The Cricket Season of 2018/19

[TheNuclearOne]

Certainly over there vs Broad he does at the moment but he'll very likely be fine back here on home soil. I bet they wish they took two right handed openers now instead of one. You can't bring Bancroft back in but that leaves you with Kwaka who just got demoted and is left handed to boot. With Warner dead in the water against Broad we don't have an opener that looks remotely like scoring runs. Warner almost has to go but there's no options really. You could drop him down the order for a game but who would score runs replacing him.

Hopefully pray to god it might not matter in a day or so. I had grave fears even Smith was due a failure last night and he struggled early before keeping on keeping on. The Ashes would already be gone if not for that freak.

[Yossarian]

Burns

[AndyP]

Burns

His last performance wasn't good enough.

[Jarro]

His last performance wasn't good enough.

As opposed to Warners ?

[TheNuclearOne]

So so good even if we did get there mostly via 1 1/2 batsman (Smith could count as three tho in all seriousness) and a superb bowling cartel.

Still a long way to go for the team. The good news is many of these guys will go a lot better in home conditions against friendlier bowling and things shouldn't be near as fragile overall. It will be interesting to see how much loyalty is dished at the selection table. Kwaka, Burns and Patterson will be in the mix you'd think at some point among one or two others perhaps. Big runs could see Renshaw in the mix. So many left handers.

Paine i thought had an absolutely superb series as captain. Well, excepting his Roger Federer like reviews. Others need to share the blame there tho and you could see a change in mindset in that last Pom innings. Paine got some criticism for the loss at Headingley but the fact of the matter is that Australia had every chance of winning. A tough catch dropped by Harris, a chance of a run out gone begging, Lyon's fumble and the ump giving Lyon's lbw not out. The chances of all that going on in one period of play would be pretty small. Paine stood up with the bat in the last Test giving Smith valuable support in the first innings with a half ton and his brisk 23 followed by a sensational declaration in the second dig was very sweet in the wash. Bringing on Labuschagne was a great call.

Starcers isn't bowling as well as he was a couple of years ago and has slipped behind the rampant Cummins and Hazlewood and is vying with Pattinson. He still had a fine game and what a great problem for us to have at the moment.

The Poms have got some big problems of their own. Their bowling is excellent particularly with Anderson to come back. Personally i wouldn't have dropped The Wizard, i reckon he was due. His stats as they were aren't actually that bad at all. Denly and Butler look like they might be getting warmed up and Burns has come along very well for them despite a lack of fanfare. I'm looking at you Ian. Too little too late tho and they lack the excuse of conditions being foreign and customarily challenging.

Such a great series. The Poms record breaking win, Archers frightening display, Smiths out of this world batting and comeback, lots of great bowling. Test cricket alive and well.

I wonder if the selectors are already at half mast with the prospect of perhaps being able to slip Mitch Marsh in for the final Test. You'd think Cummins might get a rest too but he's pretty keen. There's Neser too.

[AndyP]

As opposed to Warners ?

I get the feeling that you didn't check what Burns scored in his last test before you replied.

[Grumpy8]

Here we go again, the selectors loyalty for the marsh brothers must really get up the noses of other team members. The crap they spin to work this guy into a side is unbelievable. Apparently it’s a batsman’s wicket so we need an extra bowler . They have an allrounder in waiting his name is manus, a lot more ****en reliable than marsh .

[pt73]

Langer has publicly stated that Geoff Marsh is one of his best mates so has known both Marsh boys since they were toddlers.

[AndyP]

Great trolling by the selectors.

[Yossarian]

No issues with a fifth bowler and no way Marnus can do that role yet. So it makes sense in a way, the issue is the player. If he has to be included it should be as a bowler that bats a bit but it is always vice versa.

[TheNuclearOne]

Why did they wait so long to unleash him!?!?!?! lolol

Some runs later would be nice too.

[Grumpy8]

“Most of Australia hates me “ he got that right , was a good job last night I must admit, still think starc should have been in the side tho

[AndyP]

david warner is the first opener to be dismissed for under 10 runs eight times in the one series

lol

[Grumpy8]

That’s because no other opener would be given that many chances

[AndyP]

Davey showed us. No dismissal for under 10 this time.

Although, there is this:

Least runs scored by OPENERS playing 10 inns in a Ashes
95 DAVID WARNER 2019
173 C Washbrook 1950/51
199 JW Bruke 1958/59
206 J Dyson 1981
213 M Taylor 1990/91

https://twitter.com/theamitbansal/st...221179904?s=21

[Grumpy8]

I found vision of the after match celebrations as very distasteful and over the top .Very few of them had anything to celebrate, retaining the ashes with a drawn series is ordinary especially after a big loss in the last match . They should be back in the nets this morning working on their games . Plus we should be looking for some new selectors .

[TheNuclearOne]

I found vision of the after match celebrations as very distasteful and over the top .Very few of them had anything to celebrate, retaining the ashes with a drawn series is ordinary especially after a big loss in the last match . They should be back in the nets this morning working on their games . Plus we should be looking for some new selectors .

You're a hard man Grumpy.

[Grumpy8]

You're a hard man Grumpy.

Take smith out of that side and it was probably a 5 nil drubbing, how they could leave starc out of that match ( unless it was a testimonial match for Siddle ) on that pitch is beyond me

[Steve57]

Take smith out of that side and it was probably a 5 nil drubbing, how they could leave starc out of that match ( unless it was a testimonial match for Siddle ) on that pitch is beyond me

Or a product of the Indian bookmaking fraternity?No knowledge just a suspicion!Too many questions unanswered around team selections and the result of the toss for my liking.

[TheNuclearOne]

Take smith out of that side and it was probably a 5 nil drubbing, how they could leave starc out of that match ( unless it was a testimonial match for Siddle ) on that pitch is beyond me

We went over at sizable underdogs and retained The Ashes. It's been a long long time and some excellent cricketers have returned with much less thru these years. You have to enjoy your successes and losing the last game may dampen it a tad but it sure don't take it away.

We did actually draw the Test Smith didn't play. For sure we would have been flayed without him. That doesn't take away from the awesome bowling efforts. Sure there's a lot of work to do for most of the top order but conditions will be a lot more familiar and friendly out here. Warner is very likely safe at this point along with Smith and i'd have to say Wade now. At least we know he can make Test hundreds in extremely trying conditions. He really manned up to get thru that Archer spell.

Plenty of positions half open tho.

[Stuart]

Take away message for me is that this was a series between two pretty poor Test teams.

A few great individual performances on both sides (Smith and Stokes with the bat, Cummins/Hazlewood & Broad/Archer with the ball), but overall neither team should be happy with their overall effort. Australia probably played 'better' across the majority of the series, but if you had to pick a combined XI, there would probably be more English players in it. As such, a drawn series is probably not an unreasonable outcome.

At this point, you would have to think that any other half-decent Test team should put both sides to the sword. This may be New Zealand and Pakistan's best chances to win in Australia for a long time (although Pakistan have problems of their own). The Kiwis could arguably come into the upcoming series as an even-money bet, but Australia may have found some form against the weaker Pakistan team by that time.

[Ron Burgundy]

Sure, if we didn’t have Smith it would have been very different. But we did have him.

It’s the first time we’ve retained the ashes in 17 years. It was a great series and some great tests, albeit arguably because the teams were equally mediocre rather than both being equally great.

Take the win (or the non-loss I guess). Let them celebrate.

[Grumpy8]

Celebrate their mediocrity in the dressing room , don’t carry on like they just won the grand final , because they didn’t

[Yossarian]

Did better than the 05 side. They were a mediocre bunch for sure.

[Ron Burgundy]

Celebrate their mediocrity in the dressing room , don’t carry on like they just won the grand final , because they didn’t

Turns out they did. Hope you don’t mind they invited the poms in too.





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