2019 4th Ashes Test 2019 Old Trafford

[Doodlesweaver]

They were lying (given the state of the game/series) .

I live in England and most of my colleagues don't even know the Ashes is on. Some of them paid attention during the World Cup but only because the final was on FTA.

 

[ABAB]

Not many sides can overcome having a single bat fire in the top six, away from home, in conditions that are near designed to make your batsman worse. Not only that, in the past our much vaunted bowling attack has repeatedly failed in England in the past, with Johnson, Hazelwood, Lee, Starc all misfiring in the immediate past.

I get that people want to diminish the achievement here (for some reason) but there are too many actual historical facts that people are ignoring to make that case. Of course our bowlers are in the top 25 in the world; nevermind that previous versions of our attacks with similar rankings have gone terribly in England. Of course we have the best test bat in the world; never mind that we've taken the best batsman in the world to England before in Ponting and Smith and Clarke before, and we've been rolled then too.

Don't forget, Wade played his part in winning the 1st and 4th Test and Head/Lab play their part in drawing the 2nd Test and all the batters played their part in the 3rd Test without Smith so the other batter did stood up when needed at certain time. As good as Johnson and Lee were, I can't recall them being the World #1 Test Fast Bowler ever and both Hazlewood and Starc has learnt from those previous failed series in England.
Similar, Clarke is a good batter but was never World #1 or as excellent as Smith and I think Smith has gone pass Ponting, in previous series in England, Smith wasn't the player he has now become in the last few years (despite the 1 year ban), hence this isn't a "weak" team that most are saying it is.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

Wot?

Our batting, perhaps...

But our bowling is elite

Hazelwood has really sorted himself out from the last time he toured. Perhaps having Cummins next to him instead of Starc has made him more relaxed.

 

[Bring back Drum]

I live in England and most of my colleagues don't even know the Ashes is on. Some of them paid attention during the World Cup but only because the final was on FTA.

Doesn’t matter, the 15000 or so pommy campaigners at the ground booing at Smith when he comes back on after getting hit in head & then carrying on (barmy army! barmy army!) certainly gave a s**t & they’re the ones that the players want to shove it up.
Then at the presentations when they all cleared out & left just the Aussie campaigners, *in priceless.

 

[Holden Hillbilly]

More celebrations: https://www.theroar.com.au/cricket/...yylpFYZMZE8XZhf6GToB0P6anYFvOttF4e55IiVNSSNak

 

[1989]

I got to sleep after 4:30 and the wife kicked me out of bed at 6:30. I worked today and now I’m a zombie.

I can relate. Had to get up and get going early and what makes it more annoying is that most people at work couldn't give a stuff about cricket or the Ashes.

It's been a winter of very long nights between the Ashes and World Cup.

What's also annoying is when you hit the sack when the cricket finishes and of course because you're so worked up you can't get to sleep. Looking at the clock knowing you have to get up in an hour or two is not fun.

 

[DaRick]

Talkin' Cricket

Well Lang and Paine had done it
Their cricket team had won it
With Pattinson watching all the while
Dave Warner's tragic form line made us smile
While Steve Smith batted England into submission

We're talkin' crickeeeeeeeet
From Lords to that awful Leeds
Talkin' crickeeeeeeeet
Hazlewood and Labuschagne
Head, Wade, Starc, Khawaja and Harris
Cummins and his run-in with greatness
We're talkin' Siiiidle...Bangers and the GOAT

We're talkin' crickeeeeeeeet
From Lords to that awful Leeds
Talkin' crickeeeeeeeet
Hazlewood and Labuschagne
Head, Wade, Starc, Khawaja and Harris
Cummins and his run-in with greatness
We're talkin' Siiiidle...Bangers and the GOAT

 

[Crankyhawk]

TBF, can't really blame a number 10 for getting out.
He showed a lot more ability/ticker than most of the top order.

Might be being panned for front foot no ball though

 

[Park cricketer]

The ICC (probably an overenthusiastic Indian intern) has started trolling now..

 

[omarlittle1]

I had that feeling as well. Was bloody great to wake and knowing we have retained the ASHES BABY!!

Was simultaneously painful and glorious to watch those last few overs. Go Lads!!

 

[Dez!]

Badly explained by me. Harris and Bancroft have both looked like walking wickets, tentative, lead-footed.
Harris has scored stuff-all runs in 4 digs. If he is selected for the 5th Test, that's a Gold Pass, imo.
Burns is the opener-in-waiting; Test avge. 40, 4/4 X 100/50, and 180 in his last Test dig. Why he's out of favour is beyond me.

Harris absolutely plundered runs for fun in domestic cricket last season, giving him three Tests in which he hasn't looked as bad as you claim doesn't equate to a gold pass.

Burns is out of favour because he was in s**t form before the Ashes.

 

[Gethelred]

Don't forget, Wade played his part in winning the 1st and 4th Test and Head/Lab play their part in drawing the 2nd Test and all the batters played their part in the 3rd Test without Smith so the other batter did stood up when needed at certain time. As good as Johnson and Lee were, I can't recall them being the World #1 Test Fast Bowler ever and both Hazlewood and Starc has learnt from those previous failed series in England.
Similar, Clarke is a good batter but was never World #1 or as excellent as Smith and I think Smith has gone pass Ponting, in previous series in England, Smith wasn't the player he has now become in the last few years (despite the 1 year ban), hence this isn't a "weak" team that most are saying it is.

There was a three year patch where Clarke most certainly had the pedigree and the statistics to be considered the best in the world, and while Smith may have gone past Ponting (I agree with you there) that isn't really relevant to the idea that we've taken no.1 bats in the world over there in the past only to have them struggle. Hazelwood indeed has learnt better from his first tour, that's rather the point. This tour represents more keenly the failures of previous tours, in that we absented ego to play a completely different way, shunning our blast them out method and our play-our-way aggression with the bat to knuckle down and make each innings count. And Johnson and Lee's stats going to England had a basis for believing that they would be successful over there, only to find that their lengths were wrong, their methods wrong, their skillsets wrong. We've taken Starc in previous tours, with his inswinging yorker supposedly tremendously successful under overcast English skies on a seaming deck, only to have him fail and get milked behind square.

I find it amusing that so many people are whinging about the level of failure on this tour, whilst trying also to defend how bad some of the players have been. On a realistic level, we've brought 4+ first time players to England for this Ashes. We've brought along Warner and Khawaja, both notoriously poor in English conditions. We've brought in Smith, after he was banned for 12 months and was a significant risk that he'd not be quite as good.

Name the year in which you think the team we have taken to England is worse than this one.

 

[Mad_Hatter]

Catman great stuff this!

 

[NSWCROW]

To come back and win after THAT loss in the 3rd test is just incredible


I thought we'd fold but Langer's put the Bulldog into us

 

[frankrizzo]

To come back and win after THAT loss in the 3rd test is just incredible


I thought we'd fold but Langer's put the Bulldog into us

I have that leeds test as the worst ashes loss I have seen so taking that into account this has to be one of our greatest ashes wins.

I really thought we were cooked, history shows teams losing those sorts of games rarely recover mid series so everything pointed to a disaster yet we dominated guess it also shows that when Smith is playing history just doesn't apply.

 

[Stax on the mill]

Pouring in Manchester at the moment. Luckily the weather gods smiled on us yesterday.

 

[troybe]

Weather looking good this weekend in London for good Pom thrashing


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[FlowersByIrene]

Yes.

The following matches are our World Test Championship fixtures prior to the final at Lords in 2021.

We are also scheduled to play Afghanistan in November 2020 prior to the Indian test which is more than likely going to be at Perth or the GABBA.

We're probably in with a good shout of making the final since we dont travel to India as normal in winter 2020 because of the T20 world cup and our only subcontinent trip is to Bangladesh rather than India, Sri Lanka or the UAE.


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I see no reason why we cannot win 10 out of those 14 and draw maybe two more. We'd be unfortunate to lose more than 2.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

I had a 2 hour nap when I got home at midday, that's helped!

Did that when I got home just got up!

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Warner's catching was effing awful the first two tests. Dismal!

Harris was no better in the field mate. Both have been awful this series

 

[Mighty Storm]

Good work boys,well done to the bowling group,(sidds and patto as well.)

 

[frankrizzo]

Harris was no better in the field mate. Both have been awful this series

Warner dropped stokes early in both his tons, he nearly dropped the ashes he takes stokes and we are 3-0 after 3.

 

[ROOTA#6]

Surely Steve Smith is under pressure to retain his spot after his second innings failure

 

[toml]

Since Marnus made his test debut in the UAE last year his FC bowling average has dropped from 58 to 42. Since April his batting average has gone from 32 to 38.5 He's blooming.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Warner dropped stokes early in both his tons, he nearly dropped the ashes he takes stokes and we are 3-0 after 3.

Harris takes Stokes or throws to the right end we are 3-0 up too...