Off Topic The Ashes

We won the toss and chose to bat and the Aussie Captain said they were gonna choose to bat 1st as well

 

3:55am alarm for me tomorrow … already know I’ll regret it

 

Malan

 

****ing hell, Pope gone now after surviving a review a couple of balls earlier. Curtains.

 

Well that was a suprise, woke up at 5ish and bbc said we were fighting back, fell back to sleep and woke up at 9 to this carnage

 

And another one bites the dust.

 

Shambles.

 

As a Sunderland fan, even an optimist, I’m used to disappointment. But this is
a whole different level of it.

both tests. You have England fighting. Looking like making a bit of a fist if it. Go to sleep, wake up early to see how many hundred joe root has and we’re 9 down and 200 behind.

Lather… Rinse… Repeat

 

And now broad and Anderson have to bat against the new ball.

The main batsmen should be ashamed at leaving them exposed to this

 

Really though, just watching them. In the field or batting, they look as if they'd rather be anywhere else.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a more reluctant team represent England. Not every player, but too many. They aren't good enough anyway, but they might be a bit better if some of their hearts were really in it. Maybe they should have given the tour up to a team that would have appreciated it more!

You can get beaten properly, and that's not what is happening.

 

They’re mad not to enforce the follow on IMO…

 

True they could easy have us 3 or 4 down tonight

 

They need to just pack up and come home. This is another 5-0. Absolutely nailed on

 

I imagine it's because they back themselves to see off the new ball under lights then swing the bat tomorrow morning and bat us out of the game (at 250 ahead they already have IMHO)

This new ball bowling from England is garbage - way too short. Got to back yourself, pitch it up and let the ball swing - Broad and Anderson too scared about being driven to pitch it up. Frustrating

 

Bang on. No matter what is said before play, these two always bowl too short if they feel like it. They protect their figures these days

England had a one per cent chance, and that was to take a burst of wickets with the new ball. Not waste it.

We have seen this time after time, and then after the defeat we'll hear remarks about lessons learned. A thousand wickets between them and they need lessons?!

 

When was the last time we hit the stumps with a throw? Genuinely can't remember

 

This is garbage from England.

 

trouble with england, we are never 'pumped up' to beat someone...in the days of the empire we were always the 'boss man' to many of our opponents and appeared superior to them and a few most likely lost games to keep in with us.

then a lot of countries got their independence and no longer had to look up to us, they also found out we could be beaten and word spread around...(a bit like sunderland in league one, we have noticed how they all try harder against us as we are the big fish) same as teams getting promoted into the premier, the first few games they simply refuse to roll over and let the 'big boys' beat them but it is hard to keep that going in a full football season and many do fall off, we might stand a chance in the 4th or 5th test in a 5 game series but we rarely start well, we need to realise we have to play with that same spirit and stop just going through the motions.

 

I started to get worried earlier in the year when they started this rotation policy. Too many bang average players not good enough for test matches. Burns out, Hameed on thin ice, Pope out and Buttler out to concentrate on white ball only. As has been said the only problem is who to bring in.

 

Bang bang on!!!

Darren Gough said he’d rather bowl 10 overs and have 5/145 than bowl 20 and have 0/18! These 2 would rather have the latter