4th Ashes Test England v Australia July 19-23 1930hrs @ Old Trafford

[PhatBoy]

That’s all good and well but we have not tried to stem the run flow at all, we have openly given them free runs to rotate the strike at will. We have not made them take any risks at all.
We have helped them increase their run rate by very poor tactics.
Set a ring of fielders off side and 2-3 slips, bowl line and length outside off and force them to play over the top and take risks.

I disagree with that but I think they have conflated stopping boundaries with stopping runs.

They think that putting men on the boundary will slow things down. It won’t if the opposition bats with any modicum of smarts, which they often (not always) have.
Coupled with the fact that they are prepared to play unorthodox shots to periodically beat the fielders that ARE on the boundary and it’s made for high scoring rates the whole way

 

[Portmagpies36]

England can bat how they like, if we make 450 in the first innings they are in trouble end of story.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

I disagree with that but I think they have conflated stopping boundaries with stopping runs.

They think that putting men on the boundary will slow things down. It won’t if the opposition bats with any modicum of smarts, which they often (not always) have.
Coupled with the fact that they are prepared to play unorthodox shots to periodically beat the fielders that ARE on the boundary and it’s made for high scoring rates the whole way

Risk free batting, worst bowling and fielding tactics I have ever seen. Almost laughable it is.

 

[SC_Power]

England played that mental game to perfection. Carey has been awful with the bat since.

Dare I say that Broad's sledge "That's all you be remembered for" is bearing early fruit?

 

[PhatBoy]

Risk free batting, worst bowling and fielding tactics I have ever seen. Almost laughable it is.

Respectfully, if that’s the worst tactics you’ve seen, you haven’t watched a great deal of test cricket outside of what Australia contests.

 

[corbies]

Like it or not, no team has done this on a long term basis before. Ever. England’s run rate last calendar year was the quickest recorded since 1910 by any team. And that was with their first few tests of the year being played before McCullum arrived. And the 1910 record? It was created over 2 tests and I think 8 ball overs.

Nope, 6 ball overs.

 

[PhatBoy]

Nope, 6 ball overs.

Fair enough

 

[ams4crows]

If all the weather predictions are true England may be bold here and declare over night there may only be 4 sessions on the game remaining

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Respectfully, if that’s the worst tactics you’ve seen, you haven’t watched a great deal of test cricket outside of what Australia contests.

Correct, I don’t watch much cricket that does not involve the Aussies. I try to but if it’s a batting paradise day one I struggle to hold any interest.

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

Sooks are 67 in front with Stokes and Brook in and still have Woakes who basically won the last test.
This lead can easily fly up to over 200 if Starc doesn’t come back to bowl.

They will get bowled out for around 130 lead or somewhere in that region.

Urgency will cost them wickets they pretty much gotta get us 3 or 4 down by the end of the day to have a chance of winning.

 

[PhatBoy]

Correct, I don’t watch much cricket that does not involve the Aussies. I try to but if it’s a batting paradise day one I struggle to hold any interest.

Fair call

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

If all the weather predictions are true England may be bold here and declare over night there may only be 4 sessions on the game remaining

Thats i guess the advantage of being 2-1 up they have to force the game.

 

[Bugz]

If all the weather predictions are true England may be bold here and declare over night there may only be 4 sessions on the game remaining

Today's forecast has improved significantly. Other sites get their forecasts from the Met and will adjust theirs shortly also:

 

[Purple7x08_24]

Just had a nightmare. Woke up and Australia got slaughtered in the 4th test.

 

[Richard Pryor]

Sole silver lining is we've cemented Crawley in to stink up the English top order for the next decade.

 

[One Dimensional]

Today's forecast has improved significantly. Other sites get their forecasts from the Met and will adjust theirs shortly also:

View attachment 1746236

Are you looking at 'Manchester'?

'Old Trafford cricket ground' is different - albeit doesn't look much time will be lost today:

 

[aabp1978]

With those forecasts, weather aint saving us.

 

[RookiePick]

England can bat how they like, if we make 450 in the first innings they are in trouble end of story.

If we make 450 we have very likely batted until near tea on day 2. I agree that the game is pretty much over in terms of an England win at that point.

England are doing a super job of giving us enough time to **** it all up with their rapid 1st innings batting.

 

[beside the seaside]

Just don't get why we continually bowled straight to Crawley so he could tuck it away for runs on the on side. He still nearly managed to get himself out countless times but our bowling to him sucked.

 

[beside the seaside]

If all the weather predictions are true England may be bold here and declare over night there may only be 4 sessions on the game remaining

Wouldn't they rather smash it for a session and then get us out in three?

 

[PhatBoy]

Sole silver lining is we've cemented Crawley in to stink up the English top order for the next decade.

Interestingly, while you can slice and dice his figures a number of different ways given his rank inconsistency at test level, if you remove his absolutely abysmal record against NZ he averages 40 in Test cricket

 

[JackOutback]

They have invented a new way to play cricket.

48 years ago, Tony Grieg made the biggest mistake of his career and said he would make the West Indies grovel.
What followed was 18 years of 5, and later 6, 7 and 8 other teams trying to figure out a way to beat 4 terrifying fast bowlers destroying everything in their path. A handful of players were able to beat it - Gavaskar, Border, Miandad from memory, but no team was able to do it.

Like it or not, no team has done this on a long term basis before. Ever. England’s run rate last calendar year was the quickest recorded since 1910 by any team. And that was with their first few tests of the year being played before McCullum arrived. And the 1910 record? It was created over 2 tests and I think 8 ball overs.

They are scoring even faster this year and in this series. Australia has the best pace attack in the world with SA’s dropping off a bit, and they have not been confronted by this before.

Finding a solution isn’t just a matter of ‘ok we will just do what normal teams do’ because normal teams have not had to combat this before.

Scott Boland is a ‘normal’ bowler who has tried to bowl line and length. He took 2 wickets or something for the series so far and was fodder.

I don't agree that 'slightly faster than many Australian teams of the past' is a new way to play cricket.

 

[boondy]

Surely Australia can fabricate a wicket when the poms pick the ball up and help return it appeal that ball isn't dead

 

[PhatBoy]

I don't agree that 'slightly faster than many Australian teams of the past' is a new way to play cricket.

It’s not. It’s much faster. In this series it’s half a run faster than Australia at their peak ever managed, and this series has actually been slower than what they’ve been doing overall under McCullum

Before this series, in 12 months under McCullum they scored at a tick under 4.8 an over. Australia’s absolute peak in 02-03 was 4.03 and 3.96 respectively. That works out on a proper full day of test cricket to be about 75 runs give or take. That’s a fair chunk.

 

[Rocco sifreddi]

Pretty pathetic that people want it to rain
So Australia retain the ashes , England deserve
A crack at levelling the series ,