Off Topic Sport Other than Football - formerly the Ashes Thread

Might be worth a few of the up and comers to spend some time in Australia to learn how to bowl and bat on these pitches. Mind you a lot of Aussies play in the county leagues so should be able to respond to the conditions but often don't.

 

Maybe the next ashes series should be played in India - offering a level playing field of conditions neither team is good in when playing against India, but could produce excellent test matches and equally we might be able to have competitive 'away' tests with India if we played them in Australia

 

This is more like it.
Cruising in the ODI. 304 is no sort of target for these England batsmen
Roy currently 178*

 

Roy was imperious and the partnership with Root very positive for the series
But a win not without concerns: Morgan still struggling and us just stumbling over the line with 8 balls to go when we could and should have wrapped it up in 46 or 47 overs.
Hopefully a win in the next game will reinforce the positives!

 

Top scored with 85 in warm up match.

 

I'm a big fan of his, but he struggled today and hasn't been anything like as consistent the last year or so.

 

When Stokes returns a top six batter has to make way to give England a spare bowler.
Who would you drop?
All are so good on their day.

 

It's a tough one for sure. Do you run with the single spinner, sacrificing Rashid (or Moheen)? Replace Plunkett? Or drop a misfiring batsman such as Morgan?

Fortunately not a decision needing to be made for a few weeks at least...

 

England looking comfortable again in the second ODI
Need 114 from 23.

Morgan out as I type this

 

71 off 16 at less than 4.5 runs per over with 6 wickets in hand.
Piece of cake

 

mini wobble, but they got there. We have a very decent one day team.

 

Great acceleration by Butler and Woakes at the end of the England innings on a slow pitch - which the Aussies couldn't repeat in their innings.
Some good bowling by Wood and Rashid too.
What a transformation of the ODI team in the last couple of years.

 

Will we be number 1 in the world in one day cricket if we win the last 2 matches?

 

Possibly.
SA are top with a ranking of 120. We have 117.

 

8-5
Bairstow 0, Root 0, Buttler 0

 

Well bowled Tom Curran

But why is Jake Ball picked? - always concedes runs and rarely looks like taking wickets

 

Yeah, brilliant, lets hope his brother will be just as good!

Ball's a lanky **** who can send in the bouncers. It's good to have a bit of pure pace to vary things up. Hasn't been great though.

Surely Roy should've had player of the series? Thought his job was much tougher than Root's as Root always had the cushion of Roy's starts to take the pressure off.

 

Not sure who SHOULD have been man of the series , but it should NOT have been Root imho .

 

No other serious contender!
Had a couple of blobs, but his 180 set up the whole Series and another key knock today.
How the **** Root got the call is astonishing.

 

Root holds the innings together; England rarely post a big score without the big hitters having played around an 80, 90 or 100 from him. He did that again here consistently. He plays such an important role keeping the scoreboard ticking over by scoring ones and twos at 90 runs per 100 balls strike rate. Few can do that. And he had a good bowling performance too!

Woakes had a good series, Roy too. Buttler and Bairstow had some decent scores, but nobody was outstanding.