Ashes 2021/22 and other cricket through the winter of 2021 thread

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

First topic message reminder :

Thought I'd start a new thread for the winter cricket of 2021 that we (covid depending) have ahead of us. Obviously the World T20, but that has it's own thread...

The main event being the Ashes, with the dates below

Men's Ashes schedule
First Test: 8-12 December - Gabba, Brisbane (00:00 GMT)
Second Test: 16-20 December - Adelaide Oval, Adelaide (d/n - 04:00 GMT)
Third Test: 26-30 December - MCG, Melbourne (23:30 GMT, 25 December)
Fourth Test: 5-9 January - SCG, Sydney (23:30 GMT, 4 January)
Fifth Test: 14-18 January - Optus Stadium, Perth (02:30 GMT) (subject to change)

Women's Ashes schedule
Test: 27-30 January - Manuka Oval, Canberra (23:00 GMT, 26 January)
First T20: 4 February - North Sydney Oval, Sydney (08:10 GMT)
Second T20: 6 February - North Sydney Oval, Sydney (08:10 GMT)
Third T20: 10 February - Adelaide Oval, Adelaide (08:10 GMT)
First ODl: 13 February - Adelaide Oval, Adelaide (23:05 GMT, 12 February)
Second ODl: 16 February - Junction Oval, Melbourne (23:05 GMT, 15 February)
Third ODI: 19 February - Junction Oval, Melbourne (23:05 GMT, 18 February)

India have a busy winter, with New Zealand touring in November/December and then India head to South Africa for the boxing day test/January.
There's an interesting test series between Bangladesh and Pakistan in Bangladesh in Nov/Dec, which should be an entertaining watch. Unfortunately I don't see much cricket on the schedule for Pakistan/Sri Lanka (unless I am missing something!)
A few others on the future tours programme, but not confirmed yet as far as I see...

[alfie]

Good morning guildford...

Right about the Aussie catching ...it was excellent. Contrast England who have added at least three more drops (not easy ones , but still) this morning.

Wood finishes this irritating extra bit of torture by taking the fielders out of it  deserved his couple of wickets today , I think : might have had a few yesterday.Head should be happy with his 152 . Pretty awesome performance for a fringe batsman

So not quite 300 behind. Be nice to make Australia bat again but not putting money on it...

[Duty281]

Good efforts from Robinson and Wood in that innings. But some more Aussie fireworks have taken them to an even more dominant lead.

England need to try and take the game to tomorrow as some sort of moral victory. It's a belter of a batting wicket, the sun is beating down, the ball does nothing after an hour or so - come on, England, get some scores.

[alfie]

Woakes Wood and Robinson 73 overs 8/219 . Stokes Leach and Wood 31 overs (no maidens) 2/194.
Says it all.

Burns gone already

[king_carlos]

An absolutely losing position obviously but this pitch is looking more and more like a road. There are runs in this if you bat well.

"View it as the best net you'll ever have"

"Put overs in their legs"

"Grab a moral victory"

"At least force the bowlers to change their plans"

It's the sort of situation where phrases like those always get trotted out. Basically it all comes down to, "please remember how to hold a bat".

[Duty281]

Overturned on review.

Is that the turning point?

[guildfordbat]

Good morning guildford...

Right about the Aussie catching ...it was excellent. Contrast England who have added at least three more drops (not easy ones , but still) this morning.

Wood finishes this irritating extra bit of torture by taking the fielders out of it  deserved his couple of wickets today , I think : might have had a few yesterday.Head should be happy with his 152 . Pretty awesome  performance for a fringe batsman

So not quite 300 behind. Be nice to make Australia bat again but not putting money on it...

For sure. For me, it's just been a question of how heavy our defeat would be ever since we were 29/4. As Olly should have on his bingo card, you don't pull many Tests back from there.

[alfie]

Ha...actually saved by a review ! Maybe this signals a change in fortunes...

Might need a few more lucky breaks yet

Still don't like that Burns footwork.

[king_carlos]

Burns has faced the first ball in 52 of his 55 Test innings. He hasn't been at the non strikers end for the first ball since 2019 against Ireland. Safe to say that platinum duck might have hurt his confidence.

[guildfordbat]

Burns has faced the first ball in 52 of his 55 Test innings. He hasn't been at the non strikers end for the first ball since 2019 against Ireland. Safe to say that platinum duck might have hurt his confidence.

Yep, I didn't know the stats but twigged it was unusual and thought the same. He's regularly taken first strike for Surrey in recent years.

[alfie]

Yes 29/4 does rather set things up for disaster.

Even so I would have hoped (even expected) a better fightback. Couple of fighting stands but nothing of real substance, so fell short of the 200 or so that might have been seen as something of a recovery. Then that mid-innings surge that suggested the deficit could be kept to about 120 completely trumped by the last four Australian wickets adding about another 200...

As Kingraf pointed out yesterday the breaks have all gone against them ; but it's still been very disappointing overall. Batting conditions are probably at their best today so they've just got to forget the score and bat as long and big as they can. They're going to be one down in a day or so but Adelaide will be another game : hope this one will prove a wake up call rather than just the first nail in the coffin.

[alfie]

Made it to lunch. One step at a time...

[king_carlos]

Burns has faced the first ball in 52 of his 55 Test innings. He hasn't been at the non strikers end for the first ball since 2019 against Ireland. Safe to say that platinum duck might have hurt his confidence.

Yep, I didn't know the stats but twigged it was unusual and thought the same. He's regularly taken first strike for Surrey in recent years.

England for a fair while have had their 'senior opener' usually face first. So as soon as Burns wasn't facing there it felt notable.

Trescothick pretty much always faced up from 2002-2006 with occasional breaks when he was at 3 rather than opening. Then Strauss almost always faced first from 2006-2012 with a few exceptions when not opening. Then Cook from 2013 until his retirement usually faced first although he had some respite in 2014 and 2015 where it seemed Lyth was very keen on facing first.

That's the third Test innings where Burns hasn't 'faced up'. The first instance was a 2nd innings in Sri Lanka in 2018 when Leach opened as nightwatchman. The second times was the 2nd innings against Ireland where Leach again opened as nightwatchman. So this is the first time Burns hasn't faced first ball when he's actually walked out to bat with another batsman.

[guildfordbat]

Yes 29/4 does rather set things up for disaster.

Even so I would have hoped (even expected) a better fightback. Couple of fighting stands but nothing of real substance, so fell short of the 200 or so that might have been seen as something of a recovery. Then that mid-innings surge that suggested the deficit could be kept to about 120 completely trumped by the last four Australian wickets adding about another 200...

As Kingraf pointed out yesterday the breaks have all gone against them ; but it's still been very disappointing overall. Batting conditions are probably at their best today so they've just got to forget the score and bat as long and big as they can. They're going to be one down in a day or so but Adelaide will be another game : hope this one will prove a wake up call rather than just the first nail in the coffin.

Agree to a largish extent. However, I don't think Australia have been given enough credit for stopping the breaks going against them. Whilst the England seamers bowled well in yesterday's opening session without much reward, Warner and Labuschagne were admirably resilient in sticking it out and then were well poised to feast on Leach. When we batted, four got past 20 but all folded without making 40. That's not bad luck, rather not good enough.

Similarly, as previously flagged, Australia held on magnificently to some of their difficult chances whilst we didn't. Rather than cursing our luck, we need to raise our standard and match Australia in the field.

Anyway, one scare but we've got through to lunch unscathed. Couldn't do more than that in the circumstances. Bed for me now.

[Duty281]

Part one done. It's time to start believing. Only five more sessions of batting needed.

[guildfordbat]

Part one done. It's time to start believing. Only five more sessions of batting needed.

There are still three sessions after that, Duty.

[king_carlos]

Part one done. It's time to start believing. Only five more sessions of batting needed.

There are still three sessions after that, Duty.

Those are the three sessions we need to bowl Australia out 

[Duty281]

Part one done. It's time to start believing. Only five more sessions of batting needed.

There are still three sessions after that, Duty.

Those are the three sessions we need to bowl Australia out 

That's it! Five more sessions and England will be about 200-250 ahead, plenty of time to bowl Australia out. The pitch will be a raging turner by then, Root rolling back the months with another 5/8.

[alfie]

Didn't take Cummins long after the break.

Burns has had a wretched match. Bit of a blow as he was probably the batsman among the lesser lights for whom I had the most hopes of success in Australian conditions : early signs aren't good !

Malan under pressure now. I don't really think he's a number three : so now would be a good time to prove me wrong...

[king_carlos]

Lyon getting one to absolute rip there! Makes Leach's figures look even more dismal sadly.

[alfie]

Completely agree with guildford, by the way , that the ill luck has been incidental rather than the reason for the state of the game. The injuries yesterday (fortunately they do not seem to have been serious) certainly contributed to Australia's reaching the huge lead they have : but fundamentally the home team has just outplayed their visitors.
Warner and Labuschagne did the hard work to get through some very testing stuff and go on to prosper. By the time Marnus got himself out it was already going to take a remarkable series of events for England to get back into the match. No one was able to bat like that for England.

Cummins is looking menacing again...

[king_carlos]

Michael Neser has absolutely destroyed the Lions as well to sum up that we don't really have much to bring in to improve the batting.

I love the strangely club cricket feeling of having a second string series running side by side. It's like Ashes 1s and 2s are playing on the same weekend.

"You playing against England at the weekend mate?"
"Yea, but I'm in the 2s this week"

[king_carlos]

Cummins is very very good but if these two can fight through another 10 overs to the 25 over mark then we have seen batting get a notably easier as the ball softens.

As seen with Head damage can be done later in the innings. England just desperately need Root, Stokes, Pope and Buttler to be coming in at those stages instead of against the new ball.

[alfie]

Keeping Lyon waiting for his milestone wicket still...

Going to need to bat a very long time before anyone gets a licence to play like Head did !

Worth remembering too that even Head had to struggle for a while against some good pace bowling when he first came in. Was only when England resorted to the spinners and the handicapped Stokes that he was able to cut loose. That "phoney war" period of waiting for the new ball proved fatal : even if England bat long I doubt Australia will ever give them such an unthreatening passage of play. Having Lyon helps ; so the longer they hold him out the better. Likely to see a lot of him this tour...

[alfie]

A second battling twenty something innings from Hameed comes to an end...

He played pretty well. As he did on Wednesday. Just nowhere near long enough. Been the big difference between the two sides : once the Aussie bats get "in" they make proper scores. So far no one has looked capable of doing so for England.

Here's Joe Root. If he falls early this could finish today.

[alfie]

Hundred up with 34 overs down. Glad the Aussie commentators aren't umpiring

Couple of lbw shouts that even Tim Paine wouldn't review have had them excited.

I was a little surprised Lyon came on so early in this innings to be honest. Into his 13th now without success : guess they want to make sure the quicks aren't overworked. But it might have taken a little pressure off England ?

Tea. 107/2. Good to see Root looking more like himself , and Malan has battled his way to 35. Hope they can start again after a cuppa...

[alfie]

Hearing the 5th Test is heading for Hobart , despite the money men pushing for more pink balls in Melbourne or Sydney. Fair enough I think - they missed out on the Afghan game after all through no fault of their own.

Meanwhile it is 141/2 as Green comes into the attack...

[alfie]

And Warne is busy complaining about the decision to go to Hobart (because of the likely small attendance) while simultaneously insisting he really does love Tasmania and has nothing against the venue...

"They better turn up" adds Mark Waugh.

Fifty for Joe Root

Probably needs to quadruple that...

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Wake up and the first thing I hear is Kerry O’Keefe say “He doesn’t have good feet against spin” about Joe Root.

I want to burn my ears

[Pal Joey]

Yeah alfie. I'm happy for Hobart to get it too... even though it is closest to English conditions and it could be very interesting if the series is close at that stage.

Joe is looking pretty comfortable batting out there, ably supported by Malan. The lead is now down to 130. About 100 minutes to go until close of play. Doubt they'll bowl 28 overs... maybe just 20. At the current clip, England could be only around 50 runs in arrears which sets it up nicely for tomorrow; which will be even better for batting under sunny conditions.

Maybe we were right about the draw after all, alfie?

[alfie]

Hi PJ...don't know about that ! If these two are still in at lunch tomorrow maybe I'll consider that...

For the sake of the series I am glad to see Joe playing well. And Malan - who is a "battler" , but a gutsy one , and has a handy fifty up now to his great credit. Those with tickets for tomorrow will be pleased too.

Lyon still wicket less. Has been a while , eh ? Is it possible Warne was on the money expressing some doubts about him prior to the series ? At least more so than his sniping at Starc !

Labuschagne on now . He will probably somehow take a bunch of wickets but really he does look like the one you would fancy facing with a stick of rhubarb ...

All the wet weather seemed to vanish after day one , did it not ? Ah , Queensland : beautiful one day , perfect the next. Have to send my brother up there again : every time he visits Gold Coast or above , it hoses down.

Not really. Australia deserve their win here. Unless England can bat up a miracle , am fine with that.

[king_carlos]

Root and Malan have batted really well on what is now a very good batting surface with the ball older.

Lyon is getting some purchase but nothing consistently extreme. When the ball was newer the quicks got some variable bounce up and down as well as sideways which is often the case as Gabba pitches get older.

It's vital that these two get to close though as Australia will get the second new ball early tomorrow which will undoubtedly see the pitch suddenly look a lot tougher. It's an aspect that the Kookaburra getting so soft exacerbates. Things get easier after 20 to 25 overs then the second new ball comes combined with the pitch having a lot more wear on it from the last time the ball was was offering much. With the Dukes things keep happening more with the older ball so that change at the second new ball isn't quite as pronounced I often think.

If England can keep enough wickets in hand to weather those 20-25 overs with a second new ball then I think the pitch should still play well enough to score fluently even on day 4. That feels a big if still but they've given themselves a chance.

Credit to the Gabba groundsmen as I think this is an excellent Test match wicket, especially given the recent weather. Enough for the seamers with the new ball that there was reward for good bowling without things being unplayable (unless you bat like England first time round...) but then plenty of runs there for the batsman if they get in. It's day 3 and there's just starting to be something there for spinners too. An excellent track for T1.

[king_carlos]

Have I missed Hazlewood going off? It's a long series so using him sparingly is shrewd but only 8 overs when we are about to finish the 63rd over of the innings is very frugal. Green and Labuschagne have bowled 7 overs between them so only 1 off Hazlewood's workload!

[kingraf]

Well - the best batting day seems to have allowed England to bat well. As I said yesterday, I thought they were a tad unlucky to find themselves 40/4 on Day 1. Some days you play and miss four times in an over, Some days everyone nicks off and you're 150 all out. Part of the beauty of Series cricket.

[alfie]

These two have played very well . At least ensuring Australia have to work a bit  for their victory.
Trouble is you know once one of these determined rearguard stands is broken there will be a clatter of wickets. Been a long time since England were able to sustain a second innings - even on flattish pitches - once they found themselves a long way behind. The likes of Atherton in SA , Amiss in West Indies , batting forever to save games , are a fair way in the past.

Still 208/2 is a big improvement on Wednesday Rather different conditions, of course...

[king_carlos]

Well - the best batting day seems to have allowed England to bat well. As I said yesterday, I thought they were a tad unlucky to find themselves 40/4 on Day 1. Some days you play and miss four times in an over, Some days everyone nicks off and you're 150 all out. Part of the beauty of Series cricket.

It was day 2 rather than day 1 where I thought England were a tad unlucky. They beat the bat a nearly cruel amount in the morning and afternoon session yesterday. Robinson and Wood in particular were very good whilst Woakes found better areas over the course of the first 2 sessions. They had no luck in that regard.

On the other hand though I agree with Guildford that to a large extent you make your own luck and by dropping Warner, missing run outs, then bowling no balls they didn't help themselves at all.

On day 1 it felt like everything in that first hour took the edge or went to hand but Australia were bowling so well at a poor unit that I think we'd had been in a world of trouble sooner or later anyway to be honest.

[alfie]

Well - the best batting day seems to have allowed England to bat well. As I said yesterday, I thought they were a tad unlucky to find themselves 40/4 on Day 1. Some days you play and miss four times in an over, Some days everyone nicks off and you're 150 all out. Part of the beauty of Series cricket.

I'm not quite buying the luck issue for the first day collapse , 'raf.  Maybe unlucky to have lost their practice matches to the weather ; but the first day was just batting not good enough against very good bowling. Tough conditions, true.
Reckon they were distinctly unlucky bowling yesterday though. On another day they'd have had Australia two or three down early. As you say , the beauty of this long form game.

Edit : ha ...hadn't seen your post , KC. Think we agree...

[king_carlos]

Yeah alfie. I'm happy for Hobart to get it too... even though it is closest to English conditions and it could be very interesting if the series is close at that stage.

TMS just suggested it will be a D/N game as well.

[alfie]

7 overs left but they aren't getting those in. Closer than yesterday anyway to a full ration for the day...plenty of Lyon. Here he is again still seeking number 400. Malan needs to keep up his concentration .

Or just cover drive him for four , I guess

One more over , I think. 220/2.

[alfie]

So : still trail by 68.

Good effort from these two but a lot more to do : rested bowlers back tomorrow, new ball to come. At least they look better placed to make Australia bat again..

Won't see much of it as I'll be playing my own game tomorrow: look after them , chaps - would love to see cricket on Sunday

[king_carlos]

Heart in mouth stuff off the final ball. A tired shot.

An engrossing days cricket. The morning session certainly Australia's as they added another 82 runs. From there England have fought really well.

Trailing by 58 runs with 8 wickets in hand. Crucial that Root and Malan are still there for the second new ball. It's going to be a tough morning session. 10 overs starting again with the old ball, then the new ball.

[VTR]

Pleased to see some fight, but still reckon a large defeat looms. Set batsman are so often out the next morning, so there's that, then the new ball just after. I reckon Aus will end up chasing around 100 and win by 9 wickets

[Gooseberry]

Fair play on Malan, I was a big doubter seeing him back in the test squad but he clearly has what it takes to bat in Australia. Or at least by recent England standards anyway!

There was certainly some element of bad luck in regard to the weather wiping out the warm ups, but the team was always going to be short of red ball cricket due to the summer season backlog and reliance on 3 format players injuries and everything else. And yesterdays fiascos in the field some element of Aus riding their luck, but its pretty clear which is the stronger squad of players and also that the ball just hasn't been moving around so much as conditions have changed.

Just how big the gulf was in the first innings is shown that inspite of a this partnership outscoring the first innings they are still behind by 58 runs so a loss still remains the most likely result...and as Alfie says it always feels like a collapse is round the corner. The fight is really important and means a lot for the dressing room and confidence, but its going to take another two days of being on top to turn it around. Redemption for Leach with a five for? Cant right it off totally but its still Australia's game to chuck away.

[Soul Requiem]

About 300 runs away from a defendable total but some positives at least.

[king_carlos]

The Gabba has a weird kink too. It actually gets tougher to take spin wickets the longer the match goes. Wickets fail at 51.1 in the first innings, but in the second that is 57.3. As most tweakers prefer the second innings, this isn't ideal. But it's terrible for someone like Leach, who massively depends on the surface falling apart. In the first match innings he averages 48.82; in the second that drops to 20.95.

That's an interesting excerpt from a really good article by Jarrod Kimber on cricinfo about Leach and spin at the Gabba.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/the-ashes-1st-test-jack-leach-selection-by-england-naked-at-the-gabba-1292959

[king_carlos]

About 300 runs away from a defendable total but some positives at least.

Unless we start seeing a lot more variable up and down bounce I'd say we'd need about that at minimum. It's looking a very good batting track at the moment.

These two need to ton up and unless one of them is a double we will probably need a third centurion on top of that to have a challenging target.

Still a huge ask but it's more in reach than I was expecting!

[Mind the windows Tino.]

Fair play on Malan, I was a big doubter seeing him back in the test squad but he clearly has what it takes to bat in Australia. Or at least by recent England standards anyway!  

I was the other way, and advocated him coming back in to the test side on here a long time ago.

I'm delighted for him. He might not be as flashy or aesthetically pleasing as Crawley, Lawrence etc but he knows his game, and more importantly his limitations, and that is really important. He is compact and plays pace much better than spin and is suited to this kind of series. He looks a far more composed individual than his first effort at test cricket and being successful in T20 must have given him the belief he was probably lacking last time.

It is only one innings and as has already been mentioned, we need plenty more, but this day has been so important to the dressing room to at show they can compete.

[sirfredperry]

Woke up this morning expecting it to be all over and delighted to find England only two down.

Long way to go, of course, but England have something to take out of this game even if, as expected, they lose.

Root is having some year. Pleased for Malan who has admitted that the remark that he was seen only as a Test player for overseas tours dented his confidence a while back.

I've never rated Lyon which is a bit weird considering he's on the verge of 400 Test wickets.

[Soul Requiem]

About 300 runs away from a defendable total but some positives at least.

Unless we start seeing a lot more variable up and down bounce I'd say we'd need about that at minimum. It's looking a very good batting track at the moment.

These two need to ton up and unless one of them is a double we will probably need a third centurion on top of that to have a challenging target.

Still a huge ask but it's more in reach than I was expecting!

It's important that the batsman take something away from this, as good as the Aussie pacemen are they're only as good as the pitch you're playing on. Too often in the past England have been overawed by the pace battery, if the pitch is dead it's dead, play the situation not the reputation.

Root one off his highest score in Australia.

As for Malan, i've been a long term fan of his and think his treatment across all formats has been embarrassing, he's not the second coming of KP or even Ian Bell but he's a decent player.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Good work from Root and Malan, good to see some fight. Do agree with the prevailing opinion that there is a long long way to go for England to get a result in this, but Root scoring some runs is going to be key going forward. Don't think it's a coincidence that he's made these after coming in at the end of the 20th over. Not exposing him to the new ball is going to be key, Hameed while having not gone on to made big scores this series, has at least absorbed the new ball twice now, which is promising.

Think England need to be batting well into day 5 to try and come away with a draw, so still a long long way to go yet. Ideally need one of these two to go on and make a score nearing 200, and one of Stokes/Pope/Buttler/Woakes to also make a century. Not impossible, the pitch is flat, but still a tall order.

If Hazlewood is hurt, putting some mileage into the legs of Cummins/Starc tomorrow could be as key moving forward as whatever happens result wise. We've seen numerous times, once one of the big three goes down the depth is questionable (I know there is talk around Jhye Richardson, but I also remember there being similar talk around Jackson Bird last tour....)

Also seems Stokes has got away without a major injury? When will fast bowlers/bowlers learn that throwing yourself around the boundary to save one, maybe two runs at best just isn't worth the risk of them getting hurt in a test match.

[dummy_half]

Woke up this morning expecting it to be all over and delighted to find England only two down.

Long way to go, of course, but England have something to take out of this game even if, as expected, they lose.

Root is having some year. Pleased for Malan who has admitted that the remark that he was seen only as a Test player for overseas tours dented his confidence a while back.

I've never rated Lyon which is a bit weird considering he's on the verge of 400 Test wickets.

Expected at least 7 down... At least Root and Malan have made an innings defeat unlikely, and who knows, maybe they and the remaining batsmen can put on another 250 or so and make a bit of a game of it on day 5. Still a lot of work to do, and got to think that Aus will still win quite handily, but at least there are some positives to take from this game.

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