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I think one or two of them need to calm down and remember that silence is a good thing at times at a cricket match. (These are Test matches, not a T20 Blast, after all.)
But oh my, do I miss Bumble ....
And after yesterday's press releases, maybe it would be good if Strauss and Bayliss shut up about Bairstow? the more excuses they make the stupider he appears - "something he does with his rugby mates". Yeah - Jonny Neanderthal?
Mind you, when I was living in the Highlands, there were a lot of young males banging their heads together in October-November time.
There was a lot of roaring went on as well, and it was called "the rut", and had a lot to do with testosterone and the presence of nubile young females ....
Maybe that was what it was all about?
Results 91 to 120 of 413
Thread: The 2017-18 Ashes
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28-11-2017 07:09 PM #91
Last edited by --------; 28-11-2017 at 07:19 PM.
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28-11-2017 07:22 PM #92This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
There's only one thing better than a Hibs calendar and that's two Hibs calendars
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28-11-2017 07:55 PM #93
Would be good if Stokes was in this team. Just kind of feel cheated watching it knowing it would be a better game if he were playing eh
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28-11-2017 08:14 PM #94
Would be good if Stokes was in this team. Just kind of feel cheated watching it knowing it would be a better game if he were playing eh
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28-11-2017 08:46 PM #95This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
By the same token, the Aussies lost James Pattinson to injury which would have had an impact on their decision-making. I think he and Cummins would compete for the third seamer spot as I'm not sure there's any chance they would have gone with four, plus Lyon (although maybe in days gone by, four at the WACA with no spinner, but Perth isn't the track it used to be).
Outside chance of Chadd Sayers coming in, if Cummins isn't 100% fit.There's only one thing better than a Hibs calendar and that's two Hibs calendars
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29-11-2017 07:58 AM #96This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
United we stand here....
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29-11-2017 09:03 AM #97This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
It's not a very edifying picture tbh.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...et-new-zealand
A hostile onlooker (and there are plenty of those!) might suggest that the ECB and the CPS have decided to 'expedite' the legal business to allow him to play. Apparently a 'new witness' has come forward (a cynic might suggest, very conveniently) and now BS is in New Zealand and raring to go for Canterbury - or maybe even England on Sunday if the Aussies allow him in?
All depending on a retrospective suspension in the event the CPS decide not to prosecute - he gets off with time served and no one will actually be told exactly what it was he did that night?
This smells bad - it gets more and more like the sort of dodgy stuff old WG used to get up to Down Under. Imagine English media reaction if Australia or Pakistan had something like this going on during a series here?
Oh, and might I be the first to observe that in the past we at least took the trouble to convict our criminals before we sent them out to Australia?Last edited by --------; 29-11-2017 at 09:29 AM.
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29-11-2017 05:59 PM #99This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
United we stand here....
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30-11-2017 12:20 AM #100
Slight tangent from the Ashes, I'm just a little bit too young to remember Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket.
This is a good article by the very, very good Australian cricket writer, Gideon Haigh, about WSC.
Any of our more veteran posters watch it at the time?There's only one thing better than a Hibs calendar and that's two Hibs calendars
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30-11-2017 12:27 AM #101This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
A cynic might say that the most telling factor in his defence may yet turn out to be the fragility of the England batting and the lack of penetration of the England bowling beyond Anderson and Broad ....
What's a fractured eye-socket in the dark when England expects? Nay, desperately NEEDS?
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30-11-2017 01:37 AM #102This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
The newbie batters have experience of playing in Australia at grade or Shield level, but when it comes down to Test match pressure, it's all on Cook, Root and Stokes. Cook has been caught twice when he shouldn't have and Root was lbw twice - Hazlewood got him the second time and could yet make Root his bunny.
Stokes has had one big score in Australia but in seven other Test innings, he averages 24. None of which were at Brisbane, so that's not a contributing factor
Bowling-wise, he averages in the low thirties, which is decent but not great stuff. The only place he has had a major haul is in Sydney, where he took a five-for in the first innings in a Test that they ultimately lost by 280-odd runs.
My guess is he is an improved player from his previous tour, but his history is he goes for nearly four an over in the grounds he might bowl at, and he averages at bat in the mid-twenties unless he can up his game in an individual match.
I don't doubt he can be a talisman - I've seen him play, in the flesh, for England and he genuinely enlivens the team when he has the ball or bat. His record down under doesn't match the hope however.
I think the point about bowling depth is spot on - Anderson and Broad can restrict teams through their ability and experience, and can win matches if there is swing and decent seam. Beyond that, England are weak. Moeen is a decent spinner but freely admits he sees himself as a batsman first, and a bowler second.
That works when you have a Stokes as a fourth seamer. Otherwise you need to bring in a proper spinner and I don't think England can manage with only three quicks on most grounds in Australia.
If I was in charge of England I would be making sure Stokes was straight back in at six, as soon as possible. I feel sorry for Ball and Overton.Last edited by Mibbes Aye; 30-11-2017 at 01:39 AM.
There's only one thing better than a Hibs calendar and that's two Hibs calendars
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30-11-2017 12:02 PM #103This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
United we stand here....
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30-11-2017 10:52 PM #104This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Apparently the police are 'weeks' away from charging/not charging Stokes, so do England decide to go back on their original decision not to pick him until the legal position has become clear? Don't see how they can do that. And even supposing Stokes is given a full discharge - no case to answer - which may well not be possible, the pressure on him coming into the side as the answer to both the bowling problem (an effective back-up to Broad and Anderson) and the batting problem (a source of middle-order/lower order runs) would be immense.
Bad enough if he were just coming back from injury, but after a drawn-out period waiting to hear whether he's being charged with a fairly serious offence?
It's all very well for Strauss and Bayliss (do I not like that man!) to keep saying that there's no booze-culture in the England cricket team, and that they're all a thoroughly grand set of chaps really (needlepoint, cribbage, and a nice mug of cocoa, listen to the Epilogue and off to Blanket Bay?), but Bairstow is now established in the press and media as the sort of bamstick who greets his friends by bashing skulls with them - a quaint Yorkshire custom apparently. (Could 70-odd years of ritual Yorkshire head-butting be The Reason Geoffrey Boycott Is The Way He Is?)
And the player England needs urgently and immediately to bolster their batting/bowling order may be sewing mailbags by Easter.
How exactly are Bayliss (ewwww!) and Strauss managing this team? Not terribly effectively, in my humble estimation.
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01-12-2017 01:16 AM #105This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
It's been a car crash, from a management point of view, for England.
If Stokes does come back in, then there's disruption to the line-up, Ball gets dropped and Overton hasn't an earthly of being picked - squad morale can't be positive. Plus the Australians will relish it in the field - I'm convinced the word 'sardonic' was coined by some literary type who had the pleasure of listening to an Aussie slip cordon.
And if he doesn't come back, England will constantly be held up against what they might have done, had he been there.
They've got themselves into a situation where they can't win, metaphorically and probably literally.
Having said all that, Anderson and Broad could find joy in Adelaide and Perth, and Root and Cook know how to make a big score. They are still one of the best teams in the world, though miles behind India and without the potential that this Australian side has, with a few tweaks.
If Australia win in Adelaide, and I think they will edge it, then it's 5-0 for me.There's only one thing better than a Hibs calendar and that's two Hibs calendars
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01-12-2017 04:09 PM #106This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
More or less my thoughts. It comes down to the usual suspects again; Cook, Root, Bairstow, Moeen, and Broad and Anderson. Woakes might find the Adelaide wicket more to his liking, but they're stuck for an effective spinner if Moeen's finger hasn't healed properly. There are too many potential weak links for my liking.
And how Ball and Overton feel with the talk about calling up Wood? Nothing like showing a bit of faith in your players ....
But no doubt Bayliss will be out there an hour before start of play, telling us everything's fine, the players are in great shape, and the team's just raring to go ....Last edited by --------; 01-12-2017 at 04:12 PM.
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01-12-2017 08:13 PM #107This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
United we stand here....
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01-12-2017 08:42 PM #108This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show QuoteThere's only one thing better than a Hibs calendar and that's two Hibs calendars
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01-12-2017 09:07 PM #109This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
United we stand here....
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02-12-2017 11:18 PM #111This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show QuoteThis quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Don't be ridiculous. My vendettas aren't genetically conditioned; I have a perfectly rational reason for disliking the guy.
Before he took the England job he was working as an estate agent. The only people worse than estate agents are lawyers.
And Joe Harper .....
But I do wonder at an Australian managing an England team playing against Australia in an Ashes series.
It puts me in mind of one Bobby Brown and a certain Cup Final.
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03-12-2017 06:34 PM #112
Hard to see anything other than England going to Perth 0-2 down. Steady and patient partnership from Marsh and Paine that really helped Australia pull away, building on respectable batting further up the order . Given both players raised some eyebrows when picked, the selectors will be feeling vindicated.
Credit again to Cummins - I read somewhere that calling him a number 9 surely constituted fraud .
Got to imagine Lyon is looking forward to bowling, there was a fair bit of turn on day two.There's only one thing better than a Hibs calendar and that's two Hibs calendars
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03-12-2017 07:43 PM #113
Tbh, the ashes could be going stale. The English can’t cope with Australian pace and bounce down under and the Aussies struggle against swing in England. Can see Australia winning this series comfortably and then England regaining them back in England
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03-12-2017 08:43 PM #114This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Anderson won't be around in 2019 one would imagine. In some ways what you describe makes it sound more interesting. The dominance Australia had under the skippers I've just mentioned was monumental and they had it in England as well as at home - the Second Test of the 1993 Ashes was probably the epitome - six players batted, Taylor, Slater and Boon all got centuries, big centuries for the latter two, Mark Waugh was bowled for 99, Border bowled for 77 and Steve Waugh was unbeaten on 13 alongside Boon.
Australia then bowled England out twice, with the spinners taking fourteen of the twenty wickets enroute to an innings victory - this was just before the days of McGrath, Gillespie and Lee, with McDermott and Hughes coming towards the end of their international careers. This was during a period when Australia simply came to England and turned them over - four consecutive series victories, fifteen wins and four defeats and the defeats were often when the series was decided and the victories were regularly by an innings or by nine or ten wickets.
I remember that Test vividly and while I enjoyed it immensely, there is an extra edge since 2005, when England started being able to win again. I think it is a bit easier for Australia to win in England than it is for England to win in Australia, but there isn't a valid reason why England can't produce genuine quickies and similarly, the climate for swing does exist in Australia. In addition, Aussie spinners probably gain more going to England than the other way round.There's only one thing better than a Hibs calendar and that's two Hibs calendars
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04-12-2017 04:24 AM #115This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Im old enough remember that to 😭. I think I’m right in saying that the Aussies haven’t won an ashes series since 2001 and nowadays, they seem to find it very difficult to cope with the swing and English conditions and indeed, the duke ball. Will be interesting to see how they fare the next ashes trip if as expected, they win this ashes series comfortably.
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04-12-2017 08:56 AM #116This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show QuoteThere's only one thing better than a Hibs calendar and that's two Hibs calendars
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04-12-2017 10:45 AM #117
Great bowling from England in the final session today. I still can’t see them winning, but they’ve given themselves some hope.
United we stand here....
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04-12-2017 12:22 PM #118
268 behind already, Australia with 6 wickets standing?
Pretty dire situation, tbh. Highest successful run-chase in Adelaide is 315-6 by Australia v England in 1902. Next highest is 239-5 by the West Indies in 1982. It doesn't appear to be a good wicket on which to be batting fourth.
I notice Alex Hales isn't being prosecuted and is now available to play ....Last edited by --------; 04-12-2017 at 12:44 PM.
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04-12-2017 04:55 PM #119This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
England will bat at some point during day four, chasing a target that they couldn't reach in their first innings. I would expect the middle to tail to manage at least another fifty, meaning England are chasing well in excess of 300 and that's game over, though if Australia declared at the start of play my money would still be on them.
I didn't see England's wickets today, will catch them on the highlights but the stats read two lbws and two close-in catches, one to the wicket keeper and one to Root at second slip. In those conditions I expect the Australian quicks to have a field day. They've likely got two shots at England under the lights, with Lyon also bowling well - if they can't wrap up England in those circumstances then they have serious problems. Sounds like credit is due to Overton and Woakes, for some resolute batting though.
Still, going to Perth 0-2 down shouldn't be too much of a worry. Unless you take into account that England have only beaten Australia once at the WACA and that was in 1978, plus I think this is the last time the WACA will be used for an Ashes Test, so there's the small matter of Australian pride.......There's only one thing better than a Hibs calendar and that's two Hibs calendars
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04-12-2017 05:15 PM #120
As an aside, watching Vince give away his wicket cheaply reminded me that I still think it's bad tactics by England to allow Root to play at four. He's the best player and he's the captain and he should take responsibility and slot in at three, even if it means his average suffers.
To an extent, Steve Smith isn't immune from the same criticism, for the same reasons. His saving grace is that Khawaja averages well enough at first man in, and averages especially well on home soil. I'm not a fan of Khuwaja though - almost half his dismissals have been to spin and at his age he should have sorted his technique out.There's only one thing better than a Hibs calendar and that's two Hibs calendars
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