*Official* Fourth Test (Old Trafford, Manchester) 19-23 July

[Croadymeister]

Maiden overs bowled by Australia on day 2- only 3



Most runs in a day's play by an ENG batter in Ashes Tests

214 Tip Foster Sydney 1902

210 Wally Hammond Lord's 1938

189 Zak Crawley Old Trafford 2023

185 Bob Barber Sydney 1966🦾

Will admit I am eating some humble pie courtesy of Crawley,he was unlucky not to go top of this list

 

[honestbharani]

honestly I think that captaincy is a lot to blame for it as well like this match. No bowler wants to bowl t20 mode and short stuff with the field back for like 50 overs

Bumrah was captain that test too. Maybe the age old wisdom of not having a fast bowler as your captain has some merit after all.

 

[honestbharani]

Aggers comments that as Root's 59th Test fifty. Zaltzman immediately chimes in with it being his 89th fifty-plus score.

I see you Zaltz. I see you being on the side of truth.

Ah... so another @OverratedSanity multi then...

 

[honestbharani]

That does seem to be the general opinion. I just watched Afridi bowl a day or two back and he was magnificent in comparison. I'm basing it on what I'm seeing right now so I guess it's unfair on Cummins and comparatively uninformed.

Its ok to observe what you observe mate. Its not like you are saying Sanga is a fraud.

 

[honestbharani]

Smashing pies from Wagner and Pakistan's C attack is one thing

You would expect Aussies, of all people, would know that C attacks are usually the best attack for any team.

 

[the big bambino]

Looks like Cummins is copping a lot of criticism for field placings and bowling tactics. I’m not sure if we continued our short pitch attack to Crawley or he is benefiting from the suspicion we have bowled him into form over the course of the series.

Either way it was a great innings but in a way it has, in combination with the forecast, put a little pressure on England. Who might have to consider declarations even earlier than they would normally think. Then if the pitch stays flat, the forecast improves and our batsman at last find form, could be in trouble themselves.

Nonetheless would rather be them than us at this point. As an aside (and it’s probably been mentioned) I’ve seen memes going around saying Broad is still short of his 600 test wickets since the last ashes has been voided.

 

[social]

Everyone apart from the team knows that the tactics are **** but they could be defended with a simple “scoreboard”

Now that isn’t in their favour, there’s no defence so journalists are piling on without fear of reprisals

Taylor, Ponting and Clarke have all been saying the same thing as us since the start of the series

 

[Shady Slim]

was a bit busy pre match so didn't get the chance to post this, and so because of that it probably looks like i'm coming across as a bit of a hindsight hero... but a lot of chatter about "if cummins doesn't trust murphy [...]" then somehow it's okay to drop him and based on not wanting to carry a spinner who the captain won't trust to bowl all too much

nahhhhh that is clownery!! if cummins doesn't trust murphy then as much as i love pat you've got to tell him to suck it up and learn to; you can't just drop murphy as some sort of crutch for the *** king

 

[Burgey]

I don’t think it was not trusting him, it was the target last match was too small to give him an extended go once the run rate increased.

Australia isn’t in this position because of its bowling, they’re in this position because they’re should still have been batting in the middle session day two.

 

[Son Of Coco]

Everyone apart from the team knows that the tactics are **** but they could be defended with a simple “scoreboard”

Now that isn’t in their favour, there’s no defence so journalists are piling on without fear of reprisals

Taylor, Ponting and Clarke have all been saying the same thing as us since the start of the series

Maybe they're just bowling poorly (along with pressure applied by the English bats at times), but bowling both sides of the wicket and leaking runs to Crawley and the other English batters off their pads is really poor.

Pressure is no excuse for the bouncer barrage to tailenders though. When you have a team 6 for and under 200, you're not exactly under pressure. Why they switch to just bowling short when the tail comes in is a complete mystery to me. Probably went a long way to costing them the last test.

 

[Spark]

I don’t think it was not trusting him, it was the target last match was too small to give him an extended go once the run rate increased.

Australia isn’t in this position because of its bowling, they’re in this position because they’re should still have been batting in the middle session day two.

Nah they're in this position because of the bowling. They should have made more but you can't be conceding almost 370 runs in two and a bit sessions.

 

[loterry1994]

Nah they're in this position because of the bowling. They should have made more but you can't be conceding almost 370 runs in two and a bit sessions.

both batting and bowling have been poor and the reasons why aus in this situation. no excuses about it they was like 3-180 should of made more there and that’s a chance gone to put England out the game to at least draw. Another mid-lower order collapse that’s like the 3rd or 4th time this series.

Bowling absolute shocking Cummins tactics way too reactive, no bowlers want to bowl t20 mode for like 50’overs and get smashed everywhere 300 was no where near par as well

 

[OverratedSanity]

Incredible. How have I not seen this before lol.

 

[Spark]

translation for the uninitiated?

 

[Bahnz]

If Aus batsman bats 35% better than 1st innings test will be Draw

So Australia need to score 428 to lock up the draw?

 

[OverratedSanity]

translation for the uninitiated?

Roughly

Even if I'm batting today in the nets and Ashwin ,or Muralitharan or Harbhajan bowled to me, then I'd say the same thing today. They're not bowlers. It's the worst bowling style by far. Anyone can pick up a ball and bowl off spin, that shows the standard. Off spinners exist to get spanked.

@Burgey to jizz.

I mean, it's not exactly anything Sehwag hasnt said before, but it's funny to see how blunt he is.

 

[Bahnz]

So I'm guessing England's target will be to try and run up 150 in 20 overs, and then have a brief crack at Australia before lunch?

 

[OverratedSanity]

Looks like Cummins is copping a lot of criticism for field placings and bowling tactics. I’m not sure if we continued our short pitch attack to Crawley or he is benefiting from the suspicion we have bowled him into form over the course of the series.

Crawley is weak on off stump. All they needed to do was plug away and pack the off side with fielders. They simply lacked patience imo, there was no need to go to the short pitched stuff when the normal bowling was causing him problems.

 

[Jarquis]

Roughly



@Burgey to jizz.

I mean, it's not exactly anything Sehwag hasnt said before, but it's funny to see how blunt he is.

It’s also great because he can back it up on the basis (a) he did whack offies and (b) he also bowled pretty gun ones with next to no effort

 

[Kraken]

Crawley is weak on off stump. All they needed to do was plug away and pack the off side with fielders. They simply lacked patience imo, there was no need to go to the short pitched stuff when the normal bowling was causing him problems.

No he's not - he's weak a foot outside off stump. His trigger movement gets him to off stump, so he flicks anything there. We troubled him when we had short periods of bowling well outside off stump - so i agree with that part of your comment