[Cricket] England v Australia- 5th Test- Sydney 3rd-7th January 2018

[OzMike]

Well, here's to another couple of years time when the Aussies struggle playing in the English conditions and we get the Ashes back.
Unfortunately still the ODI's and T20's to go, it's going to be even more of a drubbing.
They will go back so demoralised, unless they can get a result against the Kiwis, similar playing conditions to England.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

we'll bat out a draw, with a bit of help from the skies....

Er...........no.................

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Joe Root taken to hospital with dehydration from yesterday.

Sympathy there.
It happened to me and I cannot describe how terrible you feel. It feels like your body is shutting down. You can barely move and have absolutely no energy. Not to be recommended.

 

[Chicken Run]

Every two years is stupid.

Australia are in England this Summer, we are playing some ODI’s against them, Sharks are playing them too!

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Glad I never watched one bit of the tour. It's not just about their conditions ... nailbiting series over here, 9/10 times we're slaughtered over there. And that's with the Aussies out of love with test cricket, we're told. They are hardened winners, England are weak.

Sadly, neither did I.
The tour management are to blame for allowing the inexperienced and naive Root to come out with his " still massively in this series " comment after the Second Test defeat and another tour novice to be allowed to declare that we were a match for the Aussies in the batting and bowling departments. It made them a laughing stock and England fans realised that delusionment rather than reality had set in.
A number of England players have built their reputations on favourable English wickets. On hard, flat wickets, with a bit of bounce ( the only surface to truly judge a player on ) their records are ordinary in the extreme. The Aussies know they can get at these players and they will mentally crumble. Some of our players have difficulty in the mental transition from T20/One Day cricket to the demands of Test Cricket. I have little or no confidence in many of our players being able to bat two sessions let alone longer. This series is littered with our players scoring between 15 and 50 and then getting out.
Test Cricket is a hard grind. Too many of our players are not prepared to grind it out.

 

[nicko31]

Well just a couple of decent days in the Melbourne test for England. Pretty hard going for any English fans following the test around Australia

 

[Weststander]

Sadly, neither did I.
The tour management are to blame for allowing the inexperienced and naive Root to come out with his " still massively in this series " comment after the Second Test defeat and another tour novice to be allowed to declare that we were a match for the Aussies in the batting and bowling departments. It made them a laughing stock and England fans realised that delusionment rather than reality had set in.
A number of England players have built their reputations on favourable English wickets. On hard, flat wickets, with a bit of bounce ( the only surface to truly judge a player on ) their records are ordinary in the extreme. The Aussies know they can get at these players and they will mentally crumble. Some of our players have difficulty in the mental transition from T20/One Day cricket to the demands of Test Cricket. I have little or no confidence in many of our players being able to bat two sessions let alone longer. This series is littered with our players scoring between 15 and 50 and then getting out.
Test Cricket is a hard grind. Too many of our players are not prepared to grind it out.

All true. Aussies churn out tough cricketers, with tunnel vision for preserving their wicket, accumulating runs, seeing off bowlers, in any conditions.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

All true. Aussies churn out tough cricketers, with tunnel vision for preserving their wicket, accumulating runs, seeing off bowlers, in any conditions.

Apart from Indian conditions (spin) and English conditions (seam / swing) where they struggle. Lets face it, the current Aussie team IS better than the current England team, but they're not all conquering world beaters. They are very good on home soil.

 

[Garry Nelson's teacher]

Totally agree with the air of disappointment expressed here: even by the standards of low expectations the scale of the defeat made for grim viewing. I think that even allowing for
a) the absence of Stokes;
b) the 'natural' (home conditions) advantage that the Aussies enjoyed;
c) the probable (but don't bet on it) likelihood that there will be a swing of the pendulum in our favour on home pitches

I think that there are some questions to be asked.

1. To what extent did we collectively and individually under-perform? This was a total hammering.
2. Which players will be given further chances and which will not?
3. Was the preparation and/or selection flawed?

The biggest issue - and one raised by Ed Smith who is indeed a very bright boy - is the future of Test cricket, particularly the 5 match format. His point was that this series made for pretty dire viewing (not just from a Pom viewpoint). Obviously the teams were mis-matched but more than that much of the cricket was just dull and not compelling to watch. The pitches (especially MCG) were not brilliant and maybe didn't help, but the 'product' didn't sparkle. Given that the BBL was running alongside the Test series and whatever it's flaws it is very well staged, I suspect that there's no room for complacency for those who govern the game - notwithstanding some huge crowds. It would be interesting to see the TV viewing figures. And also the number of us who either didn't turn on our radios and/or turned them off after less than 3 minutes!

 

[Gwylan]

It would be interesting to see the TV viewing figures.

Viewing figures in Australia were extremely high - nearly 10m viewers per test (getting on for half the population). It's no surprise that test cricket in Australia is on a free-to-air channel.

In the UK, BT coverage is running at about half the viewers that Sky got for the last Ashes series - something to be expected, given the number of subscribers

 

[Garry Nelson's teacher]

Viewing figures in Australia were extremely high - nearly 10m viewers per test (getting on for half the population). It's no surprise that test cricket in Australia is on a free-to-air channel.

In the UK, BT coverage is running at about half the viewers that Sky got for the last Ashes series - something to be expected, given the number of subscribers

Thanks for this. Perhaps shooting fish in a barrel is another big sport Down Under!

 

[Exile]

All done. Anderson doesn't bother to appeal, and Root doesn't come out to bat again.

Anderson made it as clear as he possibly could (without getting disciplined) that he hadn't hit it, but had no review available.

 

[Audax]

Sympathy there.
It happened to me and I cannot describe how terrible you feel. It feels like your body is shutting down. You can barely move and have absolutely no energy. Not to be recommended.

Turns out the dehydration reports were wide of the mark. He had/has gastro virus, of which one of the eventual symptoms is dehydration if you don't stay topped up on fluids. The weather on day 4 won't have helped. Suspect he should have played a bit smarter on day 4 and not come out at 4. He could have waited to come out at 6 or 7 and hope to be better able to bat long by avoiding the worst of the weather conditions. Although, as it turned out, no one else was able to bat long enough to prevent the tail being exposed and blown away anyway.


For me, I agree with what Vaughan said re: team selection post-match on TMS. England was never going to do well enough with the ball putting 4 minor variations of the same medium-pace theme on the park for 5 tests. They need to bite the bullet and realise that the best bowling attack doesn't always mean picking the best 3 or 4 bowlers. It often means leaving out the weakest of the 3 or 4, and bringing in the next-best bowler who offers some significantly different. That could be a left-arm option, or a genuine quick, but they need someone who change the attack. Anderson, Broad, Stokes, Woakes ... the weakest of those four has to sit out in favour of someone else.

You also need to find a genuine spinner. Moeen's been good for you, but he was exposed badly during this series and you had no one to fall back on. The Aussie bowling attack is arguably the best in the world right now, and it's not just because of the pace and the variation that the quicks offer. It's because Lyon can hold up an end with threat and allow the three quicks to rotate and always come on for a new spell fresh and ready to fire. Cummins said it: because of Lyon, the quicks rarely bowled more than 20 overs each in a day and they could always give their best when they did come on.

You've got some bright spots: Malan fills one of your batting gaps. Even Stoneman and Vince showed enough, IMO, to be worth keeping in the frame; both need to sort out bat-long concentration, though. As does Root: making as many runs as he did in the series without converting any of his scores into a big match-defining score just exemplifies where the team as a whole struggled. I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear if the test team are given a "concentration" coach to help get them to bat long without giving the easy chances.

 

[Gwylan]

They need to bite the bullet and realise that the best bowling attack doesn't always mean picking the best 3 or 4 bowlers.

I do agree about the variety of the attack, picking four fast medium right-armers is never going to help but I think that another problem is that England DON'T pick the best bowlers: they pick decent bowlers who can bat a bit. I don't believe that Woakes is the third best seamer in England, but he gets in because he can hold a bat. And Mooen is never the best spinner - both the Somerset lads, Leach and Bess are better - but he's a good bat, so gets in.

Australia's approach is simple: the six best batsman, a keeper who can bat and the four best bowlers - it hasn't served them badly over the years.

 

[Gwylan]

If you thought the Ashes was a bit one-sided, there's a cracking test in Cape Town right now. India have bowled themselves back in the game by dismissing South Africa for 130, leaving 208 to win.

Saffers still favourites but if Kohli gets going, who knows?

 

[BensGrandad]

We were the victims of 3 poors. Poor batting from the top order, Poor bowling from the mainstream bowlers and poor captaincy from an inexperienced captain. End result was a justifiable 4-0 beating, we were lucky it wasnt 5-0


Where do we go from here to rectify the problems?

 

[Papa Lazarou]

We were the victims of 3 poors. Poor batting from the top order, Poor bowling from the mainstream bowlers and poor captaincy from an inexperienced captain. End result was a justifiable 4-0 beating, we were lucky it wasnt 5-0


Where do we go from here to rectify the problems?

New Zealand?

 

[BensGrandad]

New Zealand?

Yes but with whom as changes. 3 young batsmen mentioned from the A tour but what about bowlers who is coming through for consideration.

 

[Exile]

We were the victims of 3 poors. Poor batting from the top order, Poor bowling from the mainstream bowlers and poor captaincy from an inexperienced captain. End result was a justifiable 4-0 beating, we were lucky it wasnt 5-0

That is simply not true.

As poor as England were for the most part, they were the better team in Melbourne, and were never at any stage behind in that Test.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Yes but with whom as changes. 3 young batsmen mentioned from the A tour but what about bowlers who is coming through for consideration.

The sarcastic answer would be back home to England and beating an overseas touring side on green wickets in May and June (which of course will simply paper over the cracks).

I have one question - As Ben Stokes has been included in the T20 team, and he's still not been charged, why wasn't he available for the Test series?