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Cricket 38: Ashes Openers Crash and Burns


Philokles

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And Joe Denly.

2-2 probably about fair. England played better collectively but Australia had most the stand out individuals. Not too bad for England given Anderson’s injury took away their biggest bowling threat. I hope the drawn series doesn’t distract from the need to rejuvenate the batting.

Great idea for whoever made Australia celebrate retaining the Ashes in front of a giant ‘Series Drawn’ board.

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Well, all good things  must come to an end, I suppose. That being said, the Ashes became a "Hot Thread" several times on the message board, which has to be somewhat ironic given how deliberate and slow a game it is to the uninitiated.

Re: the point about the captains, I think both Root and Paine will carry on at least for the next 6-12 months. Paine has successfully led an Ashes campaign (drawn though it was, retaining the urn will be seen as a victory) and there has been support for him in the print media as well as home TV coverage. I expect he'll captain through the Aussie summer and it will only be once Steve Smith's 2 year ban is up that we'll see the conversation happen. There would be no appetite to appoint another captain after Paine only to have to revisit the issue again when Smith becomes eligible, so Paine it is at least for the next 6-12 months.

Root stays as captain, I think, because there really isn't any other alternative. Short of Eoin Morgan being drafted back into the Test side there are no other major candidates for leadership (and his first-class average of 33 looks pretty rubbish - it would have the potential to become another Jason Roy sort of move). Well, maybe there is one - Stokes. But given his heavy workload as an all-rounder, while it would be a "typical ECB" move, it could well end in tears like Flintoff. Plus, the off-field history can never be completely wiped clean and that might count against him.

Reflecting on the 2-2 series, I suppose it was a fair result, although I still think Australia slightly had the better of the series overall (mainly due to Smith). Australia's two wins were by large margins (251 runs and 185 runs) where by the end they were never in any danger of losing, whereas England's wins were by 1 wicket (freak result) and 135 runs (very comfortably), albeit they had the better of the sole draw.

Both sides have lots of batting problems to fix but some real bright sides on the bowling. Pat Cummins emerged as the No. 1 bowler in the world, and Jofra Archer emerged as England's most exciting pace bowler in years. Steve Smith was god-like in his batting, but Ben Stokes and Rory Burns have also done a lot to lift their reputations. This will hopefully also be remembered as the series that was the beginning of the end for David Warner.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Brave performance by South Africa in the first test against India. Elgar is a gem and it's good to see De Kock back amongst the runs. Pretty impressive opening debut from Rohit!

Back in Australia, the Shield season starts on Wednesday. And given the post-Ashes holes in Australia's batting lineup (opener and number five are vacant), it's going to be a very high stakes start to the summer. 

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The Australian women's team set a record of 18 consecutive ODI wins. They really are a winning machine and seem to have pulled away from the rest in the past couple of years.

 

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3 hours ago, Jeor said:

The Australian women's team set a record of 18 consecutive ODI wins. They really are a winning machine and seem to have pulled away from the rest in the past couple of years.

And it's awesome to see Lanning more or less back to her best. Everyone raves about Perry's batting, but Lanning has the superior ODI record (striking at 93 with a higher average and many more centuries than Perry, who strikes at 77). 

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Excellent progress with paid parental leave for Australia's women's cricketers as well. Apparently now they can get 12 months paid parental leave and a guaranteed contract extension for the year after that. Previously pregnancy basically ended any women player's career but now I guess they're trying to find an alternative. A good time to do it, too, when the women's game is starting to get a bit more attention.

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The usual suspects have performed well in the opening Shield round, with Harris, Pucovski and Warner notching hundreds. Marnus also chimed in with a half-century. In terms of standout performances, test discard Maddinson showed a lot of character to bounce back from injury with a big double ton. 

The Queensland boys need some runs though if they want to push for test selection: Usman and Burns both failed in the first innings against NSW. 

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So Mitchell Marsh, incumbent Australian test allrounder and captain of his State, decides to punch the wall after a lame dismissal in the Shield game. He's now got a broken hand and is facing six weeks on the sidelines, which will rule him out for the Pakistan series.

Maybe this is why Australia doesn't like you Mitch? Langer apparently called him and said he was an idiot.

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8 hours ago, Paxter said:

So Mitchell Marsh, incumbent Australian test allrounder and captain of his State, decides to punch the wall after a lame dismissal in the Shield game. He's now got a broken hand and is facing six weeks on the sidelines, which will rule him out for the Pakistan series.

Maybe this is why Australia doesn't like you Mitch? Langer apparently called him and said he was an idiot.

Just after he gave his best Test bowling performance too, when his stock couldn't have been higher. Hah. I feel I'm able to laugh at him though because it's self-inflicted.

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3 hours ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Saffers got rekt. They need some serious rebuilding to do. Hopefully there are some good prospects domestically. It's not often that South Africa gets rolled over so easily.

Only Elgar can hold his head up high from that series. Maybe Kagiso. Terrible.

Usman running out of time for this test summer. I think everyone will keep their spot from The Oval, except Head will be given another chance in place of Marsh. 

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10 hours ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Saffers got rekt. They need some serious rebuilding to do. Hopefully there are some good prospects domestically. It's not often that South Africa gets rolled over so easily.

It's interesting because on paper they have a few of the ingredients in the international team already. Elgar is a serviceable international opener, Markram reputedly has a lot of promise. Faf is still there and seems to have recovered some form in the past year, de Kock is one of the best wicketkeeper-batsmen going around, and in Rabada they have a bona fide strike bowler with some tidy backup options (Philander). The middle-order batsmen (Amla and de Villiers replacements) are really the only major gaps.

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5 hours ago, Jeor said:

It's interesting because on paper they have a few of the ingredients in the international team already. Elgar is a serviceable international opener, Markram reputedly has a lot of promise. Faf is still there and seems to have recovered some form in the past year, de Kock is one of the best wicketkeeper-batsmen going around, and in Rabada they have a bona fide strike bowler with some tidy backup options (Philander). The middle-order batsmen (Amla and de Villiers replacements) are really the only major gaps.

That's a fair point. They do seem to have enough talent to rebuild quite quickly. Maybe it's just the hangover from losing so many good players (Steyn, Morkel, Amla, De Villiers) in a short period of time? On Markram, I think he is just going through a bad patch. Those two hundreds last year against Australia were quality knocks against a strong bowling attack. 

Zubayr Hamza (apart from being really quite sexy) looks like a good find for SA. Near 50 average in first class cricket and an impressive maiden fifty against India at Ranchi. Could be a name for the future. 

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12 hours ago, Paxter said:

That's a fair point. They do seem to have enough talent to rebuild quite quickly. Maybe it's just the hangover from losing so many good players (Steyn, Morkel, Amla, De Villiers) in a short period of time? On Markram, I think he is just going through a bad patch. Those two hundreds last year against Australia were quality knocks against a strong bowling attack. 

Zubayr Hamza (apart from being really quite sexy) looks like a good find for SA. Near 50 average in first class cricket and an impressive maiden fifty against India at Ranchi. Could be a name for the future. 

Yes, South Africa have lost some top-class talent in recent years but they've still got more than enough to be competitive against most sides. To be fair, India are one of the better Test teams out there and are playing at home, but it shouldn't have been quite so one-sided.

Hah - now I know why you don't like the Australian team, @Paxter! They all look like a bunch of crooks compared to your mate Hamza.

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9 hours ago, Jeor said:

Hah - now I know why you don't like the Australian team, @Paxter! They all look like a bunch of crooks compared to your mate Hamza.

Au contraire Jeor, I am a big admirer of Pat Cummins. The Marsh boys are also pretty cute in their own way (mainly Mitch). And of course that is without canvassing the likes of Brett Lee from yesteryear!

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9 minutes ago, Paxter said:

Au contraire Jeor, I am a big admirer of Pat Cummins. The Marsh boys are also pretty cute in their own way (mainly Mitch). And of course that is without canvassing the likes of Brett Lee from yesteryear!

I don't get the Marsh thing, although their playing careers have probably prejudiced their outward appearance. For instance, David Warner looks like a hardened criminal and not someone I'd want to meet in a dark alley...

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I guess he had to be banned, as they have to take a strong anti-corruption stance and if he didn't report an approach then it's only a short skip to something much worse happening. And apparently education about that sort of thing is pretty high in cricket so he should've known. Still, it must be particularly hard for Shakib - he's a world-class player and I'm guessing Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable to approaches given the economics of the game there.

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