Cricket 44: Abrar-Cadabra

[ljkeane]

Pope's out of the rest of the Ashes with a dislocated shoulder.  Lyon's bravery coming out to bat got a mentioned a lot, and fair enough, but Pope batting and fielding for a bit with a recently dislocated shoulder must have hurt like an absolute bastard.

That's a bit of a problem for England given there's not really an obvious replacement. They could move one of Stokes or Bairstow to 3 but both of them are really a lot better down the order.

[Jeor]

Bad for Pope, though given he hasn't scored in the first two Tests it's not a massive blow for England at least in terms of recent performance. Probably the easiest solution is to move Root up to 3 and insert the new batsman (Lawrence?) at 4 or 6 if you swap him with Brooks.

Either way it looks like England will also have a stronger tail with Moeen set to come back into the side. 

[Raja]

Have absolutely no clue how pope played with a dislocated shoulder. Surely they must have relocated it otherwise it's generally way to painful and impossible to do shoulder movements

read that he's previously dislocated it as well, which makes sense. once you get one dislocaiton, you invariable end up getting further dislocations

[ljkeane]

7 minutes ago, Raja said:

read that he's previously dislocated it as well, which makes sense. once you get one dislocaiton, you invariable end up getting further dislocations

Nah, it was the other one he's previously dislocated.

8 minutes ago, Raja said:

Have absolutely no clue how pope played with a dislocated shoulder. Surely they must have relocated it otherwise it's generally way to painful and impossible to do shoulder movements

I assume it came out and went back in on it's own because he was moving it when he initially went off and people don't do that in my experience of seeing people who need to have it put back in when playing rugby. Still must have hurt a lot to basically play any cricket shot I'd think.

[Paxter]

The spirit of cricket thing is hilarious.

Complete sideshow but brilliant in terms of drawing eyeballs to the superior form of the game. 

[williamjm]

On 7/4/2023 at 1:44 PM, Jeor said:

Bad for Pope, though given he hasn't scored in the first two Tests it's not a massive blow for England at least in terms of recent performance. Probably the easiest solution is to move Root up to 3 and insert the new batsman (Lawrence?) at 4 or 6 if you swap him with Brooks.

Either way it looks like England will also have a stronger tail with Moeen set to come back into the side. 

They seem to have gone in a slightly different direction and brought in Moeen, Woakes and Wood for Pope, Tongue and Anderson. That does strengthen the bowling options but there is one fewer specialist batsmen. It sounds like part of the motivation is that Stokes isn't sure how much he's going to be able to bowl.

It does feel a bit harsh on Tongue after he was the pick of the England bowling attack in the last Test, although I think the plan was always for Wood to play at some point.

On 7/4/2023 at 4:49 PM, Paxter said:

The spirit of cricket thing is hilarious.

The Spirit of Cricket sounds like it should be something from a cricket equivalent of A Christmas Carol. Perhaps W.G. Grace as the Spirit of Cricket Past and Joe Root as the Spirit of Cricket Present. Not sure who the Spirit of Cricket Future should be, maybe a teenaged T20 player?

Edited July 5, 2023 by williamjm

[Maltaran]

The spirit of cricket past surely has to be CMJ, given that the award is named for him

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/65013262.amp

[Jeor]

2 hours ago, williamjm said:

They seem to have gone in a slightly different direction and brought in Moeen, Woakes and Wood for Pope, Tongue and Anderson. That does strengthen the bowling options but there is one fewer specialist batsmen. It sounds like part of the motivation is that Stokes isn't sure how much he's going to be able to bowl.

It does feel a bit harsh on Tongue after he was the pick of the England bowling attack in the last Test, although I think the plan was always for Wood to play at some point.

The Spirit of Cricket sounds like it should be something from a cricket equivalent of A Christmas Carol. Perhaps W.G. Grace as the Spirit of Cricket Past and Joe Root as the Spirit of Cricket Present. Not sure who the Spirit of Cricket Future should be, maybe a teenaged T20 player?

It seems that Woakes is being brought in more for his batting - if you're discarding a specialist batsman, then you sort of need both Moeen and Woakes's batting skills down the order to make it work. But I would have thought if they wanted to go with the deadlier attack, they would have both Tongue and Wood in operation. It's clear that it's pace that troubles the Aussies, and at Headingley it would have been perfect for Stokes to be able to send in fiery spells from Wood and Tongue, backed up by Broad and himself (and Moeen as a spinner).

Much as I like bowlers who can bat (Starc), you want to be picking bowlers for their main skill and so far England haven't been as incisive with the ball as they should have. My memory of Ashes contests in England in the last 20 years is always thinking an Australian wicket was coming the next ball, but this group hasn't been as deadly.

[williamjm]

1 hour ago, Jeor said:

It seems that Woakes is being brought in more for his batting - if you're discarding a specialist batsman, then you sort of need both Moeen and Woakes's batting skills down the order to make it work. But I would have thought if they wanted to go with the deadlier attack, they would have both Tongue and Wood in operation. It's clear that it's pace that troubles the Aussies, and at Headingley it would have been perfect for Stokes to be able to send in fiery spells from Wood and Tongue, backed up by Broad and himself (and Moeen as a spinner).

They could still have played Woakes, Tongue and Wood together if they dropped Robinson as well.

[Jeor]

The forecast also shows that rain is likely to affect this Test. It's hard to know who gets the most out of a rain-interrupted game. Usually you'd say it's England with their more aggressive game and ability to get results in a shorter space of time, but with Australia 2-0 up I think they wouldn't be annoyed - a draw secures the Ashes, though they'll want to go for the series win.

Australia's big question mark is going to be Todd Murphy. The loss of Lyon is a huge blow as he was arguably the key component (alongside Cummins) of a world-champion bowling attack. And as good as Murphy was in India, that was on spinner-friendly pitches and in tandem with a much more experienced spin partner.

At Headingley, with the raucous, hostile atmosphere, the likelihood of English batsmen to try and hit him into the crowd, and the lack of an experienced spinner in the field alongside him to talk him through tough moments, it's going to be a big ask. He will definitely be the weak point in the attack that the English will try to exploit. I think Cummins et al will have to accept that he will be expensive and go for plenty of runs, but if he flights some and gets a bit of turn, the hope is that he'll get a few wickets while he does it.

[Paxter]

I'm expecting Murphy to easily hold his own.

@Jeor: RE England's bowling - yes it doesn't look like wicket-per-ball stuff, but the lack of swing will do that to you. I actually think they have done quite well so far. 

 

[Jeor]

22 minutes ago, Paxter said:

I'm expecting Murphy to easily hold his own.

@Jeor: RE England's bowling - yes it doesn't look like wicket-per-ball stuff, but the lack of swing will do that to you. I actually think they have done quite well so far. 

 

England have done well at wrapping up the back end of the Australian innings (except for 2nd innings Edgbaston of course), but they haven't made inroads into the top order as much. We're only four innings into the series but Warner/Khawaja seems to be a more solid opening partnership too. It may be partly due to Anderson's ineffectiveness so I suspect England may improve in the Third Test.

EDIT: If Australia are smart about this, they could actually use the atmosphere to their advantage. So long as they themselves can block out the crowd abuse and constant jeering (which can be hard), a bloodthirsty crowd will actually also put some pressure on England.

What with Bazball et al, the crowd will want to see English sixes soaring over the rope and Australians getting bounced into oblivion. Murphy might be able to goad a few over-aggressive shots, or if they tie down the scoring, impatience might start to build. If Australians continue to bat solidly, English bowlers could tire themselves out with a bumper barrage. So as much as the crowd will be on England's side, the English team are going to have to navigate it carefully too.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Jeor

[Jeor]

Supposedly Mitch Marsh is in for Cam Green. A bit of a surprise but makes some sense in that they've always wanted to manage Green's workload. Marsh would (supposedly) add more in the batting department, not that he's been in great form lately, and is less of a bowler than Green is. But if the game's going to be rain-interrupted maybe they're not so fussed about getting some overs out of the all-rounder.

[Jeor]

Excellent start by England - winning the toss, bowling first and this time making major inroads with Australia 4/83 with the top 4 batsmen all gone. Mark Wood is steaming in, it's a very quick outfield and seems like the atmosphere is very much set for Bazball and a fast scoring game. England will be feeling very good about this first session. It has the feeling of a wicket every ball...

Edited July 6, 2023 by Jeor

[ljkeane]

England putting down straightforward catches again. For all the discussion around declarations etc, that’s the main thing that cost them in the first test and it could be key gain.

I was going to complain about the makeup of the side but Robinson’s just broken down mid over so they might need the extra bowler.

[Paxter]

Missed chances an absolute killer in this series. I would definitely have Foakes in the team. 

And the bowling attacks is looking better sans Anderson...

[Paxter]

Fantastic counter-attacking ton from the much-maligned Mitchell Marsh.

V happy for him.

[Jeor]

What a difference a session can make. This 2nd session has completely reversed traffic - Marsh doing his best Stokes impression with 16 fours and 4 sixes in a single session so far.

Galling for England is both batsmen should be out. Head had the legside catch that Bairstow put down and Marsh the straightforward first slip catch put down by Root. Cost 150 runs and counting so far. At the time, with the momentum firmly with England and Wood firing up the speed gun, you would've fancied England to clean up the tail handily.

Both sides have dropped catches but England have done a few more, I think, and they've been more regulation ones dropped.

[Jeor]

And Marsh is out on the stroke of tea. 118 at run a ball was scintillating stuff, a bit of Bazball Aussie style.

240/5 there's still hope for both sides. With Wood in the side, England have to fancy their chances at bundling out the last few wickets. If they can bowl Australia out for sub-350 then that would probably still be considered success.

 

[ljkeane]

So Marsh dropped on 12 and Head on 9, both pretty easy chances. That’s 136 bonus runs and counting they’ve handed Australia so far. Bah.

Edited July 6, 2023 by ljkeane