Shane Warne does talk a load of bollocks but sometimes he makes sense. He's right that we need to match their first innings score as a minimum baseline requirement to give ourselves any chance at all...
Unfortunately, not only does getting to 267 from 31-4 seem a mile away, 186 to win is probably still 100 short of where I'd like to be to feel confident of a victory.
The pitch is good for bowling and any target over 200 gives us a slim chance. 225-275 and the game is in the balance.
What a good time it would be for Root to get his first century on Australian soil...
Who would win out of this England team and the England team of the early 90's
The 1990s team at its worst would have got turned over by the current England team. I can say that with confidence because they were getting turned over by everyone. For a brief period in 1999 we were bottom of the test rankings, due to losing a series to previous bottom team New Zealand. At home. We were ranked below even Zimbabwe. The current team is woefully out of its depth when playing the best test sides in the world, but at home against a mid-ranking country you'd still fancy them to be competitive, particularly on the bowling front.
I was at the Oval when we capitulated to NZ on the last afternoon to lose the 1999 series, and remember the crowd booing when England came up for the post-match presentations. We may despair of the current side, but the 1990s was a whole other level of awful.
A major difference now, is that home advantage is so much greater than it was before. England, like most Test teams, are much more competitive at home than away. Thus while Australia are almost certainly a better side than England at the moment, if this match had been played at Old Trafford or Lord's in August, it would have been a lot closer.
Part of the reason is the pathetically short preparation teams now have before series, AND the lack of practice games during the series. A few years ago (ignoring current Covid issues) England would have had 2 if not 3 practice matches before the series, and probably a match between the 1st and 2nd Test or the 2nd and 3rd Test. The likes of Crawley, Burns and Hameed would have played in all of them to try and get some form and get used to the local conditions, e.g. the amount of bounce which enables you to leave the ball more out in Australia.
Puzzled why they've created such a "result" pitch. Australia don't need a green pitch to beat England, and it hardly benefits the MCG to have the game all over in 3 days or so
Just play it like a one day game. We have Bairstow & Butler as well as Root. Just go on the attack and give the Aussies something to think about. Hanging around for 20 mins for 5 runs isnt going to win you the Test match.
Puzzled why they've created such a "result" pitch. Australia don't need a green pitch to beat England, and it hardly benefits the MCG to have the game all over in 3 days or so
They wanted to give us a chance & make the 5 match Series mean something.
Just play it like a one day game. We have Bairstow & Butler as well as Root. Just go on the attack and give the Aussies something to think about. Hanging around for 20 mins for 5 runs isnt going to win you the Test match.
I don’t think there’s much they can do to win this test tbf. I do agree with you though, attack and at least get a lead up to 50 and then Australia “may” have to start rethinking plans on how attacking they are in their bowling.
It will be a shame if we lose this test and, with it, the Ashes, in just three matches. But, on the positive side, we can look forward to winning them back again in the two-match 2022 series that starts next week.
As bad as England have been they have had no luck at all really. The one against Malan and that one against Bairstow. Would the umpire have given it out if it was Smith or Labuschagne? I’m not so sure.
I dont mind "umpires call" as technology is not 100% infallible, but when you get 2 out of 3 then I think it should be not out as surely its saying that its too marginal to call.
Comments
Didn't do very well.
Unfortunately, not only does getting to 267 from 31-4 seem a mile away, 186 to win is probably still 100 short of where I'd like to be to feel confident of a victory.
The pitch is good for bowling and any target over 200 gives us a slim chance. 225-275 and the game is in the balance.
What a good time it would be for Root to get his first century on Australian soil...
I was at the Oval when we capitulated to NZ on the last afternoon to lose the 1999 series, and remember the crowd booing when England came up for the post-match presentations. We may despair of the current side, but the 1990s was a whole other level of awful.
Part of the reason is the pathetically short preparation teams now have before series, AND the lack of practice games during the series. A few years ago (ignoring current Covid issues) England would have had 2 if not 3 practice matches before the series, and probably a match between the 1st and 2nd Test or the 2nd and 3rd Test. The likes of Crawley, Burns and Hameed would have played in all of them to try and get some form and get used to the local conditions, e.g. the amount of bounce which enables you to leave the ball more out in Australia.
Starc bowls Stokes.
I don’t think there’s much they can do to win this test tbf. I do agree with you though, attack and at least get a lead up to 50 and then Australia “may” have to start rethinking plans on how attacking they are in their bowling.
Bairstow lbw to Boland. Umpire's call on both hitting the pads and the stumps.
As I type Bairstow is given out. So I dont live in a parallel universe & in this one things just don't go our way.