Paxter Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 1 minute ago, Jeor said: As I suspected, this is looking to be a draw... I'm not ruling out a spectacular England collapse. And no-one gets to 50 and then gets out quite like J Root. Probably a bit tough on Starc as this is clearly the least bowler-friendly surface of the series...but his 0-41 off 11 overs is exactly why he wasn't picked to play in the first three tests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 13 minutes ago, Paxter said: I'm not ruling out a spectacular England collapse. And no-one gets to 50 and then gets out quite like J Root. Probably a bit tough on Starc as this is clearly the least bowler-friendly surface of the series...but his 0-41 off 11 overs is exactly why he wasn't picked to play in the first three tests. I think the main avenue of avoiding a draw was the follow-on, and England have made good progress towards scoring a total in excess of 297. There may yet be a spectacular collapse but they are only 170 runs away with 8 wickets in hand, of which there is one more batsman (as Overton is one of the wickets that fell). On an innocuous pitch that should be achievable. Yes, Starc has shown why he hasn't been bowling in this series. The odd ball aside, Lyon has also been handled pretty well. It's clear from the economy rates that Hazlewood and Cummins are the main threats that England are happy to see off. I'm still interested to see if Starc can extract some reverse swing, though. Once that ball gets into the 60-80 over territory, if he can get it to reverse then there may still be a chance of snatching some wickets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paxter Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 Woah. Lasith Malinga just took four wickets in four balls! Albeit in a T20I, but still pretty amazing stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 Another slightly odd review from Paine. It looked like Cummins thought it hit Root outside the line and if the bowler doesn’t like it it probably doesn’t have a lot going for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paxter Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 Surely a wicket coming here though? Bowlers have been down on their luck in this match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 Losing the two set batsmen in quick succession really isn’t what England needed. Still the top order have done what they’re there to do and seen off the new ball, now the middle order has to actually take advantage of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 1 hour ago, ljkeane said: Another slightly odd review from Paine. It looked like Cummins thought it hit Root outside the line and if the bowler doesn’t like it it probably doesn’t have a lot going for it. Yes, and the ball was even slightly moving away (or that was my first impression) so there wasn't really any reason to review that one. Root's half-century curse continues. I've been saying it the past couple of days, this might be Roy's day after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 3 minutes ago, Jeor said: I've been saying it the past couple of days, this might be Roy's day after all. Not his day after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 So apparently my jinx works on English batsmen as well. Never fear, Stokes, Bairstow and Buttler are going to smash it to all parts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 He did the work by playing himself in but lets himself down with a very loose shot. He's too much of a limited overs player atm and just can't help himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 2 minutes ago, Consigliere said: He did the work by playing himself in but lets himself down with a very loose shot. He's too much of a limited overs player atm and just can't help himself. I think he's still working out which balls to attack and which to defend. In the ODI game, he's basically in default attack mode all the time. The ball is limited to a strict channel around off stump since wides are called frequently for anything legside or anything a bit too much outside off, plus there are limitations on the short ball. In the Test game the bowling doesn't have any of those restrictions, plus the conditions of the pitch and ball are more in favour of the bowlers. Hence the need to work out how to transition between attack and defence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 Definitely a mixed day for England. They did put up some good resistance with Burns and Root and it is starting to look as if they might finally have found an opener in Burns. However, the late wickets means they still have a lot of work to do to save the match. If Bairstow and Stokes can build a decent partnership tomorrow they should be OK, but if they get out cheaply Australia do have a real chance. 4 hours ago, Paxter said: Woah. Lasith Malinga just took four wickets in four balls! Albeit in a T20I, but still pretty amazing stuff. I just saw a statistic that four-in-four-balls has only been done three times in international cricket, it's a bit crazy that Malinga is responsible for two of those.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paxter Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 I always wondered whether it counts as two separate hat-tricks from a statistical perspective? I knew Root could be relied on to miss the century! His conversion rate is 27% and falling with every passing year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Winged Shadow Posted September 7, 2019 Share Posted September 7, 2019 What's the weather forecast for the day? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted September 7, 2019 Author Share Posted September 7, 2019 13 hours ago, Paxter said: I knew Root could be relied on to miss the century! His conversion rate is 27% and falling with every passing year. Root suffers a bit from comparison - the 1-1 conversion rates of Smith and Kohli are pretty insane even historically. A world-class batsman probably should have about 50% more 50s than 100s I reckon (e.g. 10 centuries, 15 half-centuries). Historical examples include Tendulkar (51/68 is quite good), Kallis (45/58 is impressive), Lara (34/48), Ponting (41/62). Steve Waugh is a little less impressive at 32/50 although he did bat at No. 5 for most of his career. A contemporary is Kane Williamson with a neat 20/30 which I'd say is pretty good. But note the names here, we are comparing historically great batsmen. I reckon that although Root's 16/43 is still below par, it's not ridiculously bad. Yes, it probably holds him back from being a historically great batsman but there was a good article showing that the Big Four really is only the Big Three (Smith/Kohli/Williamson). It's a bit like tennis where people wanted to make Andy Murray in the Big Four but really Federer/Nadal/Djokovic are comfortably ahead of him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted September 7, 2019 Author Share Posted September 7, 2019 I don't know about using Mitchell Starc with the new ball. I would have thought Cummins and Hazlewood together would have a better chance of being dangerous and putting the ball in the right areas. Starc I would think of more as an old-ball reverse-swinger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Winged Shadow Posted September 7, 2019 Share Posted September 7, 2019 Nice one Jeor. You'll be right at some point this series Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted September 7, 2019 Author Share Posted September 7, 2019 Sigh. This Ashes series is basically a massive conspiracy - I bet the players are checking my posts from the ground and seeing how they can stuff me up next! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted September 7, 2019 Share Posted September 7, 2019 Shit. England are in serious trouble now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeor Posted September 7, 2019 Author Share Posted September 7, 2019 In my defence, Starc did waste the new ball the first time around. Glad he's got it right this time. If the forecast is looking good today and tomorrow, I think Australia won't bother enforcing the follow-on even if they could. Try and polish the tail off before lunch, bat 1.5 sessions and set a target of 350-400 and then try and bowl at England again for an hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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