It seems pretty clear after Day One that both sides possess world class pace attacks - and the Aussies still have their best two bowlers to come back - but poor batting line ups.
Who wants to go back to Boycott blocking 100 balls for 20 runs, not me. This is an exhilarating spectacle. I feel sorry for the spectators who have bought tickets for the 4th and 5th days.
The quality of the spectacle also puts T20 / The Hundred / the IPL etc firmly in their place. High quality Test match pace bowling - “smell the leather, man” as the Windies bowlers used to say in the 70s.
A brilliant day of cricket. We need 250 plus in the 2nd innings. Our bowlers have got our batsmen out of jail again.
The Aussie fans & media are getting stuck into their top order batting. This will be the theme of the series, what with us carrying Crawley & Pope. Jamie Smith’s dismissal today was particularly atrocious.
He got squared up by a good one today, but if he doesn’t score 500 runs in this series I’ll be surprised.
Batting still looks hard but we have a decent lead on this pitch. Duckett was a bit fortunate with his review. With the ball pitching just outside leg.
Before this Test Match I put a bet on that Australia would win the series 4-1 that is looking a good bet.
No exaggeration to say that’s one of the worst performances in our history. That was the shortest Test match since 1904. I feel sorry for the 30,000 England fans out in Perth who have basically been cheated by this arrogant England set up, intent on turning Test cricket into a form of baseball.
The next Test is in 9 days time. It’s a day / night Test, with a pink ball. A two day warm up game replicating the same conditions has been laid on …yet Stokes says we won’t be participating, playing the Lions instead. You literally couldn’t make it up.
Well my 3-1 England series win prediction is still on. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
Were you not entertained? English cricket has now been geared totally towards crass thrill-a-minute 20-20 philosophy. Which = throw your wicket away trying stupid showbiz shots. Bazball, I think they call it. And the twits running England have already said they won't abandon it. Even if that means five two-day tonkings. Hopefully said twits will be replaced once this is all over. I expect most younger viewers (what there was of them) were bored after ten minutes anyway because (yawn) both teams were wearing white, rather than fluorescent green, blue, pink or orange. I wonder how long it will take for the so-called Barmy Army to turn on the crap they're being expected to support.
This is a quote from Glenn Mc Grath and he has got it just right. There are times when England can be a high quality team. They have good players. Good players have skill, but great players have the mental toughness and attitude to be adaptable enough for the conditions.
Good players are not helped by bad leadership. How much have those players been guided into playing the wrong kind of cricket, in pursuit of a self-indulgent and flawed vision.
