England's Summer of Cricket 2023, Featuring The Ashes

First topic message reminder :

June 1st-June 4th: One Test v Ireland (four days)
June 16th-July 31st: Five Tests v Australia
August 30th-September 5th: Four T20s v New Zealand
September 8th-September 15th: Four ODIs v New Zealand
September 20th-September 26th: Three ODIs v Ireland

England try to wrest the Ashes back from Australia, in a series which could be the greatest since 2005. Australia have currently held the urn for just over five years, which is the longest spell of urn-holding since the 1989-2005 period.

Ireland also visit for a test before that, and then there's some limited-overs games squashed into the last days of summer.

Ahhhh, just as Bairstow was looking like he was going to surge to 100.

Hmm - 6th wicket goes for just short of 300. Still just losing a wicket too many every time we seem to be getting into a dominant position.

Duty281 wrote:Interesting to hear about the heavy fines meted out in the WTC final because of slow over-rates.

Bairstow gets to 50. How great that must feel for him after suffering that injury. The recovery was more than worth it. But the job's not even half done.

273/5. Score should be over 400 at stumps IF England bat through the evening.

They don't really care about the fines though , do they ? Not sure what they can do to encourage better over rates. Still I'm glad they no longer ban captains for a match - that always struck me as out of proportion to the "crime".

Big over there from Hazlewood : Jonny whacking him all over and then Carey nearly poaching a wide edge ! Would have gone to a normal first slip : shows why I hate these gaps/extra wide slip positions.

Doesn't cost them much though. Bairstow got a bit too excited and an easy stumping for his opposite number ...end of a top knock and a big and valuable stand

Now : what has Moeen got ?

Drop doesn't cost much - good knock from Jonny, but again just as we look set to really try and push into a good position, the Aussies grab a wicket.

Another big partnership here

Huge breakthrough.

An excellent partnership in the context of the Test but at 121 runs it's still not the monster one you aim for when wining the toss on a great day for batting.

They should just be thinking, "bat the day", now. Keep the bowlers out there. Trust that the runs will keep coming as they usually do later into the 3rd session of a day. Give Root the chance to keep going.

It's been a bit of a theme. Some good partnerships, but Australia taking timely wickets to restrict England. 61, 31, 32, 78...you need centuries on this wicket, not those scores.

Aussies getting a ball change, too...

Didn't realise Ali was back in the side.....

Sgt_Pooly wrote:Didn't realise Ali was back in the side.....

I'm fuming that Ashley Giles has been dropped.

Early days...but Moeen looks as if he's relishing the licence he's been given.

We will eventually see whether this approach results in a sufficient total ; but we can be in no doubt they mean what they say about going hard and then harder...

Can't deny it's huge fun to watch !

alfie wrote:Early days...but Moeen looks as if he's relishing the licence he's been given.

We will eventually see whether this approach results in a sufficient total ; but we can be in no doubt they mean what they say about going hard and then harder...

Can't deny it's huge fun to watch !

It kept us awake... while it lasted. He's good value to watch.
How are you feeling, alfie? Will you make it past 3am?

Moeen didn't last long. He's going to have a tough job replicating Lyon when England get to bowl. Very worried about England with the ball past the initial 30/40 overs. If they don't do the damage upfront, it could be a long spell in the field.

323, England need 400 as a minimum.

Aah...Lyon has done for another one...

He got lucky with Brook. And he's gone for a few. But his wickets today have made all the difference , as the pace bowlers have found the going a bit tough as the day's gone on.

323/7 and England will be hoping for a bit of tail wagging to boost that. Don't want to see Root stranded - and reckon they need a few more after winning the toss on this. With only one player not getting a start you'd certainly have hoped to have reached this score for a couple less wickets...

Pal Joey wrote:

alfie wrote:Early days...but Moeen looks as if he's relishing the licence he's been given.

We will eventually see whether this approach results in a sufficient total ; but we can be in no doubt they mean what they say about going hard and then harder...

Can't deny it's huge fun to watch !

It kept us awake... while it lasted. He's good value to watch.
How are you feeling, alfie? Will you make it past 3am?

Will do it easily today , PJ. Gets a bit harder by day three

This reminds me a bit of the first day at Edgbaston in 2005 when England were all out for 407 in the 80th, that felt under par at the time but they then bowled out the Aussies for 308 in return. A more than decent first innings lead. If England can get this up to around that mark they're more than in the game.

alfie wrote:

Pal Joey wrote:

alfie wrote:Early days...but Moeen looks as if he's relishing the licence he's been given.

We will eventually see whether this approach results in a sufficient total ; but we can be in no doubt they mean what they say about going hard and then harder...

Can't deny it's huge fun to watch !

It kept us awake... while it lasted. He's good value to watch.
How are you feeling, alfie? Will you make it past 3am?

Will do it easily today , PJ.  Gets a bit harder by day three

Battle hardened these days you Alfie!

Duty281 wrote:Moeen didn't last long. He's going to have a tough job replicating Lyon when England get to bowl. Very worried about England with the ball past the initial 30/40 overs. If they don't do the damage upfront, it could be a long spell in the field.

323, England need 400 as a minimum.

400 looks a fair way off at the moment. Can't see Moeen emulating Lyon with the ball : just hope he can nip out a couple to help out the seamers. Expect Australia to bat in a somewhat different style and will be interesting to see how Stokes uses his bowlers in search of wickets. Has worked for them in a lot of games recently so will wait and see...

Broad swings the willow for a brisk 16, England upto 350. Hopefully Robinson can add a 15-20 alongside Root here and get us to 400

alfie wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Moeen didn't last long. He's going to have a tough job replicating Lyon when England get to bowl. Very worried about England with the ball past the initial 30/40 overs. If they don't do the damage upfront, it could be a long spell in the field.

323, England need 400 as a minimum.

400 looks a fair way off at the moment.  Can't see Moeen emulating Lyon with the ball : just hope he can nip out a couple to help out the seamers.  Expect Australia to bat in a somewhat different style and will be interesting to see how Stokes uses his bowlers in search of wickets. Has worked for them in a lot of games recently so will wait and see...

To be honest if Moeen went wicketless but kept it tight, I'd take that, as I'm concerned he'll be smashed out of the attack placing extra workload on the three seamers.

Broad knocked over. 350/8. Probably time for Root to play a few shots. Smith got Australia from 122/8 to 284ao in 2019 at this ground.

alfie wrote:

Pal Joey wrote:

alfie wrote:Early days...but Moeen looks as if he's relishing the licence he's been given.

We will eventually see whether this approach results in a sufficient total ; but we can be in no doubt they mean what they say about going hard and then harder...

Can't deny it's huge fun to watch !

It kept us awake... while it lasted. He's good value to watch.
How are you feeling, alfie? Will you make it past 3am?

Will do it easily today , PJ.  Gets a bit harder by day three

Yeah, one day down... only 24 to go if they all go the full 5 days. We'll get through it.  

What's Tubs talking about? Beautiful clear days here. Cool in the morning but still 20 degs in the afternoon... during winter.

Fascinating day of cricket. The early wickets were crucial for Australia to try and stunt the scoring... which is still at around 5 an over.

KP blabbing on and on about their defensive fields but I think they handled the heat of the early batting well considering the road-like conditions. Hazlewood in particular. Lyon seems to have found his focus too. If that Root-YJB partnership had gone on any further it could have been a match changer and influenced the whole tone of the match; maybe even the series. It just felt so ominous for a long period of time but as some have said - it needed to go on to have a fuller effect on the Australian minds.

I'm still unsure about the whole Bazball approach. Sort of works I guess. England got off to a quick start despite the early loss of Duckett but I think it's been a tug-of-war sort of day with England probably ruing 'what could have been' if there had been fewer 'cheap' wickets and bigger partnerships. We'll know more when Australia have a bat but I've a feeling there'll be a similar scoring pattern (at a slower rate) and the customary wickets against the run of play as we so often see.

I don't think Australia's defensive field settings were too bad. They probably reasoned that England will play so many shots that you don't have to work too hard to get them out, and restricting boundaries (instead seeing more singles and 2s) prevents greater momentum amongst individual batsmen and keeps the crowd noise down. But they did make it too easy for batsmen to get off the mark.

I thought it was overly negative myself, it's the first day of an ashes series you try going for the jugular rather than sitting back waiting for something to happen.

Soul Requiem wrote:I thought it was overly negative myself, it's the first day of an ashes series you try going for the jugular rather than sitting back waiting for something to happen.

It also didn't really massively stop the boundary flow - still been plenty today! No issue with it once someone is in, but especially to start off with, I don't think giving up those easy singles is a good tactic.

Roooooooooootttttttttttt!!!

Century for Root!

His first against Australia for nearly 8 years, and 30th overall. Takes him past Bradman, and level with Hayden and Chanderpaul. Three behind Cook.

Ton for Root. A truly brilliant innings. England would have been sunk without him.

He was my prediction to have a big series and I really hope this is just the start. His Ashes record is comparatively poor for such a magnificent cricketer.

Keep going Joe.

king_carlos wrote:Ton for Root. A truly brilliant innings. England would have been sunk without him.

He was my prediction to have a big series and I really hope this is just the start. His Ashes record is comparatively poor for such a magnificent cricketer.

Keep going Joe.

Think we've said that a fair few times in recent years!

Well played Joe Root

Reckon he's pretty happy about this century . Team didn't half need it !

Hasn't found scoring so easy since Jonny got out ; he's trusted his tail end partners though , taking singles when offered. Ticking the score steadily up towards that 2005 mark...bit to do yet with the new ball all but due...

Robinson's becoming quite useful with the bat. His 5th double digit score in his last 6 innings. Useful.

Duty281 wrote:

alfie wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Moeen didn't last long. He's going to have a tough job replicating Lyon when England get to bowl. Very worried about England with the ball past the initial 30/40 overs. If they don't do the damage upfront, it could be a long spell in the field.

323, England need 400 as a minimum.

400 looks a fair way off at the moment.  Can't see Moeen emulating Lyon with the ball : just hope he can nip out a couple to help out the seamers.  Expect Australia to bat in a somewhat different style and will be interesting to see how Stokes uses his bowlers in search of wickets. Has worked for them in a lot of games recently so will wait and see...

To be honest if Moeen went wicketless but kept it tight, I'd take that, as I'm concerned he'll be smashed out of the attack placing extra workload on the three seamers.

Broad knocked over. 350/8. Probably time for Root to play a few shots. Smith got Australia from 122/8 to 284ao in 2019 at this ground.

I'd take 162 more for the last two wickets

That's a silly declaration. I know they declared early in a day-night game once, but that was with superb bowling conditions and just the tail left in the batting. England are at least 50 short of par here, and Root was going superbly with Robinson providing able support.

Bl..dy Hell : a declaration !!!

Stokes keeps us on our toes

Must admit I'm a bit shocked as these two were looking like taking the score over 400 : but if the bowlers can strike tonight...

Will look a bit stupid if Australia are still batting in 2 days. But this might be the best chance England will get at Marnus and Steve in the first innings

Hm. Whilst Root is still there'd I'd say you keep going. Even if the instruction is to attack, attack, attack. Not sure about that at all.

We are about to find out whether:

A) There is more to this wicket than first thought or the Aussies were actually doing well to get a bit out of it

B) Was that decision absolute insanity even in the Bazball era

Don’t agree with that declaration - you’re only getting 3-4 overs here tonight, and have left another 20-50 runs out there.

Spoiler - there has never been a wicket taken in this little period before end of play

Will certainly have thrown the openers off. Live by the sword die by the sword I guess

Do what the opposition don't want - Warner and Khawaja won't want to bat this evening, while the benefit of batting on for 15-20 more runs probably won't be a big deal in the context of the match result..

Anyway, 393 is the final score. That's definitely light on this. I'd estimate par to be around 450/500. And because England have batted so quickly, Australia are still getting great use of the batting surface, plus their seamers haven't got through many overs.

Definitely advantage Australia so far. England need a couple tonight, I reckon. It'll look a bit silly if Australia get to stumps unscathed.

dummy_half wrote:Do what the opposition don't want - Warner and Khawaja won't want to bat this evening, while the benefit of batting on for 15-20 more runs probably won't be a big deal in the context of the match result..

I think Australia would rather be batting now. Root was striking superbly, Robinson was doing decently, and Australia were looking a little ragged and facing the prospect of coming out to the field again tomorrow. Plus, I wager England would have scored more than 15/20. May have been a different story if Root wasn't still out in the middle.

England's selection was already influenced by the Broad vs Warner discussion. I wonder how much that declaration has been influenced by it too? The odd thing is, I think my first choice new ball pair would be Anderson and Robinson from this attack!

dummy - With Root at the crease and an able partner in Robinson there was potentially more than 10-20 runs is my issue.

Hardest time to bat is when you first come to the crease, so why not make them do it an extra time. I think its a brave risk, but totally consistent with their approach to date.

Take risks, dare to think differently.

Also would have surprised Warner and Khawaja so they wont have been mentally ready.

Personally, i love it

Ultimately Stokes and McCullum will do whatever they think gives them the best chance to win the game even if it improves their chances of losing it. Sometimes they'll get burned but at least they're committed

They say Stokes is a bold leader and gets the team to play for him.    This gives England two chances of causing difficulties for Australia - this period now and then again tomorrow morning.

I have an odd sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach after watching those 4 frankly innocuous overs. It's the feeling that had started to disappear whilst watching the score tick closer to a par total.

Now it is looking like an unnecessary desperate move to declare.

Biggest danger for Australia so far is Warner and Khawaja's communication. Nearly a run-out on a couple of occasions!

Did England really surrender Root's beautiful innings, and a real chance of notching up 450+, just so they could get four pointless overs at Australia? How silly. And Jimmy didn't even get a go? All summed up by Robinson's wide.

Conditions look superb for batting, England didn't get much (if anything) from the ball in those four overs, and Australia's aim will be to bat long and get a 150+ run lead, which looks more than achievable. When the ball gets soft, when England's three main seamers are into their second and third spells, or Moeen or Stokes are trying to work some magic, that's when Australia will be firmly into the ascendancy. So the first hour for England tomorrow is mammoth, otherwise it'll be a long couple of days, in all likelihood.

A well set Joe Root and two more wickets left, taken off for four frankly innocuous overs at the end of the day

The only good thing Stokes did today was win the toss.

No name Bertie wrote:Now it is looking like an unnecessary desperate move to declare.

Ah, judging by hindsight, are we?

Eng played brave cricket that deserves an applause....and got runs on the board.
The pitch is a belter and runs are a bit short of par...but par itself is a theoretical number and Eng have decent runs on the board.

Aus kept picking wickets but Eng kept going......Root played a beautiful.....gem of an inning, high paced anchor and the linchpin of Bazballing, Bairstow played the best of many cameos.
Bairstow prevented what could have been a bundled for 270ish.

Problem for Eng is that the pitch is really a flat Patta.....and Aus have so much time to bat normally and get to 450ish against an attack that has neither high speed nor quality spin.
They could get a lot more than 450 also.

And 2 of the 3 Eng seam bowlers are aged ~40 quite prone to cramping /pulling up a muscle.....and if that were to happen Eng would be up & against it....

Superiority of Bowling is the deptt where Aus might outplay Eng.....and the reason why I put Aus ahead at this point.

Duty281 wrote:

No name Bertie wrote:Now it is looking like an unnecessary desperate move to declare.

Ah, judging by hindsight, are we?

Always the best position to judge from in the final analysis.

No name Bertie wrote:

Duty281 wrote:

No name Bertie wrote:Now it is looking like an unnecessary desperate move to declare.

Ah, judging by hindsight, are we?

Always the best position to judge from in the final analysis.

The easiest position. Anyone is right in hindsight.