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

[S.Kennedy]

Moral of the story from (soon to be) three whitewashes is when England lose at Brisbane they have a complete and utter psychological and collective collapse whereas when Australia lose in England they cling on in there a bit and produce a 2-1, 3-2 type loss - even 2013 with a seemingly unflattering '3-0', the Australians could've picked up two tests if not for the weather and some silly captaincy at the Oval.

 

[Redbacks]

It seems like the thing to do in the media is make an urn pun.

 

[Chrish]

Fudge YouTube censorship.. is there any place to see highlights?

 

[stephen]

Sort of stretching a bit there. Warner 49.....Bancroft 31.....Khawaja 33......SMarsh 74.....Stoneman 32.....Cook 14.....Vince 30.....Root 29......Malan 50......England have 4 of the lowest 5 averages.

You have to remember that Australia have only had one second innings (except for the openers) compared to England's 3.

Bancroft's average is flattered by the second innings in Brisbane. Outside that innings he's been bog ordinary. Stoneman had made important first innings runs. The gap between Cook and Warner is pretty wide though.

There has been little to separate Vince and Khawaja.

Malan and Marsh have both been very good at times and there is little to separate them.

The difference has been our number 4s. Smith has been monstrous while Root has been meek.

Warner > Cook
Stoneman > Bancroft
Khawaja = Vince
Smith >>>>>> Root
S Marsh = Malan
M Marsh = Bairstow

 

[GotSpin]

Except when Moeen has batted at 6

 

[the big bambino]

The biggest difference between the two sides has been Steven Smith. Where Root has been dire, Smith has been unbelievable. Taking Smith out of the picture and looking at the rest of the batting, England's top 5 have been collectively better than, or at least on a par with Australia's top 5. But Smith is like an extra batsman right now. He's so unbelievably good and it must be so soul crushing to try and bowl to him, wondering how you can possibly get him out.

That is the point. When the talk has been about England being toothless in attack that really boils down to an inability to remove Smith. Not an uncommon problem for teams around the world. While others have performed intermittently, With Smarsh being the best, the series without Smith would be fairly even and the pressure on England's bowlers considerably reduced. Even MM's great innings owes a lot to Smith being present at the other end. Would be a different circumstance if we were 4 down an under pressure MM in and no Smith at the other end. Both teams possess 3 very good to great players in Warner, Smith and Root and so far only one has delivered to expectations and actually excelled them.

 

[stephen]

Warner hasn't done badly but he certainly isn't up to his best right now. Without Smith I think his performance would be more heavily scrutinised.

 

[Spark]

 

[TheJediBrah]

^incredible

 

[Burgey]

This may be the greatest thing ever.

 

[stephen]

"But I need my bat to do my job"

 

[SeamUp]

And what is this ? #facials

 

[Shri]

I for one do NOT want to see that porno.

 

[srbhkshk]

And what is this ? #facials

Lehmann's head is ****ing huge.... :O

 

[Victor Ian]

Lehmann's head is ****ing huge.... :O

You'd have a big head too if you coached the winning ashes team.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Lehmann's head is ****ing huge.... :O

lmfao I was literally just thinking that. Huge head + Smith having such a tiny head + angles, makes for a very interesting photo

You can really see why they called him "shreck"

 

[SeamUp]

Pork sausage fingers too to Smith's delicate digits.

 

[vcs]

He looks like an orc.

 

[Top_Cat]

Was always surprising such a beefy fella had the softest hands in the business when wrapped around a bat.

 

[Furball]

On Root, his issue for me is that he seems to have forgotten how to score runs in Test cricket. His actual shot making in the last couple of years has still largely been fine, hence all the breezy 70s he's made, but his actual approach to building an innings is all wrong.