General Cricket Thread (It's Come Home)

Well that's an improvement.

It's tempting to take too much away from this as an England fan.  This was a third-string Australian bowling attack (surely it should be second, given that it's "Australia A"?  What happened to the rest of Australia's bowlers?), in a warm-up match.  But the really interesting thing is that if Michael Carberry opens on the back of this, then Root will probably return to 6, and Bairstow and Ballance are out of it.  Which is great for now, but not so great for building the future of the England team - Carbs is 33.

Regardless, Nick Compton must be crying into his coffee.

It seems the gods have decided to show Australia A a little mercy and threw some rain in to interrupt play today. Meanwhile in State Cricket Warner got a century and is looking like he's getting back in to form at a perfect time.

One could say they're owed it, after two tests on the wrong end of the weather in the Ashes!

EDIT: Oh for crying out loud.  

Well, they got some play.  Root is much better further down the order, and Ballance looks like he's out for the foreseeable future.  He'll be back, though.

On the other hand, we have Prior with a calf complaint and Pietersen with knee problems, to go up against Clarke and Watson in the "cricket cripples" stakes.  Jonny Bairstow may yet get another chance...

EDIT: Both cripples made the Aussie squad, though.  I'm hoping for Mitchell Johnson to give us something to sing about, personally.  Both he and Bailey will either be a disaster for Australia or England, and I can't say which yet.

Post I shall then!  I haven't really had the TV on the last few days besides watching some old Burn Notice episodes but what I heard before then I was in mixed opinions on.  Bailey making the squad was something I would have been disgusted if he didn't as from what I here he was on fire recently against India and looks like just the sort of batsman the team needed, but then I heard they were resting Kah-however you spell his name which could only mean one thing and I was instantly unimpressed.  

Overall the beginnings of what are going to be the Ashes squad left me with mixed feelings.  But at the end of the day I think if they can do what they didn't in England and play consistently I think the team has all the makings of a team capable of putting on a good show.

Don't worry, there's no Cowan. It's the fifth Ashes 2013 test team, minus Starc and plus Bailey and Johnson.  It looks like a strong Aussie team, I have to say.  If it weren't for Trott and Cook looking like they're picking up, I wouldn't fancy England's chances.

As for England, it looks like it'll be Cook Carbs Trott Pieterson Bell Root Prior/YJB (depending on fitness) Broad Swann Finn Anderson, with the slight surprises bolded.  Finn got a five-for in the recent warm-up match, although he's been highly profligate so far and will probably be Watson-ed all over the shop for boundary after boundary. Bresnan can't heal soon enough.

Also, can I just say how sick I am of reading about some chap called Such a Tandoori or something like that? I know he was a very great cricketer back in the day, but the Indians treat him like a god! And the vs. WI series had no context apart from putting him above the game. It kind of amuses me how fast the WI are falling, because I almost don't want such a gratuitous series to being anything worth remembering: the only better outcome would be if the WI had utterly hammered India in both tests.

You mean Tendulkar? I take it the media is going nuts over his retirement. One of the perks of not watching the news for at least four days now is the lack of the media making a huge fuss over the same issues all the time.

And yeah, both sides look like they're bringing some quality to this series, I'm looking forward to seeing how things pan out next week. Hopefully we don't see several matches interfered with by rain this series as well so we can see this rivalry come to a decisive result. I'll admit I'm still somewhat sore over the matches Australia looked the most likely to win last series being either rained off or being interfered with so much the result loses its meaning.

Absolutely bananas. Sick of it. Somebody complaining on Cricinfo about how well the last batsman in is doing because it might deny the Little Master another turn at the bat.  

Well, YJB almost scored a half-century, and he's picked up some catches. There is hope for him yet, it seems. Root, meanwhile, is looking much calmer at six.

That's even more excessive than I thought it would be, it sounds like the English media is caring more about Tendulkar's retirement than the media here. Well on the bright side he's only going to retire once!

To be fair, Cricinfo is quite India-centric.  But the BBC has half a dozen pages on him as well.  

Cricinfo have done some decent parody pieces, though (clicky).

Anyway, this morning (Saturday) England finished off their warm-up match, and there's still a massive question mark hanging over the third seamer's head. I think that mostly because of this, going into this contest, Australia have the edge, but I don't know whether they'll have the consistency to deliver. MJ most of all. Impressed with Carberry so far, though. I think England's batting is solid, whatever John Buchanan may opine.

Hilariously biased Ashes report anyone?  I particularly like the layout of the wickets table, which means nothing at all.  Harris is Australia's best bowler, whether he has 71 wickets or 710.  

Also, more reviews stuff.

Also also, the Gabba test will be KP's 100th. Not bad for England's most mercurial batsman!

Wow, they sure didn't care about trying to represent both sides fairly in that article!    It reminded me of a bad troll thread in its layout for some strange reason. . .

A sign of nervousness, perhaps?  I think both sides are pretty nervous, not that you'd know it from Cook's Titan-faced calmness.  England are fielding quite a few unknowns (Carberry, the third seamer and possibly Bairstow as w/k), and Aus have the more settled side but their backs to the wall.  And of course, everyone's going to be nervous about Mitch, team-mates included!

Anyway, the England media's gearing up, the fans are at each other's throats on the Cricinfo comments, and not a day goes by without one of the more outspoken players having a crack at another.  Must be time for another Ashes series!  I'll go ahead and predict 2-1 to England, who I think still have the slight edge.  Real shame that the matches start at 0000 British time...

And here's a cartoon.

And forget all that, it figures I jinx it and Rogers gets out.

I still think Australia will win the series however, or draw it. Australia in Australia is not a small feat and England have yet to convince me they have the stuff to pull it off. If they do it will be a very rough road for them.

I was going to make an edit saying how the opener I'd rather see out got out.  Still, I'm not sure whether Watson or Clarke is the man I'm most worried about in all of Aus.  Anyhoo, almost Watson out for Aus.  Here's hoping...

EDIT: Not much later, but I've only just learned that it's Tremlett on for England. Shrug. Not unexpected. Let's see how it goes.

I'm having kittens right now, some of these close calls are driving me nuts!

Cripes, I've come home from my headmaster's drinks and it's going both ways at the moment.  Possibly the two most energetic (in the Pietersen method of "energetic") batsmen in the squad, with the possible exception of Bailey, fighting England's two best bowlers on this pitch.  Thrilling stuff, which I'll have to dispel to go to bed soon.

It'll be a weather-marked draw regardless.

EDIT: Hi, Chris, hi. Don't worry, we're not expecting much from you.

Figures, I go out and make a joke about how the story of the last ashes series for me was how I'd take a walk to pick up a Solo drink and come back to find Australia 4 for less than 100 runs.  And right on cue I walk in the door look at the screen and am greeted be 4 for 84.     Not happy, not happy at all.  We'll need either for Smith and Bailey to bat like Tendulkar at his prime or for England to have a collapse worse than this to salvage this one.

Edit: Oh god, I leave for five minutes to check the psn store to see if Soul Calibur 2 hd is there and come back to find Bailey has bitten the dust with Australia little over 100 runs.

Edit 2: Smith is now out for 31 runs.  Now if the rest of the team hadn't collapsed that wouldn't be such a bad total, but given the current scoreline it's awful.    Congrats have to be said to Tremlett in getting his first wicket however.

Edit 3: And at the end of play we sit at 273 for 8 wickets. Not exactly great but thanks to Johnson and Haddin cooking up a fantastic partnership they've got Australia back in the game. They'll still need a strong showing with the ball if they're to truly salvage this however. All up a fun day of cricket. My personal highlight being Shane Watson's dismissal with his very audible "oh no" straight after he edged a ball from Broad. It was a amusing moment and also rather aptly summed up what went down after that.

Well those are some nice figures to wake up to! Haddin saving the day again (and Mitch), but it looks like it may not be enough. Not at the Gabba. Nice to see Broad getting the five wickets, particularly due to his "pantomime villain" status, and the many Australians who keep claiming that he's a below-par bowler (yes, they do). And good to see Tremlett's inclusion being not entirely unjustified.

All depends on how England's batsmen do tomorrow. Of course, there may be a sting in the tail, as there has often been for Australia.

Well this is turning out to be a fun match, England is 3 for 87 runs.  Harris nabbed the first wicket, Cook, at 13 runs.  From there Carberry and Trott seemed to be getting going, then disaster struck England before lunch with a final over being called and Mitch beng called on and getting Trott with the first ball of the final over before lunch.  With that lunch was called.

From there things have got even worse for England.  First pietersen was up and was doing his thing, before being Harris' next victim.  Then Bell joined the crease with Carberry still trucking along on forty.  Then Carberry finally fell to Mitch, and now we have England at 4 for 87, only 3 runs ahead of Australia yesterday at the same point.  And as of now Australia's total of 295 is not looking half bad, now it's all on Bell and Root to try and dig in.

This match has been really exciting if nothing else, both sides are looking dead even right now and the atmosphere is electric even watching on tv.  

Oh my god, I was just about the post and we got another one!  Bell is gone!  And with this the whole match momentum has been completely reversed!  

Edit: And not five minutes pass and Prior is gone for a duck, Loyn is on a Hatrick!  I'm speechless right now.  And out comes Broad to a wave of boos.

Edit 2: And so Broad survives the rest of the Over.  England now sit at 6 for 87.  Or 89 to be correct now the new Over has started.

Edit 3:  Wow, just wow.  Another one is down!  I repeat, another one is down!     Mitch now has three wickets and Root is walking off the pitch.  I think it's safe to say now that England is not going to be getting Australia's score of 295, they'll be lucky to get past 100 at this rate.

Edit 4: And Mitch claims another victim, they're falling like ninepins right now!  Scoreline is now 8 for 91.

Edit 5: Well, they've at least made it to 100 now.  Can they make it to 150!?  Only time will tell.

Edit 6: Tremlett has finally gone, Harris struck again.  Now the score is 9 for 110.

Edit 7: And England is all done now, 136 runs in total.  Broad fell to Siddle with 32 runs.  Well, that was certainly an action packed innings, although I suspect it's not the sort of action people backing England enjoyed watching.   I probably shouldn't laugh as it could very well come back to bite me in the backside, but as someone backing Australia I can't help but feel really cheerful after that.

COLLAPSE LEVEL: AUSTRALIAN  

Really shows up all those second-string bowling attacks England have faced in the warm-up games, doesn't it?  More when I've fully got to grips with the disaster.  The Gabbatoir is back in business.

EDIT: Ah, they brought the good Mitchell Johnson, I see.  I honestly don't know what to think of that innings.  Cook and Trott continuing their calamitous fall from grace, I would have thought that the middle order (Prior aside) would at least have shown some fight.  Nope: stifled.  For Carberry to score the most runs is a thing, though.

That prediction I made of 2-1?  Revise it to 2-2.  I didn't actually think that two matches would be drawn: I just couldn't say which way the last would go.  That little spell gives me a better idea.

Honestly that was one of the worst collapses I think I've seen, almost as bad as the Australian collapse in England when it looked like Warner and Rogers had set up a win, only in this case England hadn't done well with the openers either.  It was like someone had kidnapped the team over lunch and replaced them with poor clones or something.

Edit: And so day 2 ends, with Australia well and truly being the winners. England all out for 136, Australia ending the day on a very nice 0 for 65. All up this was a quality day of cricket, with some fantastic skill on display. Hopefully day three will be just as action packed, with one question remaining, can England turn the tide once again by getting a few wickets, or will Australia finish nailing the coffin in to England this match without much incident? Day three should see a pseudo result if Australia can stay in and not lose too many wickets while scoring, of course this being Australia that might too tall a thing to ask them.

Agreed.  In all the furore over the third seamer, England forgot about their batsmen.  And the sad thing is, while there's some room for re-jigging the bowlers, there's no one I'd pick over any of this six.  England got rid of the only weak link in their line-up from last Ashes, replaced him with someone who's been at least competent in the warm-ups, moved their number six back to number six, and they've still fallen apart at the seams like one of those level decorations from Kirby's Epic Yarn.

Hopefully they just need time to settle in.  I was reading the other day about how England's first innings is usually hopeless at the moment.  While I can't see them saving this match, maybe the real England batsmen will turn up for the next test.

It's certainly looking like a more interesting series than the previous one, that's for sure!

EDIT: Just thinking, when was the last time England had a proper fast bowler? Harmison? It's like all the pace has dropped out of their game, with the British collection currently being two f-ms and one m-f. I suppose intimidating the batsmen isn't really the English way - maybe it should be.

I really overslept, and woke up expecting to be greeted by a awful scoreboard.  Instead I'm greeted by Australia scoring 271 for 4 wickets.  What is this sorcery?  A high score from the actual batsmen?  I must still be dreaming!  Clarke is on 99 right now, hopefully he can overcome the nervous nineties and get that century.

Edit: And as soon as I say that Clarke has finally done it!  Clarke is back!

Edit 2: And so Australia have declared after Johnson got out and Siddle had an over, England are chasing a impossible for them 561 runs with two days and a bit over half an hour to go.  Now the only thing that remains to be seen is whether England will go down fighting and bode well for the rest of the series or mentally crumble.  Personally I think they'll crumble, even Australia back in the golden days wouldn't be winning from this and England has always had a tendency when things go badly to play reserved so much they cannot do anything but lose wickets.  Personally I think if they lose a wicket tonight they'll be all out by the end of play tomorrow.  If they hang on they might last until day five.  Might.

Edit 3: And Carberry is down!  Trott has been sent out as nightwatchman I see, but I fear if he keeps knocking the ball around like this he'll be joining Carberry soon enough.

Edit 4: Johnson has claimed another wicket!  This time the scalp of Trott is added to his growing collection.

Edit 5: So, end of day three, Australia got 401 runs and declared, overall having a gigantic total of 561 runs. England at the end of play are 2 for 24, with Pieterson and Cook hanging in there. All up a fantastic day if you're a fan of Australia with both Warner and Clarke scoring centuries and Haddin adding another half century to his total, a not so fantastic day for England fans with Australia absolutely destroying any and every last chance they had at winning this first match, or even trying to leave the first match with a positive mindset.

Bleuuuuuuuuurgh. I had a feeling that there'd be nothing to wake up for today. England are wilting due to Swann's lack of economy and Anderson's lack of wickets, and the small matter of the batsmen being utterly incompetent. Result is a forgone conclusion now.

If Trott could do what Clarke has done and fix his flaws against the balls that bother him I'd be much obliged. At first I thought that the Aussies saying they had his number were all bluster, as I suspect did he. Now I'm not so sure.