Thanks @Rasputin. Your kind words are much appreciated but, to be fair, I’ve never attempted an analysis of Sam Vokes’ forward play !
@eric_plant has bravely tried to remove the scales from my eyes on a couple of occasions but I suppose it’s a case of “there are none so blind as those who will not see”.
I’ve always concentrated on what a nice guy he is. And I’ve always gone out of my way during matches to pass comment on here on the occasional flashes of exceptional skill.
Winning with half a team is stretching it a bit but several of the obvious frailties are sufficiently capable of being overcome to suggest that the rest of the series is going to be grippingly compulsive viewing, with the balance of advantage swinging tantalisingly back and forth.
Perhaps it is but 37 runs across two innings and a reduction from 33% of total overs bowled in Australia’s first innings to 14% in their second innings (when he would normally have expected to bowl at least twice that number) was undoubtedly a factor in what was the narrowest of defeats. His accuracy was clearly affected by the pain he was suffering.
With hindsight, his selection was plainly a mistake and reflected an uncharacteristically cautious decision to put more faith into a tried and tested safe pair of hands (ironically !) ahead of, say, Adil Rashid (less likely to make as big a contribution with the bat) or Rehan Ahmed (too young at 18 and with just one Test Match behind him).
Unfortunately, the ongoing glut of white ball games has drastically reduced the red ball spinning options. I feel very sorry for Moeen. He says he would not have returned to Test Cricket after so long away from it for anyone other than Ben Stokes and, arguably, he could not have anticipated that his spinning finger would blister and cut as quickly as it did.
Meanwhile, as I suggested at the weekend, Joe Root proved yet again that he is competent enough as an off spinner to bowl 15-20 overs per match. Perhaps his spinning finger(s) will harden sufficiently in the course of the series to enable him to bowl even more !
I understand that Mark Wood is likely to play in the second Test (starting a week today at Lord’s). Who do we think he would replace? My money is on Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy.
I think Moeen bowled more overs in the first innings than he did in the whole IPL season. You can’t blame players for choosing the white ball shilling over the red ball penny, but it is going to create more and more of these issues.
Well,@micra, if we're leaving out Moeen (using Root as the spinning option) - and his spinning finger may well not have recovered sufficiently by next week anyway - then Anderson could play as well as Wood, although that would lengthen the tail end batting.
I’m no expert on which Test Match pitches tend to respond best to spin and it may be that Lords pitches (being in the driest part of the country) don’t justify the inclusion of a specialist spinner. I don’t know. But I am sure that Moeen will not be selected. His finger may have healed by Wednesday but it would be far too risky to assume that it would have magically toughened sufficiently to survive more than 20 - 30 overs - far too few for a Test Match.
James Anderson has only recently recovered from a groin injury and will be 41 next month. By his own admission, he was below his best in the first Test and he will no doubt be rested. Mark Wood would be an ideal replacement with his greater pace and a more skiddy action. He is also a better batsman.
If Anderson is rested and Moeen does not take part then two players would need to step in. Wood may well be one and, as Lord's is not usually considered a spinners' paradise, the opportunity might then arise for a specialist 'keeper to be selected.
If they are going to put square pegs in round holes, then Bairstow has to open instead of Crawley and Foakes comes in as keeper. Far better option than Foakes being dropped. Unfortunately, the only other batsman having a good enough technicque to open are Root and Stokes, neither of whom you'd want to move up the order.
I'm still not convinced by Ollie Pope at 3, good on a flat deck but can he do it on a Tuesday night in Stoke!
I wasn't impressed with Stokes saying that if we hadn't declared on Monday we wouldn't have got a result on the 5th day. England would have batted another 10-15 overs to get 450 or would have been all out in the same amount of time. The Aussies would have upped their scoring rate accordingly to get across the line, chasing an extra 50 runs.
Equally, having a proper wicket keeper would have reduced time in the game, as I don't believe Foakes would have missed all of the chances that Bairstow did. Green & Carey in first innings both added another 40 runs to their score, Khawaja in the 2nd innings 60 runs to his score and 150+ balls faced.
Mind you the biggest mistake was Broad's no ball, if Khawaja had gone then, I think they would have collapsed and we would have had nice 100 run lead. How the Aussies won that game is beyond me!
I’ve only just caught up with the one-off Women’s Ashes Test Match and what a match it seems to be.
Just as evenly contested as the men’s game earlier this week and featuring a truly remarkable spin bowler in Sophie Ecclestone who took a “five for” in a remarkable 46.2 overs. Wonder how her spinning finger(s) fared.
With England 218 for 2 in response to Australia’s 473 and opener Beaumont 100 not out, the stage is set for what should be an absorbing third day’s play.
Not a lot happening and that result prediction pie chart would almost certainly show the draw as 100% as it stands!
Have taken the opportunity to check how small Tammy Beaumont is. Find it hard to believe she is as tall as 5’6” but Wikipedia includes fascinating information about her background and her cricketing accomplishments at a very early age.
Didn’t realise there were two Sciver-Brunts. Turns out Katherine - a lively and entertaining guest on commentary earlier this morning - is Natalie’s wife.
@railwaybeth and I were at Trent Bridge today for the 3rd day - worthy atmosphere for Tammy Beaumont making the new record test score for England Women when she passed 189 and then again when she passed 200 and again when she was out with 208, which I believe is the 5th highest innings ever in Women's Cricket
Regarding her height - top Gasroom topic this - she appears shorter than Danni Wyatt, whose Wikipedia page says 5' 3".
I was wearing the rainbow Wycombe shirt and heard at least one shout of "Chairboys". Good day all round.
Yes, I heard that, too. She’s getting smaller with every post. As long as she doesn’t disappear…….,,,,,! (Resisted the vulgarity)
A draw no longer looks likely if I’m right in thinking today is day 4. Tammy will have to summon up the last dregs of energy later today or tomorrow (and hope that a couple of others take root) if England are to save it.
Yep. 3 Australian wickets fall before lunch - two by debutante young bowler Lauren Filer and the match remains exciting on day 4. A good argument for 5 day women's tests.
She has some spirit - and she says that England can win after the end of day 4. The selectors will almost certainly see today how her batting compares to Moeen's in a testing situation.
A tip for all Wycombe residents of Vipienne in New Zealand - if you register for a account with TVNZ (https://www.tvnz.co.nz/) you can access their free to air coverage of the remaining four test matches.
Comments
@micra I have to say that you give a far better analysis of the cricket than you do if Sam Vokes’ forward play.
Top post!
Thanks @Rasputin. Your kind words are much appreciated but, to be fair, I’ve never attempted an analysis of Sam Vokes’ forward play !
@eric_plant has bravely tried to remove the scales from my eyes on a couple of occasions but I suppose it’s a case of “there are none so blind as those who will not see”.
I’ve always concentrated on what a nice guy he is. And I’ve always gone out of my way during matches to pass comment on here on the occasional flashes of exceptional skill.
I hope he has a really good season.
I guess the crucial thing for him this coming season is whether he can stay fit for the majority of it.
Moeen Ali "barely contributed" @micra? Seems more than a little harsh.
Winning with half a team is stretching it a bit but several of the obvious frailties are sufficiently capable of being overcome to suggest that the rest of the series is going to be grippingly compulsive viewing, with the balance of advantage swinging tantalisingly back and forth.
Perhaps it is but 37 runs across two innings and a reduction from 33% of total overs bowled in Australia’s first innings to 14% in their second innings (when he would normally have expected to bowl at least twice that number) was undoubtedly a factor in what was the narrowest of defeats. His accuracy was clearly affected by the pain he was suffering.
With hindsight, his selection was plainly a mistake and reflected an uncharacteristically cautious decision to put more faith into a tried and tested safe pair of hands (ironically !) ahead of, say, Adil Rashid (less likely to make as big a contribution with the bat) or Rehan Ahmed (too young at 18 and with just one Test Match behind him).
Unfortunately, the ongoing glut of white ball games has drastically reduced the red ball spinning options. I feel very sorry for Moeen. He says he would not have returned to Test Cricket after so long away from it for anyone other than Ben Stokes and, arguably, he could not have anticipated that his spinning finger would blister and cut as quickly as it did.
Meanwhile, as I suggested at the weekend, Joe Root proved yet again that he is competent enough as an off spinner to bowl 15-20 overs per match. Perhaps his spinning finger(s) will harden sufficiently in the course of the series to enable him to bowl even more !
I understand that Mark Wood is likely to play in the second Test (starting a week today at Lord’s). Who do we think he would replace? My money is on Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy.
I think Moeen bowled more overs in the first innings than he did in the whole IPL season. You can’t blame players for choosing the white ball shilling over the red ball penny, but it is going to create more and more of these issues.
Nail on head, @floyd.
Bairstow played in the Ireland test, and played well. If Duckett can learn he doesn’t have to play at everything, he’ll be great
Well done @micra your post almost made me interested in cricket...:😊
Well,@micra, if we're leaving out Moeen (using Root as the spinning option) - and his spinning finger may well not have recovered sufficiently by next week anyway - then Anderson could play as well as Wood, although that would lengthen the tail end batting.
I’m no expert on which Test Match pitches tend to respond best to spin and it may be that Lords pitches (being in the driest part of the country) don’t justify the inclusion of a specialist spinner. I don’t know. But I am sure that Moeen will not be selected. His finger may have healed by Wednesday but it would be far too risky to assume that it would have magically toughened sufficiently to survive more than 20 - 30 overs - far too few for a Test Match.
James Anderson has only recently recovered from a groin injury and will be 41 next month. By his own admission, he was below his best in the first Test and he will no doubt be rested. Mark Wood would be an ideal replacement with his greater pace and a more skiddy action. He is also a better batsman.
If Anderson is rested and Moeen does not take part then two players would need to step in. Wood may well be one and, as Lord's is not usually considered a spinners' paradise, the opportunity might then arise for a specialist 'keeper to be selected.
If Moeen doesn't play Foakes has to come in, and Bairstow can just play as a batsman
If they are going to put square pegs in round holes, then Bairstow has to open instead of Crawley and Foakes comes in as keeper. Far better option than Foakes being dropped. Unfortunately, the only other batsman having a good enough technicque to open are Root and Stokes, neither of whom you'd want to move up the order.
I'm still not convinced by Ollie Pope at 3, good on a flat deck but can he do it on a Tuesday night in Stoke!
I wasn't impressed with Stokes saying that if we hadn't declared on Monday we wouldn't have got a result on the 5th day. England would have batted another 10-15 overs to get 450 or would have been all out in the same amount of time. The Aussies would have upped their scoring rate accordingly to get across the line, chasing an extra 50 runs.
Equally, having a proper wicket keeper would have reduced time in the game, as I don't believe Foakes would have missed all of the chances that Bairstow did. Green & Carey in first innings both added another 40 runs to their score, Khawaja in the 2nd innings 60 runs to his score and 150+ balls faced.
Mind you the biggest mistake was Broad's no ball, if Khawaja had gone then, I think they would have collapsed and we would have had nice 100 run lead. How the Aussies won that game is beyond me!
They scored more runs
I’ve only just caught up with the one-off Women’s Ashes Test Match and what a match it seems to be.
Just as evenly contested as the men’s game earlier this week and featuring a truly remarkable spin bowler in Sophie Ecclestone who took a “five for” in a remarkable 46.2 overs. Wonder how her spinning finger(s) fared.
With England 218 for 2 in response to Australia’s 473 and opener Beaumont 100 not out, the stage is set for what should be an absorbing third day’s play.
Not a lot happening and that result prediction pie chart would almost certainly show the draw as 100% as it stands!
Have taken the opportunity to check how small Tammy Beaumont is. Find it hard to believe she is as tall as 5’6” but Wikipedia includes fascinating information about her background and her cricketing accomplishments at a very early age.
Didn’t realise there were two Sciver-Brunts. Turns out Katherine - a lively and entertaining guest on commentary earlier this morning - is Natalie’s wife.
I thought exactly the same as you @micra , but Wikipedia might be wrong, they have just said on commentary that she is 5'4 tall
@railwaybeth and I were at Trent Bridge today for the 3rd day - worthy atmosphere for Tammy Beaumont making the new record test score for England Women when she passed 189 and then again when she passed 200 and again when she was out with 208, which I believe is the 5th highest innings ever in Women's Cricket
Regarding her height - top Gasroom topic this - she appears shorter than Danni Wyatt, whose Wikipedia page says 5' 3".
I was wearing the rainbow Wycombe shirt and heard at least one shout of "Chairboys". Good day all round.
Yes, I heard that, too. She’s getting smaller with every post. As long as she doesn’t disappear…….,,,,,! (Resisted the vulgarity)
A draw no longer looks likely if I’m right in thinking today is day 4. Tammy will have to summon up the last dregs of energy later today or tomorrow (and hope that a couple of others take root) if England are to save it.
Yep. 3 Australian wickets fall before lunch - two by debutante young bowler Lauren Filer and the match remains exciting on day 4. A good argument for 5 day women's tests.
Australia in free-fall this afternoon but they’ll still be setting a tough target on a pitch that is responding intermittently to both spin and pace.
Immense performance from Sophie Ecclestone to bowl 77.1 overs and take 10 for 192 across the 2 Aussie innings - she really is something very special
Anyone else think she'd be a reasonable bet to take Moeen's spot?
I said exactly the same thing earlier... could do a lot worse
She has some spirit - and she says that England can win after the end of day 4. The selectors will almost certainly see today how her batting compares to Moeen's in a testing situation.
A tip for all Wycombe residents of Vipienne in New Zealand - if you register for a account with TVNZ (https://www.tvnz.co.nz/) you can access their free to air coverage of the remaining four test matches.
Decent start this morning but a very good afternoon fightback by the Aussies who have definitely shaded the day
Good hands Johnny https://twitter.com/PaulEmbery/status/1674008504250540037?t=fD-PR0xKRvn0b-5u68QDaQ&s=19