The irony is that, if you picked the best team from the two sides, on basic ability there would have to be more English players than Aussies in your side.
In reality, our demise comes down to just one thing. Poor shot selection. How many of our players in this series have been out caught at shot mid wicket, round the corner off Lyon or out in the deep trying to pull?
And that is in the mind rather than due to poor technique.
First time in the series we reach 200. Going to say anyway cos I really don't believe it will make any difference but Stokes and Prior look pretty solid.
Having said that, the new ball is due in 4 overs ;-(
247-6 at close. Prior and Broad having it large with Johnson.
And rain forecast for tomorrow? Interesting that the Aussies are only 1.13-1.14 to win which, as we have no chance of surviving a whole day's play, suggests there must be.
90 overs left and needing to bat out the entire day, so he decides to take on the bowlers and slog it............and gets out in the first over. Brilliant!!
And, in reality, it was a lot worse than even that score suggests. Absolutely pathetic batting. Those two innings probably had the highest number of idiotic dismissals in England history. The number of sheer rank bad shots was beyond belief. The bowlers aren't getting any support - its been a growing problem for the last couple of years and needs to be addressed. Gooch has to take a large share of the blame. Good batsmen don't become bad batsmen overnight - since Gooch was given charge of them, they have all - with the exception of Bell, got markedly worse in technique.
Not a single one of those ten wickets would have hit the stumps. It's as if we've totally forgotten how to play 5 day cricket
The Aussies have been there too - until this series anyway!
The four batsmen we've relied on to make big scores simply aren't - Cook (totally lost form and I suspect this is also down to the fact that the Aussies aren't feeding him any runs), Trott (gone home), KP (who will always give the opposition a chance along the way) and Bell (running out of partners batting at 5).
Moving Bell to 3 is one solution but not sure what else we can do with this lot.
Rolled over and let the Aussies tickle our bellies. Outplayed from day one in this test and if the rain had arrived and we scraped a draw it would have been unjust.
2 positives:
1. Root scored a few at 3 2. Prior looked back to his best in the second innings.
Other than that some more positives are that erm ... well, hmmmmmm. Nope just two.
In reality, our demise comes down to just one thing. Poor shot selection. How many of our players in this series have been out caught at shot mid wicket, round the corner off Lyon or out in the deep trying to pull?
And that is in the mind rather than due to poor technique.
Agree with much of the above. All profoundly depressing. They are test batsman, and should be able to handle pace - either get into line or get out of the way. Those should be the choices.
Little bit too much 'Sing When We're Winning' about the current crop if you ask me, not enough fight when it's going a bit PT. Gooch has a lot to answer for - the batting has been a worry for the last couple of series, not just the low scores but the slow run rate - usually about 2.5 - which just invites pressure as it takes too long to move the game on. I also suspect Flower is near to burn-out.
But looking for positives, 6 of the likely top 6 or 7 for Perth have all scored a fifty in this series. The problem is they've all just done it once and mostly have been on their own when they have got a few.
My team for Perth would be:
Cook Carberry Root Pietersen Bell Prior (great to see him back and clouting a few) Stokes (allegedly a potentially 90mph bowler and seems to have a bit about him) Broad Finn (need some real pace at Perth and we need to bowl them out twice. Just hope he's able to hit the cut bit) Anderson Panesar (he's outbowling Swann, and Swann's batting isn't worth much against this attack)
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In reality, our demise comes down to just one thing. Poor shot selection. How many of our players in this series have been out caught at shot mid wicket, round the corner off Lyon or out in the deep trying to pull?
And that is in the mind rather than due to poor technique.
Having said that, the new ball is due in 4 overs ;-(
210-6
And rain forecast for tomorrow? Interesting that the Aussies are only 1.13-1.14 to win which, as we have no chance of surviving a whole day's play, suggests there must be.
Now that would be funny!
90 overs left and needing to bat out the entire day, so he decides to take on the bowlers and slog it............and gets out in the first over. Brilliant!!
The four batsmen we've relied on to make big scores simply aren't - Cook (totally lost form and I suspect this is also down to the fact that the Aussies aren't feeding him any runs), Trott (gone home), KP (who will always give the opposition a chance along the way) and Bell (running out of partners batting at 5).
Moving Bell to 3 is one solution but not sure what else we can do with this lot.
2 positives:
1. Root scored a few at 3
2. Prior looked back to his best in the second innings.
Other than that some more positives are that erm ... well, hmmmmmm. Nope just two.
Simple, don't keep going for hook shots.
Little bit too much 'Sing When We're Winning' about the current crop if you ask me, not enough fight when it's going a bit PT. Gooch has a lot to answer for - the batting has been a worry for the last couple of series, not just the low scores but the slow run rate - usually about 2.5 - which just invites pressure as it takes too long to move the game on. I also suspect Flower is near to burn-out.
But looking for positives, 6 of the likely top 6 or 7 for Perth have all scored a fifty in this series. The problem is they've all just done it once and mostly have been on their own when they have got a few.
My team for Perth would be:
Cook
Carberry
Root
Pietersen
Bell
Prior (great to see him back and clouting a few)
Stokes (allegedly a potentially 90mph bowler and seems to have a bit about him)
Broad
Finn (need some real pace at Perth and we need to bowl them out twice. Just hope he's able to hit the cut bit)
Anderson
Panesar (he's outbowling Swann, and Swann's batting isn't worth much against this attack)