Cricket

[Busaholic]

Anderson tied one end down in the Australian second innings (11 - 4 - 17 - 0), whilst Wood wreaked havoc at the other end.

I'm afraid it's obvious to the unprejudiced now that Anderson's powers are fast waning: in any case with a lot of rain in the forecast 'tying one end down' is entirely inappropriate, England need wickets as quickly as possible. Anderson has been a great servant and, like in the old deodorant ad. no-one wants to be the one to tell him. I'm afraid he'll never get that dreamed 'five-fer' in a test at Old Trafford, nor at The Oval where he's never done it either. Tongue must replace him at the Oval - subbed back into Worcs game at Oakham he tore through Leicester's batting to take five for very few, most beaten by pace, including Rehan Ahmed who'd batted nicely in both innings.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

. Tongue must replace him at the Oval - subbed back into Worcs game at Oakham he tore through Leicester's batting to take five for very few, most beaten by pace, including Rehan Ahmed who'd batted nicely in both innings.

A County Championship 2nd level match that no batsmen from either side could remember with pride.....
Worcestershire (1st innings).....178 all out
Leicestershire (1st innings)...... 110 all out
Worcestershire (2nd innings)... 167 all out
Leicestershire (2nd innings).... 137 all out.

 

[Harvester]

Today’s weather forecast is not good. It doesn’t look like much play will be possible, although Sunday looks a bit better.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I'm afraid it's obvious to the unprejudiced now that Anderson's powers are fast waning: in any case with a lot of rain in the forecast 'tying one end down' is entirely inappropriate, England need wickets as quickly as possible. Anderson has been a great servant and, like in the old deodorant ad. no-one wants to be the one to tell him. I'm afraid he'll never get that dreamed 'five-fer' in a test at Old Trafford, nor at The Oval where he's never done it either.

That decision to bowl Anderson, knowing that England needed to take all ten Australian wickets in the 41 overs left to play on day three knowing the next two days play would be forecasted to be washed out by rain, is a reflection of the captaincy of Stokes to allow Anderson to bowl at all in that period. Wood took three wickets in his allocated overs, but the bowling returns of the other England bowlers used in that 41 over time period were:-
Broad......8 - 2 - 31 - 0
M Ali.......6 - 0 - 28 - 0
Woakes...9 - 4 - 18 - 1

Those 23 overs above only saw a single wicket being taken, so how much blame do you feel should be attached to those three bowlers for not following the example of Wood in terms of wicket-taking?

 

[Whistler40145]

Looks very much like Jimmy Anderson’s test career is quickly approaching the end.

Was he included because he was fitter than Josh Tongue?

 

[Harvester]

Looks very much like Jimmy Anderson’s test career is quickly approaching the end.

Was he included because he was fitter than Josh Tongue?

Josh Tongue was quite fit! He was released from the squad to play for his County, and took five wickets.

 

[Lost property]

Talk about a shark feeding frenzy, or, vultures circling, some of the comments on here show an affinity for both.

If it's not Bairstow, it's Anderson...are you all, by any chance, Southern counties residents ?. Some of he comments remind of of two former cricket correspondents in the Telegraph, and one in particular! , who felt he had a divine right to pick the England team.

But not one criticism of the over rated media adored Broad...who is consistently the most expensive bowler, and, frequently has been. Presumably you will all be clamouring for a national day / week of mourning when he's eventually dropped.

True, Anderson is now approaching the end of a very illustrious career, but, he's still got the ability to contain the run rate, and take wickets, which is equally as important as taking wickets. An insidious accumulation of runs poses a serious threat which has to be countered.

I'm sure Anderson is quite capable of realistically deciding when he will retire.

 

[Whistler40145]

Talk about a shark feeding frenzy, or, vultures circling, some of the comments on here show an affinity for both.

If it's not Bairstow, it's Anderson...are you all, by any chance, Southern counties residents ?. Some of he comments remind of of two former cricket correspondents in the Telegraph, and one in particular! , who felt he had a divine right to pick the England team.

But not one criticism of the over rated media adored Broad...who is consistently the most expensive bowler, and, frequently has been. Presumably you will all be clamouring for a national day / week of mourning when he's eventually dropped.

True, Anderson is now approaching the end of a very illustrious career, but, he's still got the ability to contain the run rate, and take wickets, which is equally as important as taking wickets. An insidious accumulation of runs poses a serious threat which has to be countered.

I'm sure Anderson is quite capable of realistically deciding when he will retire.

I’m from Lancashire

 

[Busaholic]

Talk about a shark feeding frenzy, or, vultures circling, some of the comments on here show an affinity for both.

If it's not Bairstow, it's Anderson...are you all, by any chance, Southern counties residents ?. Some of he comments remind of of two former cricket correspondents in the Telegraph, and one in particular! , who felt he had a divine right to pick the England team.

But not one criticism of the over rated media adored Broad...who is consistently the most expensive bowler, and, frequently has been. Presumably you will all be clamouring for a national day / week of mourning when he's eventually dropped.

True, Anderson is now approaching the end of a very illustrious career, but, he's still got the ability to contain the run rate, and take wickets, which is equally as important as taking wickets. An insidious accumulation of runs poses a serious threat which has to be countered.

I'm sure Anderson is quite capable of realistically deciding when he will retire.

I've never lived in the North of England, but was married to a Lancastrian for 52 years and shared a Christian name and surname with a grandfather who was a Yorkshire County Cricket Club member for all his adult life (he died at age 99) and came from Huddersfield. My unfavourite county is Surrey, and has been since 1957, and far too many sub-standard cricketers in England terms have been picked from that county over the years, rather than from Derbyshire, say, so no chauvinism on my part at least!

Ben Foakes is a Surrey cricketer. He happens to be the best wicket keeper in the country, no argument. He is also a more than useful red ball batsman, and certainly better in that regard than Jos Buttler, the man he replaced as England keeper. Memories are short (including mine, without prompting) but I recollect his part in the first act of the Stokes/ McCullum era when he and Joe Root calmly batted England to victory at Lord's. David Bairstow then took centre stage for the rest of that Bazball summer purely as a batsman. The issues that have arisen in the current series are to do with his keeping, not his batting, and are partly because Stokes is still pretending to be an all-rounder rather than an inspirational captain and lower order batsman. Pope's injury gave England the opportunity to recognise a mistake and bring in Foakes, but the lack of enthusiasm for batting at no. 3 probably precluded that in the end. Buttler should never have been allowed to carry on so long in the test team: Lancashire hardly ever played him in championship cricket, and he left Somerset because they preferred Kieswetter as keeper.

You obviously don't like Broad, but I'm afraid this series has shown that he is still worth his place in English conditions. Let's not forget his bowling contribution against Ireland too, alongside Josh Tongue's. He also gets under the Aussies' skin and stirs the crowd up behind England's bowling. When he's in one of his 'moods' he rolls back the years and, it has to be said, he has a better record against Australia than Anderson.

 

[DarloRich]

Ashes in play now! Remarkable after so much rain!

 

[HST43257]

Ashes in play now! Remarkable after so much rain!

It’s just a shame that England can’t share all the outfield drying tech with the counties consistently. Yorkshire v Sussex was drawn before 12:30 today! I can’t speak for Leeds but here in York there’s been hardly any rain, so I can only assume it’s outfield related.

 

[ainsworth74]

It’s just a shame that England can’t share all the outfield drying tech with the counties consistently. Yorkshire v Sussex was drawn before 12:30 today! I can’t speak for Leeds but here in York there’s been hardly any rain, so I can only assume it’s outfield related.

More to it than that I think. I was at Headingley day 3 of the Ashes (the one that didn't start until nearly 5pm) so it's clearly possible to get the pitch ready even after heavy rain earlier in the same day. I suspect, looking at the scorecard, it's more likely that both teams had a look where the game was, the weather that was around and decided that the amount of play they could get between the rain bursts was never going to be sufficient to get a result. Certainly, as far as I'm aware, all the Test Match (and former Test Match in the case of Chester-le-Street, yes I'm still salty about that) and I think most of the other international grounds have fast draining outfields meaning that absent truly biblical downpours the outfield isn't usually a problem.

 

[HST43257]

More to it than that I think. I was at Headingley day 3 of the Ashes (the one that didn't start until nearly 5pm) so it's clearly possible to get the pitch ready even after heavy rain earlier in the same day. I suspect, looking at the scorecard, it's more likely that both teams had a look where the game was, the weather that was around and decided that the amount of play they could get between the rain bursts was never going to be sufficient to get a result. Certainly, as far as I'm aware, all the Test Match (and former Test Match in the case of Chester-le-Street, yes I'm still salty about that) and I think most of the other international grounds have fast draining outfields meaning that absent truly biblical downpours the outfield isn't usually a problem.

I’d love to know what if not outfield, as the game could’ve only needed a session (3 wickets then chasing 100). Just feels like opportunities not being taken to finish games in favour of an easy life, but I could easily be being incredibly naive and ignorant in the circumstances.

 

[ainsworth74]

I’d love to know what if not outfield, as the game could’ve only needed a session (3 wickets then chasing 100). Just feels like opportunities not being taken to finish games in favour of an easy life, but I could easily be being incredibly naive and ignorant in the circumstances.

Confident that you'd get those last three wickets quickly then I guess! As I said, I was at Headingley after all that rain during the Ashes Test and once it stopped raining the main delay was drying and then getting all the covers off. There was never any suggestion of a problem with the outfield.

 

[DarloRich]

@HST43257 @ainsworth74

Just to balance it out: i have never seen a days play in a test at headingley or the roverside due to rain!

Beer sales did well mind!

 

[Bald Rick]

@HST43257 @ainsworth74

Just to balance it out: i have never seen a days play in a test at headingley or the roverside due to rain!

Beer sales did well mind!

Confident that you'd get those last three wickets quickly then I guess! As I said, I was at Headingley after all that rain during the Ashes Test and once it stopped raining the main delay was drying and then getting all the covers off. There was never any suggestion of a problem with the outfield.

I was at Lord‘s last year when biblical rain arrived in the 31st over of the day - refunds stop at 30 overs. Parts of the outfield were a lake.

 

[ainsworth74]

I was at Lord‘s last year when biblical rain arrived in the 31st over of the day - refunds stop at 30 overs. Parts of the outfield were a lake.

Oh yeah when it is biblical then nothing will stop it from becoming a lake, even the fastest of fast draining outfields!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

You obviously don't like Broad, but I'm afraid this series has shown that he is still worth his place in English conditions. Let's not forget his bowling contribution against Ireland too, alongside Josh Tongue's. He also gets under the Aussies' skin and stirs the crowd up behind England's bowling. When he's in one of his 'moods' he rolls back the years and, it has to be said, he has a better record against Australia than Anderson.

That being said, why did Broad only bowl 12 of the 71 overs in the Australian second innings and be wicketless in that spell.

 

[Whistler40145]

That being said, why did Broad only bowl 12 of the 71 overs in the Australian second innings and be wicketless in that spell.

Broad still has plenty of energy in the tank, whereas Anderson looks like he's shortened his run up and definitely nearing retirement

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Broad still has plenty of energy in the tank, whereas Anderson looks like he's shortened his run up and definitely nearing retirement

That being said, why did Stokes only allow him to bowl 12 of the available 71 overs in the Australian second innings.

 

[Busaholic]

That being said, why did Broad only bowl 12 of the 71 overs in the Australian second innings and be wicketless in that spell.

If you're a religious man, I suggest you frame the second part of that question to your maker.

 

[Whistler40145]

That being said, why did Stokes only allow him to bowl 12 of the available 71 overs in the Australian second innings.

Indeed, all very strange

 

[MP33]

I have been at Essex v Kent and Essex wrapped up the last three Kent wickets in a spell of six balls. Essex went after the 30 runs required Bazball due to the weather forecast and lost three wickets. They need not have bothered as the rain arrived around an hour or so later.

Circulating at Essex CCC is a petition to try and get signatures for an EGM and a vote of no confidence in the committee. The people behind it are, someone who got a number of the Corporate members to sign. These have no voting rights so their signatures will have no value. A lady who drew up on a couple of pieces of paper hand drawn Crayonista plans to re develop the County ground. One man who is very upset at what is happening. I was going to tell him if I was in his position, I would walk and find something else to occupy my time.

I do not know if there is a draft Agenda for the proposed meeting.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

The innings of 111 from 173 balls faced played by Labuschagne, before being the only Australian wicket to fall on day four could well have helped Australia to achieve an unlikely result by drawing this Test Match, with Sunday having uncertain weather forecasted. Overnight, a lot of rain fell in the area.

 

[Harvester]

The morning session has been washed out. Still no indication when, or if, play can resume!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

If you're a religious man, I suggest you frame the second part of that question to your maker.

Perhaps implications to the rain gods have already been offered up by the Australian team and seem to have been heard, from how the Manchester weather is faring. If this match is drawn, the Aussies retain the Ashes.

With regards to your earlier posting concerning Tongue, would it not have been better if he had been selected for this particular Test Match which England had to win, rather than the fifth Test Match. Whose shoulders should carry the weight of that decision making?

 

[brad465]

Following the weather radar today, had this test been somewhere like Trent Bridge or another ground further south, there would have been a lot more play, but then this is just hindsight.

 

[Lost property]

Following the weather radar today, had this test been somewhere like Trent Bridge or another ground further south, there would have been a lot more play, but then this is just hindsight.

Yes, it's a shame the prevailing wind in the UK is from the West...presumably, on this basis, you would be in favour of no more Tests at Old Trafford then

 

[DelW]

Following the weather radar today, had this test been somewhere like Trent Bridge or another ground further south, there would have been a lot more play, but then this is just hindsight.

It's ironic, following the complaints from the mayors of Manchester and Leeds about their lack of an Ashes test on the 2027 tour, that had today's match been at the Ageas Bowl, the Oval or Lord's, we'd have had a full day's play.

Midway between those grounds, we've had a lovely sunny afternoon with a gentle breeze.

 

[Harvester]

Play abandoned 20 minutes ago, without a ball being bowled during the day!