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

[Adelaide Hawk]

Weirdly enough, I was sitting at the pub thinking, would it be worth giving head and Weatherald a crack, you know, throw them off their line a bit. But then I thought, no, that’s too silly

This is true. I saw a message from a mate who is a good judge of cricket. It was at the end of England's 2nd innings. It said "open with Head and Weatherald, put on 50 and suddenly only 155 to win". How's that for an amazing call

 

[Freofalcon]

Looking forward to a week of English podcasts complaining about how hard done by they are.

It’s a conspiracy I tell ya

 

[The_Reaper]

Surely these stats say that Uzzie's a goner.

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and this is before back spasms.
Can we trust him to play out 5 days?

 

[largebus]

The funniest thing today was when the match was beyond doubt, the Barmy Army started throwing their beer trays everywhere. The PA tells everybody to not throw stuff, so everyone starts throwing their beer trays

 

[Jim Prideaux]

Well he did, he got it into the 140s clearly. It’s a pattern throughout his career. Very few bowlers - and it’s an incredibly underrated aspect of his cricket - bowl like Mitchell Starc does. I still can’t believe how underrated it is that he is so consistent with his speed.

Spot on. Mitchell Starc is horrendously underrated Phat. But that’s the Australian way. We have tis weird thing over here that we expect bowlers to be lightning fast, accurate, swing it both ways, and if they can’t they’re rubbish - look at some of the chat about Boland in this match.

 

[Jim Prideaux]

This is true. I saw a message from a mate who is a good judge of cricket. It was at the end of England's 2nd innings. It said "open with Head and Weatherald, put on 50 and suddenly only 155 to win". How's that for an amazing call

I won’t tar your mate with my brush, but I was definitely a few beers deep

 

[Ohitsthatguy]

Lets be real, this is just an embarassing loss for the Poms, they imploded

They were chasing Boland's wide ones

Actually, if you had to describe dumb test batting, just refer to this match

 

[damochandler]

Australia has killed a few englands coaches careers in the last 20 years

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Agreed. It was not a traditional WACA flier. There was bounce for the quicks, as there should be on day one. There was seam movement to varying degrees on both days, as there should be. This is a Test of tactics, temperament, technique, concentration, determination, heart and skill.

The Poms bowled well on day one, as did the Aussies (Stark was magnificent), though less so. The bazballing of Bowland worked somewhat, but they didn't make a Test score.

They collapsed playing millionaire shots in their 2nd innings, but that is what Bazball is about. It comes off sometimes. Mostly it is just shit, undisciplined cricket. Bazball cost them the game, because Travball did it better.

Least Travis wasn’t swinging like a blind drunk till 15-20 balls in. Compare that to the dumbness of a Brook today driving on the up in Perth. Travis took a bit to get in now 20 balls doesn’t seem a lot but there’s some brain behind the madness it was only his last 50 he went crazy really.

 

[The_Reaper]

Least Travis wasn’t swinging like a blind drunk till 15-20 balls in. Compare that to the dumbness of a Brook today driving on the up in Perth. Travis took a bit to get in now 20 balls doesn’t seem a lot but there’s some brain behind the madness it was only his last 50 he went crazy really.

I'm not sure smashing rank trash is madness either

 

[rdhopkins2]

I had a beer for every run Zak Crawley made this Test. I hope I’m ok to go to work Monday.

 

[damochandler]

England are front runners, look at what happened in India Pakistan’s. When it got tough they crumbled

 

[SportsCentre]

Might be reading into something that's not there, but I got the vibe from the after-match presser that the squad isn't thrilled with Usman.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

I'm not sure smashing rank trash is madness either

Yep by actually getting through 5-8 overs (and Weatherald did his job too here) it forced England to go to plan B, C…and they are bad enough with plan A as a bowling side

 

[PhatBoy]

Spot on. Mitchell Starc is horrendously underrated Phat. But that’s the Australian way. We have tis weird thing over here that we expect bowlers to be lightning fast, accurate, swing it both ways, and if they can’t they’re rubbish - look at some of the chat about Boland in this match.

Many, many bowlers - and it was even mentioned when Wood started in the first innings - don’t start off at or close to their maximum pace.
Wood is a player who actually DOES often hit at the very least the low to mid 140s immediately and they talked about all the work he’s put in and body management have helped him work out how to basically get to the point where he can just go ‘bang’ straight away.

But there are heaps who a) take a while to warm up. Alzarri and Shamar from the WI both usually do. Rabada does - in fact he nowadays is more a ‘bowl two real effort balls an over once he’s into his 3rd or 4th over’ bowlers.
And b) when they’ve bowled on one day don’t start as fluently the next, or later in the game.

Starc seemingly NEVER has this problem. I don’t know if it’s his height or the fluency of his action or what but he is so consistent with the pace it’s incredible.


And agree with your other point too.
If someone isn’t doing everything they’re garbage.
Even archer himself today (Boland was just as good an example): his second spell was actually faster and he was regularly getting it above 140, yet his first one was far more economical and he actually managed to beat the bat a number of times and had that decision (correctly) overturned that was initially given out. It’s not like he wasn’t trying or was bowling trash, when he came back he bowled trash but bowled quicker

 

[The_Reaper]

Well, the scoring rare was higher in this game, then......
Cook was such a bore. Two shots and a forward defence...

Cook won matches though.
I'd love a 20 year old Australian version coming through the ranks

 

[The_Reaper]

Many, many bowlers - and it was even mentioned when Wood started in the first innings - don’t start off at or close to their maximum pace.
Wood is a player who actually DOES often hit at the very least the low to mid 140s immediately and they talked about all the work he’s put in and body management have helped him work out how to basically get to the point where he can just go ‘bang’ straight away.

But there are heaps who a) take a while to warm up. Alzarri and Shamar from the WI both usually do. Rabada does - in fact he nowadays is more a ‘bowl two real effort balls an over once he’s into his 3rd or 4th over’ bowlers.
And b) when they’ve bowled on one day don’t start as fluently the next, or later in the game.

Starc seemingly NEVER has this problem. I don’t know if it’s his height or the fluency of his action or what but he is so consistent with the pace it’s incredible.


And agree with your other point too.
If someone isn’t doing everything they’re garbage.
Even archer himself today (Boland was just as good an example): his second spell was actually faster and he was regularly getting it above 140, yet his first one was far more economical and he actually managed to beat the bat a number of times and had that decision (correctly) overturned that was initially given out.

Yeah Starc keeps on going at high pace all match and year after year. Arguably he's still improving as a bowler.

 

[Jim Prideaux]

Lets be real, this is just an embarassing loss for the Poms, they imploded

They were chasing Boland's wide ones

Actually, if you had to describe dumb test batting, just refer to this match

I know it’s ingrained in us, but can you and I, just for a moment, revel in the fact that we demolished them from a very difficult position

 

[WeightOfTheWorld]

Spot on. Mitchell Starc is horrendously underrated Phat. But that’s the Australian way. We have tis weird thing over here that we expect bowlers to be lightning fast, accurate, swing it both ways, and if they can’t they’re rubbish - look at some of the chat about Boland in this match.

I'd agree with that.

Have always rated him as a ODI bowler - easily in our greatest ODI side of all time I reckon.

Perhaps once or twice he has gone missing at crucial periods or bowled some ragged spells - but you'd have to go back to cricinfo to find them.

People also forget he was, in his younger days, capable of searing pace - broke the 160 km barrier on occasions as well - I remember a blistering spell against NZ in Perth in 2015 on a flat deck.

I reckon Warnie never really liked him on a personal level for some reason - his criticism of Starc at times was fairly vocal - perhaps that influenced public opinion.

Under-rate for sure. I'd pick Starc before any of England's fast bowlers. Let me assure you of that.

 

[JimmyBC]

Might be reading into something that's not there, but I got the vibe from the after-match presser that the squad isn't thrilled with Usman.

Head seemed to indicate he's wanted to open for awhile the ball is in the selectors court, there's plenty of time before the Brisbane test so Usman will get over the back spasms. Do they make a ballsy call/tap on the shoulder or wimp out.

 

[Ohitsthatguy]

I know it’s ingrained in us, but can you and I, just for a moment, revel in the fact that we demolished them from a very difficult position

Don't you worry I'm celebrating

 

[Snarls Barkley]

A quick thing about England

Pope might have been their best bat over the two innings but man he must be a frustrating player. Must have one of the highest percentage of scores between 20-50. Always seems to be looking good, gotten a start and then inexplicably goes out without putting damage on. You can see why he is on the outer

Crawley sucks and I’m not sure how he keeps his spot match after match. He’ll have two fortunate knocks out of the 10 and maybe England gets something from those games but we are always going to be a pretty good chance at having them 1 for nothing

 

[The_Reaper]

I'd agree with that.

Have always rated him as a ODI bowler - easily in our greatest ODI side of all time I reckon.

Perhaps once or twice he has gone missing at crucial periods or bowled some ragged spells - but you'd have to go back to cricinfo to find them.

People also forget he was, in his younger days, capable of searing pace - broke the 160 km barrier on occasions as well - I remember a blistering spell against NZ in Perth in 2015 on a flat deck.

I reckon Warnie never really liked him on a personal level for some reason - his criticism of Starc at times was fairly vocal - perhaps that influenced public opinion.

Under-rate for sure. I'd pick Starc before any of England's fast bowlers. Let me assure you of that.

Starc was pretty raw when he first started and as you say, Warnie held in such esteem by the cricketing world that his opinion just stuck.

Starc's probably just short of the very top rung of Australian bowlers (Warne, McGrath, Lillee) but he's very much at the top of the next rung.

 

[Ohitsthatguy]

The thing about Starc is he has only gotten better as he has gotten older

 

[ams4crows]

Mark Wood only bowled 11 overs and by the end of the last spell the pace dropped off same with Archer who bowled 17 overs.

They are unfit! if you can survive their open spells on Day one they dramatically drop off.

Meanwhile Starc bowled 25 overs and was still averaging 142km/h during his last spell.