2019 1st Ashes Test - Edgbaston 1-5 August 2019

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Jan 6, 2004
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In fairness to Root - that pitch was more green than the colour of my face when I went on the Gravatron with a raging hangover back in the day

I still think it was planned like that but it backfired, they were hoping to roll Ireland on a green pitch as preparation for doing the same to us but then they got rolled by a minnow so they s**t the bed and went for a flatter pitch
 

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Jul 12, 2004
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Welcome back Eddie. How are ya today? Feeling better? Must have grated like sandpaper last night but you can start looking forward to the next one now. Oh, wait - it's at Lords. Scratch that. :p

Oh well, the toss is crucial in England, not too many teams bat first and lose here, unless you're Australia in 2015 and don't even take the game past the halfway mark!!!
 
Jan 6, 2004
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Gilchrist has ruined it for all keepers , expectation now is if your keeper doesn’t average 45+there no good !

The keeper thing reminds me of the expectations on spinners after Warne, even on day two people were whinging because Lyon wasn't running through them in good batting conditions, keepers need to be gilly spinners need to be Warne and somehow the blokes outside the team are always sure things to be superstars and replicate those freakish players.
 
Sep 11, 2006
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England's lineup is ******* s**t and they lucked out by Broad having his customary downhill skiing performance on Day 1.

They have a poor mans Finch opening alongside a poor mans Sir Ali Cook. Root at 3 is good for a 50 every now and then but will always throw it away. Denly at 4? Lol please. Their superstar middle order is seriously exposed at test level. There is a reason Buttler, Stokes, Bairstow and Ali all average 30 at test level. Broad and Stokes are great when conditions suit but don't have many tricks when the pill gets old. Ali is a shithouse spinner and with Grandpa Anderson cooked they'll have to bring in Archer, who is just as likely to break down.

If they prepare a road then Warner will destroy them. A green top and our quicks will tear that putrid batting line up apart. If its dry and spins then Gazza will take 5 fa with ease.

Stick with the same lineup at Lords. If Bancroft fails again then Harris deserves a crack. They would be looking to rest Patto in the 3rd test with the quick turnaround so Starc would be a big chance to come in.

What a win, go Aussies.
 
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Pretty pissweak if a home sides fate is decided by the toss of a coin

Guess england won lots of coin tosses over the years at fortress edgbaston?

No, Australia just chose to bowl first when we did lose one!!!

Its no different to 99% of test grounds around the world, every ground in Australia you are well on top if you win the toss. Fact is, its hard to chase down a total on the last day and most pitches are still good for batting on days 3 and 4.

Look at our test v Ireland, get rolled for 80 and still win the game.
 

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The only other time I saw umpiring this bad was an old bloke named Tom Brooks wrongly giving three caught behinds on the last day in Perth when Australia was trying to hold out for a draw. He actually announced his retirement at the lunch break.

Tom Brooks was a very good umpire, in an era of very good Australian umpires. I too saw Tom umpire. Did the Centenary Test at the MCG.

If you saw him then you're pretty close to the age he retired at yourself now! He quit Test umpiring at 59 I reckon and at least he stuck his hand up when he thought he was past it. Unlike Aleem Dar, who used to be a very good umpire but has deteriorated markedly of late I reckon.
 

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Oh well, the toss is crucial in England, not too many teams bat first and lose here, unless you're Australia in 2015 and don't even take the game past the halfway mark!!!

No, Australia just chose to bowl first when we did lose one!!!

Its no different to 99% of test grounds around the world, every ground in Australia you are well on top if you win the toss. Fact is, its hard to chase down a total on the last day and most pitches are still good for batting on days 3 and 4.

Look at our test v Ireland, get rolled for 80 and still win the game.

It's happened twice at Lords in 12 months....

If it was anyone other than Ireland, it would be 3 times.

India lost to England batting first at Lords August 2018.
England lost to Pakistan batting first at Lords May 2018.

Both were absolute hammerings.

The average first innings for the team batting first at Lords in the last 4 matches is 124........


It's not a bad toss to lose actually.
 
I don't believe his batting is anywhere close to adequate. We'd be much more dangerous with a keeper who can sometimes bat big.

He averages 35 with the bat that’s more than enough. No we need a keeper who is clean behind the stumps. Test matches are lost through poor keeping.
 

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It's happened twice at Lords in 12 months....

If it was anyone other than Ireland, it would be 3 times.

India lost to England batting first at Lords August 2018.
England lost to Pakistan batting first at Lords May 2018.

Both were absolute hammerings.

The average first innings for the team batting first at Lords in the last 4 matches is 124........


It's not a bad toss to lose actually.


We should have lost here batting first as well, at 8/120 bowling at them in your home conditions you simply have to win.

England had decent day one cloud cover and a bit of swing, day two they batted under blue skies the toss didn't hurt them in that first dig as they got the best of bowling and batting conditions but they wasted match winning spots with bat and ball.
 

JimDocker

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Barney Ronay from The Guardian is a very good cricket writer. This is from an excellent article.

"Smith is still tolerated by some recent greats of the Test game, treated as a novelty, a man on a giddy run. He isn’t any of those things. He is instead, if we take the numbers seriously, an authentic giant of this game. Only three men have played 50 Tests and averaged over 60. Don Bradman, Steve Smith and Herbert Sutcliffe, in that order.

His strengths are clear enough. He plays the ball astonishingly late and from a point of complete stillness even within that drunken scarecrow act. Even now England seem to think they can pitch it up and get him lbw. The search for Smith’s front pad goes on. In the last six years England have got him out lbw three times. The last time it happened he was on 239. The time before that he was on six. The time before that he was on 215."
 

Ron The Bear

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Tom Brooks was a very good umpire, in an era of very good Australian umpires. I too saw Tom umpire. Did the Centenary Test at the MCG.

If you saw him then you're pretty close to the age he retired at yourself now! He quit Test umpiring at 59 I reckon and at least he stuck his hand up when he thought he was past it. Unlike Aleem Dar, who used to be a very good umpire but has deteriorated markedly of late I reckon.

I would've been 10 and sure, he had a good reputation to that point. He admitted another mistake to Graham Yallop at the end of Day 4 in not giving Boycott out caught behind and said "I'm afraid my error has cooked it for you".

It was a big story at the time, and some newspapers extrapolated from an opinion piece to attribute a quote to Brooks that his "nerve had gone". Brooks successfully sued.

I'm not assassinating Brooks' character, nor the character of Wilson. Just comparing two matches where the umpires' judgement failed catastrophically. At least Wilson was mitigated by DRS.
 

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Yep, these 2 should be dropped.

It's about time they get rid of the no locals umpires thing.

I'm imagining a pairing of Wilson and Dharmasena opening up a rift in space leading to the coming of Cthulu and the beginning of the end times. By about lunch on day 1.
 
Jul 12, 2004
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We should have lost here batting first as well, at 8/120 bowling at them in your home conditions you simply have to win.

England had decent day one cloud cover and a bit of swing, day two they batted under blue skies the toss didn't hurt them in that first dig as they got the best of bowling and batting conditions but they wasted match winning spots with bat and ball.

Australia had the best of the batting conditions on day 3 and 4, it was a road! But losing your opening bowler after 4 overs of the match doesn't help.

But the game may also have turned out a lot different if Australia didn't get the ball changed in the first innings!

I'm not too concerned yet, its a 5 test series and we've won after losing the first test before
 

Balls In

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He churned out unbeliavable runs while he was captain. I think giving him back the captaincy would allow the selectors to drop Paine, and we'd hopefully get a dangerous batsman at number 7 for a change.
Australia hasnt had a great tactical captain since Taylor anyway. At the end of the day its about runs and wickets.
 

JimDocker

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That will be the worry for England their batsman had a ridiculous amount of luck in both innings yet they still lost by 250 runs.

Just can't recall so many poor shots from so many batsman across two innings.

As a pom, I concur. We had all of the luck in the game and still got smashed.
 
Apr 22, 2007
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I reckon Archer will be a fizzer at test level. He'll bowl fast for 2 overs then start to slow down and produce lots of boundary balls
There's no way he's capable of a 6 over spell and still be threatning in that 6th over he's a great 20/20 and ODI bowler but he aint no Anderson landing it on the money time after time over after over.
 

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