***Official*** 1st Test at Brisbane

[Spark]

Why do all the Australian commentators like Root so much? They usually hate everyone's captaincy.

He sets weird fields, which is really all they want

 

[Son Of Coco]

He sets weird fields, which is really all they want

Yeah he's a funny mix of setting interesting fields that make you think there's a plan behind them, and following where the ball just went. That's probably what makes the latter more perplexing.

 

[Second Spitter]

Why do all the Australian commentators like Root so much? They usually hate everyone's captaincy.

Prolly cos he's trying to win the match without the aid of breath-mints.

 

[Compton]

Smith was absolutely brilliant today. Probably could have batted out the rest of the Test match if he had to.

England tried just about everything, and overall I think bowled fairly well to him on the most part, but Smith was imperious.

 

[Spark]

Yeah he's a funny mix of setting interesting fields that make you think there's a plan behind them, and following where the ball just went. That's probably what makes the latter more perplexing.

Just inexperience I think.

 

[S.Kennedy]

I cannot believe there is a discussion about unorthodox field settings and nobody has used that most heinous of antipodean cricketing terminology, a term associated with the Michael Clarke captaincy!

 

[Spikey]

great news everyone it can be proved that we lost the 2005 ashes because Justin Langer is a massive ****

https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricke...e/news-story/c1cd3e94ca279cd3dadfe6a90b9506c3

“I was nervous from the moment not when we won the game but what we decided to do with our team song,” Gilchrist told BT Sport.

“Justin Langer was in charge, he took us down into the England changerooms to sing the team song, albeit after the team had gone, thankfully — otherwise there would have been fisticuffs.

 

[mr_mister]

always knew Langer was an ass!

#Slatershouldhaveplayed100tests

 

[GotSpin]

Have to say, Stoneman and Root played the short ball horribly. Seriously poor technique

 

[wpdavid]

Expected to wake up to worse than that after the 2nd session. Root must respond to Smith, really what the game will balance on. Pleasantly surprised we are still in the game at all.

Smith a genius though.

Smith's done what truly great players do; grabbed the test, and maybe the series, by the scruff of the neck.

Like you, I have mixed feelings. It's closer than I would have forecast before the game started, but there's a feeling of a big opportunity being missed, albeit due to Smith being too good for us to be allowed to take it. Tomorrow should be fascinating, but i suspect I'll wake up with the game done & dusted.

 

[harsh.ag]

Smith's done what truly great players do; grabbed the test, and maybe the series, by the scruff of the neck.

Like you, I have mixed feelings. It's closer than I would have forecast before the game started, but there's a feeling of a big opportunity being missed, albeit due to Smith being too good for us to be allowed to take it. Tomorrow should be fascinating, but i suspect I'll wake up with the game done & dusted.

But not Cummins.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Have to say, Stoneman and Root played the short ball horribly. Seriously poor technique

Yeah, Stonefeet in particular. Root got clocked early, and then improved.

To be sung to the tune of 'Spoonman' by Soundgarden

"Stonemaaaan,
Feet tied together against spin.
Stonemaaaan,
Takes the short ball on the chin"

 

[Son Of Coco]

Just inexperience I think.

I also wonder whose input goes into each variant. When is Root making his own decisions and when are they team plans? Every team gets together to come up with a plan for certain batsmen, so it's never solely the captain's decision. On the field it may be Root making reactive changes, or it might be the bowlers. It did seem to be Root on a number of occasions today though.

 

[quincywagstaff]

Like you, I have mixed feelings. It's closer than I would have forecast before the game started, but there's a feeling of a big opportunity being missed, albeit due to Smith being too good for us to be allowed to take it. Tomorrow should be fascinating, but i suspect I'll wake up with the game done & dusted.

I still think England’s biggest missed opportunity was their 1st innings batting.

Starc was patchy at best, Hazlewood underdone and flat, Oz wasted both new balls and virtually all of England’s lesser light batted above expectations... in that context England were at least 100 runs short.

 

[S.Kennedy]

I cannot criticise England really, or Australia for that matter. Maybe the manner of a few of their 1st innings dismissals, and Root not bowling Broad/Anderson after lunch, but then I could criticise the Australians for similar stuff like wayward bowling on the first day. I just think it is a keenly thought test match. I'm enjoying it immensely. I do not understand why you lot need to be so critical of every single aspect and player. Just enjoy the bloody thing!

We have the first competitive Ashes test since Trent Bridge 2013, and this is a better match than that! Hopefully it will go to the wire, fifth-day evening session, with more thrills and spills.

Have to say, Stoneman and Root played the short ball horribly. Seriously poor technique

I hope your are being sarcastic?

 

[Cow]

"I was always different from all the other kids, and I was doing things that nobody else did or seemed to have any interest in" - Rolf Harris.

Smith has taken these words of an Australian icon and run with them. He has used a different technique, broke away from the orthodox and become, it pains me to admit, the most effevtive batsmen of this current era.

I think England just need to bowl at that sixth stump line at him with a 7-2 ish field... keep it full and ignore the shuffling across the stumps.

 

[Spark]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...-smith-ashes-england-tactics?CMP=share_btn_tw

This little tidbit interested me:

“He doesn’t seem to get lbw or bowled too much. If you look at past four years in Australia, he’s had one bowled on 170 when trying to hit it out the ground and couple of lbws when it was reversing. The best batsmen don’t miss straight balls and the outside edge is his biggest threat. If we get a pitch with any sideways movement and more pace it brings the edge into play.”

Makes you wonder just how much they've much time they've spent poring over video footage.

 

[wpdavid]

I still think England’s biggest missed opportunity was their 1st innings batting.

Starc was patchy at best, Hazlewood underdone and flat, Oz wasted both new balls and virtually all of England’s lesser light batted above expectations... in that context England were at least 100 runs short.

Yes, I think that's fair.

Going back to Smith, given the circumstances, this was probably one of the best 3 innings I've seen from an Australian against us in the last 25 years. The others being Ponting's masterclass at Old Trafford in 2005 and the first of Steve Waugh's twin tons at Old Trafford in 1997. Perhaps those were both against superior attacks on more challenging wickets, but the pressure on him from state of the scorecard and that of the series were immense.

 

[oblongballs]

Yes, I think that's fair.

Going back to Smith, given the circumstances, this was probably one of the best 3 innings I've seen from an Australian against us in the last 25 years. The others being Ponting's masterclass at Old Trafford in 2005 and the first of Steve Waugh's twin tons at Old Trafford in 1997. Perhaps those were both against superior attacks on more challenging wickets, but the pressure on him from state of the scorecard and that of the series were immense.

I do not think the pressure was "immense" in terms of the state of the series. This is the first test in a series where the fragility of batting from both sides is well known. The bowling England have is another issue, where Root only expects his men to take wickets in the field, with little to trouble the stumps and almost no pace. Much has been made of this century but Smith was allowed to score some easy singles, in the hopes that he would hit out and get out. That's a poor tactic evidencing a mediocre bowling attack.

Smith's century in India earlier in the year was a truly great tonne on a pitch that should have suited India's bowlers down to a tee. I also feel his double at Lord's was better too. Those were 2 great innings in tougher circumstances.

That is not to put this innings down, just that the attack England have right now needs too much luck and too many bad shots.

 

[Compton]

I think England bowled pretty well tbh. Smith just went into full Smith-mode.