FIRST TEST: SHERE BANGLA NATIONAL STADIUM

Imagine being stupid enough to barrack for Melbourne.

Comments

[Philsgone]

Business as usual, solid bowling followed by wobbly batting. Warner out first as usual on the turning pitch, Renshaw is starting to look like a solid opener.

[Bruce]

Also business as usual: Aleem Dar having a shocker.

[Tony Tea]

Hasn't Aleem retired yet. He's gone the way of Dickie Bird. Hasn't got a clue. Bit like Khawaja. Why was he trying to pinch a suicidal single late on day 1?

[Philsgone]

The beard gives him a new lease on life though

[2BarRiff]

Imagine being stupid enough to barrack for Australia.

[Carrot]

Looks like we're doing our best to "Englandify" our side, and have an endless batting line-up. And yes, Arleem Dar - that last decision off Cummins was awful.

[Carrot]

Agar looks a good selection now, given his contribution so far in this match. O'Keefe didn't do much wrong figures-wise but clearly fell foul of the "no dickheads" policy; you'd probably argue that with Agar's three wickets and valuable runs here that he's out-performed SOK anyway, with the added bonus of being only 23. Can't see him playing much in Australia, though - not for awhile, anyway.

[Carrot]

Crazy bounce and carry with the new ball from Hazlewood and Cummins- in Bangladesh! If they can do that here, it'll be great to see what they can do on a 'Gabba flyer in November.

[Carrot]

"Now Tamim has to protect the nightwatchman!!" - unknown Bangladeshi commentator.

What the hell? How do these guys get their jobs?

[Philsgone]

whats the story regarding our team haircut? Must have got a bulk discount at the barber.

[Tony Tea]

We are kidding ourselves if we think practicing in Darwin on prepared spin tracks will help us in Asia. You have to regularly bat on minefields in matches to become proficient on them. But we've got bugger all chance of that with our fixation with roads.

[Carrot]

What's this? Someone's injured and it's not Pat Cummins?

[Carrot]

Wow, there's been terrible umpiring in the last few minutes.

[Carrot]

So, it looks like we're toast and that Bangladesh are going to add another scalp to the list of major Test sides that they've beaten. Frankly, that can only be a good thing - we didn't want this series in the first place, and it's good for the game that Bangladesh are doing well. Michael Vaughan must be feeling pretty stupid at the moment - he wrote a virtual epitaph for Test cricket following the West Indies capitulation at Edgbaston the other day, since then we've had a very competitive match at Headingley and now this.

There are positives to be found for us in this match, too. Ashton Agar has really looked the part. All too often our second spinner for subcontinental tours has resembled someone that was pulled from club cricket, and might as well have been carrying the drinks for all the good he did. A genuine option, plus a more-than-reasonable part-timer in Maxwell, gives us better chances on future subbie tours. That's above and beyond whether practice decks in Darwin are of any use, of course!

[Carrot]

Well bowled, Lippy. Match figures of 9/161. It's never a bad thing when he's in the wickets, either.

OK, I'll shut up now. I'm talking to myself. Again!

[Tony Tea]

I agree. Well bowled, Lippster. Well done also to roll the Bangles before they got seriously out of sight.

[m0nty]

Cow Corner is going to have to pull a Dizzy for us to win this. He has to score 200 of the 265 needed at a percentage of 75.47% of the total, currently on 75 out of 109, at 68.8%. Has to lift his game.

[m0nty]

Oh well, there goes Warner. Over 100 needed from the last seven wickets. I sense impending doom.

[m0nty]

Steel drums are beating, the collapso is on.

[Tony Tea]

5 for 187. Gulpy gulp gulp.

[2BarRiff]

Nice to see that, in a world of change, some things never change.

[Tony Tea]

Uuurrrrk....

[Tony Tea]

Any chance the Crooky commentator can stop telling us how fantastically fantastic Aleem Dar is.

[m0nty]

Agar the Orrible is our last hope.

[2BarRiff]

"AUS should have the experience to win this one with Maxwell and Agar now"

Crooky commenter red-eye attempting the reverse mozz.

[Tony Tea]

Setting up the narrative.

[m0nty]

And there goes the Great Last Hope.

[Tony Tea]

Agar Jelly.

[2BarRiff]

Dear God - Wade 30 byes for the match.

[Philsgone]

Well Warner gets the monkey off his back but we lose. I heard this is the second highest 4th innings score by a visiting team to the sub con in history. a good result if its true.
How does "never to be picked again" Okeefe replace our best fast bowler in the last 12 months? Is Bird touring?
Poms beaten at home,so thats a bigger loss. But the Ashes look a forlorn hope presently
Also we have the worst team batting average of any touring team on the sub con in the last 10 years. Why oh why do we still have high hopes when we tour there.
Win the toss qnd bat in test 2. Our only hope

[Carrot]

Didn't see a ball this morning. Woke up, checked the phone and Hazlewood got out straightaway. Oh well.

Can't see this having much bearing on the Ashes. In fact, with Warner getting some runs and Cummins getting another Test under his belt we've probably done ourselves good. The O'Keefe selection is a funny one, though - is it some sort of olive branch? Are they going to pick him, and go with one seamer for the next match? I doubt it. In which case it's some sort of political decision, and they're making it public that they forgive him for that dinner thing. Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind being handed a big, fat, tour cheque under those circumstances.

And yes, England lost!! Oh, it was glorious. Amazing batting from Braithwaite and Hope. They soaked up so much pressure in both innings. Not something you see a lot of these days to be honest - guys tend to either make hay on roads or not at all, which is what gets the likes of us muttering into our beards about the death of good batting. And then Blackwood came in and just LOST HIS SHIT, including a back away swipe over long on for six off Anderson's second delivery with the new ball. Just balls-out insane. He could have got out at any time, but Root had no idea what to do with him, panicked, and spread the field when he really needed wickets; meanwhile Hope just got on with it. Brilliant.

[I am and will always be Not Trampis]

This is a wonderful result for test cricket. combine this with the remarkable turnaround in the Windies then Test cricket is back in town,
I am very pleased for Chandy the Banglas coach, you could not hope to meet and know a nicer bloke.

I am thinking they picked Agar to play in the Ashes. 4 quicks on fast bouncy pitches and play an Aussie Ali

[Tony Tea]

I wish people would stop referring to the result as an upset. It's only an upset if you have never seen the Bangles play at home, or never seen Australia bat on turners, or you are basically a clown.

[Carrot]

It's not an upset in terms of form or expectations. It is an upset in terms of the world order, though - first win against Australia, another major nation toppled and all that. A bit like the Russo-Japanese War.

[Carrot]

A bit off-topic, but anyway - there's something that annoys me about English cricket that seems to have become an Australian problem, too. The fact that every series involving non-Ashes opposition is somehow viewed as either a warm-up for, or conversely, as some sort of unwanted distraction from the Ashes. If I was Bangladeshi or West Indian right now, it'd piss me right off. Even before the pay dispute really got bad, Cricket Australia fought tooth and nail to avoid playing Tests in Bangladesh because of "the schedule" and/or the proximity to an Ashes series. The talk surrounding selection this English summer has all been about Australia, and somehow never about either South Africa or the West Indies. These are just two examples of what I mean, and it shits me. Give your opponents their due, pick the best side for each match, and stop behaving like only certain series matter. Anything else is patronising, arrogant and unprofessional.

PS, Tones has been on social media saying how this has been a good result for cricket, and I couldn't agree more. We could even argue that it's been a good result for Australia. If we're that fixated on beating India in India (despite there being three other subcontinental nations that we also have dismal away records against*, see above about only certain series being significant), then Bangladesh being strong is a very good thing. We should play there more and give ourselves the best chance of trying to master slow, low pitches. That would be good for them, and good for us.

*We'll have to see about Afghanistan

[Philsgone]

Couldnt agree more Carrot. The Ashes is the least of our concern when we are touring Bangladesh FFS. We show disdain for the "other" sides, but treat the poms and Indians as VIP's. Its always about the money. We are a poor global citizens when it comes to our national sport.

[Tony Tea]

The interesting thing now is that Test series in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh (and someday Pakistan) are those I am most likely to watch because they are on at the best times. Tests here are on during work, Tests in England, South Africa and West Indies are on at bedtime. The Tests I most want us to do well in are the Tests we do worst in. It would be great if we went for minefields in Australia, got good on them, then played great Tests regularly on the subcontinent.
(It's too much to expect the subbies to serve up roads to even the contest from the other direction.)