General Cricket Thread (It's Come Home)

Eh, I think this is a more fitting theme myself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxZldFytUVw

Listen the whole way and you'll see why I chose this.  I think it rather accurately sums up how this innings went/is going for Australia.  

Honestly I have to say, what the fuck has happened to our team?  I knew their batting wasn't the strongest, but this?  This is laughable.  This is Bangladesh level.  It's just...not even fun to watch honestly.  I normally care less who wins and who loses in a sports match than I care to see a close battle between peers, what I'm seeing is a one sided stomping, and I typically don't care for those unless it's me doing the stomping in a Pokemon online match.

I agree, but going by the reactions on the Beeb, a lot of Englishmen (and they are almost exclusively men, unsurprisingly) are still bitter towards the Aussies (for 2006 and most of the 90s) and want to see them crushed underfoot.  Anyhoo, let's see whether these last two, who already have more runs each than most of their teammates, can do anything special.

EDIT: NOPE.

I've never really got the point of holding that sort of a grudge myself, the team that the grudge is directed to no longer even plays so it's kind of pointless to me. Ah well, just the natural cycle of the sport.

EDIT: Damn, that missed catch was just, yeah, that filthy look Clarke gave Haddin was deserved.  That was a perfect opportunity, in the air, and normally would have been taken by the wicket keeper.  Who just stood there and let it drift past as if to let Clarke catch it, who didn't because it was clearly a wicket keepers catch and he should have caught it.  If looks could kill I suspect Haddin would be dead right now

EDIT2: Siddle is saving Australia right now. Three wickets in short order. May there be more to come!

Balladeer wrote:

I think both England and Australia are better bowlers than batsmen.  Both Jimmy and Harris have had good spells.  (As has Smith: dunno what to think of that.)  Also think Australia have got the better captain, better with the bat and the tactics; albeit not so good with reviews.

Going to repeat this. Two teams with decent bowlers, rubbish batsmen, Clarke and Bell. Dear oh dear oh dear.

I still think England's batting is actually pretty decent myself.  While what you say is true that the bowling attacks of both sides are better than the batting attack the English batting is still far better than the Australian batting.   

Anyway, tomorrow should see the result of this revealed.  The game probably won't be over but by then I think it will be clear who will win this match.  This isn't anywhere near as close as the first match was so unless Australia makes some very positive moves tomorrow I think we can nail in an England victory.

EDIT: And the new day begins. Going by what I'm seeing this is going to be a long and slow affair, with the lead England have now the real problem is getting them out soon enough that the pitch remains good for batting rather than the runs. Not good news for Australia.

Cloudy though.  Enjoying Radio Five Test Match Special: I believe you get that in Aus?  Henry Blofeld really has the most spectacular accent.

Good partnership going on here, considering that one has got a lot of criticism recently and the other is a nightwatchman.

Also, just listened to your AoT music: no way are Australia anywhere near that epic at the moment!

Watching the match right now I'm inclined to agree, they are no longer worthy of such a epic theme of everything going badly.  

And as of now England is once again almost as far ahead as they were in the first innings.  Any hope of an Australia win, or even a draw, seem all but over now.  Now the question is how much can England make them suffer before the defeat.  I suppose they could bat for a draw, but given how well they seem to able to keep their wickets I doubt that will be an option somehow.  

EDIT: And England finally loses a wicket. One down, six to go.

Nearly two. No dice though.

Argh, more shoddy umpiring. That was out, yet it wasn't given.

Australia got at least 92 runs in the first match that way, remember.

Poor old Glenn McGrath, though. He's finding optimism difficult at the moment.

That was evened out by Broad's lack of sportsmanship in the same match though.  

Nah, that was compensation for Trott's questionable duck.  

Well, this match might as well be over. Just as I thought this day did indeed seal the fate of the match, with England's stunning batting taking the match to a seemingly unbeatable lead of just over 500 runs. I wouldn't feel confident of Australia matching it even if this was still the Steve Waugh era, much less this team.

I have to say though, this match has certainly done credit to Tales of the Abyss.  

Oh come on, it was hardly stunning! Well not at first, anyway. Bell was caught and Root would have been caught, were it not for some shoddy shoddy fielding. I'll agree that both of them hammered home the advantage afterwards.

Basically I'm just trying to get TotA's score down.  Although I still don't think England's batsmen are that great: more that Australia have just been poor. I don't think the title of this thread has been more wrong since... well, since 2006.

And so the impending slaughter begins.  I'm not even going to bother saying anything like it's not over till it's over given they're chasing 583 runs.  

And what can I say about the title, I have a knack for being melodramatic.  

EDIT: Watson is out.  Can the new number 3 score a run and top Cowan?  Lets find out!

EDIT2: Slaughter indeed. I go away for what can't have been more than half an hour and find we're down to Clarke already. And while he used to be a amazing batsman after the last few tests I doubt it will be long before he's walking off the pitch either.

Khawaja has done better than Cowan, at least!

That he is!  I'm liking him already, some nice and solid and careful batting coming from him.  Hopefully he replaces Cowan permanently.

EDIT: I shall take my hat off for them being able to get over a hundred runs with only three wickets, much better than last innings where they were almost all out by this point.

EDIT2: And congrats have to go to mister Khawaja for getting 50.  Much better than Cowan.

EDIT3: And gg Clarke, you fought well but the inevitable happened.  And thus ends a decent partnership, here's hoping we get another going now, it'll just be boring if they collapse and don't put up a fight.

EDIT4: Here we go, looks like the collapse has begun. Shame really, that partnership had me hopeful we might make it to day five and put on a show. Oh well.

Two half-centuries is a lot better than Australia's first innings, but nowhere near good enough.

Root has done an Agar, though: wickets and a credible bowling performance. Can't say I'm convinced with Agar any more, sadly: beginner's luck?

Honestly I think it was more he had absolutely no pressure the first time and since then has been put under a large amount of pressure.  Still Agar might find himself dropped if he doesn't start performing again.

EDIT: And speaking of Agar, he's now out. I honestly have no clue whether it was beginners luck or bad luck afterwards now, but either way looks like this match will end today or early tomorrow.

At this stage, I'd love to see a century from Pattinson.  

What's with Australia at the moment and last batsman partnerships? The top orders keep collapsing and then the last two men in seem to always strike up some partnership and go out heroes. It's bizarre.

And yeah, a century would be nice, but alas I doubt we'll get that lucky. Also I must say I am enjoying seeing both teams out of reviews, goood old fashioned what the Umpire says goes.

Well that's that. Might be able to concentrate on work tomorrow.

Yeah, and I'll finally be able to wrap up Tales of the Abyss and return to completing Brawl. Nothing saps time away more than Test Cricket.

I wonder which match the third match will be.  Will it be the match where Australia have been utterly crushed mentally and get stomped almost as badly, or will it be the inevitable match they take off England because England gets too cocky?  It'll be one of those two, and the latter will no doubt happen at least once this series (and probably more than once once the series moves to Australia for the second half), but odds are it'll be a stomping almost as bad as this one was.  It'll probably take Australia a good match or two to get over this and return to the nothing to lose just go for the win mentality they entered the first match in.

As for the match, I shall say poor show Australia and I hope you do better next time. I shall also say great job to England, as bad as Australia is they aren't push overs and stomping them to this degree is one heck of an achievement.

Is this no done yet?

knowing my luck it will be on for ages..