England's Summer of Cricket 2023, Featuring The Ashes

First topic message reminder :

50 up for Mo at an absolutely vital moment.   

A fortuitous way to get there with Cummins not picking it up. It frankly looked like he wasn't moving well chasing back for it either.

Starc back on which I think slows how key a period the Aussies know this is. He's looked their best bowler today.

Don't disagree with you on the par score issue , Olly. All these dropped catches , plus in several form batsmen getting bowled , suggests batting hasn't been as easy as it seemed when Brook and Moeen were having fun. But as Wood falls to Murphy it looks as if the final total will likely be well short of 300.

On the other hand , might get a good crack at Australia under lights this evening...

Wood gone but that's another mighty useful cameo with the bat.

A smart move from Cummins to get Murphy on for Wood though.

Given how Broad bats these days I'd prefer Woakes to play his shots now.

Short stay for Broad...think he fancies a bowl this evening

No declaration as Jimmy walks to the crease...

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Not watching, but always surprised when a team bowls first at The Oval - usually a great batting deck, once you get through the first session in particular. Massively overcast?

Olly - your surprise is shared by myself and many of the Oval regulars but it has become a tendency to insert there this season and probably last as well.

283ao. England had a platform to get a much bigger score, About fifty light for my money, but we'll see Australia's response. Their batting hasn't been in the best form this series.

Wonder how much play we'll get tonight with the light?

Selecting Murphy has already paid off for Australia today. Hasn't done a lot of work but broken two partnerships - maybe with a bit of help from the batsmen

Woakes teed off for a very handy 36 so 283 it is. We will perhaps start to find out how good a score that is when the action resumes...

Starc four wickets : not bad for a bloke who has seemed to be injured in about three places over this last week or so ...but just keeps running in. Bowled a real mixed bag today but has ended up doing a job for his team .

It's good bowling conditions and England will need to take advantage of them.

And so it begins. The Jimmy Anderson do something in an Ashes Test challenge.

Tom Ealham is on the field. Can he bowl some gentle outswing and get 2/34?

Moeen absent for the rest of the day. Might not see him again for the test. If it's a serious injury then his World Cup place could be in doubt.

England's 283 was a glad-rag sort of score. Maybe the old England, batting cautiously and defensively, would have been all out for 180 instead of 280.

Conversely, if Australia had held their catches it could have been even less than 180. Haven't seen all the put-downs but the Brook miss looked bad - and was costly.

Usual thing. Wait until both sides have batted before passing judgement.

I'll be interested to see if whoever takes over from Anderson's end gets better carry.

I'd get Woakes on at Jimmy's end here.

8 overs no joy. Anderson seems to be trying too hard - bit worn down by the wicket drought , I'm afraid.

Time for Woakes , I think.

Duty281 wrote:Tom Ealham is on the field. Can he bowl some gentle outswing and get 2/34?

Moeen absent for the rest of the day. Might not see him again for the test. If it's a serious injury then his World Cup place could be in doubt.

Bash Moeen on the head and get Ealham the younger into the side!

Solid stuff from the opening pair. Really not a lot there for the bowlers. Woakes appears to be feeling a twinge of some kind, and Jimmy really is looking ineffectual now.

Will this be where Warner finally converts a start to a big score?

Warner and Khawaja doing a sound job for Australia here. Bit concerning they are starting to look quite comfortable...England need a bit of magic to get the ball rolling as they don't seem disposed to offer any gift wickets...

They are scoring at a reasonable rate anyway ; but it does look more Tortoise than Hare by comparison to the England style. Might be the better tactic today.

VTR wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Tom Ealham is on the field. Can he bowl some gentle outswing and get 2/34?

Moeen absent for the rest of the day. Might not see him again for the test. If it's a serious injury then his World Cup place could be in doubt.

Bash Moeen on the head and get Ealham the younger into the side!

I think you had Duty at, "Bash Moeen".

Considering the decent bowling conditions England have been underwhelming here whilst Khawaja and Warner have been watchful and solid. Warner batting like a man determined to bow out at the SCG, sorry, win the series.

England were 62/0 of course. But Jimmy looked really laboured and Wood down on pace compared to his best spells in the series.

Wonder if being sentimental to Jimmy Anderson will see Australia win 3-1....

No room for sentimentality in Sport..

Woakes...what a series he's had.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:May come back to bite me, but don't think 250 is too far off par - if we can get upto 300...reckon that's about right. Think the Aussies have missed an opportunity to have us all out for under 200 and be really on top here.

Didn't see the first session but been playing catch up and watching since. Sure, if Australia had held all their catches we could have been all out for 80 or so less. However, we failed to make them properly pay. Some lovely drives from Brook and unquestionably a handy dig but, as my man Stewart says, an 80 isn't often going to win you a 2 innings match - having got so far, you really have to go on.

Similarly, Woakes and Wood batted with some nous and gusto and so I understand the plaudits here for that but a 49 run partnership for the 8th is rarely going to turn things round.

My take of usual Oval wickets and the (quick) outfield is that we're about 100 shy of par. We really did chuck some wickets away badly. A couple for Murphy there on day one - really?!

Even if my view of par is right (and it may well not be), it still doesn't mean that Australia will reach it. Always the chance they might fall on their faces. I was going to say how sensibly Khawaja and Warner were playing when the latter fell. Good bowling by Woakes and a tidy catch from Crawley.

50/1 now. Interesting. Atm, I would say Australia's day although another wicket and certainly two would change that ....

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Wonder if being sentimental to Jimmy Anderson will see Australia win 3-1....

No room for sentimentality in Sport..

Pretty harsh, yes the 283 was not a great score, but the great man was left stranded on 0*, so I don't think he takes any of the blame really

alfie wrote:Selecting Murphy has already paid off for Australia today.  Hasn't done a lot of work but broken two partnerships  - maybe with a bit of help from the batsmen

Woakes teed off for a very handy 36 so 283 it is. We will perhaps start to find out how good a score that is when the action resumes...

Starc four wickets : not bad for a bloke who has seemed to be injured in about three places over this last week or so ...but just keeps running in. Bowled a real mixed bag today but has ended up doing a job for his team .

And for your dissertation, students, contrast and compare with England's Robinson.

Duty281 wrote:Tom Ealham is on the field. Can he bowl some gentle outswing and get 2/34?

Moeen absent for the rest of the day. Might not see him again for the test. If it's a serious injury then his World Cup place could be in doubt.

Carlos - just be grateful that it's Tom Ealham on the field and not Amar Virdi, another of the Surrey reserves helping England out here. Virdi's a super guy but never the greatest of fielders. He's really suffered from Surrey's reliance on seam approach in the last couple of seasons. When his off spin helped Surrey win the 2018 Championship , he was being spoken of as a serious Test prospect. Today I saw him bringing some bananas out during a break. Sad.

Just the one wicket taken as stumps approaches. Ball hasn't seemed to carry much as the day has worn on. Guess apart from Wood the real pace hasn't been there : but even with Wood we had that edge from Warner that didn't even carry to the keeper.... Doesn't look as gloomy as earlier either. Australia watchful : England would really have wanted more than this from the session.

Tomorrow is another day. But Australia will be pretty happy with the day , especially as they managed to miss several very straightforward chances when England batted - and didn't actually bowl all that well at the start.

Not calling it decisive just yet. But a very solid start to their bid to take the series outright. England will need a good session or two tomorrow.

alfie wrote:Just the one wicket taken as stumps approaches. Ball hasn't seemed to carry much as the day has worn on. Guess apart from Wood the real pace hasn't been there : but even with Wood we had that edge from Warner that didn't even carry to the keeper.... Doesn't look as gloomy as earlier either. Australia watchful : England would really have wanted more than this from the session.

Tomorrow is another day. But Australia will be pretty happy with the day , especially as they managed to miss several very straightforward chances when England batted - and didn't actually bowl all that well at the start.

Not calling it decisive just yet. But a very solid start to their bid to take the series outright. England will need a good session or two tomorrow.

Agreed, Alfie. As well as a solid start by Australia, a poor performance from England. Threw too many wickets away and, although we'll never know how many, we left runs out there. Not enough partnerships, no one properly going on and not enough patience as wickets were gifted to our opponents. Falling from 184/3 and being all out for 283 in under 55 overs on day one of an Oval Test is not acceptable.

As you say, not decisive just yet. There's still time and opportunity for things to majorly change. However, with our first dig done and dusted and Australia appearing reasonably set in theirs, the game has advanced more than might usually be expected after the first day and not obviously in our direction.

Interesting first day that. England could have got 70 more or 100 less, had their batters who got started gone on a bit longer, or had Australia held their catches. Don't have complaints about anyone in the England top 6, they played according to their strength, other than Joe Root. He needs to follow his skipper's latest templet. Stokes was trying to get himself in before going. He couldn't do so as he got an absolute beauty from Starc and that can happen to test batters. Root did come off in the last game going from ball one, but even there he was measured enough. Root is a world class test batter and he should play like one. His natural game is busy enough, he doesn't need to push himself.
England bowling. Wood was quick but not as as much as he was when he started off in the series. Broad, playing his 5th on the go, was there or there about. Woakes didn't always look a hundred percent but still bowled well and picked up the only wicket of the day for his side. James Anderson, well he was rather expectedly quite pedestrian. Did beat the bat a couple of times in his 2nd ovr, but never looked like taking a wicket after that. While Broad did get a few to swing, Anderson wasn't able to do so. And unsurprisingly, he was slowest of the lot. He's the 3rd highest wickettaker in the history of test cricket, and is still playing because he has built up a lot of credit for himself over the years. But he really hasn't justified his selection over Tongue in this test match yet. There is time yet, and perhaps, Anderson may still be able to deliver... Now that Mo is not likely to bowl much, they need all their frontline bowlers to front up tomorrow...

Was out today (and honestly most of this test). Seems like Australia gave England a life then England failed to largely cash in on it? Good to see Brook back to his fluent best.

Looks like a good day for Australia but England are still pretty well in the game

guildfordbat wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Tom Ealham is on the field. Can he bowl some gentle outswing and get 2/34?

Moeen absent for the rest of the day. Might not see him again for the test. If it's a serious injury then his World Cup place could be in doubt.

Carlos - just be grateful that it's Tom Ealham on the field and not Amar Virdi, another of the Surrey reserves helping England out here. Virdi's a super guy but never the greatest of fielders. He's really suffered from Surrey's reliance on seam approach in the last couple of seasons. When his off spin helped Surrey win the 2018 Championship , he was being spoken of as a serious Test prospect. Today I saw him bringing some bananas out during a break. Sad.

I'm amazed that Virdi is still at Surrey. He's a talented offie but has completely stalled through lack of chances. A bowler who seemed to have the all important natural ability to give it a rip but also an action that lent itself to good shape. I rated him immediately, it does feel like such a shame as you say, guildford.

I hadn't seen that he was a potential sub fielder. Erm. Yes. Agreed. That's not particularly Virdi's strength. Interestingly, another talented spinner of a similar age in Matt Parkinson is also lacking natural talent in the field if I'm being nice.

I'd say more of the players you see reach professional level who are still poor fielders come from the spinner family than batters or seamers. Which is interesting. I guess batting lends itself to very good hand eye coordination. Whilst seamers should be good athletes who can run and throw. Whereas you seem to get a lot of spinners who can bowl spin extremely well but can't do much else.

It's definitely something you can improve though. Imran Tahir really couldn't field early on but improved massively as he came into T20 cricket more for instance. God, it feels a long time ago that he Tahir was a gun overseas player for Hants in the CC!

Adil Rashid is an interesting of a spinner just finding a place in the field that suits him. He seems to have almost turned himself into a specialist boundary fielder at third man and fine leg in ODIs and T20is. He seems to field there for most the overs England bowl now. Having an accurate but not very powerful arm works there as it's not a big throw to the keeper - that also preserves his shoulder. Whilst he's very solid taking skied catches coming out of the lights. Chances often get misjudged in those boundary positions behind the bat as catches there tend to be big shots that get skied so they have a ton of spin on them, swirl around.

GSC wrote:Was out today (and honestly most of this test). Seems like Australia gave England a life then England failed to largely cash in on it? Good to see Brook back to his fluent best.

Looks like a good day for Australia but England are still pretty well in the game

Very good day for Australia. Main concern for me now is that England's bowlers looked below the required intensity when they were in the field. Wood's pace was down, Woakes was nursing a problem and Anderson really does look finished. Plus Moeen is probably out of the test with a non-concussion related problem.

It's a very good batting wicket, though with overcast conditions. Australia look well set to post 350+ which will leave England firmly up against it.

Day two will again be very interesting . I suppose if Australia bat really well they could almost sew up the series win here by occupying the crease all day and setting things up for a massive lead : though given the ups and downs of this series you wouldn't put money on it.

On the other hand , if England could do what they have largely done throughout the series and sort of chip away at the Australian bats we might see fairly close numbers on the respective first innings. Which would mean the third innings becomes vital...

Ah , the permutations , eh ?

My worry from an England perspective is that the pitch seemed to get slower as the day went on. Much of the England bowling looked to lack the real cutting edge : not bad bowling ; but just not especially threatening. Warner was beaten a few times before getting out ; but Khawaja and Marnus were generally either leaving well or meeting balls with a solid bat. Are the England bowlers as a group (who have probably done a bit more work than their Aussie counterparts over the series , due to the speed with which England tend to get in and out !) showing signs of wear and tear ?

Wood still looks dangerous I think. Short spells should be the go today. Use the others on rotation , maybe a dash of Root to mix things up. Don't think Woakes is really in any trouble with niggles - reckon he bowled pretty well actually. Anderson is obviously frustrated by his lack of wickets and was a bit off in his first spell but I thought he looked a lot better when he came back late. And Broad mixed some good stuff with a few too many they didn't have to play. Hopefully they will all lift a little today : warm but overcast suggests they might get some aid from the atmosphere so will need to make the most of it.

And the other big worry is that Smith is surely due a score !

Hoping for more entertainment tonight and not much sleep...

I could watch only until 250-7
This game though on trajectory of T3 with roles reversed.
Brooks, Wood and Woakes doing what Marsh did there.
Aus need to be very precise with Brooks,.else he runs away with the game.
From the time Moeen went down with his finger on last day of T1 , Eng started going down.
From the time he returned in T3 Eng were in ascendancy.
I hope Eng have not lost their lucky Talisman
Though he should be able to bat and has looked the most elegant of all batters.
Gowersque/Ganguly like with his cover drives.

Aus won the day and need to bat 4 more sessions to nail the game decisively.
Batting 4th is an advantage in games where time is likely to be lost for rain.
You don't bat one more over than required to build a "safe lead"

PS* I read Stokes will return to the next test (in India) as a spinner.
Well there goes the 2nd spinners slot also
Wood and Archer should take note too..when your 90mph body breaks down, there might be life beyond ...as a spin bowler.
Especially if you can bat a bit.

How hard is it to correctly type Brook rather than Brooks!

VTR wrote:How hard is it to correctly type Brook rather than Brooks!

Thanks for going through my post with a fine tooth comb.
Have you "too" returned from a vacation

KP_fan wrote:From the time Moeen went down with his finger on last day of T1 , Eng started going down.
From the time he returned in T3 Eng were in ascendancy.

Because of the return of Woakes (6/131 and 42 runs) and Wood (7/100 and 40 runs), not Moeen (2/74 and 26 runs).

VTR wrote:How hard is it to correctly type Brook rather than Brooks!

Very difficult, VTRS, very difficult indeed.

KP_fan wrote:

VTR wrote:How hard is it to correctly type Brook rather than Brooks!

Thanks for going through my post with a fine tooth comb.
Have you "too" returned from a vacation  

You've repeatedly called him Brooks in that and other posts. Just pointing out that isn't actually his name

Tight start to day two. Wood's pace over 90mph, a good sign. Jimmy, again, beating the bat but not finding an edge.

Confirmed that Moeen will play no part on day two. Not only was it a bad selection from a cricketing point of view, but also Moeen has proven himself to be injury-prone, perhaps no surprise with no multi-day cricket for years.

The theory that a lot of dots bring a wicket seems to be getting disproved here...

Some very good bowling so far but can't quite grab a break. Very patient, these chaps. Especially Khawaja. I do think his success in conquering English conditions after previous poor showings has been arguably the biggest factor in Australia building their Ashes retaining lead. Great late career performances

Wood only has a couple more overs at most now. See him off and it's a big plus for Australia.

Duty281 wrote:Tight start to day two. Wood's pace over 90mph, a good sign. Jimmy, again, beating the bat but not finding an edge.

Confirmed that Moeen will play no part on day two. Not only was it a bad selection from a cricketing point of view, but also Moeen has proven himself to be injury-prone, perhaps no surprise with no multi-day cricket for years.

Move on FFS, no one cares any more.

Duty281 wrote:

Confirmed that Moeen will play no part on day two. Not only was it a bad selection from a cricketing point of view, but also Moeen has proven himself to be injury-prone, perhaps no surprise with no multi-day cricket for years.

And yet they ( English cricket establishment) pleaded, placated, pampered & offered a guaranteed slot in playing-11 on a platter.
And might continue to do so until he retires for good when aged 41

KP_fan wrote:

Duty281 wrote:  

Confirmed that Moeen will play no part on day two. Not only was it a bad selection from a cricketing point of view, but also Moeen has proven himself to be injury-prone, perhaps no surprise with no multi-day cricket for years.

And yet they ( English cricket establishment) pleaded, placated, pampered & offered a guaranteed slot in playing-11 on a platter.
And might continue to do so until he retires for good when aged 41

Yep, one of their many mistakes, along with giving Bairstow the gloves, getting flat wickets, playing Robinson past the point of endurance and holding Woakes back for too long. All conspired to leave England falling short in this series.

alfie wrote:The theory that a lot of dots bring a wicket seems to be getting disproved here...

Some very good bowling so far but can't quite grab a break. Very patient, these chaps. Especially Khawaja. I do think his success in conquering English conditions after previous poor showings has been arguably the biggest factor in Australia building their Ashes retaining lead. Great late career performances

Wood only has a couple more overs at most now. See him off and it's a big plus for Australia.

Morning/ Evening Alfie and all - yeah, I was going to say similar but decided to hold on a bit in case the commentators' - particularly Ponting's - view that the bowlers keeping it dry was piling too much pressure on the batsmen which would lead to mistakes. Anyway, still hasn't happened.

Four wicketless maiden overs to start is clearly decent for the bowlers but England would have preferred a return of 1/16 ....

Was a good spell from Anderson ...though he still can't buy a wicket. Woakes taking over now and hopefully will keep up the dot ball pressure...

Can't get that damn ball changed...

Run rate still fairly pedestrian but Australia won't care. Tortoise Tactics seem to be the winning formula on this pitch...and they have just about avoided the follow on already

Stokes unsuccessfully trying to get the ball changed.

Now get a load of this, Carlos, about over rates and one way to improve them.

Allow a captain only two unsuccesful attempts during an opposition's innings to change the ball. Once they've failed twice, that's it. It should primarily be the job of the umpires to determine whether the ball is fit for purpose or not.

Superb over from Broad, but no reward. One of those mornings so far.

Australia bring their version of boycottball, we are a bowler down with a old pace attack so can see the advantages of wearing us down. but if they lose couple of wickets now they have gone nowhere and england will be in a strong position

Broad all over Marnus but they can't finish him off. Seems extraordinary that all the good bowling this morning has brought no result !

Maybe needs someone to serve up a loopy full toss and get lucky ?

Have to commend Marnus for his patience at any rate. If he tires out the bowlers he's probably set his team well on the way to a winning score. England just have to stay patient but how long will they be able to keep this up ?

Duty281 wrote:Superb over from Broad, but no reward. One of those mornings so far.

Not sure how we've not got a wicket, and how Broad didn't get Marnus that over!

These two put Boycott to shame.

I remember the long sunny days back in the 80s when I used to set up by the pool with the radio on (listening to CMJ, McGilvray, etc) when Sir Geoffrey was at the crease on say "29". Scoring was painfully slow.

I'd have a swim, sunbake for 20 minutes... throw the ball to the dog for 10 minutes, then decide to go down to the shops to buy an ice cream... then chat with a friend who was also shopping for a few more minutes.

Then when I got back under the umbrella next to the pool after another quick dip I'd hear:

"... and another defensive shot from Boycott. No run. He remains on 31... and that should be lunch"

This morning's play reminds me of that. Couldn't be more opposite to BB.

Duty281 wrote:

KP_fan wrote:

Duty281 wrote:  

Confirmed that Moeen will play no part on day two. Not only was it a bad selection from a cricketing point of view, but also Moeen has proven himself to be injury-prone, perhaps no surprise with no multi-day cricket for years.

And yet they ( English cricket establishment) pleaded, placated, pampered & offered a guaranteed slot in playing-11 on a platter.
And might continue to do so until he retires for good when aged 41

Yep, one of their many mistakes, along with giving Bairstow the gloves, getting flat wickets, playing Robinson past the point of endurance and holding Woakes back for too long. All conspired to leave England falling short in this series.

add to that lits giving Anderson one game too many and keeping faster, fresher men like Tongue & Potts who were in squad, out of playing 11.
and subtract Moeen as a mistake....he the closest to a bowling all-rounder that Stokes needs to balance his 11 in the absence of his own bowling and fill a spinners slot also.

This Morning's play....from the on and off I have seen...Eng has not found the swing they would like.
Manus is yet again guilty of digging a hole for himself and the team.......if he falls now or soon...he wuld push his team in a sink-hole