If Bairstow drops another one he’s up there with Kamran Akmals tour of Australia in 09-10 ( not suggesting deliberately however )
But there were only 5 overs or so left to bowl out the Aussies. So (assuming that scoreboard pressure didn’t take care of this) we would have lost a handful of overs to bowl them out in and they would have been able to bat out time. It seems that the primary operating principle of BazBall is taking the draw out of the equation.
Maybe. But I think we probably just play out a drab draw with Australia ending the day 180-5, 140 runs short of the target.
Why have we got two threads running? Mods? As usual @The undeniable truth is talking ********. It would have been a draw. if anything the two key moments were Bairstow missing the stumping of Green on 0 and Root unnecessarily getting out in the second innings.
Think the key moment was Stokes’ drop. Would have been a crazy catch and don’t expect him to take it but if he does that’s the win wrapped up.
We will never know. Yes those were key moments along with other wickets thrown away when Moeen etc went full 20/20 when we’ll on top of the bowling.
Yes but that wasn’t really an error, the other two were. I guess that’s what I meant: those were key points where we could say that we could have done better.
Both teams fined for slow over rates. ICC getting some good revenue there ! https://twitter.com/bbctms/status/1671432930927824897
That's utterly ridiculous. One of the best and most entertaining test matches you could hope to see between two top sides.
The missed stumping of Green in the first innings would have left them 150-5, 2 wickets in an over from Ali and I’m sure our 1st innings lead would have been much healthier. It was also as easy a stumping as you could hope to see against a Test match number 6, so the miss had a psychological impact on both teams. The other terrible piece of keeping was not even moving for Khawaja’s edge in the 1st over of the 2nd innings. We were meant to be keyed up to bowl them out, but he clearly wasn’t mentally prepared for things. If either had been taken, we would have won by 50+ runs. As the Aussies have proved for decades ‘catches win matches’. We could add ‘stumping inflict thumpings’ to that.
World Cup qualifiers are going on in Zimbabwe. Two groups of six with the top three in each qualifying. Sri Lanka and the West Indies should make it of course. CWC Qualifier Schedule | 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Fixtures | ESPNcricinfo Surprisingly Holland are without van Meekeren and van der Gugten perhaps due to county commitments but surely country should still trump county ?
Hard to disagree as Foakes is a decent bat anyway . If your first slip kept spilling catches and he wasn't the best slipper then you would be asking questions, surely ?.
Trouble is, instead of winning by one over 5 games to win the ashes, we now need to win by 2 over the next 4. Effectively reducing your front line bowling attack by replacing Moeen with Foakes may be seen as a defensive change, making it tougher to bowl the Aussies out twice ?
The annoying thing is that the batsmen have not seemed to have learned when to switch approach, even when we’re on top. The 2nd innings is a case in point. We’d forced Cummins into going so defensive with field placing there were 4 singles an over on offer from good balls; add putting away one bad ball every other over, we’d be scoring at 6 an over with no risk. On top of that would be the possibility of two fours off the occasional over, resulting in us ticking over at 7 an over. Cummins couldn’t have let that go on for long, so he’d have to try to stop the easy singles, leaving enough gaps for an increase in shots for 4. Cummins gambled our batsmen would continue attempting to hit boundaries and they fell for it. Hopefully they’ve learned to be more adaptable in the next match.
Yes agree, but it's very much like the old Pieterson debate though - you'd look at the shot he got out to and ask "why oh why oh why" but then forget that the 70 runs he'd scored to that point were the result of similar risk taking. Agree I think on balance they need to calm down a little once they are well on top but it's difficult getting the balance right when the adrenaline is flowing...
I’m not sure it’s exactly the same because even against KP the fields were never so defensive so quickly and when the score was something like 90-3…it was a definite trap set by Cummins and all Root, especially, had to do was bat exactly as he normally does.
I don’t think Foakes replacing Ali is even in their thoughts, especially as it’s clear Stokes can only bowl about 10 overs of medium pace. If Ali is unfit they’ll have to pick another frontline spinner, 3 seamers and use Stokes and Root to fill in the other overs. I think we’ll also have to get away from a trio of Anderson, Broad and Robinson if the wickets and weather replicate what we saw at Edgbaston. Wood will have to play 2 of the remaining 4 matches; I doubt he’ll be able to do 3 of the 4, so I think we’ve missed a trick by not deciding to play him in the 1st, 3rd and 5th tests and accept he’d have to miss the intervening ones. It was patently clear in the Aussies’ 2nd innings that his pace and awkward action, together with the chance of reverse with the old ball, would have broken up the ‘sameness’ of our seam attack and stopped Cummins, and in particular Lyon, getting set against 1 type of bowler. If Lord’s proves that extra pace is essential it will raise all sorts of questions about who to play in the 3rd test. The high hopes leading up to this series have been dampened by losing, effectively, 2 critical bowling options in Leach and a fit Stokes, losses that were not adequately covered by the selection for the 1st test. Also worrying is that the Aussies have the current 3 top-ranked batsmen in their line up and we took all 6 of those wickets for 101 runs but still did not win. I find it hard to believe they will all collectively fail to that extent again this series.
Fair point, though worth noting it all shuffled round after the 1st Test. Root's now top of the pops again and Smith's down to No. 6. https://www.icc-cricket.com/rankings/mens/player-rankings/test/batting
You keep saying this, but who? I'm not convinced that whoever that is will be better than using Root.
Yes, more attacking as a leggie; if the wickets are going to be like Edgbaston, then the extra bounce and turn could be dangerous. He’ll turn it away from the right handers and he has a good googly, so can do the same to the left handers. I’m not sure he’ll be more expensive than Ali, but it’ll all depend on how he copes with being ‘targeted’ as ruthlessly as will happen. Under Stokes, even Leach has been used in a more attacking manner than previously, so who knows? At least it’s a more exciting prospect than someone like Dawson.
Agreed though I think Leach can be used defensively if the need arises. I'm not sure that Ahmed could be. Decent pick, though.
Does that mean they will def play him if Moeen isn't fit to play ? Or just an option in case they want to go with a front line spinner ?
