With the greatest respect to all our friends who have to hold onto the earth to prevent them falling off, growl……
My dog is sick so I ended up staying at home with her.
Not exactly devastated I’ve missed this day’s cricket so far…
My fridge is emptying, I hope your dog is improving.
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Congratulations to Australia for retaining the Ashes.
Shame it had to end this way.
Can’t truthfully say that the better side won, due to the weather we’ll never know. Obviously the series was lost in the first two games in which England were tactically naive and lacking the intensity they found later on. Even then, both matches were won by tight margins. Clearly, the Australians have the better team on paper, and, in fairness, they were hampered by losing Lyon, who is clearly the best spinner on either side by a country mile. There’s not too much difference in the batting when all are fit, but their bowling is superior to England’s, as is, of course, their wicketkeeper. These is the areas where England need to build. It’s sad to say, but Jimmy Anderson’s time is up. It’s time to look to the future, especially as Broad, Woakes and Wood are all on the wrong side of thirty. A top class spinner has to be found somewhere somehow.
As regards Test cricket in general, it is clearly still far and away the most enthralling and intriguing form of the game, but there are some areas in which it can be improved.
Why does it have to start at 11.00? This is just a hangover from the days when gentlemen would roll out of bed after a long night at the club, scoff some kippers, quaff a couple of flutes of bubbly, before strolling around the corner to play against another group of posh wastrels. Too many of the rules and traditions hark back to such times and don’t reflect the world we live in today.
The whole bad light farce needs to be looked at too. What are floodlights for?
Why can’t play be extended if bad weather is forecast? Why not have a spare day? It rains in England. This is not news.
The ICC needs to really look into these issues as a matter of urgency, as the future of this most glorious of sports is in peril.
Anyway, well done Australia, you do have some fantastic cricketers, any team that can afford to leave out Josh Hazelwood or Mitch Marsh has an enviable depth of talent. And well done England for pushing them all the way.
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Agreed. Ashes also used to be 6 tests which gives more scope for draws to still allow a series ‘result’ for the team which lost the ashes in the previous series. Personally I don’t like the retain = win ashes based on prior holding and think if they aren’t going to extend play/spare day nor return to 6 test series, they need to change this so the ashes are ‘shared’ in the event of a drawn series.
As I said after the first two tests, England were moaning about an out when in fact without the many errors they could have been 1-1 or even 2-0 and that must be cutting at them.
It’s a disappointing end to a series that has actually been really entertaining with no team particularly dominating for large parts.
The joke in this country is the weather turns when the kids go on holiday. So squeezing a test series into 40 days for a made up tournament is an issue here.
Not sure why the Ashes couldn’t have crossed over mind it’s been enjoyable when the T20 has crossed over so you have your evening entertainment after the Ashes.
Not sure of the weather in Manchester tomorrow…but why can’t they play tomorrow, if its dry…kids off school…£1 entry coz they’ve already had the money from tickets(or do they refund the money)…invite as many locals as possible…why not tomorrow???
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Rules forbid it?
Can you see a sport that has to take tea on a day when they’ve played less than 2 hours and where a radar tells you it’s raining in 20 minutes would do something so radical?
Build a freaking indoor stadium.
Weather is an important part of the game. Clouds, moisture in the air/wicket etc. Retractable roof maybe.
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Climatic conditions can be simulated. Every major cricketing country should be having 1 or more stadiums (esp for use in matches where 2 days are forecasted to be rained out due to rain
Retractable roof for sure
Imagine Lords going for that, you’d also need about 7 or 8 of them.
Nasser Hussain - “It’s disappointing for spectators, viewers and players. Australia won’t have wanted to retain the Ashes like this.”
To the first sentence yes, yes and yes.
To the 2nd sentence I call bullshit. We will happily take em (not that we can) mate.
The world class McGrath/Warne/Waugh/Gilchrist team would not have wanted to retain them this way and certainly would not have wished for rain after day 3. I understand this team isn’t a patch on those guys but you can rest assured that they certainly won’t want to draw the series 2-2.
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I don’t actually understand why we are talking about retaining them in game 4 of 5. We will be looking to win the final game and win them outright. The only thing this does is potentially take just that 2-3% fight out of England knowing they can’t really do anything. And given how close this series was until we got annihilated in this most recent game, 2-3% just might help us.
It helps the script that people will say momentum in the series was shifted with that Bairstow dismissal in game 2. But the momentum was really shifted by that Stokes innings in the same game. Its funny how an innings by a single batsman can spread belief across an entire team. Some English players, particularly batsmen, were doing barely ok without really stamping their authority in games 1 and 2 but really leapt out of their skins after Stokes’ 155 or whatever it was. Just look at Brooke and Crawley.
I personally am hoping something similar for us after what was a critical innings by Marnus. We desperately need some confidence and assurity in the batting lineup. Warner is obviously a lost cause (no hundreds outside of Australia since 2017, and 3 in total - 1 against Pakistan on a road in Dubai, and 2 against Bangladesh) but the rest of the batting group I expect a much better performance from.
The bowling changes England have made since Test 2 really have helped them also, but IMO not as much as Stokes’ innings. They will be a tough proposition to bat against again in game 5. The bowling changes and Stokes really have given the momentum to England but that’s not something Australia can’t overcome. But they have to show more bloody fight in the next match!
Our bowlers had a bad day at the office but there has been talk about certain bowlers like Cummins looking exhausted, but everyone looks exhausted when they are losing. I expect them to look really dangerous this next game. I am no longer sold on two all rounders, as I don’t think Green has earned his spot and a spinner would be better even with the reduced batting lineup. I don’t think Green has been given long enough bowling spells this series but regardless, he really hasn’t set the world alight with bat or ball. He is still important to this team long term but for an important 5th game where we can win the series on our terms 3-1, its important to play the best team available.
As for McGrath/Warne/Waugh/Gilchrist not wanting to retain the Ashes in this manner, I don’t think anyone does but I think you are also giving those players a bit too much credit. They are competitors and you take what you can get.
Finally, I am unsure why its only now we are talking about extra days and retractable roofs for the weather. Games have been disrupted by the weather since cricket started. It hurts when a series for your team is decided by the weather but its happened to everyone. Swings and roundabouts.
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But it rained tough shit nothing new. We retain them. Some people are almost apologising. No one is saying the Aussies won’t give a toss about the next test.
The take out is maybe use a reserve day for each test, and for the Poms to have fielded a bit better earlier in the series.
Hmmm, reserve days, skip lunch, start early, finish late. Anything to get onto the pitch when your sides on the up, it seems. Easy lads, no offence intended so hold off hitting the reply too angrily, I’ve made all of those arguments over the years and just as often gleefully thanked the skies for saving us/me.
It’s cricket. It is what it is, it’s part and parcel of what makes the game as idiosyncratic as it is. We can’t go making up reserve days and making up playing time on the fly; like it or not the game is a scheduled one. 5 days is a Test Match, lads, and when time is called that’s the end of that. Earlier starts? Perhaps, but then what if it’s misty, foggy, or a damp outfield what we going to say ‘should start later coz it gets dark later…’ Time is scheduled and if it gets rained out, so be it. We’ve all felt the frustration, and yes the relief of it as well.
The thing is, weather forecasting days in advance is incredibly accurate now and days 4 and 5 were always going to look like this and while hindsight is 20/20, the decision to bat on by England was the incorrect one. In order to win England always needed to take 20 wickets and once the lead hit 150 or so they should have been looking to declare knowing the state of the weather to come. The prevailing thought was, ‘we don’t want to bat again’ when it should have been, 'we’ll bowl them out and back ourselves to chase down a total really quickly if need be. I might be a bit harsh here but considering how quickly England got on top and their run rate, it was perhaps an error. In reality though, the weather was always going to play a part and the draw the most likely outcome.
Harsh on England but also, what of the innings over the years like Labuschagne’s this match; back against the wall, saving the game for your side in the hope of the weather assist. Do we discount those heroes past, innings that have passed into legends of the game, because we want a result for ‘our’ side. I think not. It’s part of the beauty of the game; that knowledge that despite being trampled on, thrashed to all parts and being dizzy on the field, with application, guts and luck I can still fight this out for my team and hope for salvation.
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Also, should they have maybe declared earlier in the 4th test to try and force a result before the weather hit?
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Yeah a game which lasts 5 days but ends in a draw because you only played 3 days = crap.
Test Cricket will die if they carry on in this way.
Couldn’t care less which side benefited by the way, talking in general.
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