Haha yep, I realise this whole thread is a bit of fun but a moral victory is surely when you would likely have won but were robbed by weather/umpiring/time-wasting/murray mints etc.If you can't get a number 11 out, you don't claim moral victory unless the rain saves them. FACT
Also the series was a draw
People complained?That time when I got permanently banned and then the ban was un-done after everyone complained.
For some inexplicable reason.People complained?
Stockholm Syndrome!For some inexplicable reason.
Need a recount on this Ashes. England score a moral victory over the Bairstow-Carey incident but Aussies get one back for ball change. 4-3 England.2023 Ashes
Actual Score: 2-2
Moral Score: 3-2 England (England win the 4th Test and win the 1st Test because they were overconfident but otherwise should've won that. They lose the last Test however because of the unjust ball change)
2005 Ashes
Actual Score: 2-1 England
Moral Score: 2-1 Australia (McGrath injury, murray mints)
2016 England tour of Bangladesh
Actual Score: 1-1
Moral Score: 2-0 Bangladesh (they only lost by 22 runs in the first Test despite chasing on a minefield)
2007/8 India tour of Australia
Actual Score: 2-1 Australia
Moral Score: 1-1 (Sydney '08, cheating Australians and blind umpires)
2016 Pakistan tour of Australia
Actual Score: 3-0 Australia
Moral Score: 2-1 Australia (Pakistan made 450 chasing 489 in the first test which is insane and they deserved the victory. Due to butterfly effect the series could really have gone 3-0 to Pakistan, we'll never know)
Plenty of rain affected ones but those are very obvious and don't need much discussion
England could've won in Manchester and probably still ended up with less WTC points. I'm guessing that at some stage this will happen which might finally make the ICC ponder if they've got it quite right.If you look at WTC points, turns out all of England's victories ( and one of Australia's ) in this Ashes were only moral instead of actual.
Nah it’s okay, their 99 WC doesn’t count thanks to the tied semi. Their rules, not mine…Yeah, that's an odd angle to take.
Australia are all of a sudden the 1996 World Cup champions and winners of four in a row...
5-0 to England in Ashes 2007, 2014 and 2021 too because English cricketers were battling mental health issues and could not perform to max potential.2017-18 Ashes
4-0 England
Australia were ball tampering the whole time. The draw probably stays as one.
2021-22 Ashes
5-0 England
They locked us up ffs.
2007 England V India
1-1
Rain stopped play with 9 down ffs
2009 ICC World T20
Winners - Pakistan
Moral Winners - Sri Lanka (Pakistan played Ajmal who chucked his way to the the final with 12 wickets @ 13.5 and an economy <6)
2012 ICC World T20
Winners - West Indies
Moral Winners - Sri Lanka again (Narine took 9-3 in the final. His economy was under 5 (!) in the tournament)
Poor Sri Lanka
Tbh on that wicket if Ponting had got out earlier they might have cracked 400 with Symonds coming in, with his formIndia winning the 2003 World Cup with Ponting given out lbw off Mongia's bowling before reaching 50.
Also, those graphite coated bats can hit monster sixes like Gayle. Cheating Aussies.....
On a serious note though, Australia would have still coasted to 290 and won.Tbh on that wicket if Ponting had got out earlier they might have cracked 400 with Symonds coming in, with his form