The Ashes 2015

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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby Lord Rother » 07 Aug 2015, 12:17

PENK wrote:I think the word for what has happened to England this morning is "complacency". They could have had a first-innings lead of 400 plus here and they're making a mess of it... still an almost indomitable position one imagines.


Unfair I think.

We are scoring at nearly 4.5 an over and are close to 300 in front.

This new style of aggressive cricket is exciting, seemingly pretty successful at the moment, but is still bedding down.

The balance may not be QUITE right just yet between aggression and circumspection but I don't think complacency is a fair description of what we are seeing.

Complete dominance with a hint of playful piss taking seems more applicable. :)

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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby Penk! » 07 Aug 2015, 12:31

Well I think they could have been a little more considered today but that was certainly an entertaining stand between Moeen and Broad.
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby Penk! » 07 Aug 2015, 12:31

Shame that Johnson couldn't hang on for another unbeaten century though! Image
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby fange » 07 Aug 2015, 14:34

Not the most convincing start to the 2nd innings, and they've needed a bit of luck, but it's good to see the Aussie openers at least getting their partnership past 60. Fingers crossed they can keep it going for a while.
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby WG Kaspar » 07 Aug 2015, 15:50

No chance Ange
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby KeithPratt » 07 Aug 2015, 15:51

Yep that's game over. Might be all over by tonight or by lunch tomorrow.

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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby Penk! » 07 Aug 2015, 15:51

Ben Stokes!
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby fange » 07 Aug 2015, 16:02

Yep, we'll be very lucky to make England bat again now.
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby Penk! » 07 Aug 2015, 18:30

So we'll get a third day.

Odd that for all that Root, Anderson and Broad have done it's Ben Stokes' bowling that looks to have won England the Ashes here!
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby copehead » 07 Aug 2015, 18:55

PENK wrote:So we'll get a third day.

Odd that for all that Root, Anderson and Broad have done it's Ben Stokes' bowling that looks to have won England the Ashes here!


Great to see the 4th seamer get a 5for, everyone has contributed a big innings apart from Wood and Moeen and that is not surprising, Wood isn't fully fit and Moeen hasn't had the wearing pitches because the games have been over early.

But Anderson, Broad, Finn and now Stokes have all put in match winning displays
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby Penk! » 08 Aug 2015, 11:29

Any minute now...
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby Tomahawk Kid » 08 Aug 2015, 20:08

I can't recall a match where the ball was swinging as much as it did this morning. Ben Stokes was having to fight like mad to try and control it. Awesome stuff. I hope that we can keep it together and make it 4-1 at the Oval.

Nice words from Michael Clark at the end, he looked like a man who'd had a great weight removed from his shoulders.

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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby The Write Profile » 09 Aug 2015, 03:23

Just what has happened to is Australian team? I've never seen an Australian side in my life-time that has been so fundamentally brittle under pressure. It shows that the last Ashes whitewash depended heavily on two players- Mitchell Johnson and Brad Haddin- the former is completely out of sorts, the latter has probably signaled the end to his career. England have stuck to an aggressive gameplan and it's paid off handsome,and crucially, all of their bowlers have contributed in some way, while Joe Root could probably lay claim to being the best batsman in the world on current form. It's just bizarre seeing an Australian team with so little self-belief. Granted, England have now won the last three Ashes on home soil, but the previous two were actually closely contested, and could have gone either way if a few decisions, and luck went the other way. Clarke looks like a complete shell of a man- ironically, not too different from Cook 18 months ago in the Aussie Ashes series. I've said it before, but in terms of the quality of the contest, they would have been better off swapping around the England- New Zealand series for five tests and the Ashes for two :D
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby The Write Profile » 09 Aug 2015, 03:24

Tomahawk Kid wrote:I can't recall a match where the ball was swinging as much as it did this morning. Ben Stokes was having to fight like mad to try and control it. Awesome stuff. I hope that we can keep it together and make it 4-1 at the Oval.

Nice words from Michael Clark at the end, he looked like a man who'd had a great weight removed from his shoulders.

.


As a fan of swing bowling, it was a beautiful spectacle and good to see in the age of heavy bats. He is, of course, a complete traitor who should be playing for New Zealand, but it's nice he's doing the decent thing and socking it to the Australians :lol:
It's before my time but I've been told, he never came back from Karangahape Road.

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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby fange » 09 Aug 2015, 04:04

:x



You're right though, it is a joy to watch the art of good swing bowling.
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby The Write Profile » 09 Aug 2015, 06:16

fange wrote::x



You're right though, it is a joy to watch the art of good swing bowling.


New Zealand has two pretty good exponents of it in Trent Boult and to a lesser extent Tim Southee. England are lucky to have at least three- Anderson, Broad, and now Stokes.

I think this tour has shown that Mitchell Johnson needs hard, fast pitches to bang the ball down, he simply doesn't get enough movement in the air in England conditions. Starc, on the other hand, seems to have worked out the conditions nicely.
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby the masked man » 09 Aug 2015, 09:58

Indeed, Matthew, it was intriguing that the test series with New Zealand was far more competitive than this Ashes series has been. Whilst I'm very happy to see a good, aggressive England side regain the trophy, it feels a little empty too. You expect a little more fight from an Australian side, and the sheer meekness of their batting display is severely disappointing.

That said, even though England were missing JImmy Anderson, our best bowler, it was a real pleasure to see the other bowlers using the opportunity to shine in his place.

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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby andymacandy » 09 Aug 2015, 11:38

While it is a great win for England, I think that history might show that this is actually a pretty average Aussie team, and certainly well short of their previous standards.The real measure of greatness for Cook will be how they perform in SA and against Pakistan.Id rather be in our shoes than theirs, for sure.We have real prospects, even to the point that I can see Jimmy retiring and that not being a disaster.
Im glad that Clarke is going. I think Hughes death has taken a lot out of him, and it has been a heavy burden for him.Go before the legacy and respect are diminished.
What is worrying, to an extent, is the fact that home pitches look to have such a huge influence on the results. Of course, twas ever thus, but if it just turns out that we win easily on our pitches, and Australia win easily on theirs, and nobody else wins on the sub-continent, then the game will just dwindle away.
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby copehead » 09 Aug 2015, 15:55

andymacandy wrote:While it is a great win for England, I think that history might show that this is actually a pretty average Aussie team, and certainly well short of their previous standards.The real measure of greatness for Cook will be how they perform in SA and against Pakistan.Id rather be in our shoes than theirs, for sure.We have real prospects, even to the point that I can see Jimmy retiring and that not being a disaster.
Im glad that Clarke is going. I think Hughes death has taken a lot out of him, and it has been a heavy burden for him.Go before the legacy and respect are diminished.
What is worrying, to an extent, is the fact that home pitches look to have such a huge influence on the results. Of course, twas ever thus, but if it just turns out that we win easily on our pitches, and Australia win easily on theirs, and nobody else wins on the sub-continent, then the game will just dwindle away.


You can say that with hindsight but they came into the series having just won the cricket World Cup, that England flunked out of, with a settled and confident line up containing the world's number one batsman and a bowler, Johnson, who England were apparently terrified of, they were saying all the right things about how they were going to clean up in England's back yard.

Now the wheels have come off it is obvious that Shane Watson is a walking LBW decision, Smith is a flat track bully with poor technique, Johnson can't bowl in England/Wales and Haddin and Pup are past it, the Marshs probably haven't got it and Voges may not either.

But that is all because England destroyed them in the conditions and on the pitches that Cricket was developed as a game on.

Part of International cricket is adapting to foreign conditions - bouncy delights in Oz pancakes in India - but English conditions are the very basis of the game in my view so teams can have zero complaints about coming here and finding the pitch seams and the atmosphere swings. Also remember that England won the last series in India, I think the Saffers are the real test now with Steyn the best bowler in the world.

England have finished this Australian team, they were a paper tiger, but considering the World Cup a convincing one.

I think we all thought this would either be very close or an Aussie win, even after the first two matches.

The last two matches have been the most complete destruction of an international cricket team that I can remember (not) seeing.

I think that is partly down to the new management but also New Zealand turning up and showing them that you can enjoy international cricket, that, apparently, was infectious and I bet the Black Caps are nearly as happy about the outcome as we are.
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Re: The Ashes 2015

Postby andymacandy » 09 Aug 2015, 16:18

Copehead wrote:
andymacandy wrote:While it is a great win for England, I think that history might show that this is actually a pretty average Aussie team, and certainly well short of their previous standards.The real measure of greatness for Cook will be how they perform in SA and against Pakistan.Id rather be in our shoes than theirs, for sure.We have real prospects, even to the point that I can see Jimmy retiring and that not being a disaster.
Im glad that Clarke is going. I think Hughes death has taken a lot out of him, and it has been a heavy burden for him.Go before the legacy and respect are diminished.
What is worrying, to an extent, is the fact that home pitches look to have such a huge influence on the results. Of course, twas ever thus, but if it just turns out that we win easily on our pitches, and Australia win easily on theirs, and nobody else wins on the sub-continent, then the game will just dwindle away.


You can say that with hindsight but they came into the series having just won the cricket World Cup, that England flunked out of, with a settled and confident line up containing the world's number one batsman and a bowler, Johnson, who England were apparently terrified of, they were saying all the right things about how they were going to clean up in England's back yard.

Now the wheels have come off it is obvious that Shane Watson is a walking LBW decision, Smith is a flat track bully with poor technique, Johnson can't bowl in England/Wales and Haddin and Pup are past it, the Marshs probably haven't got it and Voges may not either.

But that is all because England destroyed them in the conditions and on the pitches that Cricket was developed as a game on.

Part of International cricket is adapting to foreign conditions - bouncy delights in Oz pancakes in India - but English conditions are the very basis of the game in my view so teams can have zero complaints about coming here and finding the pitch seams and the atmosphere swings. Also remember that England won the last series in India, I think the Saffers are the real test now with Steyn the best bowler in the world.

England have finished this Australian team, they were a paper tiger, but considering the World Cup a convincing one.

I think we all thought this would either be very close or an Aussie win, even after the first two matches.

The last two matches have been the most complete destruction of an international cricket team that I can remember (not) seeing.

I think that is partly down to the new management but also New Zealand turning up and showing them that you can enjoy international cricket, that, apparently, was infectious and I bet the Black Caps are nearly as happy about the outcome as we are.

I agree with your comments, but these days, I regard Test, One Day and 20/20 as cousins rather than the same game.
Yes, they won the World Cup, but I don't put much authority on that as a pointer to Test form.
Now, the upcoming one day series will be a belter. England with confidence and home conditions, against the World Champions.
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