Certified Legendary Thread The Cricket Thread 2025/26

[Docker82]

Love how English fans keep saying Bazball is entertaining.

Sure it is but so is a car crash in a F1 race.

Wouldn't find a F1 driver bragging about a car crash but Bazball seems to be a cricket equivalent to me but the English team don't stop bragging about it.

 

[anchor man]

Seriously I could not believe what I saw from the Pommie bowlers in the second innings.
The first thing I noticed was how tired their bowlers looked.All were bowling well below the speed they achieved in the first innings.The were bowling at between 5 and 10 Ks below what they bowled in the first inning.
Wood and Archer , Wood in particular, was bowling mostly at 150Ks,to a lesser extent Archer, in the firsr dig. I think in the second, Wood bowled at that speed a few times.
Archer was way down, bowling quite a few around 112/113 Ks.
They looked tired and stiff in their bowling actions.
All this without great heat or humidity.And to boot, as a unit they less than 50 overs.
Wood sooked quite a few times about the hardess of the pitch.To add to his woes, he appeared to hurt himself when falling over after a delivery.
One down, heads down.Gabba to come where they have only won two tests since WW2.

 

[Alfonz]

Really, a test match should go for more than 2 f'ing days! Curator needs to get the balance a bit better in my opinion.
Apparently if you bought Day 3 tickets, you aren't entitled to a refund?

Nothing wrong with the pitch. Great effort from the curator. Can't help it if the batting was rubbish for 3 innings.

 

[Docker82]

Nothing wrong with the pitch. Great effort from the curator. Can't help it if the batting was rubbish for 3 innings.

Yes it was poor batting from both teams the first three innings but the English bowlers were 5-10km an hour slower in the fourth innings and it made all the difference.

There's as big a gap between this test and next as there is all series not to mention the lack of overs bowled on day one.

Those bowlers may come out firing in Brisbane but good luck after that given what we saw in Perth.

 

[Piggy Smalls]

Love how English fans keep saying Bazball is entertaining.

Sure it is but so is a car crash in a F1 race.

Wouldn't find a F1 driver bragging about a car crash but Bazball seems to be a cricket equivalent to me but the English team don't stop bragging about it.

The way they throw away their wickets is disrespectful to the spirit of Test cricket IMO. Remember when Stokes declared day 1 in England and we won the Test?

In 100 years if all we have to go on is some scorecards, this will be a baffling period for crickets historians to make sense of.

 

[Piggy Smalls]

And Usman should be dropped and never allowed to play again. What an absolute disgrace. The most self-serving week with no respect to the Baggy Green at all. Jog on loser.

 

[Piggy Smalls]

Nothing wrong with the pitch. Great effort from the curator. Can't help it if the batting was rubbish for 3 innings.

The value of a wicket has never been lower, unfortunately.

 

[freo_leo29]

Really, a test match should go for more than 2 f'ing days! Curator needs to get the balance a bit better in my opinion.
Apparently if you bought Day 3 tickets, you aren't entitled to a refund?

Can't blame the curator, both teams threw away plenty of wickets with some shocking shots


Day 3 tickets are being refunded, if a ball had been bowled on day 3 then it wouldn't be refunded if there was a result but we didn't even get to day 3 so its a refund.

 

[anchor man]

Courtesy of Daves cartoons.
He does a load during the football season. Check him out.

 

[largebus]

And Usman should be dropped and never allowed to play again. What an absolute disgrace. The most self-serving week with no respect to the Baggy Green at all. Jog on loser.

The golf thing is a nothing burger, Starc was with him, but if he was having back problems before the XI was named he was selfish to not step aside. He's very lucky Head bailed him out because we essentially played that Test a man down (Lyon has the excuse he got hit while batting)

Knowing this mob they'll give him a farewell game in Brisbane

 

[sumavich]

Can't blame the curator, both teams threw away plenty of wickets with some shocking shots


Day 3 tickets are being refunded, if a ball had been bowled on day 3 then it wouldn't be refunded if there was a result but we didn't even get to day 3 so its a refund.

That's good, but CA have lost sheet loads of $. Drop in pitches have got way better over the journey, but you want test matches to go to day 4 ideally! I'm bored today, would love to catch some cricket on the telly

 

[anchor man]

That's good, but CA have lost sheet loads of $. Drop in pitches have got way better over the journey, but you want test matches to go to day 4 ideally! I'm bored today, would love to catch some cricket on the telly

Not the pitches fault. So many players from most cricketing countries have lost the ability to play out time.India I believe one of the few.
Bad technique, not patience. Lack of concentration.If in doubt, try to smash it out of the ground,

 

[freo_leo29]

That's good, but CA have lost sheet loads of $. Drop in pitches have got way better over the journey, but you want test matches to go to day 4 ideally! I'm bored today, would love to catch some cricket on the telly

Heard its roughly $5m they have lost

Bazball strikes again, England won't stop til the ruin Test Cricket lol

 

[BStaff17]

Heard its roughly $5m they have lost

Bazball strikes again, England won't stop til the ruin Test Cricket lol

Englands master plan send CA broke with 2 day test matches

 

[Nothing]

On to something here. Their way to save test cricket is for nobody to be able to afford to host England.

 

[Nodgey]

I’m starting to wonder if Brendan McCullum is actually a double agent sent in to ruin English cricket. He’s doing a bang up job so far.

 

[stax on the mull]

Instead, the shiny new Perth Stadium has turned out to be just the same as the Waca - dripping in English disappointment. Only one win in 15 visits to this city in 55 years.

I remember that game. 1978. The anti-bazball era. Geoff Boycott opened the batting and was 63 not out at stumps after 3 full sessions of play.

In the last innings Graeme Wood played and missed at a ball outside his off stump and the bowler John Lever had turned and walked past the umpire to return to his bowling mark when Wood was given out.

 

[greatgatsby]

I remember that game. 1978. The anti-bazball era. Geoff Boycott opened the batting and was 63 not out at stumps after 3 full sessions of play.

In the last innings Graeme Wood played and missed at a ball outside his off stump and the bowler John Lever had turned and walked past the umpire to return to his bowling mark when Wood was given out.

That wasn't a real Test match due to World Series cricket - England had a handful of players involved in the latter, we had our best 15 or 20. The only good thing about the series was that Allan Border got fast tracked into the team.

 

[BStaff17]

I’m starting to wonder if Brendan McCullum is actually a double agent sent in to ruin English cricket. He’s doing a bang up job so far.

I have said it numerous times

McCullum is a con job/cult like figure especially when it comes to the moral compass and spirit of cricket.

His antics as a player in his early years he acted like a fool.

He matured late but he did stab Ross Taylor in the back for the captaincy.

He was able to use Phil Hughes death as a way to promote himself as some kind of spiritual holder & moral arbiter of cricket.

In an ODI game back in 2015 Ben Stokes was run out at Lords obstructing the Field. Smudge appealed and it stayed out. McCullum as NZ captain at the time who had nothing to do with this incident decided to do a hit piece on the Aussie cricket team and the way we play the game.

McCullum criticises Smith over Stokes affair | cricket.com.au

New Zealand skipper says Smith may 'live to regret' appealing for Stokes' dismissal

www.cricket.com.au

Then his childish nonsense after the Bairstow dismissal about not having a beer with the Aussies then backing it up after the series at The Oval by not showing up. Showed to me his a ****wit of the highest order.

 

[Kapow!!!]

E Shed having rewatched both innings I'm happy to conceed I may have been a bit wrong about the pitch on Day 1. It did look to have flattened and dulled out by the second session Day 2. It was coming off quicker than I was willing to give it credit for, as evidenced by the speeds registered by the four England quicks in both innings.

I do still maintain though that there was an incredible amount of dumb strokes and poor temperaments made life WAY harder for both battings sides than there needed to be and any side with a top order proficient off the back foot sound judges of length would've been able to get by reasonably well on it. Neither side really were able to do that and both sides have serious question marks on the quality of their Top 6. But they did face a tough challenge in the pace off the pitch.

 

[E Shed]

E Shed having rewatched both innings I'm happy to conceed I may have been a bit wrong about the pitch on Day 1. It did look to have flattened and dulled out by the second session Day 2. It was coming off quicker than I was willing to give it credit for, as evidenced by the speeds registered by the four England quicks in both innings.

I do still maintain though that there was an incredible amount of dumb strokes and poor temperaments made life WAY harder for both battings sides than there needed to be and any side with a top order proficient off the back foot sound judges of length would've been able to get by reasonably well on it. Neither side really were able to do that and both sides have serious question marks on the quality of their Top 6. But they did face a tough challenge in the pace off the pitch.

Very gracious and I agree with you. That’s why I said it’s a both/and.
Really appreciate when people take the time to reconsider and flesh out the conversation. I’m a huge fan of nuanced, courteous but robust debate.
Rock on Freo board

 

[BStaff17]

 

[anchor man]

E Shed having rewatched both innings I'm happy to conceed I may have been a bit wrong about the pitch on Day 1. It did look to have flattened and dulled out by the second session Day 2. It was coming off quicker than I was willing to give it credit for, as evidenced by the speeds registered by the four England quicks in both innings.

I do still maintain though that there was an incredible amount of dumb strokes and poor temperaments made life WAY harder for both battings sides than there needed to be and any side with a top order proficient off the back foot sound judges of length would've been able to get by reasonably well on it. Neither side really were able to do that and both sides have serious question marks on the quality of their Top 6. But they did face a tough challenge in the pace off the pitch.

Their quicks in the second stint was way below their first crack. Way below. They were bowling between 5&10 clicks below their first innings effort. Wood bowled very few at 150 compared to his first effort.
Arvher was way down. In fact bowled balls as low as 112.
Their pace was way down. As I said before they bowled like tired old men.
But I guess we saw it differently. After seeing the first ball bowled, I watched the speeds.

 

[Taylor]

I can't say I'm disappointed with the outcome but I would have preferred to have cricket on over the entire weekend - bunnings was packed Sunday.

 

[Docker82]

Their quicks in the second stint was way below their first crack. Way below. They were bowling between 5&10 clicks below their first innings effort. Wood bowled very few at 150 compared to his first effort.
Arvher was way down. In fact bowled balls as low as 112.
Their pace was way down. As I said before they bowled like tired old men.
But I guess we saw it differently. After seeing the first ball bowled, I watched the speeds.

Don't feel like any of those bowlers have enough tricks and/or control to get away with being in the mid 130s tbh.

Despite the low scores in the first innings, the only English bowler that really impressed me was Archer and he looked a shadow of himself in the second innings.

Some of the other bowlers bowled one or two good balls but we mostly just played poor shots to get out.