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Cricket: Industrial Action Edition


ljkeane

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100 runs to win and Smith is still out there...I think this is Australia's to lose now. Bangladesh will rue the missed chances and for throwing away their 150-3 in the third innings. I think Australia would have found the chase much tougher if it had started on Day 4.

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Haha well I am now eating my words as Bangladesh closes in. There's still a faint chance for the Aussies but I really hope the Tigers get up.

Cummins has been in this situation before and helped Australia win!

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Great win for Bangladesh! I'm really glad they got it.

Will be really interesting to see how the media and the Australian public take it. As I said after the deal was concluded, if the team doesn't win after getting this big pay rise (and being perceived to be the holdouts) who knows what will happen.

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So damn happy right now. A great step in the right direction for Bangladesh. They would've got a lot of self belief and confidence from the England and India series at home. And to beat Australia would give them a huge boost. Winning at home is the first step to becoming a stable test side and I am glad they seem to be heading in that direction.

Waited a good decade for this :D:love::grouphug:

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Fantastic result for Bangladesh. There were some nervous moments at the end with Cummins swinging hard, but they held on to their catches and did the job against the other tail-enders. Shakib was incredible and produced one of the great all-round test performances.

Australia will obviously be very disappointed, but given their track record, it's not too surprising to seem them fail to reach a reasonably difficult fourth innings target. It looks as if they are thinking about playing three spinners in the next match with SoK flying over to cover for Hazlewood.

@Jeor: I think the Ashes will be the public's acid test as far as the MoU is concerned. But losing against Bangladesh will create a few headlines here, especially given that the Aussies seemed to be improving on the back of the closely contested India series.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thread killed by a crossbow bolt!

I guess my interest waned once I saw the writing on the wall for Bangladesh in the second test. Kudos to the Aussies for coming back in that series, they comprehensively outplayed the hosts in Chittagong and will take some momentum with them into the India ODI series. Lyon and Warner were rightly awarded Men of the Series.

West Indies' batting faltered again in the third test with a rampant Anderson helping England seal the series. I'm guessing that the England top order will be reshuffled (perhaps quite considerably) before the 'Gabba.

And after a looooong wait, Pakistan will finally host some international cricket. Hopefully the World XI series proceeds without a hitch and we see a gradual resumption of internationals in Pakistan. I think Sri Lanka has agreed to tour in the near future.

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16 hours ago, Paxter said:

West Indies' batting faltered again in the third test with a rampant Anderson helping England seal the series. I'm guessing that the England top order will be reshuffled (perhaps quite considerably) before the 'Gabba.

Apparently Bayliss was commenting that he didn't think there would be any players on the Ashes tour who haven't been playing for England in the last year or so, so I'm not sure how different the top order will be. Stoneman and Malan probably did enough in the series that it would be a bit harsh to drop them, especially when there's a lack of obvious alternatives.

I might be a bit tempted to move some of the all-rounders up the order a bit, even if that means a specialist batsman coming it at 7, I'd say Bairstow is a better number 5 than Malan.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ha well Australia's subcontinent momentum never materialised after the Chittagong win. They are already 2-0 down against India and staring down the barrel of another series defeat.

Meanwhile Bairstow carved up the Windies in the first ODI and might be making a case for a top order slot at the 'Gabba, per BillyJ's commentary above. 

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Not to pull a Stokes and hit someone when they're down but I hope we get to see him punch one through the covers during the Ashes. If he does manage to have a bash down under, there will be quite a few people goading him towards a Bristol night out... on video again.

If he doesn't come with England, maybe the Australian team can borrow him to teach them how to hit things as their sub continent form is not inspiring confidence.

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So England are pretty screwed in the Ashes then. The squad was pretty threadbare to begin with and now Stokes is suspended it's looking fairly desperate. The batting was already short of enough test quality batsmen to fill the batting lineup and while the bowling might be ok for a test or two they're pretty thin on the ground with Wood and Roland-Jones already injured and upping the remaining bowlers workload by losing the allrounder looks like it's going to cause problems to me.

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15 hours ago, Squab said:

Not to pull a Stokes and hit someone when they're down but I hope we get to see him punch one through the covers during the Ashes. If he does manage to have a bash down under, there will be quite a few people goading him towards a Bristol night out... on video again.

 

Just send him out with David Warner.

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4 hours ago, ljkeane said:

So England are pretty screwed in the Ashes then. The squad was pretty threadbare to begin with and now Stokes is suspended it's looking fairly desperate. The batting was already short of enough test quality batsmen to fill the batting lineup and while the bowling might be ok for a test or two they're pretty thin on the ground with Wood and Roland-Jones already injured and upping the remaining bowlers workload by losing the allrounder looks like it's going to cause problems to me.

It does seem to be the most underwhelming England Ashes squad I can think of. I know there's not exactly a host of promising candidates vying for selection but it feels like surely there must be a better option than going back to James Vince and Gary Ballance. If Stokes misses the tour that's going to exacerbate the batting problems. I also agree that while the first-choice bowling attack is good there's not much experience in the reserves, picking a young leg spinner who hasn't played a Test as the backup spinner for a tour of Australia seems very risky if Moeen gets injured. I'd probably have picked Plunkett as one of the backup bowlers since he can provide some genuine pace and has quite a bit of experience, and while I know he's erratic I'd probably prefer Rashid as the backup spinner rather than throwing Crane in at the deep end.

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Finally Australia get a win in the ODI series vs India. While I'm not a massive ODI fan, it has been interesting to watch this series and India are definitely deserving of a top spot in the ODI rankings. They have an incredibly powerful batting lineup - with Rohit and Kohli at the top of the order, and then an array of big hitters coming in like Pandya and Dhoni. They seem to be able to hit sixes at will. The bowling attack is very good too. They've shown great death bowling skills, plus they have a phalanx of decent spinners too.

While the England squad doesn't look particularly strong, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of some Australian weakness as well to at least make the series interesting. Even though we're playing at home, the Australian team hasn't exactly been covering itself with glory lately.

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The SA v BAN scorecard is a rough reading: 411/1

Must be some sort of record that, surely?

4 hours ago, Paxter said:

I don't get the Vince selection at all. He is pretty much the worst batsman I have seen England try over the last couple of years (even worse than Lyth!!)

My overall Ashes outlook: Not Excited.

Luckily, Australia is also shit, so it will be an even series.

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I've just seen the video of the fight Stokes was in. You don't know what lead up to it but, in fairness to Stokes, one of the guys he's fighting does try to bottle someone before he gets involved so there is some mitigation. The problem for Stokes is he carries on far past the point were they've clearly had enough. I can't see him getting away with no charges, and he probably shouldn't.

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Man, Pakistan really bottled it against a gallant Sri Lanka. This doesn't bode well for the post Misbah/Younis era. And Bangladesh succumbed to SA after putting up an OK display with the bat in the first innings.

On Stokes, he should probably be given a lengthy suspension independent of any police investigation. But I can see England finding a way for him to be available for at least some of the Ashes, much as Australia did with Warner in 2013 (I think Warner came in mid-series, while it was still live).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some random thoughts on recent events:

  • Bangladesh have showed how far away they are from being competitive in test matches away from home. They were truly poor in the second test after showing some promise in the first.
  • Sri Lanka have handed Pakistan a rare test series defeat in the UAE. It looks as if Pakistan will drift quickly back into the pack post-Misbah/Younis.
  • Australia recovered to win the second T20I against India, but there are some questions emerging over the fitness and preparation of Smith and Starc ahead of the Ashes. The first three rounds of this season's Shield will be crucial and will determine the make-up of the team for the first test.
  • New Zealand is scheduled to play just four test matches over their upcoming home season *sigh*.
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