Cricket, lovely cricket (Part 1)

Sport
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And a likeable personality

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Not convinced about how good a captain he is though. But he seems like a very nice man.

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What a load of shit.

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Thank you, Henry Blofeld

Whilst I broadly agree with your sentiment, I’m not at all surprised. There is a current trend for away teams to suffer series defeats no matter how good they seem to be when performing on home soil

Here are some facts (source: Cricinfo)

The recent Ashes series showed that Australia’s batsmen can’t handle the seaming ball very well at all; over the last couple of years they struggled similarly against the turning ball in Asia, losing handily in India and the UAE (against Pakistan). England themselves have won each of the last four home Ashes series, but were blanked 5-0 in Australia and 3-0 against Pakistan in the UAE. The teams from the subcontinent have generally had problems when playing away from home, with India losing 15 out of 25 away Tests before the series win in Sri Lanka.

Since the beginning of 2010, the top seven teams in Test cricket (excluding West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe) have a dismal 37-81 win-loss record in away Tests against one of these seven opponents. (Tests in the UAE are counted as home Tests for Pakistan and away for the opposition.)

Home teams have generally enjoyed great results recently, but the one year when the home skew crossed all limits was in 2013, when, in Tests among these seven teams, the away teams had a combined win-loss record of 1-21. It started with New Zealand losing 2-0 in South Africa, Pakistan losing three in South Africa, Australia losing four in India and then three in England, and finally England losing four in Australia late in the year

Despite the overwhelming defeat in the current Ashes series, I would still take England to beat this current Australian team at home.

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Trouble is the future of England cricket is looking pretty bleak with very few bright prospects from what I can see.
Once Anderson, Broad and Cook retire we will be fucked.

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So the preparation of the pitch is used to favour the home team. I guess that this has happened since forever, but maybe the analysis of skills and weaknesses, plus improved ability to prepare the pitch, has exacerbated the issue?

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I think the only positive this Ashes series has produced is the batting of Dawid Malan

Probably

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I almost can’t watch this any more. The Marsh brothers are absolutely destroying England. It wouldn’t surprise me if this finished today. Lead is 200 with 6 wickets in hand and both Marsh boys scoring hundreds,

Oh dear…

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I’m trying really hard not to gloat. But gloatings not my style bitch.

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I thought you hated straya

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I do. But I still have a soft spot for their sporting teams :smirk:

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when they win…:wink:

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Meh! Even when they…yeah, OK. It’s a fair cop :upside_down_face:

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Well we’ve lost the Ashes this time round.

At least in the 2013-2014 Ashes series we got a draw.

Onward and upward!!

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More good news for England. This could be very quick and ugly without Root.

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Oh well at least it wasn’t 5-0.:roll_eyes:

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Jason Roy.

That’s all.

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This is where my cricket ignorance comes in,why wouldn’t he play in test matches?

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Because he plays high risk shots which is fine for ODI’s but not suitable for Tests.

Mind you, Virender Sehwag did rather well opening for India :smiley:

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But SOME players can adapt from the Pyjama cricket to the proper game rather well. I give you most of the Australian XI as an example.