***Official*** 3rd Test at the WACA

[Kirkut]

2013 in England had some good matches. TB and Chester Le Street could have gone either way.

I get what you mean though. There have been some really compelling sessions in this series, but then England/ Australia will go and lose/ win the match in an hour of madness/ brilliance.

2013 Ashes was very boring to me. It was basically Ian Bell series, Australia came with hit the deck bowlers to England and you could see how innocuous they looked barring Ryan Harris. That attack would have looked sharp in South Africa but not in English conditions.

The 2009 Ashes was a thing you know.

Yes, 2009 was pretty good as well, but then England had a more experienced side than Australia which was going through a transition phase. In the current series, neither of teams are in transition phase or are not fielding a full strength side, and I can't think of one bowler who has bowled poorly this series.

 

[Spark]

England at full strength...?

 

[stephen]

That's called moving the goalposts.

The series was exceptionally close. You can have a close series with one sided matches. Two games each where one side was clearly on top and a 5th game where it could have gone either way is a pretty balanced series.

Not really, the OP was talking about the matches being balanced, not the series.

On paper 2009 was a close series, but in practice there were three one sided smashing and two draws where one side was fairly dominant.

 

[stephen]

2013 Ashes was very boring to me. It was basically Ian Bell series, Australia came with hit the deck bowlers to England and you could see how innocuous they looked barring Ryan Harris. That attack would have looked sharp in South Africa but not in English conditions.



Yes, 2009 was pretty good as well, but then England had a more experienced side than Australia which was going through a transition phase. In the current series, neither of teams are in transition phase or are not fielding a full strength side, and I can't think of one bowler who has bowled poorly this series.

Ball?

 

[morgieb]

Not really, the OP was talking about the matches being balanced, not the series.

On paper 2009 was a close series, but in practice there were three one sided smashing and two draws where one side was fairly dominant.

Would think that Edgbaston was fairly close. Was effectively 5/250-odd at the close of play. Chasing down 300/350 would be very interesting to see. Australia probably favourites but you wonder if there would've been differences if the rain hadn't hit (England bowled part-timers a bit to get more overs in, which probably doesn't happen naturally).

 

[adub]

2009 with 25 days of clear weather would have been an absolute cracker of a series. Even with the rain it was a very good series with both sides having dominant periods, and other periods where it was even. Edgbaston could have been a great game where England bowled us out for a meh total, put up a 100 run lead and then we came back in the third innings, but too much time was lost to get a result. Obviously there was a bit of trying to manufacture something going on also which may have changed the balance in better weather.

Even the last test really came down to one awesome spell after a rain delay from Broad. Other than that collapse which included two dusty wickets that these days would be overturned to Swann, both sides were pretty evenly matched. That bad session and the Trott/Swann partnership were the difference.

But overall I actually think we might have just been a shade better overall on that tour than we were in 05. We certainly kept the English batsmen more contained. Apart from Warne our attack simply didn't get the job done in 05 and allowed KP, Tres and Freddy to all score more than 400 for the series.

Sadly underrated series I feel, probably due to the hangover from 05 and 06/7 which were classics albeit in very different ways.

 

[fredfertang]

**** me getting up for this has been difficult - trust the boys will make it worth my while

 

[adub]

**** me getting up for this has been difficult - trust the boys will make it worth my while

Don't worry, Smith will give you something to remember.

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

Warne woke up grumpy like

 

[fredfertang]

Don't worry, Smith will give you something to remember.

A migraine?

 

[anil1405]

Wishing Taylor's dad Happy Birthday as per tubby's request on commentary. What's next, will tubby remind his wife to feed their dog through commentary?

 

[vcs]

Smith looking good for a 200.

 

[adub]

The modern master

 

[Cabinet96]

Legend.

 

[morgieb]

Immense knock. Now double it.

 

[vcs]

Wag

 

[adub]

That's Warneresq strike rate too. The poms need TPC gone soon or this could be a really awful day for them.

 

[vcs]

Awesome, awesome knock. He's been so fluent in this innings.

 

[adub]

Proper wagonwheel that

 

[Burgey]

Most ruthless yet demonstrative player I’ve ever seen. Can’t imagine even Bradman being more single minded. Smith is a proper run scoring machine. Just hits them where they ain’t. How good was that on drive before through the smallest gap? He’s like a surgeon.