MrDuck

9 hours ago, tonyh29 said:

Don't know a lot about Overton but I bet Sam Curran is pissed off about now  , he is being messed around a lot this series

Yeah, very harsh on Curran. I think they're hoping Overton will make the most of the bounce on the OT pitch.

45 minutes ago, snowychap said:

As for Roy, I hope that he goes on to get a score and justify his place but you can't keep on getting out the way he has been getting out and still merit a place in the starting line up just for the sake of getting a 'fair crack of the whip' if it contributes to endangering the outcome of the series.

I think Roy's contribution to endangering the outcome of the series is possibly overstated, considering so far we have just two players averaging over 30 with the bat!

Listening to Stuart Broad on the Broad & Fry podcast today, he was saying what an important character Roy is in the dressing room and what a close knit group it is, so I suspect that comes into it too.

Like you guys, I think Roy may well fail to adjust to test cricket, but training him up as a test opener against arguably the best bowling attack in the world was always more likely to fail than succeed and was a huge ask of Roy. It's a gamble taken because of Roy's sheer destructive power and class as a one day player, and I think a gamble worth taking, but he should be much more suited to #4. Fingers crossed he gets a hundred at Old Trafford!

2 hours ago, snowychap said:

Why does Roy get another go, though, and Pope doesn't?

Bad idea to throw in a new player at this stage - Ashes on a knife edge, huge pressure, bit of a baptism of fire for anyone new.

And as I've said before, personally I think Roy is far too talented a cricketer to discard after three tests. If he doesn't get a score in the whole series then give someone else a go, but at least give him (or anyone else) a fair crack of the whip.

Roy and Denly trading spots in the batting line up for England, good move I think. I'd like to see Curran come in for Woakes too, but I suspect we'll field the same 11 as before.

Slightly strange decision by the Aussies to drop Khawaja rather than Harris or Wade for Smith's return, but I'm not complaining. Starc in the 12 too, not so keen on seeing him bowling at our batsman.

Archer vs Smith will be unmissable TV!

That was like a sunday league game where the ref is sick, so one of the home team's staff has to ref instead.

1 hour ago, PriceyDownunder said:

How many highlights packages I've seen where both the wasted review and Lyon's run-out fumble have been somehow left out...

Unreal eh?

Good rational article today from one of Australia's only decent cricket writers: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/aug/26/australia-tim-paine-england-ashes-leadership

Quote

Of course, the drama of those closing moments will always pull focus to the last few turning points. So it’s worth mentioning the logical fallacy that Paine’s wrong DRS review meant that Lyon’s dismissal was lost.

If the Cummins review had not been sent upstairs, then the next ball would have been bowled a couple of minutes earlier. The entire next over would have been slightly different, both for bowler and batsman. In short, Lyon’s ball to Stokes can only exist in a world where Paine has already taken the review. If Paine doesn’t review, a different ball is bowled, with an unknown result. Something else happens, and one of the teams wins. You can’t unscramble the omelette of a cause-and-effect timeline.

So that just leaves the not-out decision by umpire Joel Wilson. He is being roasted in the Australian media, but after a poor game at Edgbaston he actually bounced back in the third Test with a series of excellent decisions and a 7-1 record against the review system.

The contention that he made a blatant mistake is not fair. Replays suggest HawkEye was questionable, tracking a change of direction after the ball flicked the front pad. The reconstructed ball straightens more sharply than is realistic and apparently smashes leg stump. But watching live it looked more like it might be going down leg, and Stokes’s flurry of movement across the crease increased that impression. It may have been out, but it was at least closer than portrayed, and it would be undermining DRS if umpires tempered their decisions based on which team had challenges in hand.

I'm still laughing at work colleagues suggesting yesterday that the match was fixed - Australia throwing the game on orders of the ICC to keep the series alive. Anything to avoid admitting they lost the game based on sporting prowess!

1 hour ago, The Fun Factory said:

You could deep fry the chip Bruce has on his shoulder at the moment.

You'd need a bloody big deep fat fryer

2 hours ago, penguin said:

 I’m not sure what the answer is.

Kill it with fire and then let us never speak of it again.

Australian media full of articles about how tainted England's win is, the injustice of Australia's defeat, because Stokes should have been lbw right at the end.

No suggestion that the crap captaincy, crap bowling and woeful fielding by the Aussies in England's second innings had anything to do with it. Or one of the greatest ever performances in sport from Ben Stokes. Nope, they were cheated out of a win by the umpire

No one does sore loser quite like the Aussies.

That was the most incredible test match I've seen.

Stokes is a freak. Possibly the best innings I've seen given the context. Leach was brilliant.

Unreal. Test match cricket at it's best > any other sport.

I think the only change we make is Anderson for Woakes IF he's fit, but I don't think we can risk it. I'd actually be inclined to drop Woakes for Curran.

A lot of harsh words about Buttler, but he'll find form. I think he's still our no2 highest test run scorer in the last 18 months? I'd like to see Roy in lower down the order, I think he's too big a talent to dismiss after 3 games. Has enough about him to deserve the whole series to prove himself. Big ask to turn yourself into a test opener against an Australian attack in a period of a couple of weeks. Funnily enough I think he'd actually go better down under, on the harder wickets.

4 hours ago, snowychap said:

Tim Paine comes across very well.

He's unbearable to listen to on the stump mic when Lyon is bowling, but he's a decent chap.

Credit to Australia, they bowled superbly.

I fail to see what difference it makes with Root at 4 instead of 3, given the batting above him. So he comes in in the 4th over instead of the 6th? Root's technique is shot at the moment, he needs to do some serious work on his batting.

55 minutes ago, veloman said:

Now (IMO) that was brilliant fast bowling by Archer. Damned fast but aiming at the wickets (or just outside off stump) not the batsman's head. Surely England can't mess this up now can they ? (unlike Warks )

England are quite capable of bowling a side out for 19 and still messing it up. But fingers crossed we can get 350+ and walk this one home.

40 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Yep but a lot more going on in football clubs that I dont think its possible anymore

Yeah, I think you're probably right, especially at the top level.

10 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Has the player manager role ever worked well, anywhere?

Double-winning player-manager Kenny Dalglish says hi!

Glenn Hoddle did a good job of it at Swindon, then Chelsea.

Funnily enough, Chelsea had 3 player-managers in a row in the 90s - Hoddle, Gullit, Vialli - and they all did a pretty decent job.

Twenty years ago I used to worry about the state the planet would be left in for my potential grandchildren.

A few years later I started to worry for my children.

Ten years ago I started to worry for myself.

Now I worry for my parents (both well into their 70s).

It's utterly breathtaking just how monumentally fcuking stupid our species is.

Jofra will be a legend if he stays fit. I can't ever remember a player coming straight  into test cricket with an impact like this.

Interesting that all the Aussies whingeing about Archer being West Indian are curiously silent about Marnus Labuschagne - born in South Africa to South African parents.

On 18/08/2019 at 06:11, Zatman said:

People want hard but fair game. The lack of remorse is what people are upset about

Most disgusting of all was Smith was booed off by fans. Must have been Chelsea fans attending 

Pretty poor effort to boo an injured player. Boo him on to the pitch at the start of his innings by all means, but after he's just been smashed in the head? Hmmm.

People perturbed by Archer's reaction would do well to remember the last Ashes series down under - Cummins smashed one into Root's helmet, and Lyon charged in to the wicket pumping his fist, laughing at Root and congratulating Cummins. Archer simply walked back to his mark.

8 hours ago, Zatman said:

Sounds like he was shattered at the end which will lose his effect later in series. When Johnson destroyed England he only bowled about 5/6 overs at a time

Johnson back then was recovering from injuries and time out of the game, and was into his 30s. Different kettle of fish. You had to keep bowling Archer really, he was simply too good not to. But yes, you can't bowl him like that all the time!

On 18/08/2019 at 03:15, Xela said:

Buttler in now.. c'mon Jos, prove me wrong! 

Good innings from Jos - plenty of time at the crease, playing himself back into a bit of form.

5 minutes ago, WhatAboutTheFinish said:

Ah Jason Roy, I really rate him as a batsman but a test opener he isn’t...and never will be. He plays at every ball. Leave the bloody thing alone!!!! 

I think there's some merit in dropping Roy down to 4 in place of Denly, and bringing in a proper opener. Problem is of course that every opener we try is hopeless.

I'll take any of those!