The Official Cricket Thread

[Carra_is_legend]

The declaration was always going to be brought up but that was not the reason why England lost that game IMO. It was the dropped chances. 

 

A keeper like Bairstow is ok for ODIs and T20s. For tests it is critical to play a proper full time keeper. 

 

Fair play to Cummins although it was made easy for him with abysmal field placing and bowling tactics. If the bowlers can bowl traditional line and length deliveries to remove players like Smith & Labuschagne why try something different to Cummins & Lyon?

[sir roger]

I'd settle for looking like Tommo at 72 to be fair.

[s(k)aturation]

7 hours ago, Bloke said:

That's a sweatband? And yes he is a dickhead.

 

Who hurt you? Imagine being so upset at your own country winning one of the best Ashes test's of all time.

 

Yes, he is a dickhead.

We agree.

 

When I was 15, I wrote an article for "Cricketer" magazine in Australia... my first article as a writer.

 

Before writing it, I went to the nets at Punt Rd near the MCG, and waited for Lillee to finish training.

I asked him if I could have a word with him and that I was writing my first ever cricket article.

 

He said he'd talk to me, IF I carried his training bag from the nets to the Hilton Hotel in Jolimont, where he was staying.

I did.

Every step of the way, he said to me (about 28 times)... "mate, write this: 'Lillee said blah blah'..."  

It was, in retrospect, so fucking boring.

The editor had asked me to write about my experiences and feelings of a day at the cricket, not a player's day at the cricket....

I just thought Lillee might inspire me.

He didn't.

Instead, he told me to carry his bag.

 

Now, I don't really want to engage with you anymore.

No one has hurt me.

I'm fine.

 

And I can assure, you will tire of this back-and-forth long before I do.

I am fucking incorrigible.

 

So quit while you're ahead.

YOU WIN.

 

Happy?

I am.

 

[CapeRed]

1 hour ago, Carra_is_legend said:

The declaration was always going to be brought up but that was not the reason why England lost that game IMO. It was the dropped chances. 

 

A keeper like Bairstow is ok for ODIs and T20s. For tests it is critical to play a proper full time keeper. 

 

Fair play to Cummins although it was made easy for him with abysmal field placing and bowling tactics. If the bowlers can bowl traditional line and length deliveries to remove players like Smith & Labuschagne why try something different to Cummins & Lyon?

This is something that annoys the fuck out of me and it’s not the first time England have done it when they have their opposition on the ropes. They change their approach and that cost them. Great game of cricket tho.

[Carra_is_legend]

20 minutes ago, CapeRed said:

This is something that annoys the fuck out of me and it’s not the first time England have done it when they have their opposition on the ropes. They change their approach and that cost them. Great game of cricket tho.

It was a great game indeed.

 

It generally annoys me too when bowlers change the tactic for tail enders like England did yesterday. When the bowling was good enough to take the wickets of Smith, Green, Head, Labuschagne why change it for Cummins & Lyon? The only way for England to win that game was by getting Australia all out so why not have more close in fielders to make the batsmen try and hit above them? It was clear as day that Cummins & Lyon were not going to go for a silly hook shot so why keep bowling bouncers at them and take lbw & stumps out of the equation, especially when some balls keeping low?

 

IMO, England ended up over thinking the situation instead of doing the basics - more close in fielders with a decent number of those saving boundaries and bowl the usual length making the batsmen drive more leading to more chances of finding the edge or lbw.

[Haan'sThunderbolt]

I think that is England's issue; they over think everything....trying to be far too clever for their own good. That never tends to work in any sport.....keep it simple.

[s(k)aturation]

23 minutes ago, Haan'sThunderbolt said:

I think that is England's issue; they over think everything....trying to be far too clever for their own good. That never tends to work in any sport.....keep it simple.

 

England could "overthink" at Lords (read: do better, catch better, have more luck etc) and win easily.

 

Let's give the series a chance.

 

What a fantastic first game.

 

This series could easily over-shadow 2005 - which was well overrated in my opinion because Australia played, pretty much, shite.  

I think.

 

 

[Bloke]

1 hour ago, s(k)aturation said:

 

Yes, he is a dickhead.

We agree.

 

When I was 15, I wrote an article for "Cricketer" magazine in Australia... my first article as a writer.

 

Before writing it, I went to the nets at Punt Rd near the MCG, and waited for Lillee to finish training.

I asked him if I could have a word with him and that I was writing my first ever cricket article.

 

He said he'd talk to me, IF I carried his training bag from the nets to the Hilton Hotel in Jolimont, where he was staying.

I did.

Every step of the way, he said to me (about 28 times)... "mate, write this: 'Lillee said blah blah'..."  

It was, in retrospect, so fucking boring.

The editor had asked me to write about my experiences and feelings of a day at the cricket, not a player's day at the cricket....

I just thought Lillee might inspire me.

He didn't.

Instead, he told me to carry his bag.

 

Now, I don't really want to engage with you anymore.

No one has hurt me.

I'm fine.

 

And I can assure, you will tire of this back-and-forth long before I do.

I am fucking incorrigible.

 

So quit while you're ahead.

YOU WIN.

 

Happy?

I am.

 

 

Yeah I'm not interested in going back and forth. 

 

Your story doesn't suprise me. I have seen him being an absolute bastard to the staff at a bar in Perth year's ago.  

[s(k)aturation]

17 minutes ago, Bloke said:

 

Yeah I'm not interested in going back and forth. 

 

Your story doesn't suprise me. I have seen him being an absolute bastard to the staff at a bar in Perth year's ago.  

 

 

Viv Richards on the other hand, fabulous, fabulous bloke... and a joy to get an autograph from.

 

 

[Manny]

The commentators were alluding to it though - that with ~50 runs to play with, and your opponents having 2 wickets in hand, you have to take some sort of defence into account. Stokes has largely been resistant to worrying about bowling figures and his funky fields seem to have pretty good reasoning behind them - such as the umbrella field to Khawaja in the first innings - but the last 45 minutes yesterday was the first time I'd really seen him cabbaged a little bit. I was screaming at the TV for Stokes to take the 2nd new ball on 80 overs yesterday, but as soon as they took it, there was no real lateral movement and the only discernible difference was that it flew away to the boundary more freely. 

 

I'm far more pissed off with Robinson's brain-dead efforts to fire them up than I was with the approach, to be honest, and I still feel like the main damage points were the missed chances allowing Australia within 10 runs of our first innings total, and basically losing both openers for nothing in the dark on Sunday (if they'd have washed out completely on Sunday I'd have expected ~50 or so runs more for the 2nd innings total, despite their general streakiness).

[Scooby Dudek]

1 hour ago, Carra_is_legend said:

It was a great game indeed.

 

It generally annoys me too when bowlers change the tactic for tail enders like England did yesterday. When the bowling was good enough to take the wickets of Smith, Green, Head, Labuschagne why change it for Cummins & Lyon? The only way for England to win that game was by getting Australia all out so why not have more close in fielders to make the batsmen try and hit above them? It was clear as day that Cummins & Lyon were not going to go for a silly hook shot so why keep bowling bouncers at them and take lbw & stumps out of the equation, especially when some balls keeping low?

 

IMO, England ended up over thinking the situation instead of doing the basics - more close in fielders with a decent number of those saving boundaries and bowl the usual length making the batsmen drive more leading to more chances of finding the edge or lbw.

Made the more annoying the way we took the tail out in the first innings.

[Jarvinja Ilnow]

5 minutes ago, s(k)aturation said:

 

 

Viv Richards on the other hand, fabulous, fabulous bloke... and a joy to get an autograph from.

 

 

 

Thomo also seems like a good egg, seeing him interviewed on Sky with Mick Harford.

 

Did you ever interview Merv Hughes? He seems like he could be one of those bastards on the field but a good lad off it.

 

Steve Smith is living proof that David Icke is right about lizard people living among us.

[s(k)aturation]

7 minutes ago, Jarvinja Ilnow said:

 

Thomo also seems like a good egg, seeing him interviewed on Sky with Mick Harford.

 

Did you ever interview Merv Hughes? He seems like he could be one of those bastards on the field but a good lad off it.

 

Steve Smith is living proof that David Icke is right about lizard people living among us.

 

 

Spent an afternoon rubbing shoulders with Thommo at the SCG Members, Day 4, 5th Ashes Test 2002/3.

And yep, he seemed as sound as a pound to me.

 

You'd never have thought he was the "fastest" man on earth, put it that way.

 

 

 

 

[s(k)aturation]

1 hour ago, Jarvinja Ilnow said:

 

Did you ever interview Merv Hughes? He seems like he could be one of those bastards on the field but a good lad off it.

 

My only interaction with Hughes has been at Sheffield Shield games many moons ago... where, at lunch time, he'd be the bloke traipsing from the players mess hall back to the Pavilion... with a buffet style platter of steak, chips, egg, gammon... oh and a sprig of parsley.

Then he'd go out and scare the fucking beejezus out of three or four bats, and scalp them, immediately upon the resumption.

 

Good bloke, from what I could see.

Has to be.  

He's a Western Bulldogs (AFL) supporter, of course.  

Like Jason Gillespie.

Go Doggies!!! 

(This shot below taken by my wife at the MCG... the day after my Dad died - RIP BULLDOG!!! - on April 7 this year.)

 

 

 

 

 

[Jarvinja Ilnow]

52 minutes ago, s(k)aturation said:

 

My only interaction with Hughes has been at Sheffield Shield games many moons ago... where, at lunch time, he'd be the bloke traipsing from the players mess hall back to the Pavilion... with a buffet style platter of steak, chips, egg, gammon... oh and a sprig of parsley.

Then he'd go out and scare the fucking beejezus out of three or four bats, and scalp them, immediately upon the resumption.

 

Good bloke, from what I could see.

Has to be.  

He's a Western Bulldogs (AFL) supporter, of course.  

Like Jason Gillespie.

Go Doggies!!! 

(This shot below taken by my wife at the MCG... the day after my Dad died - RIP BULLDOG!!! - on April 7 this year.)

 

 

 

 

 

Good Old Merv, making sure not to neglect the salad buffet! Reminds me of Cheryl in the Royle Family:

"I'll have fish chips and mushy peas..."

But you've just had a Burger King.

"ok, and a Diet Coke".

 

I've got a Bulldogs shirt from the last time we were over! We tend to visit Aus out of season for the AFL, which is a shame, as I'm getting really into it. Don't have affiliation to any particular team, but like the Fremantle Dockers because we love the town and Perth, and because of the blue collar angle. Good of your dad not to get you into Collingwood!

 

[Jairzinho]

Great game between Scotland and Ireland.

 

I'm quite enjoying this World Cup Qualifier tournament.

[Remmie]

An all pace attack picked for tomorrow's game with Tongue replacing Moeen. Apparently Mark Wood needs another week.

 

Feel like it's guaranteed to turn heavily now and Lyon will have a field day!

[sir roger]

2 hours ago, Remmie said:

An all pace attack picked for tomorrow's game with Tongue replacing Moeen.

Hopefully he can get in the groove quickly

[Brownie]

21 hours ago, Remmie said:

An all pace attack picked for tomorrow's game with Tongue replacing Moeen. Apparently Mark Wood needs another week.

 

Feel like it's guaranteed to turn heavily now and Lyon will have a field day!

Looks like a green wicket and cloudy for the first few days so probably the right decision based on the conditions.

 

As with everything in cricket though, we’ll know more about that after the game!

 

I reckon this one won’t go beyond 4 days (decent chance of a 3 day game).

[Brownie]

We won the toss and are bowling.

[Remmie]

Expecting Jimmy to take a few here

 

[Jairzinho]

Odd selections re the seamers again. First pitch was dead so both captains didn't pick their quickest bowlers... Then we get a green top and both captains have done the opposite...

 

Expected to see Woakes today. His record at home and in conditions like this is phenomenal. 

[Lee909]

Oil pricks at it again

[Jairzinho]

This stuff just makes most people think "fuck off, you annoying wankers"

[Pidge]

It's funny how they seem to have stopped talking to them since the girl with the soup showed them all up. The protestors are right and when the government has suppressed protest outside parliament, they have to go elsewhere.

 

Less disruption than a passing shower, perfect place to make their point.