Anyone on here for cricket? Ashes third test starting soon. England seem pretty doomed but if we can win this test it makes the Christmas week test way more exciting
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Yep, lifelong obsessive. Not looking good for England and not sure Brendon McCullum’s head is in it. Apparently had no bowling coach 6 weeks before the Ashes but had booked 4 days in Noosa a year in advance. Says it all.
Here’s a stat that might make you want to look away:
England haven’t won a third Test in Australia since 1965-66.
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Had a quiet day at work today so spent the afternoon in the pub with my Aussie workmates. It’s been a decent start to the third test after an excruciating first two. I do get a bit grumpy at England when they just don’t seem to not how to play the game anymore, especially against Australia, where they really do need to remember how to play.
I do love me a good test series.
Haven’t won any test in Australia since 2010/11 series. Made a reasonable start today, lack of a decent spinner will cost them, Jacks is nowhere near test level.
Yeah, all the commentary here is saying that. I often feel like British cricket is run by a council. And as a person that works for a council, I can see how catastrophic that is.
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Feeling slightly rueful about taking out that TNT Sports subscription…
Was amazed when they wheeled out Marcus Trescothick for the post match interviews yesterday. England have a batting coach?? Have to ask what the bloke is doing. Crawley, Duckett, Pope and Brook are very talented players, but seem to constantly have a finger on the self destruct button.
This is surely the end of Brendan McCullum and “Bazball”. It served its purpose, but the whole thing has come crashing down here. Signs that it was coming unstuck against India in the summer when I thought England were mostly outplayed, but had enough big moments from individuals at critical points in the tests to win a couple of matches
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They have to move on from McCullum, paid millions yet they fail at the big moments, they have a punchers chance but can’t get the job done. Stopped the rot when he took over but its not good enough and they keep wheeling out the same crap.
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Media knives sharpened and ready to dish the dirt on the England squad apparently, particularly around the break at Noosa.
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Mate of mine lived in Taunton in the 90’s, plenty of stories about what the touring Australian and West Indian sides of the time got up to when they were in town to play Somerset. Pre social media and smart phones of course, plus they were successful sides that kept winning (which helps).
The optics though of that beach break in Noosa are terrible.
I remember seeing Australia (circa Mark ‘Tubbs’ Taylor and a young Shane Warne) play Kent in the mid-90s. Can only imagine what Warne was getting up to off the pitch back then! Such a shame the touring sides play so few (if any) local sides.
England could really have done with some proper warm up matches on this tour. A short white ball tour of New Zealand and a game against the Lions was clearly not enough. Saying that, they would still have lost. Australia are clearly the better side.
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In home conditions they definitely are. But the way this tour has gone and McCullum saying they actually overprepared, they didnt give themselves the best opportunity IMO.
Had heaps of fun trying to explain the rules of cricket to a confused group of English language students in 1999. What made it funnier still, was that I didn’t really know either. In more recent years, it’s gained a bigger following in Spain, thanks in large part to the growing South Asian diaspora who have set up mini-leagues - but still has some way to go before challenging the holy trinity of football, basketball and handball.
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I would take what McCullum says with a huge dollop of skepticism. How can you overprepare to play in conditions that are the complete antithesis to what you are used to? He also didn’t have a bowling coach 6 weeks prior to the tour. So who were the bowlers overpreparing with?
This series has laid bare a few things. Stokes may be a leader of men but he can’t set a field to save his life. English batsmen wilt at the first sign of anything making them uncomfortable and only really late rearguard innings by Jofra Archer have added any semblance of respect to any of the totals. Catches win matches, and the overprepared English cordon have butter fingers.
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I dont agree on Stokes re setting a field tbh. McCullum is full of shit in the main, his comments were laughable.
I just wonder about all this talk of ‘optics’ and the constant repetition of out of context remarks (over prepared), until they become truth.
Surely it’s the difference between Content and actual news.
I imagine that if anyone on here was followed by cameras on the weekend or their day off, recording every move, every beer, every tablet, every spliff etc etc and then followed them back into work on Monday morning and did a running commentary on how shit at their job they were, and generally made stuff up about them to fuel the Content machine and the prevailing narrative we’d all look like a bunch of losers who didn’t care and shouldn’t be in the role we are in.
I would imagine an attitude of defensiveness would be adopted.
We know that in the face of a hostile media no one is safe and how easily they can destroy people.
I find it ugly.
I don’t know. There’s a lot of free runs out there. And once a batsman gets set he goes preventative. .
The media is ugly I agree. Re overprepared it was McCullum who said it after another hammering. They then proceed to go on a 4 day piss up in the full glare of the media, fine if you are winning or even competitive but they are neither. It throws petrol on the flames of a squad who are perceived, rightly or wrongly, as arrogant and out of touch. Its become a clear lesson in how not to mould a succesful test team.
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I think it’s possible to over prepare in the nets. It’s no subsitute for a competitive warm up match.
I remember when touring sides would play loads of games in the lead up to test series. In South Africa you’d get two or three chances to see the team before they played the test team against local provincial sides in 2-day, 3-day warm up games with very generous declarations.
I remember Pakistan toured and they played Western Province, and Province scored 298 first innings, Pakistan were bowled out for 120. Province came to the crease hit 2 runs and declared and then let Pakistan chase 181 to win off about 50 overs. Made for a great day, and I think they got there.
This was before the 360 batters, etc. so chasing at 3.6 to the over was actually quote a lofty task. Inzaman Ul-Haq though felt like a cheat code back then.
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