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Ah the home Ashes series is almost upon us, my personal favourite sporting event (not down under, that's just generally depressing.) I need something big sporting wise to focus on and quit my worrying about QPR for a while.
Anyone going?
I was at the first day of the World Test Championship at the Oval yesterday. The Aussies looked in depressingly good nick with the bat and their pace attack appears as terrifying as ever.
I think it's going to be an exciting, tough, tense series that'll go down to the wire. I only managed to get tickets to the very final day of the Ashes on 31st July at the Oval, you never know.
I predict...
Crawley to average less than 20 with Duckett getting closer to mid 30s Brook to really secure his position as an outstanding talent and mainstay of the team Pope to struggle again~ Root, in what could be his last home Ashes, proving his worth again Bairstow - haven't a clue which version turns up post broken foot
Broad - an Ashes too far? You'd be mad to write him or Jimmy off. Robinson to nab Smith at least four times..
Good weekend for the English, an Ashes Test and an U21 Euro's.
Taken my son to a Laser Quest centre for one of his class mates birthday party. Had Three other dads watching the final few runs on my phone. Must be about 50 degrees in this God awful place.
My fear is that winning this test will embolden England to continue with their brainless approach. Ideal opportunity to bring Foakes back in whilst limiting damage to (possibly even retaining) Bairstow though I doubt they will.
I wouldn't have dropped Foakes (and they won't bring him back) but to say England's approach is brainless is, in itself, brainless.
3 absolutely fabulous Tests, all of which could have gone either way. The first one would have been a draw but for England's incredible approach to force a result which, with 8 wkts down, they should have done and now be sitting pretty 2-1 up.
I wouldn't have dropped Foakes (and they won't bring him back) but to say England's approach is brainless is, in itself, brainless.
3 absolutely fabulous Tests, all of which could have gone either way. The first one would have been a draw but for England's incredible approach to force a result which, with 8 wkts down, they should have done and now be sitting pretty 2-1 up.
I would consider myself an interested, but not obsessive cricket fan. I'll watch the England games or listen to comms when i can (I'm abroad so not always easy to get the actual visuals) with the exception of the ashes which I always make a point to follow.
I get that the purists don't believe that "Bazball" is good for the game and I respect that, you have more skin in the game than me. But this is fantastic. 3 epic matches, packed full of drama, all could have gone either way, none in any danger of stretching to a draw (weather aside), it's absolutely great. I'm more likely to try and catch non ashes matches now than at any point in the last 15 years because it's just a much better chance of having a game which is enjoyable to watch/follow with Bazball.
If the aim is to increase the likelihood of casual fans to watch, and to bring some eyeballs back from short over games then they're absolutely nailing it IMO
Good weekend for the English, an Ashes Test and an U21 Euro's.
Taken my son to a Laser Quest centre for one of his class mates birthday party. Had Three other dads watching the final few runs on my phone. Must be about 50 degrees in this God awful place.
Bad weekend for Aussie - beaten in Mens Ashes today, beaten in Womens Ashes yesterday and thoroughly tonked by the Saffers in rubgy yesterday. Nice.
I find the negativity on this thread a bit bewildering. Maybe we’ve all been following QPR for too long!
Couldn't agree more
From 14:00 today where people on here were writing England off, I was gobsmacked
This England side went about it in a sensible way today and got the runs required, a good solid job done
On the subject of Bairstow, this England management do not do knee jerk reactions and whether right or wrong they wont drop Bairstow. The annoying thing is that when Pope got injured they could have called up Foakes without losing face and perhaps provided competition for Bairstow
Bad weekend for Aussie - beaten in Mens Ashes today, beaten in Womens Ashes yesterday and thoroughly tonked by the Saffers in rubgy yesterday. Nice.
The post match Eddie Jones press conference was err... spikey to say the least. Got his arse handed to him really after complaining about not playing a full strength Boks side earlier in the week.
The post match Eddie Jones press conference was err... spikey to say the least. Got his arse handed to him really after complaining about not playing a full strength Boks side earlier in the week.
The post match Eddie Jones press conference was err... spikey to say the least. Got his arse handed to him really after complaining about not playing a full strength Boks side earlier in the week.
I liked him.
My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic.
Really good win. Could easily have bottled it after Stokes and Bairstow got out and 80 runs were still needed. Instead England continued to take on the Aussies and play positively to get a great result.
This team genuinely does not play with any fear and the Aussies aren't comfortable with that. Very notable today how hard it is to find the cricket stories on the main news sites here when it was plastered all over the home pages during the games they won. Same old story, always go missing when the result doesn't go their way.
Very tough ask to win the series from here but still just about possible. Throwing away the first test which we absolutely should have won is costing us.
Also, what is it with the travelling Aussie fans (mostly seem to be white boomers/retirees on tour) and all wearing exactly the same outfits, Handmaid's Tale style. Looks ridiculous! Also, they never seemed to smile, even when they were getting wickets.
I hope so but I agree they're unlikely to drop Bairstow. However, they could fit him in at 3 as Pope's replacement and bring Foakes in so finger's crossed they find a way.
This could work. Also the 'bazball' philosophy is to let players express themselves without fear they will be dropped if it doesn't come off.
Really good win. Could easily have bottled it after Stokes and Bairstow got out and 80 runs were still needed. Instead England continued to take on the Aussies and play positively to get a great result.
This team genuinely does not play with any fear and the Aussies aren't comfortable with that. Very notable today how hard it is to find the cricket stories on the main news sites here when it was plastered all over the home pages during the games they won. Same old story, always go missing when the result doesn't go their way.
Very tough ask to win the series from here but still just about possible. Throwing away the first test which we absolutely should have won is costing us.
Also, what is it with the travelling Aussie fans (mostly seem to be white boomers/retirees on tour) and all wearing exactly the same outfits, Handmaid's Tale style. Looks ridiculous! Also, they never seemed to smile, even when they were getting wickets.
I’ve often wondered about the Aussie fans too.Ok so you’re on a sports tour,but do you all have to wear the same outfits every day?I went with the barmy army to the ashes in 17/18 but we all dressed how we wanted.There are the yellow group and the green group all wearing the same shirts for 4 or 5 days,and they call us soap dodgers.
I’ve often wondered about the Aussie fans too.Ok so you’re on a sports tour,but do you all have to wear the same outfits every day?I went with the barmy army to the ashes in 17/18 but we all dressed how we wanted.There are the yellow group and the green group all wearing the same shirts for 4 or 5 days,and they call us soap dodgers.
I've been amongst the barmy army here at a couple of tests in the past. Plenty of them wear barmy army merchandise, but never exactly the same outfits like the Aussie lot. Its just weird. They also enjoy the experience whether winning or losing.
Good point about the soap dodging, or do they all have 5 of each exact same item?
I've been amongst the barmy army here at a couple of tests in the past. Plenty of them wear barmy army merchandise, but never exactly the same outfits like the Aussie lot. Its just weird. They also enjoy the experience whether winning or losing.
Good point about the soap dodging, or do they all have 5 of each exact same item?
They all wear the same caps with the same logo on. Makes me think their travel expenses are paid for by sponsorship.
I hope so but I agree they're unlikely to drop Bairstow. However, they could fit him in at 3 as Pope's replacement and bring Foakes in so finger's crossed they find a way.
Now that we're back in the series I think it would be pretty silly not to bring Foakes in. But then anything is possible.
Bairstow really hasn't contributed that much with the bat either so he'll be lucky to keep his place. But he probably will.
Would love to know if bairstow’s contribution with the bat outweighs the extra runs he cost us with dropped catches, missed stumping, byes etc, there can’t be much in it.
I know he was injured but Robinson was a passenger in this test, I’d be tempted to bring Jimmy back on his home ground. Broad, Anderson, Woakes and Wood is a pretty good attack.
Would love to know if bairstow’s contribution with the bat outweighs the extra runs he cost us with dropped catches, missed stumping, byes etc, there can’t be much in it.
I know he was injured but Robinson was a passenger in this test, I’d be tempted to bring Jimmy back on his home ground. Broad, Anderson, Woakes and Wood is a pretty good attack.
According to this and my reckoning, Bairstow's missed catches and stumping have cost 100 runs.
Just 63 runs in his last five innings after his 78 in the first innings at Edgbaston. Not sure Foakes would have done worse than that as he can certainly bat given his average of 32 from 20 tests with two centuries.
I thought that was magnificent, what test match cricket is all about. Hats off to Brook and Woakes and Wood at the end.... I thoroughly enjoyed that.
PS - In the main, I love TMS. I find Sky coverage, especially with all the ads, vulgar. All a matter of personal taste of course.
The difference in comms is interesting. I think the ads are not too bad on Sky, and are not ruinously regular: even at the end of the game they stayed with it for quite a while without cutting away to allow for some reaction.
Don't think it's vulgar either: I think the analysis and explanations and masterclasses are fabulous, although it is difficult/impossible to do a lot of that on the radio.
In terms of individuals, Sky are kind of in a transtition: losing Botham wasn't a blow - he barely seemed to care anymore; ditching Gower was done too early and they could do with him back in the comms box, if not presenting; losing Bumble was unavoidable, but they lost a real character there; Holding was an absolute joy; and Warne was getting better and better and would have been an outstanding, funny, incisive and fascinating commentator for years. So sad. You can't replace that. So they had huge turnover in a very short space of time.
However, Nass and Athers have always been excellent in their analysis and continue to be. I really like Sangakarra (sexiest commentator on TV for me, and I'm straight); and Taylor has been a decent addition. I really like Mark Butcher, but KP is woeful. Eoin Morgan has potential if he wants to stick at it, and will be excellent in the one dayers where his insight is second to none (surely, though, he'll move to coaching the one day side in a few years). Ward is ok. Ponting, annoyingly, is decent. Mel Jones is also really good. But they let a good one go in Ebony Rainsford-Brent.
I also love TMS, particularly Tuffers, Cook, Isa, Ebs and Zaltz is the best for stats - really wish he was on Sky. But I find Aggers utterly insufferable and thin-skinned and Vaughan is just cricket's version of Chris Sutton. McGrath is dreadful, a personality-free zone.
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