FIRST TEST: EDGBASTON

I see no reason to alter this prediction.

Comments

[Soups]

Hello all.
Todd Woodbridge hosting from a Sydney studio. Ads all the time.
How did Fox Cricket let 9 get exclusive rights??
We won the toss and of course we batted. Let's see how we go.

[Carrot]

I have quite a good feeling about this series. I’m cautiously optimistic at least. Langer’s evangelism and nepotism annoy me, but I think between him and Paine that we have a more intelligent approach than we did under Lehmann. This looks like a side, particularly bowling-wise, that should do well in English conditions, and even if it doesn’t, it looks like they’ve at least thought about it.

[Carrot]

Pretty much par for the course at drinks. Two early wickets, ball dominating bat, a bit of cat and mouse. Good cricket.

[Carrot]

3/83 at lunch. I would have ripped your arm off if you’d have offered me that at start of play. And even more so at 3/35.

[Patard]

Agree Carrot.

Imagine if we'd selected our best team (slips into dream)

[Carrot]

What would you have as our best XI, Pat? Give or take Wade, I think this is a pretty good team - and he could prove me wrong anyway. And to be honest, any side that doesn’t have a Marsh in it is already a step in the right direction for me.

[Soups]

With the dryness of this pitch Marnus should've played instead of Wade but with Paine's shot Wade should keep and have Marnus in with Head to captain.
The first dropped should be Dar though. 4 drastically wrong decisions within 4 hours. Needs to be retired. The end has come.

[Big Ramifications]

Why didn't Peppermint Pattie review? He's played enuff to get the vibe that was well missing the pegs. And dafuq was Smith doing?

Did ya decide yours was a NON-ADVISORY role there chuckles? Having the best best seats in the house, and all? FARK

[Carrot]

Clouds and silver linings: it looks like England are a bowler down. You could argue that Siddle and Smith’s partnership have already reaped the rewards of that; Stokes in current form is nowhere near the bowler of Anderson, Broad and Woakes standard, and Woakes and Broad can’t bowl all day. Maureen I don’t rate at all. If we don’t concede a big first-innings deficit, the second dig could be interesting.

[Carrot]

Rain. Bah.

Siddle playing like a guy who really wants to make every moment count. And why not; there have been better players that have played fewer Tests than him, but you can’t fault his application.

[Carrot]

Welcome back to Test cricket, Steve Smith. Absolutely fantastic.

[Lou]

Awesome is so over-used by Aussies, but Steve Smith has it written all over him. What a bloody player.

[philsgone]

Well the worst day of umpiring along with a fairly abjesct team batting performance, save for an outstanding knock. Smith is head and shoulders and chest above anyone in our team and probably theirs as well. A bit of movement and we cant play cricket. Seems ridiculous. How can a left hander accept Broad bowling around the wicket and he is going to hit the stumps? Every one of his appeals should go straight to DRA as he cant bring the ball back from that trajectory. we are in the game, need early wickets to generate the pressure we put ourselves under. Warner and Bancroft looked very nervous, will be much better for the run. Plus their best bowler is gone, so we really have to win this game to take advantag of Jimmy's absence.

[philsgone]

Sids also batted like a man who was celebrating his return from the wilderness, which he was. will be key on this pitch as well. Lyno also in the last dig might be crucial.

[I am Not Trampis]

Two things before I comment

Cricket has batsmen in the Ashes nit batters. There is a world of difference between a ball that seams and one that swings. how come ex test players do not know this??

I would not have picked Wade in England as he f does not have the technique.
As for picking Pattinson and Siddle who is going to take 20 wickets. On a hard wicket we do not have a fast bowler i.e a bowler who can bowl 150K plus.

We are lucky the P{oms picked Anderson who clearly was not fit. if he was we would not have gotten 100.

Gotta say i have never seen Stokes bowl as badly as here.

I think this is going to be a draw.

[I am Not Trampis]

I need to add two things.
The technology they use to adjudge LBWS was never meant to be used thus.
This is how Anderson was denied a perfectly good LBW in Adelaide against smith on the very sus grounds the ball pitched outside the legstump. If it had it would have missed the stumps not cannoned into them.

I have recently found out via my youngest son who is studying accountancy the Glenn McGrath foundation has very high administrative costs..WHY I ask

[Carrot]

Something else that came up from yesterday is that we’re going to get a fair amount of ugliness from the crowds this series. “The banned” were always going to get some stick, you could mount any number of arguments to suggest that they deserve it and Smith in particular because his fall from grace was the furthest, but I’d say that in any other country it would probably have been more good-humoured. It seems that there’s some genuine self-righteous anger there, for no other reason than those people are English, not-particularly well-informed, and just like getting angry about stuff. Think hardline Brexit voters after a few pints - or the well-dressed middle-aged guy who approached me out of nowhere in a pub in a nice area in London a couple of weeks ago and called me “an absolute ****ing c****, an absolute ****ing arsehole” when I was doing the very definition of minding my own business. I couldn’t imagine that would happen anywhere else other than England, and I can’t imagine any other crowd getting worked up in quite the same way that Edgbaston did yesterday.

But frankly, I think it’ll play into our hands. The team will unite and support the three players, particularly Smith, and it’ll just make us want it more. Smith’s innings yesterday was incredible for that - I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player bat with more hunger than that. I hope we see it all series, it would make for a very satisfying summer.

[I am Not Trampis]

Can I say numbers and names on shirts should only be seen at a football match , never at a cricket match.

I think the key tonight is if Braveheart fires

[Carrot]

The numbers and names on shirts thing is a funny one. Does anyone know why they’ve decided to do it?

And who’s Braveheart again? I know that Smith is Flashheart....

[Patard]

What would you have as our best XI, Pat?

It wouldn't have Fizzler for starters.

I'm gobsmacked that Starc wasn't selected. Double plus gobsmacked that Fizzler was.

I'm not too keen on Pattinson but if selected I'd have him replacing Cummins not Hazlewood.

I'd have Wade or Paine, not both (Wade preferably).

I'd never select New Don ever again along with Smarsh.

Burns would open with Warner and Patterson comes in before Wade who replaced Paine.

This team smacks of shouse.

[Carrot]

New Don? You mean Smith? Are you that hardline about Sandpapergate?

[Patard]

New Don = Khawaja

Don't you remember when he was first selected how the MSM was in orgasmic canonisation of him as the second coming of The Don?

And what's more a new and better Diverse Don!

All his 30 run top scores were greeted with praise for each exquisite run, no cricket piece complete without adjectives such as scintillating, recherché and the like. Every cricket journo throughout thise great wide brown land was falling over each other to heap ladles full of unwarranted praise on what was and remains a fairly ordinary Test cricketer.

[Carrot]

Oh ok - I missed that. Not even sure what MSM is! Must be my Northern Hemisphere bias again.

Pretty attritional stuff so far. Every time I see this approach from England I worry. It makes for very, very dull, conservative cricket, AND it works - it’s how they won in 2010/11. I’m sure we’ll have our moments, though.

[Patard]

MSM = mainstream media

[Carrot]

Oh I see! OK. I remember people being thrilled to bits that he was “diverse”, for sure.

[Carrot]

Joe Root, another 50+ score not converted, ha ha ha ha ha.

That feels decidedly hollow when it’s 2/154 defending 284.

[I am Not Trampis]

Braveheart is Rob roy.

Root could have only been 66

[patard]

Note how often the MSM refer to this pissweak attack as "potent"

It's like they're covering up for a crime

I am sick of warney and his bloated has been victorian mates stewing oz selections towards the rank and file

Victoria's best years were a decade ago before it turned into the shithole of oz

[patard]

Get serious Oz and remove Victorian sensibilities from Oz selections.

This Test is a fucking disgrace. No way should Siddle be selected unless Oz were to find herself in the nuclear ravaged wastrel;and of a post Mars attack a la War of the Worlds.

I want selectors and media heads to roll after this test

[patard]

Complete remake of the team after this test with Starc to come in and Siddle to go to some victorian stud where warney and langer can mate with him.

Can we dispense with the langer experiment now?

Can we play cricket again without regard for msm sensibilties and just select our best team?

[Lou]

Jeebus, Sids is hardly the problem! He batted beautifully in the first innings and bowled about as well as I'd expect. Cummins on the other hand was nowhere near what I thought he'd be, and biggest problem, we ain't got batsmen unless Smith is cloned. Having Wade, Bancroft and Head in the team at the same time feels embarrassing.

Still at least their is no Stoinis. I would have given up entirely as I don't want to follow Aus and cringe all the time.

[Patard]

Fizzler's selection is is emblematic of a rot that goes to the core!

[Carrot]

Smith. Again. Crazy stuff. Fewer boos when he got there this time, too. I guess there’s not a lot more you can do as a crowd when faced with such excellence than just stand and applaud.

[Carrot]

Cash in, fill your boots, make hay, pick your expression; they’re a bowler down, they’re tired and the conditions are benign. It’s not exactly gripping watching England resort to part-timers, but if we ever had a chance to go one up, this is it. Let’s hope no one gets ahead of themselves trying to be a hero and gives their wicket away for no good reason.

[I am Not Trampis]

going around the wicket to bowl to a lefthander is a modern day trend but it makes little sense UNLESS you are swinging or seaming the ball away from the batsman very late.

If not it becomes a waste of time and you have lost the ability to move the ball naturally across the batsman. Every ball becomes a straight ball.

Unless Lyons can do something special we have not picked the bowlers to win a test match.

[philsgone]

We need 5 from Lyno, a runout just to give them the shits, and the other 4 can be split.
It will go into the last session for sure, but we need to take advantage as Jimmy is MIA and it would be good to see him run out and the last wicket to fall.
Smivvy is a machine, a well oiled slightly crazily designed machine.
And the umpiring is still ordinary. Not to mention the bloody new game of check how round the ball is every second over.

[I am Not Trampis]

The pitch is crap. This is a highly technical term. Evidence. 400 on the fourth day???

[Carrot]

It’s a pretty dead pitch, it’s true. It looks like there’s a fair amount of turn there though, so Lyon should be in business tomorrow. None of this is that unexpected; there was a graphic from Sky showing that day 4 always averages the highest runs per wicket at Edgbaston. Throw in that they’re a bowler down and hey presto.

Lyon could disappoint tomorrow - apparently his day 5 record isn’t that good - but it looks very unlikely that we’ll lose, and we’d have absolutely taken a bore draw when we were 8/135 on the first day. Hopefully we’ll get something more than that, though.

[Tony Tea]

I fully expected to log on this morning and see that we had been rolled for fuck all and England had strolled to a win.

[Tony Tea]

That we had made 400+ is amazing. England missed Jim Bob and Woakes must have upset Root.

But now the hard slog begins. Two words: 1) Fucken; and 2) Cardiff.

[Tony Tea]

The numbers and names on shirts thing is a funny one. Does anyone know why they’ve decided to do it?

Wild guess: rhymes with "bunny".

[I am Not Trampis]

can some-one elucidate on why no-one on TV knows the difference between a ball that seams and one that swings. I thought this was only applicable to Nein but the poms are as bad as us and can someone please shoot Shane Warne p;lease.

[Carrot]

Ah. That would explain it.

[Lou]

Jeebus Lyon and Cummins and Siddle all bowled very well. Sids so unlucky.

Lyon was unreal. Some of them looked nervous of him like he was a dastardly leggie. He was getting heap of spin.

[Carrot]

Absolutely fantastic.

[Tony Tea]

Closed it out with a minimum of fuss. I even went to sleep at 5 down pretty confident we'd roll them.

[Tony Tea]

Since the 2005 Ashes the England crowds have become lager louts. At least last night we shut up the Barmy Army.

[I am Not Trampis]

The Ashes are ours!

without anderson the poms will struggle to take 20 wickets even on seamer friendly wickets which I accepted,
There are a few players who have a worls cup hangover. the two Bs, Stokes
Ali is gone, he simply cannot play against us anymore,
Their best batsman Root, cannot convert 50s into tons.

[Tony Tea]

There is always a Richard Ellison hiding in the wings.

[I am Not Trampis]

not accepted but EXPECTED.
What a boofhead

[Tony Tea]

Thats not even a half as puzzling as accept/except.

[Tony Tea]

Even though the meanings are quite distinct.

[Lou]

I hope they bring out a green top at some point. I'd like to see Cummins and Pattinson, not to mention Sids on one as they will all be better at the right length bowling than Haze or Starc.

[Carrot]

There are a few people talking about this match as though the series is already over and won. I think that’s a mistake. Archer hasn’t picked up a ball yet, England won’t be a bowler down for every match, they’ll replace Maureen with someone not as horrendously out of form and Smith won’t get big runs every time. There’s a loooong way to go yet.

[Smivvys back]

Absolutely true Carrot. But Archer must have a queston mark re fitnes, and a shitload of pressure for his first test. As far as comebacks got 8/1222 and then winning by over 200, thats a gooood comeback.
In honour of the result. I will no longer be known as Philsgone. Time to lay him to rest. Now I will be the artist known as Smivvys back.

[Smivvys back]

8/1222 would be a winning position. 8/122 not so much.

[I am Not Trampis]

From my wildly popular blog.
https://nottrampis.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-ashes-are-ours.html

[Tony Tea]

Glenn McGrath foundation has very high administrative costs..WHY I ask

It was competing with the Shane Warne Foundation.

[Patard]

I'm still not impressed with our "potent" attack even though Pattinson has been rested. Starc has to be there if we're fair dinkum and I suspect some sort of new-age homeopathic Langerism shenanigans in the selection policy.

Luckily for us the poms have been pretty shouse so far and didn't really test our much MSM vaunted "potent" attack.

[Patard]

Wouldn't it be grand if Langer could see fit to bowl an entirely NSW attack?

[Patard]

Two understrength Oz teams play old foes Poms and Kiwis in back to back Tests yet Oz prevails.

As Bowie sang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08tCskqM5Y4

Imagine if we simply bowled the best attack.

[Patard]

Geeze Tones just put up a "comments closed".

Kill it. Kill it with fire.

[Tony Tea]

I'll put Pat's comments in the Second Test post.