General Cricket Thread (It's Come Home)

Holy molly, they lost, but not by much! 39 runs was all that was in it, those fielding slip ups in the first innings ended up literally being the key factor in this result. That was some amazing grit they showed today. Best match of the summer so far! I honestly can say I wanted them to win by the end, that was brilliant cricket!


And yeah, does seem like they've got no chance in India. Not many teams do, and they won't be bucking that trend.

Highest total made by India.
Highest total conceded by England.



The collapse should be quite something though!

Did you hear?  India's batting lineup has a theme tune now, but it only plays in the heads of the English team!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAk0dNzrPcE

Not funereal enough mate.

Oh if it's funeral mixed with unstoppable nightmarish force I think I have just the piece for that!

Actually on second thought, nah, this theme is the innings from England's perspective.  The slow tragedy by the violin, before the electric guitar and slow drum beat begin as England's impotent bowling attack is feasted upon, ending again with the sad desolation that India's batsmen wrought.  

Balladeer wrote:

The collapse should be quite something though!

Eee hee hee hee hee.

And here's the final summary of England's performance:

Blood:

I just love that India scored over 700 runs in an innings. As bad as our batting has been in recent times I can at least take comfort in the fact our bowlers can at least bowl people out and/or prevent them from batting as long as they please!

So, first test in India, the Marsh's are back So much for the rebirth and raising of up-and-comers over playing players established to not have what it takes for Test cricket.

On the other hand they've not done badly (the rest of the team, not the Marshes). Then again, I heard the same thing said about England time and time again, before India racked up 600+ and flattened them. Let's wait and see.

...put a SOK in it.

Brilliant!  My money's still on India, like you Balla I'll adopt the wait-and-see approach before any celebrating, but at least this is a contest rather than the curbstomping I'd previously expected!  

Best bit?  The Marsh's contributed nothing to it!  

Seriously I can't stand that they've been brought back.  They're decent enough at the shorter forms of the game, that cannot be denied, but they've rarely stood up in Test cricket when it's counted, and that hasn't changed.  You'd have thought the fact the team over the summer absolutely slaughtered SA as soon as they and Voges were removed would've told the selectors what they needed to know, apparently not.  Meanwhile Khwaja's warming a bloody bench after a very consistent Test summer while Marsh Senior after his supposedly amazing century has contributed a paltry 14 runs over two innings.  Even by the low scoring standards of this match it's nothing to note.  

On the flip-side O'Keefe seems to have been an excellent choice given how many of the Indians he knocked over.

I think you can at the very least get the bunting out of the cupboard. Maybe wait until Smith scores a century until you hang it up.

I hold no illusions about us winning the series, or even winning another match, India's going to be out for blood after this, but you better believe I'm thrilled to see the boys take a win!

Balladeer wrote:

I think you can at the very least get the bunting out of the cupboard.  Maybe wait until Smith scores a century until you hang it up.

I bow before the prophet!

Cricket Nostradamus walks among you or summat. Well done Aus, very interesting to see considering the team's weakness in Asia of late.

Deary deary me, a good match all but ignored thanks to a good old case of the Sore-Winner Syndrome.  I head to bed early to awaken to nothing but the latest controversy to hit the sport, was Smith cheating or was Kohli being a prat.  Having not seen the match it's all largely hearsay from both sides to me (that said the account that Handscomb was what prompted to look to the box does match with the footage shown on the news), however the way the entire thing's been handled on India's end is, well, lets just say it doesn't exactly make me sympathetic to their "plight". Maybe if this was a one-off, but considering history has shown almost every tour over here ends up with them marring the thing with some kind of s***-stirring controversy, well, you can guess I'm hardly impressed with them right now.

If the allegations are proven true then harsh penalties are in order. Regardless the poor conduct leaves a sour taste in the mouth, and a fiery series has become borderline volcanic in temperament.

I take it you're doing the wise thing and avoiding the circus going on right now Balla?

Er. Honestly it seems pretty easy to avoid? Maybe I'm not getting the full brunt of it, however it hasn't seemed all that serious to me. They asked about a review and that's it.

HAH!  Draw!  Figures after I stop paying attention assuming India would make short work of them after the lunch break that Australia digs in to the end of play!  After the crap that happened after the second test and India's delightful accusations of rampant cheating all they get is a draw, I won't lie and say I'm above that bit of pie either.  So, final match the series could still go any way, with whatever result it brings being the result of a series.  I have less than no love for India after their conduct post-match two, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't slightly excited over the current stakes of the final match.  

Meanwhile Kohli's performance makes me start to wonder if Kohli's post-match-two conference slag of all-but-calling Smith a cheat was an attempt to deflect of his less-than-stellar form.  He hasn't fired all series.  

Oh well.

I see Australia had another batting collapse once Smith left the crease.  

Been a good series this.

Incidentally, credit also to Bangladesh, who won their first away Test against proper opposition (not Zimbabwe or weakened West Indies) recently.

I still have hopes, likely misguided ones, that Bangladesh could one day become a competitive cricketing nation. The sport could definitely do with more too.


As for the India series, pretty much over now with Smith gone so early. To India's credit they've been doing one hell of a spell with the ball.

"Time to put Warner in a cabinet with the sign 'In case of home series, break glass'"

Can't help but agree with that. Hasn't really contributed much this series and we can't always rely on Smith to get those massive totals. Its been a while since Warner fired at the Test level in general actually iirc, so perhaps it's time to throw the spot open in general.

It's them or Afghanistan at this rate.

Well it was fun while it lasted.

Honestly I'm glad the series is over. I'm all for classic rivalries (the ashes is life baby!) but this series reminded me exactly why I dislike India's series. Heck the last infamous series during the Ponting years was so off-putting it was half the reason I stopped following the sport for the better part of four years, and this one definitely had the same level of vitriolic behaviour. There was undoubtedly some excellent cricket from both sides with Rahul and Smith standing out in particular during my patchy attention (blame Zelda!), but alas the thing it'll stick out in my mind for how it quickly transformed from a rivalry to a grudge-series.

Speaking of the Ashes, pretty sure that's what's coming up next for Test cricket in Australia. Of course England also have a series with South Africa beforehand to look forward to I believe, going to be fun to follow that!

Empty period? Dunno what you're talking about mate, there's the IPL!



I'm looking forward to the start of the county season myself. Not on the edge of my seat, but leaning back into it. Smash Bros. DLC excited rather than BotW excited.

And yes it'd be nice if Australia and India stopped being so petty, but there's more chance of Virat Kohli becoming a Kolpak.