[Cricket] The Ashes - England v Australia - 5th Test, Oval, July 27-31, 2023

[Eeyore]

Highest run total without a century?

I had you as favourite



I'm quite surprised, but it's true according to the boffins.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

I had you as favourite



I'm quite surprised, but it's true according to the boffins.

I didn't think it likely but there didn't seem to be anything else it could be.

 

[keaton]

Spinner? Especially for Australia and Indian subcontinent. Is Root enough

Ali is easiest, I have high hopes for Rehan Ahmed and Leach until he’s ready.

I would expect the seamers in India to be Tongue, Wood and Anderson (reversing it). Longer term there’s Sam Curran, Cook at Essex (not that one), Saqib Mahmood, Olly Stone, Brydon Carse and some others knocking about.

Robinson?

 

[A1X]

Robinson?

I worry about his fitness

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Ben Foakes was excellent in Sri Lanka on debut, and superb in India last time round (he set a new England record for most stumpings in a match didn't he?)

Foakes HAS to go, and has to play. YJB can fight for a batting spot.

However, VERY excited about James Rew.

19 years old. On his way to becoming a very good keeper, and has over 1,000 runs in Division One, including 5 centuries (the most in the league) and a top score of 220-something.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

I know he's a bit of a pantomime villain – and his 5-0 predictions are not much more than him playing to the crowd – but Glenn McGrath has really grown on my this Ashes series on TMS. He's certainly got a lot of time for the England set up and there's almost a touch of jealously/admiration for 'Bazball' and a desire for Australia to have its own version. There was also a great interview in a rain break yesterday by Aggers between him and Athers (I didn't realise McGrath had got him out 19 times!) that also had a lot of mutual respect going on.

Anyway, here's his pretty fair assessment of the series, in case anyone hadn't seen it:

The Ashes 2023: Glenn McGrath pays tribute to Stuart Broad but questions ball change

Stuart Broad's finale was a fitting finish to an incredible Ashes series. I'll admit 2-2 is a fair result, writes Glenn McGrath.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Triggaaar]

I know he's a bit of a pantomime villain – and his 5-0 predictions are not much more than him playing to the crowd – but Glenn McGrath has really grown on my this Ashes series on TMS. He's certainly got a lot of time for the England set up and there's almost a touch of jealously/admiration for 'Bazball' and a desire for Australia to have its own version. There was also a great interview in a rain break yesterday by Aggers between him and Athers (I didn't realise McGrath had got him out 19 times!) that also had a lot of mutual respect going on.

Anyway, here's his pretty fair assessment of the series, in case anyone hadn't seen it:

The Ashes 2023: Glenn McGrath pays tribute to Stuart Broad but questions ball change

Stuart Broad's finale was a fitting finish to an incredible Ashes series. I'll admit 2-2 is a fair result, writes Glenn McGrath.

www.bbc.co.uk

"Both teams were on the ropes at times but managed to hang in there."

I honestly can't remember England being on the ropes.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

"Both teams were on the ropes at times but managed to hang in there."

I honestly can't remember England being on the ropes.

Immediately before we lost either match to go 0-2 down?

 

[Triggaaar]

Immediately before we lost either match to go 0-2 down?

That's not what I see as being on the ropes - that's a close fight to the end, at which point it's over. The most 'on the ropes' were the Aussies at Old Trafford

 

[dangull]

The changing of the ball to seemingly a newer or better ball for bowling, and the Stokes appeal for a catch he clearly dropped, probably evens the Carey stumping/run out dismissal row. 2-2, maybe 3-2 would have been a fair result but for the weather saving the Aussies at Manchester, but like football many teams get outplayed but hold on for a draw.
Recent Ashes series in Australia is a concern for the future though 5-0, 4-0, 5-0 has been the results.

 

[PeterT]

I got to 20 of the 23 days where there was play (and one where it was rained off). What a finish yesterday, I admit to feeling rather sad it’s all over. I was quite ill, hospitalised, with Covid in 2021 and when I was at my lowest I said to myself if I get through it I’ll just go crazy and get to as much of it as I can irrespective of the time, cost etc etc. And what a series it was, I enjoyed every (well almost every) minute. If health and wealth allow, I’ll be there at the Gabba in 2025 too!

 

[A1X]

Ben Foakes was excellent in Sri Lanka on debut, and superb in India last time round (he set a new England record for most stumpings in a match didn't he?)

Foakes HAS to go, and has to play. YJB can fight for a batting spot.

However, VERY excited about James Rew.

19 years old. On his way to becoming a very good keeper, and has over 1,000 runs in Division One, including 5 centuries (the most in the league) and a top score of 220-something.

There was an excellent piece during the rain break on Monday afternoon where Dan Norcross, Alastair Cook, Henry Moran and Andy Zaltzman attempted to pick an Ashes squad for 2027 (all purely hypothetical), Rew was pretty much unanimously the choice for keeper.

 

[Bodian]

The changing of the ball to seemingly a newer or better ball for bowling, and the Stokes appeal for a catch he clearly dropped, probably evens the Carey stumping/run out dismissal row. 2-2, maybe 3-2 would have been a fair result but for the weather saving the Aussies at Manchester, but like football many teams get outplayed but hold on for a draw.
Recent Ashes series in Australia is a concern for the future though 5-0, 4-0, 5-0 has been the results.

To be fair to Stokes - he didn't appeal, and was even pretty reluctant to review. And I thought that illustrated and backed up exactly what he said after the Bairstow incident - that it's not what he would have done.

I don't think anything could even out the stumping / run out dismissal really. It changed the whole series. From that moment on, England were on top - and bar the weather would have won the series. That incident was the pivot I think, and it was very fitting that the last wicket was Carey caught by Bairstow.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

There was an excellent piece during the rain break on Monday afternoon where Dan Norcross, Alastair Cook, Henry Moran and Andy Zaltzman attempted to pick an Ashes squad for 2027 (all purely hypothetical), Rew was pretty much unanimously the choice for keeper.

Have we written off the next series in Australia already?

 

[A1X]

Have we written off the next series in Australia already?

I think the premise was that the bulk of the team would remain largely intact for that series (bar probably losing Anderson) but the next home series is far enough down the line that a significant change would have been likely.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

I think the premise was that the bulk of the team would remain largely intact for that series (bar probably losing Anderson) but the next home series is far enough down the line that a significant change would have been likely.

Wouldn't be surprised if Wood's gone by then as well, and I think we've all written off Woakes overseas now. It'll be pretty much an entirely different bowling attack in Australia.

 

[PeterT]

Wouldn't be surprised if Wood's gone by then as well, and I think we've all written off Woakes overseas now. It'll be pretty much an entirely different bowling attack in Australia.

I had thought that might be Broad’s last tour too, shows how wrong you can be.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

So the net affect of Bazball is with us. Exciting..accelerated scoring...slower bowling rates incurring loss of Test points.

 

[Eeyore]

That's not what I see as being on the ropes - that's a close fight to the end, at which point it's over. The most 'on the ropes' were the Aussies at Old Trafford

Dunno, the match we won at Headingly we were in a lot of bother, and there were quite a few other occasions where things suddenly swung (quite literally after that ball change).

Fair assessment. At this stage I can't see us being anything other than battered in 18 months time.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Aussies should lose a few stalwarts in the next 2/3 years too. Khawaja, Warner, Starc, Lyon, Hazelwood maybe....