Cricket 42: The answer to life, the universe, and the inevitable English batting collapse

[Jeor]

Well I wasn't expecting that to wrap up so quickly...it's a crushing defeat for England, but it wasn't that far away from being a close contest.

The Warner no-ball cost them 80 runs and if not for Travis Head's individual efforts for his sensational 150-odd, the Australian tail could have been wrapped up pretty quickly and we'd be looking at a 200 chase.

A few question marks for both sides, though:

-Fitness issues with Warner and Stokes, and potentially Robinson and Hazlewood (though both seemed to bowl fine in the 2nd innings)

-Opening issues, apart from Warner's possible injury, the jury is still out on Harris, and Burns didn't have a good match

-Leach is going to possibly get dropped, Lyon on the other hand is on the way up

-Malan and Head had good games to secure their positions which might have come under fire with a poor game

-Both captains had good performances which should help them settle

It will be an intriguing series. Australia obviously on top but I don't think the size of the victory shows what England are capable of. They can still bring in Broad and Anderson at some point, too.

[ljkeane]

England have also been fined 100% of their match fees and docked 5 test championship points for slow over rates. So, yeah, good few days for the England team.

[Jeor]

Fined by none other than David Boon. Hah!

That being said, Australia apparently missed out on the World Test Championship FInal because of an over rate points reduction, so I guess the authorities are actually trying to give serious "encouragement" to improving the over rates.

[IheartIheartTesla]

I'll never understand the rationale behind resting both Anderson and Broad, while having an undercooked Stokes as well as two opening bowler who have never done so before in the Team in a high pressure first Test.

[Jeor]

1 hour ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

I'll never understand the rationale behind resting both Anderson and Broad, while having an undercooked Stokes as well as two opening bowler who have never done so before in the Team in a high pressure first Test.

I can only assume Anderson and Broad both had some fitness niggles or somesuch. Talk before the series was that they would play, just not every Test. Maybe with Stokes not being fully fit, they didn't want to risk playing the oldies if their fifth bowler wasn't fully fit either. But that seems weird to be so delicate with them...

[lmanion]

Anderson should really have played if fit Brisbane seems like the sort of conditions he could be a real difference maker

[ljkeane]

They've clearly targeted the day/night test as most likely to be optimal conditions to get the best out of Anderson. It turned out that first day in Brisbane would have been pretty good but maybe they didn't want to make a last minute change. In fairness the three front line seamers were fine, it was the batting and fielding that cost them.

[Jeor]

Yes, that does seem right @ljkeane - the day/night test in theory offers the most swing for Anderson and also being in the evening, you avoid most of the heat and other harsh conditions that would wear on the older players when fielding. However it doesn't really explain why the selectors would have left out both of them, I think that will always be a mystery. But I'm guessing we might see both of then in action tomorrow, which would be great for the series - just a shame they're coming in 1-0 down already.

[Jeor]

Cummins is out - he was a COVID close contact having gone out to dine at a restaurant in Adelaide. With Australia's best striker bowler out, and presumably Broad and Anderson both in for a day/night Test, I think England's chances are getting better by the hour.

[Raja]

[Jeor]

They do say self-talk can be beneficial in sports...

Well, Jos Buttler dropping that absolute sitter (waist high catch behind the wicket) really hurts England to have only taken 2 wickets on the first day. On the positive side, they did get a lot of plays and misses and kept the scoring under control, though it seems they bowled too short and didn't pitch it up enough to get the drives/nicks.

[Impmk2]

Oh no not again England. Labuschagne has 9 lives.

[Jeor]

Declared at 473 with England now being sent in under lights. England will have to dig in.

The Aussie slog was definitely on - it adds insult to injury when the Number 10 comes in and hits a six on his second ball. I knew Neser could bat, but who knew Richardson had a good swing on him?

Weakened Aussie bowling attack, though (with Starc and Lyon the first-choice and Richardson and Neser really only backups) so England might have a chance of putting up a score if they can get through this night session only one or two down.

[Xray the Enforcer]

Ah OK that explains why the match is on so damned late for me and also that the ball is a really garish color! didn't know this was a day/night Test. Anyway, so I missed the first day entirely and only was able to tune in just as AUS declared. LOL I'm guessing that Burns will not be selected again for awhile? That's a third innings he's gone cheaply.

[Raja]

8 hours ago, Xray the Enforcer said:

 a really garish color!

It's fashun

To be fair to Burns, that was a good delivery

 

[Jeor]

It's a shame, as Burns has shown good promise (including in previous Ashes' series). And at one point he was seen as one half of the opening solution (in the post-Strauss/Cook era) - it was merely a matter of finding him a partner. But after 30 matches to still have a Test average of 31 is really no better than any of the many other English top order bats who have cycled through the team in the last decade.

Nice day in Adelaide, good pitch and ball isn't doing much, and with the attack composed 50% of very green fast bowlers (Richardson into his second Test, Neser on debut) England could have a much better day today. And yes, I wasn't counting Cameron Green as part of the bowling attack...he's very much a fifth bowler (unlike Stokes who is genuinely frontline) and is only into his fifth Test himself. I suspect Lyon is going to have to bowl a lot of overs during the day to keep the quicks fresh for the night session, though he hasn't made an appearance yet.

Onto the Root and Malan show again...!

 

[Jeor]

Speaking of Cameron Green, he's been a non-entity so far and as much as I dislike the Marshes, you can't help but think that Mitchell Marsh - who just belted a century in the BBL last week - would do a better job. Marsh has a disappointing Test average of 25 (albeit with a couple of centuries, both against England, and a batting average of 45 versus the Poms across 7 Tests) but has taken 42 wickets in 32 matches. And at this stage you'd think he has more to offer than Green in both departments.

[ljkeane]

England capitulating again I see. It's just brutal watching England at any point when Root isn't batting. At least back in the 90s you could console yourself with the fact that Australia were one of the best teams ever and England used to occasionally show a bit of fight.

[Jeor]

Root and Malan again showed how it's done, but again they both fall short of a century when at least one of them really needed to go on. Apparently Pope's Test average against spin is 15 and it's been known for a while that it's his Achilles heel; Lyon had him tortured him before getting his wicket. And Cameron Green proves me wrong by getting a couple of key wickets including Root.

1 hour ago, ljkeane said:

England capitulating again I see. It's just brutal watching England at any point when Root isn't batting. At least back in the 90s you could console yourself with the fact that Australia were one of the best teams ever and England used to occasionally show a bit of fight.

Yes, Australia are certainly not at their best and this was the time to take it to them. Adelaide is a road of a pitch and the Aussie bowling attack, Starc and Lyon aside, has a second-string feel to it. Add on top of that the enforced absence of their captain and match-winning bowler. On the other hand, England also had their two top Test wicket-taking pace bowlers coming back into the game to bowl under lights with a pink ball. But the English bowlers bowled too short, and the batsmen gave it away.

For all their infamous collapses, 90s England had some decent batsmen with solid Test records - people like Graham Gooch, Alec Stewart, Robin Smith and Graham Thorpe averaged 40+ in an era when that still really meant something. Atherton and Hussain's averages weren't great - 37ish - but that's still better than most in the current England lineup not named Root.

 

[ljkeane]

17 minutes ago, Jeor said:

Atherton and Hussain's averages weren't great - 37ish - but that's still better than most in the current England lineup not named Root.

In fairness to Atherton he had a very tough job. Opening in England is generally a tough job anyway, look how much trouble England are having finding any serviceable openers, but he played in an era that was particularly tough. Almost every test side had at least a very good pace attack in not a great one and because at the time almost every non English international tended to have experience of at least a season or two of County or club cricket in England they all had a pretty good idea how to play in English conditions too.

You could look at his career average and say he wasn't much better than most of England's current crop of batsmen but I don't think that's true. He was a good batsman.