Test The Ashes First Test November 21-25 1300hrs @ Perth Stadium

[DangerSloane]

1 nill up and it's so weird how everyone has got their knickers in a twist over baz ball
Its strange. Kind of like the 90s when they tut tutted about uncoth Aussies.
They'll do what they do and give it a crack. Shit Australia basically copied it anyway in the 4th innings and are about to select Travis head to open again.

Returning the favour. Can't say I blame them.
Kept the sport afloat during covid while our disgraceful governments locked everyone in their homes literally 24 7 and the cricket team refused to go anywhere while touring teams had prison style conditions.
They are well with in their rights to tell the pm to **** right off

Laughable.
McCullum took a bunch of hacks and got them making 500 in a day. That's never been done before. And it turned them from the 8th ranked side to 3rd.
It's a game plan that's served them well all be it come up short in Perth.
England re invented their approach based off Travis head. Now that is a troll

Three piss poor takes in four posts has to be some kind of BF record

 

[Pistol Night]

Three piss poor takes in four posts has to be some kind of BF record

No ****n chance. I’ve seen campaigners go on perfect 10/10 streaks many times

 

[MarcMaverick]

No ****n chance. I’ve seen campaigners go on perfect 10/10 streaks many times

Really? Show me.

 

[Purple Suit]

In Khawaja, reminder to all that we pushed Ponting very quickly. May have been last test of that series but there was no farewell lap.

Does anybody actually think Khawaja is going to play in Brisbane? Would be a shocking call.

 

[_DBF_]

They can’t possibly bring Uzzie in. Webster, Inglis and Renshaw all ahead of him.

 

[Pistol Night]

Really? Show me.

Spending an hour researching shit posting for another BF user does sound tempting

 

[LukeParkerno1]

They can’t possibly bring Uzzie in. Webster, Inglis and Renshaw all ahead of him.

Depends on the medical side. I'd easily play him ahead of Inglis though

 

[the_interloper]

In Khawaja, reminder to all that we pushed Ponting very quickly. May have been last test of that series but there was no farewell lap.

Did we? Ponting was lingering for a long while, seeing he averaged under 40 for the three years prior to retirement. Plus, he only averaged 6 in that South African series when he was finally pushed.

Punter just didn't read the room the time to call it was the India series when he had those last moments of greatness. Bit like Buddy Franklin going on after randomly getting 50+ goals at 36 years old, sometimes the universe allows for a great player to retire a hero, should they want it.

I'm with Golumless, from what I remember Ponting had some lean years towards the end, hard to drop one of our greatest batsmen ever of course.

 

[MarcMaverick]

Spending an hour researching shit posting for another BF user does sound tempting

Er. On second thought.

 

[_DBF_]

Depends on the medical side. I'd easily play him ahead of Inglis though

Possibly. But even if he’s fit I wouldn’t have him in. Time to pull the pin.

 

[HirdsTheWord]

They can’t possibly bring Uzzie in. Webster, Inglis and Renshaw all ahead of him.

Renshaw has scored 3 centuries and a half century in his last 5 knocks in SS.

he scored a century in a pink ball game last week at the gabba vs VIC.

seems the most logical replacement.

 

[Gough]

Does anybody actually think Khawaja is going to play in Brisbane? Would be a shocking call.

Time for his P45 and gold watch.

 

[Black Diamond]

Did we? Ponting was lingering for a long while, seeing he averaged under 40 for the three years prior to retirement. Plus, he only averaged 6 in that South African series when he was finally pushed.

Punter just didn't read the room the time to call it was the India series when he had those last moments of greatness. Bit like Buddy Franklin going on after randomly getting 50+ goals at 36 years old, sometimes the universe allows for a great player to retire a hero, should they want it.

That is a fair interpretation. My memory is the talk had died down a bit.

Firstly, Kawaja is not Ponting and secondly Ponting retired at 37, and Kawaja turns 39 in less than a month....

Yeah, that is my point.

Khawaja isn’t 1 tenth of a player Ponting was and Ponting was hardly “pushed” anyway

I was talking about the Root discussion. Not the upcoming retirement of Khawaja.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Possibly. But even if he’s fit I wouldn’t have him in. Time to pull the pin.

I'm on the fence. I agree but only if it's for Webster/renshaw. If it's Webster it does two things first of which Green gets to bat 5, he aint a 6. I would personally bat Webster at 7 with Carey at 6 at least until Cummins returns, we can't have Carey batting with 3 Chris Martin's and Starc.

 

[cats_09]

Really? Show me.

Ask anyone who's worn the dark blue tracksuit and they'll be able to confirm that 3 from 4 isn't close to what some have shown themselves capable of doing

 

[MarcMaverick]

Time for his P45 and gold watch.

And a gold chain.

 

[PhatBoy]

An overall 50.9 average going down to 33.3 in Australia is still a fair drop off when we're talking about one of the greats. It is a relevant criticism and no he's not on his lonesome with that sort of country-specific drop off. His brilliance has been blunted a bit in away Ashes series though and there's nothing wrong with pointing that out.

100 per cent and I recognise that his Perth sojourn has made it a lot worse: that match alone shaves 4 off his career mark here.

But again prior to that he’s played 3 series here and averaged a little under 40. For starters there are very few players in history who don’t have at least 1 place where they have a bit of an outlier. Even McGrath I only realised a few days ago averaged over 30 in Pakistan (albeit I think he only played 5 matches there) but if that outlier falls into the ‘it’s not great but it’s mediocre’ category then I think you can say that someone has shown they can at least handle those conditions.

If root is getting into the 80s three times in Australia and passing 50 on six other occasions it shows he can deal with it to a pretty reasonable extent.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

100 per cent and I recognise that his Perth sojourn has made it a lot worse: that match alone shaves 4 off his career mark here.

But again prior to that he’s played 3 series here and averaged a little under 40. For starters there are very few players in history who don’t have at least 1 place where they have a bit of an outlier. Even McGrath I only realised a few days ago averaged over 30 in Pakistan (albeit I think he only played 5 matches there) but if that outlier falls into the ‘it’s not great but it’s mediocre’ category then I think you can say that someone has shown they can at least handle those conditions.

If root is getting into the 80s three times in Australia and passing 50 on six other occasions it shows he can deal with it to a pretty reasonable extent.

To be fair to Root, his first time out here (similar to Pope in this regard) he was ultra young too. Think it's pretty reasonable to at worst take those scores in that series like a grain of salt. Root is a star, he's the most critical bat to get out. If he gets squat I'm confident winning the test/series. He's played in some abysmal England sides, it's not easy to score a truckload of runs when the rest can't bat!

 

[Aussie in exile]

You obviously never seen Chris Tavrae bat, he made Boycott look like Viv Richards.

I think the worst one i can remember is Bill Lawry who was rightly called 'The corpse in pads" by one journo

 

[Gough]

I think the worst one i can remember is Bill Lawry who was rightly called 'The corpse in bats" by one journo

Barrington intrigues me. Averaged 58 in Tests, 69 overseas and barely rates a mention anywhere assumedly because he was so dull to watch but that average suggest he must have been a bastard to get out.

 

[Aussie in exile]

Barrington intrigues me. Averaged 58 in Tests, 69 overseas and barely rates a mention anywhere assumedly because he was so dull to watch but that average suggest he must have been a bastard to get out.

Wally Grout one of our great keepers was alleged to have said "Here comes England" when Barrington came out to bat

 

[PhatBoy]

Three piss poor takes in four posts has to be some kind of BF record

Not really sure how the third post is a bad take.

This was a side absolutely bereft. They had just been to the West Indies, drawn two tests and got absolutely embarrassed in the third.

They had managed two wins in nearly 20 matches playing boring cricket, with two world class bowlers at their disposal, a gun all-rounder and one of the best batsmen of his generation.
With similar or worse resources, NZ had flown past them, for example. With probably similar resources now, maybe less, SA have won a WTC and have a ridiculous record over the past 18 months.
Something had to change.

What they have done isn’t ‘remarkable’ in terms of results because it opens up the possibility of losing tests - badly - and it has happened at times as we saw only a few days ago. It doesn’t leave room for much in between. It hasn’t made them a team with this ridiculous win/loss ratio. Because they don’t draw any matches. It either works and they win, or it backfires and they lose. It doesn’t allow a middle ground.

But it has given them a series win in NZ, and Pakistan, they’re unbeaten at home with series wins over NZ, SA, India (it clinched them a series win in a delayed finale), SL and WI, drawn series against Australia and India, an away draw with NZ that would have been a 2-0 win except they enforced the follow on and lost the match by a run. Again, a symptom of the game plan. They flogged Pakistan in a game where the hosts made 500 batting first, and it resulted in Pakistan openly preparing the next two wickets inside marquees in order to ensure they were ragging from ball one. Predictably England lost the next two tests.

You can’t say ‘this is THE gameplan.’ Unless you’re winning every series you play that’s impossible. But you can absolutely say that it is a gameplan that has changed things around for them and made them a much, much better side.

 

[Black Diamond]

Barrington intrigues me. Averaged 58 in Tests, 69 overseas and barely rates a mention anywhere assumedly because he was so dull to watch but that average suggest he must have been a bastard to get out.

Good call.

Peter May does the same for me. Average of 47, 13 hundreds from 66 tests so not a wild conversion rate. Yet is ranked 6th all time.

An excellent player. Not really remembered outside of England.

 

[sr36]

Really? Show me.

Poster in question is on a streak of about 200. Not sure if serious or trolling. Wnats to leave out Darcy Moore and Darcy Cameron whenever there is rain. Will probably call for Head to be rested to make sure he's cherry ripe for Boxing Day.

 

[Gough]

Good call.

Peter May does the same for me. Average of 47, 13 hundreds from 66 tests so not a wild conversion rate. Yet is ranked 6th all time.

An excellent player. Not really remembered outside of England.

My old man saw him make 200 against Rhodesia and always held him in high regard for that innings.