Ashes 2023

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

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Think it's been raised before but it's interesting how the 'anyone but England' approach which many Sots adopt to international sport doesn't seem to apply so much to cricket.

Spent many a dreich day during School Summer holidays watching the cricket, Scotland were pretty much non existent as a cricket team (that could easily be sheer ignorance on my part) so that rivalry wasn't there.

The batsman's Holding the bowlers Willey and such like. 😳

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

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Without having checked the weather forecast i'm not entirely convinced that The Aussie's can't win this. If Warner can turn up for a change things could become quite interesting.

Hopefully not though.

I think we've reached the interesting stage. 🤔

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

Weather looking like England's best bowler so far. 😁

[He's here!]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/cricket/66354237

Warner did well to deal with this!

[He's here!]

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Spent many a dreich day during School Summer holidays watching the cricket, Scotland were pretty much non existent as a cricket team (that could easily be sheer ignorance on my part) so that rivalry wasn't there.

The batsman's Holding the bowlers Willey and such like. 😳

Yeh, I guess the lack of genuine rivalry is a big reason. I used to watch a lot of those 70s/80s Tests too and remember supporting England (slim pickings v the terrifying West Indies back then!) but for some reason I quite like seeing them get beat these days - while perversely I now quite like the England football team, having for many years wanted them beaten in every game they played!

[weecounty hibby]

England are not really scotlands rivals at cricket. That's why we mostly want England to win. Although to be honest, most folk who love cricket just love cricket and are happy to see good teams win. Although when Scotlabd do play England there is clearly only one team I want to see win!!

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

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England are not really scotlands rivals at cricket. That's why we mostly want England to win. Although to be honest, most folk who love cricket just love cricket and are happy to see good teams win. Although when Scotlabd do play England there is clearly only one team I want to see win!!

I must be the exception, I've no interest in anyone playing England winning whether they are better or not. Except Scotland.

[marinello59]

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Think it's been raised before but it's interesting how the 'anyone but England' approach which many Sots adopt to international sport doesn't seem to apply so much to cricket.

It’s one of the many things I like about cricket.

[Mibbes Aye]

At this stage I'm thinking of calling it Marnus Labuschagne as man of the match and I'm a little more than half-serious

England's biggest vulnerability in this series and going into today has been the durability of their bowling. They have a significantly old attack. All but one of them are carrying, or are just back from injury. The remaining player is playng through what must be the most incredibly emotional lens of knowing ithese are his last overs overs in cricket.

To be bowling a ninth time in five Tests in lttle more than a month, against the world chmpions? And then have Marnus make you bowl the equivalent of more than thirteen overs to him alone, for no significant gain or loss? It's no wonder the English bowlers will be feeling it in their legs this second innings.

Australianow find themselves with one day and 249 runs to chase, England one day and ten wickets. Both eminently doable but Australia in a far better place now than when they took the field facing 384 runs to win.

The weather looks set to prevail however - as it stands there is a chance of play but the best of the days eweather won't be until the third session, which should be enough to deny either side victory in this match.

So, as it stands, it looks like a draw here and a series victory for Australia. And that's a hige accomplishment - Australia have only won an Ashes series in England fourteen times. Doing that here will put Paddy Cummins in some illustrious company to say the least.

[He's here!]

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At this stage I'm thinking of calling it Marnus Labuschagne as man of the match and I'm a little more than half-serious

England's biggest vulnerability in this series and going into today has been the durability of their bowling. They have a significantly old attack. All but one of them are carrying, or are just back from injury. The remaining player is playng through what must be the most incredibly emotional lens of knowing ithese are his last overs overs in cricket.

To be bowling a ninth time in five Tests in lttle more than a month, against the world chmpions? And then have Marnus make you bowl the equivalent of more than thirteen overs to him alone, for no significant gain or loss? It's no wonder the English bowlers will be feeling it in their legs this second innings.

Australianow find themselves with one day and 249 runs to chase, England one day and ten wickets. Both eminently doable but Australia in a far better place now than when they took the field facing 384 runs to win.

The weather looks set to prevail however - as it stands there is a chance of play but the best of the days eweather won't be until the third session, which should be enough to deny either side victory in this match.

So, as it stands, it looks like a draw here and a series victory for Australia. And that's a hige accomplishment - Australia have only won an Ashes series in England fourteen times. Doing that here will put Paddy Cummins in some illustrious company to say the least.

It was still a big ask of those Australian openers to make sure they bedded in and were still there at today's close. They surprised me a little.

Out of interest how many Ashes series have England won in Australia?

[Mibbes Aye]

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It’s one of the many things I like about cricket.

I remember watching England in the 2005 Ashes and it was impossible not, at least in part, to will them on, though if anything that series shouldn't have gone to a team, it should have gone to Shane Warne - such an incredible performance from him.

I have a soft spot for Australia because that's where I fell in love with the game but cricket is so much more than two nations playing against one another.

The joy of cricket is in its nuance, and that's why Test matches are the highest form of the sport IMO.

[Mibbes Aye]

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It was still a big ask of those Australian openers to make sure they bedded in and were still there at today's close. They surprised me a little.

Out of interest how many Ashes series have England won in Australia?

i think it is about the same, but the majority of those were more than a hundred years ago, a lot of them would have been in the 19th century!

I agree, it showed toughness on the part of the openers today (that feeds into my Steve Waugh narrative ). Khawaja, despite my longstanding criticisms of him has shown himself to be a rather sticky player and Warner, despite his terrible for, in England, was alwas going to shine through at some point.

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

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At this stage I'm thinking of calling it Marnus Labuschagne as man of the match and I'm a little more than half-serious

England's biggest vulnerability in this series and going into today has been the durability of their bowling. They have a significantly old attack. All but one of them are carrying, or are just back from injury. The remaining player is playng through what must be the most incredibly emotional lens of knowing ithese are his last overs overs in cricket.

To be bowling a ninth time in five Tests in lttle more than a month, against the world chmpions? And then have Marnus make you bowl the equivalent of more than thirteen overs to him alone, for no significant gain or loss? It's no wonder the English bowlers will be feeling it in their legs this second innings.

Australianow find themselves with one day and 249 runs to chase, England one day and ten wickets. Both eminently doable but Australia in a far better place now than when they took the field facing 384 runs to win.

The weather looks set to prevail however - as it stands there is a chance of play but the best of the days eweather won't be until the third session, which should be enough to deny either side victory in this match.

So, as it stands, it looks like a draw here and a series victory for Australia. And that's a hige accomplishment - Australia have only won an Ashes series in England fourteen times. Doing that here will put Paddy Cummins in some illustrious company to say the least.

I've got no idea what the score is but, Mo may well be a huge difference, same as Nathan I suppose.by being missing.

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

One of my best memories of watching cricket was in a pub in Cologne on the way to Essen for the European Cup 50th anniversary game, it was bouncing.

[Mibbes Aye]

I wasn't the only one feeling Steve Waugh all over this Test

Three great paragraphs in a Barnay Ronay piece in the Guardian, the last one a perfect summary of the English bowling today:

The debate around England’s approach, free jazz versus old truisms, is perhaps best embodied by the idea of a giant Steve Waugh head floating over the Vauxhall End, the lines around its Steve Waugh eyes – the “crow’s feet” celebrated by the Grade Cricketer podcast – deepening with every affront to orthodoxy.

In this context Sunday was like an all-day Steve Waugh spa facial, the lines around that vast baggy green-clad super-ego easing and softening with every landmark ticked off in a measured, high‑craft opening partnership between David Warner and Usman Khawaja; the crinkles easing with each nick though an absent second slip, a grimace of a smile starting to spread at every bisecting of the umbrella field.

At times England’s bowling lineup looked like what it is here: a TV pundit, an injured bloke, an injured radio summariser, a dutiful wizard, an ageing red-zoned speed freak and a 41-year-old celebrating his birthday.

[He's here!]

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I wasn't the only one feeling Steve Waugh all over this Test

Three great paragraphs in a Barnay Ronay piece in the Guardian, the last one a perfect summary of the English bowling today:

Ronay also questioning the timing of Broad's retirement announcement:

"Why not just retire the day after the series ends? It is hard to imagine a more distracting way of doing this, a day of potentially era-defining Test cricket recast as the launch of a new media brand.
"There will be cries that one of England’s great Test bowlers needs a chance to wave goodbye. But why? This is not the Love Island finale. It’s a brilliantly engaging Test series with a knife-edge finish to come. Spare us the Viking funeral, just for now."

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

Both openers gone, 141-2

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

169-3

[Sloop67]

3 down now . If England can nick another one out before lunch then it's game on

[JeMeSouviens]

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3 down now . If England can nick another one out before lunch then it's game on

Looks like some rain coming this afternoon ...

[JeMeSouviens]

Ben Stokes, what have you done?

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

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Ben Stokes, what have you done?

Unbelievable Jeff 😳

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

Players came on, no play took place before they went off again due to rain.

[JeMeSouviens]

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Players came on, no play took place before they went off again due to rain.

Judging by the met office radar, I think we're going to lose the afternoon session. So there would be something like 30-35 overs for the Aussies to knock off 146 or England to get 7 wickets. Odds on the draw I think now.

[JeMeSouviens]

Just when you think the Aussies are starting to cruise, Eng get 2 quick wickets!

5 wickets or 110 more runs.

[JeMeSouviens]

Plenty of overs, they got back on quicker than I thought they would.

[JeMeSouviens]

Another one down, the dangerman Marsh. Still 110 for the tail to get. Not impossible though?

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

I wonder how Ben Stokes is feeling after that drop earlier.

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

277-7

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

8 wickets down.