toss and will bowl.

 

[ainsworth74]

Presumably Root will blame our bowlers for another poor start?

 

[ainsworth74]

Honestly cannot believe that our bowlers have made our batsmen lose two early wickets. Shocking.

 

[Pakenhamtrain]

Gone! 2/13!

If that over is anything to go off Joe Root's plumbs are in danger

 

[backontrack]

Honestly cannot believe that our bowlers have made our batsmen lose two early wickets. Shocking.

 

[Whistler40145]

Hameed failing yet again, he'll probably just about last until the final Ashes Test and England will be looking for a replacement

Who's the best out of Burns and Sibley?

 

[backontrack]

Hameed failing yet again, he'll probably just about last until the final Ashes Test and England will be looking for a replacement

Who's the best out of Burns and Sibley?

Burns.

 

[Pakenhamtrain]

Lunch. Day 1
ENG 3/61.

 

[backontrack]

Lunch. Day 1
ENG 3/61.

I genuinely think we'd be better off sending Leicestershire's 2nd XI out there.

 

[Pakenhamtrain]

Tea. Day 1
ENG 6/128.

That session had a bit of everything. Even pitch invaders

imgur.com

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users like cookbr92360.

imgur.com

1705 local. England Bowled out for 185

Stumps Day 1.
AUS 1/61

 

[DelW]

Today probably marks the end of any hope of retaining the Ashes. It's hard to see England avoiding being 3 - 0 down at the end of this match.
After all the tough talking following the second test, England managed just 38 runs more than their feeble first innings in Brisbane. England took an early wicket there too, but by the time they got their second Australia had overtaken England's total. At least with a night-watchman at the crease, there shouldn't be a repeat of that.

 

[daodao]

England are a 10th rate side. Once the Melbourne test has inevitably been lost, England might as well pack their bags and fly home, with the remaining two tests awarded by default to Australia. The English cricket authorities could just compensate Australia for the loss of ticket revenue due to not playing the remaining 2 test matches.

 

[Whistler40145]

IMHO Broad and Anderson are past their best and are better off retiring

 

[birchesgreen]

We need openers who are more than wickets waiting to happen, if your innings are always getting off to bad starts then you'll never win anything

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Australia 61-1 at close of first days play.

Anderson has dismissed Warner just before the end.

 

[75A]

I genuinely think we'd be better off sending Leicestershire's 2nd XI out there.

You obviously haven't seen Leicestershire in a while, the first team are worse than England.........honestly

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The gradual move into the shorter forms of cricket was bound to have a detrimental effect on the five-day Test Match format.

 

[Busaholic]

A few thousand miles away in South Africa, India have matched England's 185 in the First Test, the difference being they've only lost two wickets. To think that even on England's last disastrous tour in 2017 Alastair Cook made many more runs than England's whole team managed today, unbeaten at that. Root, Bairstow and Robinson the only batsmen to apply themselves today, and Hameed got a good ball that might have defeated many.

 

[DelW]

England are a 10th rate side. Once the Melbourne test has inevitably been lost, England might as well pack their bags and fly home, with the remaining two tests awarded by default to Australia. The English cricket authorities could just compensate Australia for the loss of ticket revenue due to not playing the remaining 2 test matches.

There were around 57,000 spectators at the MCG today. I don't know what tickets cost, but even at say £50 each (considerably less than in England) that would be a revenue of nearly £3 million for a single day, even before e.g. catering profits.

Other venues and days may attract smaller crowds, but I doubt English cricket could afford to pay anything like 10 days of compensation for that sort of loss of income. And why should spectators be denied their right to watch a match they've paid for?

I've no idea why you're so anti-English, but what you propose has never been done even for series far more unevenly balanced than this one. You're also wrong about 10th rate, England are 4th in the ICC test rankings, marginally behind Australia, though they may drop as a result of this series. Zimbabwe are 10th.

 

[Busaholic]

England are 4th in the ICC test rankings, marginally behind Australia, though they may drop as a result of this series. Zimbabwe are 10th.

They won't just be marginally behind Australia regardless of what happens in the last two tests. New Zealand, Pakistan (despite no home advantage) and India are far better, and I can't believe South Africa wouldnt give this side a trouncing. It's only the decline of Sri Lanka and the mess that's West Indian cricket that prevents our further slippage. Unfair to cite the Zimbabwes. Afghanistans and Irelands of this world in the same breath, and Bangladesh seem to be going backward, unfortunately.

 

[backontrack]

If I had a single word with which to describe this England team:

mush.

 

[DelW]

They won't just be marginally behind Australia regardless of what happens in the last two tests. New Zealand, Pakistan (despite no home advantage) and India are far better, and I can't believe South Africa wouldnt give this side a trouncing. It's only the decline of Sri Lanka and the mess that's West Indian cricket that prevents our further slippage. Unfair to cite the Zimbabwes. Afghanistans and Irelands of this world in the same breath, and Bangladesh seem to be going backward, unfortunately.

I'm only reporting the ICC rankings, I didn't invent them . They don't include Afghanistan or Ireland incidentally.

But I agree England will slip by the end of this series.

�

TEAM	MATCHES	POINTS	RATING
1	India	28	3,465	124
2	New Zealand	25	3,021	121
3	Australia	17	1,844	108
4	England	35	3,753	107
5	Pakistan	30	2,787	93
6	South Africa	19	1,675	88
7	Sri Lanka	30	2,485	83
8	West Indies	33	2,480	75
9	Bangladesh	19	896	47
10	Zimbabwe	11	342	31

Apologies, the column headings should move one place to the right.

 

[Busaholic]

I'm only reporting the ICC rankings, I didn't invent them . They don't include Afghanistan or Ireland incidentally.

But I agree England will slip by the end of this series.

�

TEAM	MATCHES	POINTS	RATING
1	India	28	3,465	124
2	New Zealand	25	3,021	121
3	Australia	17	1,844	108
4	England	35	3,753	107
5	Pakistan	30	2,787	93
6	South Africa	19	1,675	88
7	Sri Lanka	30	2,485	83
8	West Indies	33	2,480	75
9	Bangladesh	19	896	47
10	Zimbabwe	11	342	31

Apologies, the column headings should move one place to the right.

Thanks for supplying that. I know you're only the messenger! Only goes to prove there are lies, damned lies and statistics, not that these are genuine statistics. They are an attempt to put order into what is a completely 'unlevel playing field' system, probably unworthy of the description as a system in the first place. Until each side gets the opportunity to play the same number of tests, home and away, against each other side can their be an appraisal of how they compare. It would also take so long that there could never be a genuine 'winner', only a snapshot of that moment in time. Some teams would have hardly any players in 2029, say, who'd featured in 2021. I remember when the individual ranking for test players was introduced and how Jimmy Adams of the West Indies (who?) was top batsman for a couple of years, mostly on the basis that, like Chanderpaul later on, he sold his wicket dearly. It made no difference that his batting was totally unmemorable or how few matches were won by his team.

 

[DelW]

I *think* the most recent plan was for each side to play all the others on a regular three or four year cycle (that duration may be wrong). But even then I doubt there'd have been even numbers of matches, Ashes are always likely to be five to a series while something like Windies v Bangladesh isn't likely to be more than a couple.

Then of course Covid travel and accommodation restrictions blew the whole thing apart anyway. So as you suggest, current rankings are probably well out of date by now.

 

[Mikey C]

I'm only reporting the ICC rankings, I didn't invent them . They don't include Afghanistan or Ireland incidentally.

But I agree England will slip by the end of this series.

�

TEAM	MATCHES	POINTS	RATING
1	India	28	3,465	124
2	New Zealand	25	3,021	121
3	Australia	17	1,844	108
4	England	35	3,753	107
5	Pakistan	30	2,787	93
6	South Africa	19	1,675	88
7	Sri Lanka	30	2,485	83
8	West Indies	33	2,480	75
9	Bangladesh	19	896	47
10	Zimbabwe	11	342	31

Apologies, the column headings should move one place to the right.

Not helped by England being docked points for their dismally slow overrates...

Captain of England during the Ashes series down under 1970-1 that England won 2-0, a series in which the 'impartial' Aussie umpires never gave our bowlers a single LBW decision! Also captained England in the first ever ODI v Australia in 1971. A tough cookie, but a difficult man to like.

The opposite of Root? With Illingworth as Captain, this England team would surely have put up a better contest, and you imagine Illingworth would have insisted on better preparation too.

 

[Class800]

Difficult to understand why in recent years England have been so poor at away Tests. Conditions will play a factor, indeed home advantage is quite substantial in Test matches. But it seems to go beyond that. England's batsmen and bowling unit seem much better suited to home conditions. The extent of bounce on Australian pitches seems one factor that's challenging for English batsmen. And 80 mph swing bowlers can be really effective in England under leaden skies but aren't effective in Australian or South African conditions. Each form of cricket is unique - having followed cricket for 30 years - it's clear that form in one day games does not predict form in Tests. Personally for Test matches in Australia or South Africa, I would like to see England in future selecting if possible four 90 mph fast bowlers (e.g. Archer, Wood, Stone, J. Overton - fitness permitting) and taking a modern version of a bodyline approach, using the permitted 2 bouncers per over and trying to hit the batsmen repeatedly

 

[Busaholic]

I would like to see England in future selecting if possible four 90 mph fast bowlers (e.g. Archer, Wood, Stone, J. Overton - fitness permitting) and taking a modern version of a bodyline approach, using the permitted 2 bouncers per over and trying to hit the batsmen repeatedly

This was precisely the plan in 2013-4 when England sent the lanky squad, Steven Finn, Chris Tremlett and Boyd Rankin, to bounce Australia out. Tremlett had had some success on the previous Ashes tour, mainly at the bouncy Perth ground. The plan can't be said to have failed, because it was never implemented. Going from memory here, but Tremlett never played, Rankin had one humiliating test, and iirc Finn did little then got injured. 'Bodyline' doesn't go down well in Australia and, in any case, be careful you've got better bowlers to implement it than the other side do! I think Stone has retired, by the way, on account of his injuries, and who knows if Archer ever reappears?