*Official* Fifth Test (The Oval, London) 27-31 July

[mackembhoy]

The umpires made numerous strange decisions during the series that didn't even relate to dismissals.

1. Ollie Pope's injury - England were told if he didn't field, we'd have to field with 10 men. So out Pope went and inevitably made his injury worse.

2. The bowling of spinners at OT. Every commentatotor on both radio and TV was surprised at this, saying that it had been darker at other times. The Aussie batsmen had not even made any mention of the light.

3. The ball change at the Oval. Yes the ball had to be changed but the replacement ball was obviously significantly newer than the one it replaced.

4. Losing a review for the non Stokes catch at the Oval.

We all know the standard of umpiring on dismissals has been poor - God knows how many decisions were overturned this series.

But you'd expect even Wilson and Co to get the decisions I've referred to correct. They weren't in the heat of battle with marginal decisions to be made in a split second and yet they still got them wrong.

I mean that's on Ben. He clearly wasn't thinking straight.

Glad it didn't cost us.

 

[Molehill]

The first thing every batsman worries about is getting off the mark but all you needed to do was get bat on ball

I wish that I had a $ for every single we gave away & find it really hard to believe that McGrath would have put up with it

Just seen the stat for singles, Aus 770 v Eng 1009.

 

[social]

Yes, if only England had had quicks who had taken hundreds of wickets filling up the spots.

Johnson is nearly 28 and has played 4 FC Matches. Morris has taken 63 FC wickets in 19 matches. Richardson seems somewhat injury prone. Is that really what you're counting on?

Johnson is a gun, will play for Australia in the next few months & nobody was surprised when he took 7 in his 2nd game or rolled over NZA because he’s better than fc level

I haven’t seen it but Morris is allegedly as quick as anyone & is already in the test squad

Funny thing is that when Johnson appeared, everyone was “hold on, that’s the guy”

Richardson is obviously test class but can’t stay fit

To put things into perspective about our fast bowling depth, Worrall would be lucky to get a game for South Australia anymore

 

[Andy19]

As England currently hold both ODI World Cups, you'd have to agree that we're the best side in the world then.

Yes England are best limited overs team in the world with their fearless style of cricket and these titles.

However Australia destroyed England in their last ODI series 3-0 and historically are 5 time champions.

Honestly India favourites for world cup this year.

 

[Molehill]

Yes England are best limited overs team in the world with their fearless style of cricket and these titles.

However Australia destroyed England in their last ODI series 3-0 and historically are 5 time champions.

Honestly India favourites for world cup this year.

England had just won the World T20 and were on the piss. But yeah, India are obviously favourites anyway.

 

[Andy19]

England had just won the World T20 and were on the piss. But yeah, India are obviously favourites anyway.

In your opinion who's 2nd Favourite Australia or England?.

 

[Molehill]

In your opinion who's 2nd Favourite Australia or England?.

Likely England team: Bairstow, Roy, Root, Brook, Buttler, Livingstone, Moeen, Woakes, Wood, Rashid and potentially Archer.

What is Australia's?

 

[centurymaker]

If England had won the 4th test and it was 2-2 going into the final test, this final test would have panned out differently. You can't simply say Eng would have won this series 3-2, if the 4th test hadn't been rained off.

Life is linear. If you change something in the past, future doesn't remain the same. Both Eng and Aus would have reacted and played differently at the Oval.


Likewise, I have heard the line that Australia were a session or two away from winning the series in India. Thats a big fat lie. You can't say that if Aus had won the 2nd Test in Delhi, they'd have won 2-1 in India. Because Pune test would've played out differently (every action has a reaction) and even if Aus had still won in Pune, the final test in Ahmedabad would NOT have been a 'draw' pitch, making 2-2 far more likely.

Similarly if India had somehow won the Sydney Test in 2021, I'm confident that Aus would've reacted and won at the Gabba, giving the series a 2-2 ending. The entire series changes if you change the outcome of one of the previous games.

So all in all, I'm shocked at how many posts are made that assume as if all subsequent things somehow remain the same ..when you magically change some thing in the past. Life doesn't work like that. Never.

 

[Andy19]

Likely England team: Bairstow, Roy, Root, Brook, Buttler, Livingstone, Moeen, Woakes, Wood, Rashid and potentially Archer.

What is Australia's?

Most Likely
Warner/ Khawaja?
Marsh
Head
Smith
Carey
Stoinis
Zampa
Cummins
Starc
Hazlewood

Labuschagne maybe?

Abbott and agar are back ups..

 

[morgieb]

Well, what a series huh?

Quality wise it might not have been the best, but with the exception of OT (which o/c was a rain-affected draw) all Tests were pretty close and topsy-turvy. Which is what you'd want.

It does feel disappointing to not win from 2-0 up, but really I'm not sure we deserved to win. The way the last three Tests has felt it's felt like a 4-1 style dicking even if the Tests themselves were close.

Lots of ugly duckling style players came from the clouds to have major impacts on the series, and I think all bar a couple of guys played at least kind of important roles.

 

[chris.hinton]

The umpires made numerous strange decisions during the series that didn't even relate to dismissals.

1. Ollie Pope's injury - England were told if he didn't field, we'd have to field with 10 men. So out Pope went and inevitably made his injury worse.

2. The bowling of spinners at OT. Every commentatotor on both radio and TV was surprised at this, saying that it had been darker at other times. The Aussie batsmen had not even made any mention of the light.

3. The ball change at the Oval. Yes the ball had to be changed but the replacement ball was obviously significantly newer than the one it replaced.

4. Losing a review for the non Stokes catch at the Oval.

We all know the standard of umpiring on dismissals has been poor - God knows how many decisions were overturned this series.

But you'd expect even Wilson and Co to get the decisions I've referred to correct. They weren't in the heat of battle with marginal decisions to be made in a split second and yet they still got them wrong.

Joel Wilson is awful.

 

[The_CricketUmpire]

Most Runs in an Ashes Series in England by an Australian Opening Batsman - Top 10

1. Mark Taylor: 839 @ 83.90 (1989)

2. Arthur Morris: 696 @ 87.00 (1948)

3. Bill Ponsford: 569 @ 94.83 (1934)

4. Matthew Elliot: 556 @ 55.60 (1997)

5. Bill Brown: 512 @ 73.14 (1938)

6. USMAN KHAWAJA: 496 @ 49.60 (2023)

7. Keith Stackpole: 485 @ 53.88 (1972)

8. Chris Rogers: 480 @ 60.00 (2015)

9. Mark Taylor: 428 @ 42.80 (1993)

10. Andrew Hilditch: 424 @ 38.54 (1985)

 

[Ashes81]

Most Runs in an Ashes Series in England by an Australian Opening Batsman - Top 10

1. Mark Taylor: 839 @ 83.90 (1989)

2. Arthur Morris: 696 @ 87.00 (1948)

3. Bill Ponsford: 569 @ 94.83 (1934)

4. Matthew Elliot: 556 @ 55.60 (1997)

5. Bill Brown: 512 @ 73.14 (1938)

6. USMAN KHAWAJA: 496 @ 49.60 (2023)

7. Keith Stackpole: 485 @ 53.88 (1972)

8. Chris Rogers: 480 @ 60.00 (2015)

9. Mark Taylor: 428 @ 42.80 (1993)

10. Andrew Hilditch: 424 @ 38.54 (1985)

He had a great series and should been Aussies man of the series

 

[Croadymeister]

He had a great series and should been Aussies man of the series

Yeah he played a massive part in their wins

 

[Burgey]

Pattinson

Man, if people reckon Archer was crueled by injuries, Patto was such a jet when he was younger

 

[Michelle Fivefer]

Australia deserved to draw the series they played horrible in last two games Congratulations to England.

The ashes is long to the tooth should only be 3-4 games.

Overall apart England test cricket is bit too boring at the moment it's drying format.

ODI and T20 cricket are just way more entertaining and enjoyable.

Australia will win next ashes 4-0 and I will never watch test series in England again after this.

Hopefully England will break their ashes duck which is 10 years long! 4 series in a row without a win.

England test cricket is not boring, and it’s not a dying format. Nor is it that impossible format, a drying one. Too much rain for one thing..

 

[SteveNZ]

Just seen the stat for singles, Aus 770 v Eng 1009.

Interesting stat when England clearly had the greater attacking mindset. I imagine Ronald McDonald and Beautiful Pat would suggest if that 1009 number was lower, there may have been a lot more boundaries.

England only made one 'big' score (plus would've scored 400+ in the first Test had they not played into a dick measuring contest) so I dunno...the argument could be made that, to the top order in particular, spreading the field had merit at times to guys who wanted to hit boundaries. But I do see the argument that it was all too easy at times to get off strike, and in particular some of their plans to Wood and Woakes + the lower order were mud and probably cost them the third Test.

 

[loterry1994]

That’s the thing with Englands top 4 compared to Aus top 4 this series. They had way more intent to rotate the strike and score even if it wasn’t in boundaries. Once a new batter came in for England they didn’t take much time to get going.

You compare that with Australia’s top 4. They were all tentative at the start you had Warner especially struggling the first 10 overs with a low strike rate which isn’t his game at all. You also had uzzy running slow as between the wickets and being lazy with it for like 3 tests and they bogged Australia’s batting a bit. Thought there were many 2s or 3s to be had but Uzzy would take it easy the first single. That’s why I thought Aus batting collapsed too many times also because they weren’t able to put pressure on the bowlers consistently especially when they started

 

[Howe_zat]

Interesting stat when England clearly had the greater attacking mindset. I imagine Ronald McDonald and Beautiful Pat would suggest if that 1009 number was lower, there may have been a lot more boundaries.

I think that's probably true and England scoring more singles and fewer boundaries is descriptive of the fields that were being set

 

[Victor Ian]

Interesting stat I just read was that Australia actually hit more boundaries in the series than England. But that was down to the field placings, by the 3rd Test England realised you could go at 5 an over by just taking the easy singles that were on offer.

That's great! So we WON the ashes then, based on boundary count.