England Vs Australia

Abject capitulation

 

It's a shame because a good night Watchman here would have the draw in the bag. Sad to say it but night watchmen seem to be a thing of the past. Here is the biggest example of how useful one could be to salvage a draw.

 

Err, didn’t our night watchman nearly score a ton in the Ireland test last week?

I think I’d rather our top order batsmen did their jobs.

 

If we had a test team like we did between 2005-15 we’d walk over these, same the other way if the brought a team from around 1995-2015. Poor teams imo, but this is what you get when the cricketing powers prioritise the shorter forms of the game. One day cricket gets stronger and test goes down the pan.

 

I'm just glad I don't know any Aussies.

 

I agree, you wouldn't have been in such a situation had the top order not misfired. But this happens from time to time. However nothing that a Dizzy Gillespie wouldn't have fixed.

 

Poor Captain, Bring back Morgan

 

Woakes is our form bowler. So why hardly bowl him yesterday when we were struggling to get them out?
Bizarre.

 

The aussies made a mockery of the pundits banging on about how flat and slow the pitch was and that it wouldn't yield a result on the fifth day. Simple fact is our bowling was crap and the batting just as bad. the auusies got a big 4th total on the back of our pathetic bowling, nothing to do with the pitch like some excuse the commentators were coming out with.

 

Simple really, we've concentrated on tip n' run at the expense of cricket

 

The England batting line up is an embarrassment and has been for a while. Why don't we produce good quality test match batsman anymore? It's too simplistic to blame it just on one day cricket, other teams play the shorter format aswell and seem to manage a lot better than we do. Travis Head has played about 10 test matches for Australia and has something like 9 50's and a century to his name, as if we have anyone in County cricket that can come in and do that.

I'd almost be tempted to open with Sam Curran it's getting that bad.

 

Jason Roys shot today sums it up well. We just don't produce long format cricketers anymore. The shot he attempted wasn't the problem, it was the time that he attempted it. Loads of top class cricketers have played the very same shot in test matches, but not on a turning wicket on the fifth day of a test match when you are trying to save the game. Its the mentality thats the problem, and this will only get worse as the long format of the game slowly dies.

 

Two different games but only one of them is and can be still called 'Cricket'
T'other is a strange version of Baseball

 

One is a version that fewer and fewer people have an interest in following these days. Shame because i enjoy test cricket but its bums on seats that pay the bills for the sponsors and TV companies.

 

Ben Foakes showed a surprisingly good technique when he played and has the temperament for Test match cricket. Get him in at 4.

 

Sadly the shorter forms are taking over for TV companies/sponsors etc. I’d call test cricket real cricket, but it’s going by the way side. India have so much power in the game and they’ve lost interest in test cricket, their fans don’t turn up to it anymore, and did you see how bad their test side was last time they came here losing 4-0 to a side which is nowhere near the team it once was.

Test cricket got me into the sport, I’m worried it’s dying a slow death. As Bob Willis said the other day, players are more bothered about their strike rates than batting averages.

 

There’s no doubt that the ball was turning sharply today. But it’s the fifth day of a test match in August - it’s supposed to do that! We just don’t seem to have the mentality to bat sensibly to save a game.
But we shouldn’t have been in this position. We should have had a 200+ first innings lead but threw away a commanding overnight position on the third morning.
Even then we ought to have expected Moen to get wickets on a 4th day pitch that was turning. His failure to do that seriously hamstrung us, particularly with Anderson crocked. And then Root compounded the problem by under bowling Woakes.

 

On another note. I remember Steve Smith coming over here in 2013, batting 8 and bowling crap spin. If he can transform himself into the batter we see now, then why the hell cant any of our one day heroes who are specialist batters do it?

 

Thats my point about some of the crap spoke by commentators. Moeen does bugger all with the ball and its because the pitch is flat as a pancake and apparently not taking spin. Lyon takes six wickets and its because the pitch is taking spin. Can't have it both ways, simply put Moeen was bowling turds. Lyon was unplayable at times. We don't have a top class spinner.

 

We could have done with a fit Adil Rashid. Yes, he might have gone for a few but he'd have taken wickets on that pitch when Moen couldn't.