Ashes 2015, Third Test - England v Australia - Day 1 - Edgbaston Stadium, Birmingham

[HODGEYROAD]

What's Warner's average on foreign soil ?

 

[Steinfreo]

how s**t is shane watson, eh?

the only batsmen Australia (including Shane Watson when he was in the team) have who are 'test' par are Chris Rogers and Steve Smith. the only players who can score runs consistently in different conditions. the rest of the batting line up are rubbish or over the hill.

what Australia predominantly has, in both batsmen and bowlers, are athletes not cricketers. these are guys who can hit the mark consistently on predictable wickets. once the conditions throw up a variable, they're at sea unfortunately.

but Australia, you can't keep blaming Shane Watson for the ills of cricket in this country. onto the next scapegoat. who will it be? as demonstrated very effectively this week, we're very good at singling out certain players for special treatment.

Wowee are you English? They are the masters of scapegoats.

 

[Bucking Beads]

The swing wasn't even the reason for most of the wickets we lost. It was just very poor batting. No excuses. Then to top it off we bowled poorly because the pressure was just too much. If anything the fact we didn't roll them when we bowled tells me the pitch and conditions weren't an issue at all.

 

[corbies]

It's a fair question to be asked. This is Warner's 6th test in England and he hasn't made a hundred yet...and is averaging 30.

All his hundreds have come on flat, hard wickets (Australia & South Africa) - if the ball seams, swings or spins (England, India and the dead pitches of WI) - no hundreds at all after 15 tests at an average of 27.

So we're just ignoring his hundred in the UAE on a spinners deck?

What's Warner's average on foreign soil ?

40.41.

 

[Bucking Beads]

So let's drop Warner, Clarke and Voges... It's stupid. We can't drop these guys because we have nobody better. Clarke will retire shortly. Warner is out of form and Voges has been poor but we must persist and hope they start to contribute.

 

[corbies]

Well. Wasn't that a fabulous day's cricket ?

Where were you when you were s**t?

Fair play though, it was a great day's cricket for England.

 

[Xtreme]

Well. Wasn't that a fabulous day's cricket ?

Best day in ages imo

 

[craigos]

Heard a stat on the radio on my way home from training last night that Clarke has averaged 19 in his last 12 Ashes innings

I also have a theory, batting has become more about aesthetics than effectiveness. This theory is based on very little but I'm going to push it regardless.

 

[Pugsley]

Hell no

 

[Fat Nyfe]

View attachment 157616

That's the third time you've quoted me now Mr Hindsight Hero, but I still maintain its a good batting pitch if only our batsmen knew how to leave

 

[Pugsley]

That's the third time you've quoted me now Mr Hindsight Hero, but I still maintain its a good batting pitch if only our batsmen knew how to leave

or play a delivery on the stumps.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

The swing wasn't even the reason for most of the wickets we lost. It was just very poor batting. No excuses. Then to top it off we bowled poorly because the pressure was just too much. If anything the fact we didn't roll them when we bowled tells me the pitch and conditions weren't an issue at all.

I'll bet the English bowling was good though. I didn't watch early but snuck in some views and they looked like they were keeping the pressure up.

Clarke is reminding me of Michael Vaughan in his last year or 18 months of test cricket. I always enjoyed watching Vaughan bat but ended up watching him getting out all the time for bugger all and with slow, immovable feet.

 

[Bucking Beads]

I'll bet the English bowling was good though. I didn't watch early but snuck in some views and they looked like they were keeping the pressure up.

Clarke is reminding me of Michael Vaughan in his last year or 18 months of test cricket. I always enjoyed watching Vaughan bat but ended up watching him getting out all the time for bugger all and with slow, immovable feet.

They did bowl well but it wasn't unplayable by any means.

Yeah Clarke is done. Hopefully he can do something in this series, get the win and retire.

 

[Pugsley]

They did bowl well but it wasn't unplayable by any means.

Yeah Clarke is done. Hopefully he can do something in this series, get the win and retire.

It pays to.......oh well never mind.

 

[Pugsley]

That's the third time you've quoted me now Mr Hindsight Hero, but I still maintain its a good batting pitch if only our batsmen knew how to leave

That's fair enough. It caters to both bowler and batsmen.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

Heard a stat on the radio on my way home from training last night that Clarke has averaged 19 in his last 12 Ashes innings

I also have a theory, batting has become more about aesthetics than effectiveness. This theory is based on very little but I'm going to push it regardless.

I'll push back. Considering some of the ugly mows you see for players to get out, as thorne says usually to offies benefit, I can't agree that it's about aesthetics.

 

[peternorth]

remember the naysayers, the up in armers, outragers on social media and radio jumping up and down about the importance of winning the toss = winning the test?

 

[The_Reaper]

remember the naysayers, the up in armers, outragers on social media and radio jumping up and down about the importance of winning the toss = winning the test?

Well sometime don't understand cricket and the concept of different sorts of pitches.

Though really we should have batted out the entire day

 

[Doodlesweaver]

Well sometime don't understand cricket and the concept of different sorts of pitches.

Though really we should have batted out the entire day

There is not really any should about it. Clarke is not in form, Voges is not in form, Marsh hasn't batted much in England under these types of conditions nor Nevill. And the bowlers cannot be expected to pull the Aussies out of the s**t all the time.

Voges and Clarke are the real let-downs as they have been all series as they are the ones with experience in 'English' conditions along with Rogers.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

So we're just ignoring his hundred in the UAE on a spinners deck?

40.41.

Better than I expected, I suppose he had a great series in South Africa.

 

[Spitta09]

we need to take 7 for 70 odd like they did to have any hope in hell today. Remove root asap and you never know their lower order is as brittle as ours. Big regroup required though would be good to see some good line and length bowling

 

[ICCHILL007]

So let's drop Warner, Clarke and Voges... It's stupid. We can't drop these guys because we have nobody better. Clarke will retire shortly. Warner is out of form and Voges has been poor but we must persist and hope they start to contribute.

This is the stupid thinking that has us in this position. Why keep playing people that are in poor form, and not play players that are in form. Clarke has had many many chances, drop him and bring in Shaun Marsh who has been scoring 100s. Open with Shaun Marsh & Rogers and put Warner down at 6 for a while to see if can turn his form around. If Warner doesn't turn it around soon, he should be dropped too. Give Voges one more innings and if he can't perform, he should be dropped too. It's very simple, drop players that are not performing and bring in ones that will.

Watson should have been dropped a long time ago. How he managed to stay in the team with such a technique problem with LBWs is shocking. He should have been sent away and told that he won't play again until he fixes the problem.

Surely enough is enough with Clarke, how many more innings can this go on for. Are we going to say " lets stick with him, remember that innings 27 innings ago, that was good "

Smith is very capable of taking over the captaincy.

 

[HBF]

we need to take 7 for 70 odd like they did to have any hope in hell today. Remove root asap and you never know their lower order is as brittle as ours. Big regroup required though would be good to see some good line and length bowling

I can't imagine we'll just roll over and let the poms take us to the cleaners. I hope we come out bristling and really try to get back into the game.

 

[Bucking Beads]

This is the stupid thinking that has us in this position. Why keep playing people that are in poor form, and not play players that are in form. Clarke has had many many chances, drop him and bring in Shaun Marsh who has been scoring 100s. Open with Shaun Marsh & Rogers and put Warner down at 6 for a while to see if can turn his form around. If Warner doesn't turn it around soon, he should be dropped too. Give Voges one more innings and if he can't perform, he should be dropped too. It's very simple, drop players that are not performing and bring in ones that will.

Watson should have been dropped a long time ago. How he managed to stay in the team with such a technique problem with LBWs is shocking. He should have been sent away and told that he won't play again until he fixes the problem.

Surely enough is enough with Clarke, how many more innings can this go on for. Are we going to say " lets stick with him, remember that innings 27 innings ago, that was good "

Smith is very capable of taking over the captaincy.

It literally never happens the way you want it too. Especially not in an Ashes series overseas. Clarke has been poor but all the captains before him were equally as poor and for even longer. It is a shame they aren't arsed earlier but it almost never happens.

 

[frankrizzo]

If it was just form with clarke i would say give him this series and maybe the bangladesh tour but it's painfully obvious his back is dictating the way he plays and that simply won't ever get any better.

You can still learn to live a somewhat normal life with a stuffed back but that doesn't mean you can dominate top level test cricket with a stuffed back, he might have had 3 more years of test without the back issue but lots of things might have been but they ain't.