The Ashes 2023

Burkie1203

Very interesting now.

6 down

Dr. Bre

England need a partnership

Sultan of Bling

Oh Johnny!!

Sultan of Bling

Ridiculous from Woakes. What was he thinking.

Lucky man.

MFPM

Bairstow gone now!! Yorkshire lads haven't stepped up!!

iffandonlyif

Listening to TMS. What I would give for them to stop mentioning Winviz predictions.

Burkie1203

Clouded over too. Ball moving a little bit now

Strumms

Shocking shot again by Bairstow.

if he was there another 30 minutes England would have won… still might but jesus… a lot of playing and missing and not much batting left.

Mysterypunter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120825484#Comment_120825484

They were all predicting a walkover, 250/3 or something like that, delusional stuff, what you want to happen often bears no resemblance to actual events. Its hard to listen to, like a lot of sports nowadays you could watch with the sound turned down or follow cricinfo or cricbuzz. The amount of experts who know **** all is staggering

Strumms

jesus, I was in the process of typing.. ‘ if Brook just stays there and does nothing stupid, England cruise home ‘…

Brook did something stupid..

Strumms

🤯 6 from Wood… that’s ballsy

umpire completely bottles calling a wide… bouncer high and way wide down leg 😏🙄

MFPM

Australia lost this in their second innings, far too loose by some of their main batters, England would have really struggled to get 300 based on what we've seen today.

Starc deserves that 5 for!

Mysterypunter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120825785#Comment_120825785

20 of them at least in this test that weren't called

y0ssar1an22

boland to be dropped again. disaster of a test for him. and not going for that catch at the end?

Strumms

saved the series, good job. Would have been annoying sitting down to watch the fourth and fifth tests knowing there was nothing at stake. Instead everything now to play for…

Xander10

The Aussies had no look with the weather yesterday. If day 3 was a complete wash out, It would have been interesting to see how it went

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120825804#Comment_120825804

Yep, agree - those cheap wickets on Friday afternoon turned out to be very expensive. Smith in particular as he's well experienced and surely knew he needed to buckle down and concentrate. He put big pressure on the middle order, Marsh rescued them in first innings and Head to a extent in the second but his was a key wicket.

Anyway fair dues to England for getting over the line.

Strumms

Think the break now will suit the English more…. Think it’s 11 days now…. Opportunity for rest, preparation, recuperation and treatments….long time for the Aussies to be stewing on getting 3 wickets away from an Ashes victory to having to start again with England breathing down their necks.

Mysterypunter

Good result for the neutral, series still in the balance

Royale with Cheese

Woakes batting proving handy down the order too. I can't see Anderson getting back in the side, even if Robinson isn't fit.

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120825949#Comment_120825949

Logic would dictate that he wouldn’t get back in, however… Ben Stokes told the press that James Anderson will be back in the side for his 'home' test at Old Trafford after being ‘rested’ for this test…

not too savvy a comment… “ Jimmy is being rested and as usual will be available for selection for OT “ would have been more appropriate.

Mysterypunter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120825949#Comment_120825949

Wood made a decent contribution as well, wouldn't have fancied Tongue and Anderson to knock off 30-40. Stronger batting lineup for sure

Gillespy

Too big a drop off from Starc and Cummins didn’t help Australia. Hazlewood and Lyon were missed. Boland has been a big disappointment, I know he couldn’t maintain a single figure average forever but he hasn’t had any reply. Don’t expect to see him again this series. Marsh offers more and Green too.

England well worth the win. Only for them dropping Marsh on 10 or something was it close.

dohboy

Don't think Boland has bowled too badly but he just hasn't taken wickets. Lyon is a huge loss. Murphy was pretty innocuous, young lad tbf, and Cummins didn't seem too eager to use him. The Aussies have released Michael Neser to play county cricket next week and then come back into the squad so presumably he may start the next Test.

Strumms

Boland is 35 next birthday….. 33 wickets in 8 tests. Averages 4.13 wickets per test…. Not exactly a world beater. He’d want to be averaging that per innings…You won’t be getting much more from him or anything more then you see now at that age and this stage of his career…. surely there has to be another seamer somewhere in Australia, mid 20’s, a proper quick that would be a better selection… ?

Murphy looked average, I’d say once the England batsmen get a look at him as they have done, it might be a bad time for his figures, that said weird how he was only trusted with 9.3 over across both innings.

VillaMad

Super game over the last few days with England just about deserving to win in the end but really any of the test matches could of gone either way. At lunch on Friday when England were 142-7, it looked over but somehow they got themselves back into the game.

Australia will still be really confident of completing the job. Hazlewood will obviously come back into the side and then their only selection question is what to do with Mitch Marsh and Cameroon Green. Old Trafford generally is a decent pitch for spinners as well and some teams in the past few years have picked two spinners, so Murphy will definitely be in the side again, despite hardly bowling at Headingley.

England have a problem with Jonny Bairstow. His head is gone and it is affecting his batting now along with his keeping. Stokes and McCullum however tend to give players more chances than they deserve with Crawley an example who could have been dropped at least 5 times in the past year. Foakes should easily be in the side for his keeping alone but his batting is also perfectly serviceable at Test level and he averages almost 40 in First Class cricket. He has suffered from the emergence of Harry Brook and then trying to get Bairstow back in the team as a keeper.

Interesting selections for England though at Old Trafford. Ali may well stay at 3 even though he is wholly unsuitable to it as it keeps Brook down the order. Anderson is expected to come back in but I can't see how after Woakes' performance and Anderson has looked every bit of his age so far. Robinson will likely miss the rest of the series now as well and then you have Josh Tongue who played well at Lords. Good problems in this regard for England.

Gillespy

Jarrod Kimber did a video on England and the third innings. How they manage to get back into games by somehow getting teams to screw up setting a winning total. It’s been a feature of Bazball, getting the opposition to choke.

Australia will be livid to fell into it. Only for Head’s heroics it could have been much worse. Granted they batted in unfavourable conditions for some of it but Warner, Smith and Labushchange didn’t. England two bowlers down they allowed Moeen Ali bowl a long cheap spell and even gifted him two wickets.

Strumms

Wonder will Bairstow keep his place ?

his keeping isn’t good. His batting the same.

scores :

78,20, / 16,10, / 12,5. …. One half century in 6 innings this Ashes series and averaging 23.5

when neither facet is particularly good you need to examine changes … you probably hang onto him if either keeping or batting was in good nick.

print media in England are pretty much unanimous in their view that he should be dropped but because of varying factors… Stokes very much likes him, only a few months ago he referred to him in the media as the best wicket keeper in the world…. Take from that, Ben doesn’t own a television … 😵‍💫 lack of tried and tested / in form replacements……

Jos Buttler ? Not going to be a good look, considering he’s not made himself available for Englands forthcoming Indian tour because he wants to get paid to play South African franchise T20 cricket…..The SA20….

so, Ben Foakes ? Is hit fit ? Yes I see he just played for Surrey yesterday . Scored a healthy 46….

Gillespy

They’ve named the same squad again for Old Trafford so Bairstow will be keeping. A lot of stubborn pride in that decision from all parties. Strong argument that it already cost them Edgbaston and his batting since the first innings there has fell off. It’s the worst of both worlds.

Strumms

I think Stokes as good as a cricketer he is… he’s a bit of a spoofer as a captain.

look at this wicket keeping situation…he’s described Ben Foakes as the best wicket keeper in the world….one year ago….

https://wisden.com/series-stories/england-v-new-zealand/ben-stokes-ben-foakes-is-the-best-wicketkeeper-in-the-world

so if he’s a better wicket keeper. He said the similar about Jonny… if Foakes…The best in the world he’s certainly not getting just rewards for that… any ounce of logic says if any sports team on the planet has the ability to select a player who is the ‘best in the world’ in their position they just walk into the team. So Ben is either a complete spoofer as regards his dealings with the media / public or he just prefers picking his mates…. Probably both I’m thinking.

picking on reputation over form / ability is BS…Bairstow is having a seriously average ashes…. Too many mistakes with the gloves, , not nearly enough runs with the bat.

Foakes is 30, played 20 tests. His batting average isn’t far off Bairstow. Scored a couple of test hundreds. Scoring hundreds in the championship, in form, confident.

I wonder is there a bit of an issue between the two… an interview recently with Foakes in the Telegraph which he claimed when asked about his non selection…. “ well, I’m not very bazball “….hmmm that’s a bit of a thinly veiled criticism of his skipper / management….. not the smartest comment….but shows that there isn’t an alignment of thinking….