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Not planning on going to any of the WC games but am following them on TV.  I’m a bit of a traditionalist and prefer watching county championship games in person. So far this summer have had days at Newport (new ground), Taunton and Cheltenham. Weather permitting, planning on being at Worcester one day next week. That’s one of my favourite grounds and is an easy walk from the train station (which has a ‘spoons right next door). Usually have a day at Sophia Gardens each summer and will probably be there for a game in July. As you say, it’s a decent ground in a nice setting, and a nice walk from the station past the National Stadium and through the park. Will also be back at Cheltenham for a couple of days next month for the Festival.

Back to the WC, I’m not hopeful that England will live up to all the pre-tournament hype.

Eoin Morgan scores the most sixes in any international innings, in any format, ever.

Not bad.

If we win the next four games, we win the World Cup. And I’d still rather win the Ashes.

The only hope lies in the Convict quicks breaking down over the next few weeks.

The only hope? There is literally no other way England could possibly win the Ashes? And we're coming to that conclusion based on what, a few poor performances in white ball cricket? Sure, the Aussies will be the favourites but rulling England out already is nonsense.

Absolutely.

I was at Lords yesterday and it was an abject performance by England.  Bowling was ok, fielding weak and batting was pitiful.  A bunch of over-hyped flat track bullies who try to slog their way out of trouble rather than knuckling down and applying themselves. A fatal mixture of misplaced arrogance and fear.  Neither the crowd nor the players had any belief that anyone other than Root could do what was needed.

But to translate that into "we've already lost the ashes" with different players and a totally different format is just plain daft.

How childish is calling them Convicts

In the context of a sporting rivalry, not very?

How childish is calling them Convicts

Just what do the selectors see in James Vince?  I dont think he has the temperment for international cricket, his performances when given his chance have been abject in my opinion.  A second ball duck does not instill confidence in the team or himself.  Back to county cicket for Mr Vince please.

Back to county cicket for Mr Vince please.

Apparently the ICC are responsible for preparing the World Cup pitches.
India must be laughing their heads off.
Can't see anyone stopping them at the moment.

England up against it on Sunday in front of a partisan crowd.

Just what do the selectors see in James Vince?  I dont think he has the temperment for international cricket, his performances when given his chance have been abject in my opinion.  A second ball duck does not instill confidence in the team or himself.  Back to county cicket for Mr Vince please.

Back on track, dominating performance today.

Sooner the better please, we want him back at the Rose Bowl full time thanks

Pretty much as expected, England have improved over the last 4 years, but lack the bottle required to win when the going gets tough. 

I suspect that after winning 4 home Ashes series, we're going to have to accept, the coming one is gone already. 

The only hope lies in the Convict quicks breaking down over the next few weeks.

So, at the time of writing we are 100 away from the target of 224 with 17 overs gone, do you still stand behind this?

Made it look so difficult for Australia, is this just a case of them bottling it rather than us having the bottle?

You passed your judgement after the previous defeat to them.

As did I (for the world cup, not the ashes, that was clearly absurd).

Yet again I have been proved emphatically wrong with a big loss on Bet365 and Betfair to remind me.

English sporting semi-finals have not been happy experiences in the past 12 months. Too much heartbreak, too many what-ifs, too many next times.

The only what-ifs at Edgbaston were what England might have scored had they batted their full 50 overs. The heartbreak was all Australian. The next time is a World Cup final at Lord's on Sunday.

On Monday Australia's players had taken their shoes and socks off and walked the outfield here. The idea was to feel the positive energy coming out of the earth. On Thursday England took their pants down for them too.

Some of it came from England's outstanding opening bowlers, who produced a combined spell of 3-27 off their first 11 overs.

Even more came from Jason Roy, smashing 85 off 65 balls to turn a run-chase into a run-romp, crashing Steve Smith for three consecutive sixes, the last somewhere into Solihull.

Brilliant England demolish Australia to reach final
World Cup final to be on free-to-air TV
Reaching final beyond belief - England captain Morgan
England are the benchmark - Finch
It came fizzing back at Australia from the stands, because there are few places as fun to be as an England supporter than Edgbaston when Australia are in town.

It had been 9,989 days since England last beat Australia in the World Cup, but it has also been 26 years since the dominant cricketing nation of that quarter-century have won at this ground.

England come here and to Trent Bridge like a team transformed from the one that has routinely been rolled over at Lord's across the same period, to the one that was comprehensively beaten by Aaron Finch's men in north-west London just a fortnight ago.

On Thursday morning Australia won the toss. That was supposed to be half the battle in this tournament of faltering chases and slow pitches. David Warner then clattered the opening delivery from Chris Woakes through extra cover for four.

As auguries go it was a giant raspberry. Almost nothing Australia did from that moment on went right. Almost everything England touched turned to gold.

Australia's openers had produced 43% of their side's runs in the tournament to this point. The partnership of Finch and Warner has averaged 127 a match. Finch had four centuries in his previous nine innings against England.

This was different. This was Edgbaston, this was England - the souped-up, fire-breathing, chest-beating England.

Jofra Archer bowled full and fast to trap Finch lbw for a golden duck. Woakes produced pace and bounce to get Warner snagged in the slips.

I'd have taken 242 to chase this morning, hopefully we get through the first 10 overs in good nick.

Why a super over and not the number of wickets lost as a decider?

So, at the time of writing we are 100 away from the target of 224 with 17 overs gone, do you still stand behind this?

Made it look so difficult for Australia, is this just a case of them bottling it rather than us having the bottle?

Quote from: Reg Smeeton on Wednesday, June 26, 2019, 09:31:25
Pretty much as expected, England have improved over the last 4 years, but lack the bottle required to win when the going gets tough. 

I suspect that after winning 4 home Ashes series, we're going to have to accept, the coming one is gone already. 

The only hope lies in the Convict quicks breaking down over the next few weeks.

Can I pass judgement now?

Happy to be proved wrong on the WC...

this throws up a number of questions for the Ashes.
Does Roy play? Yes
Does Archer play? Absolutely
Can Moeen get his mojo back? No
Is Mark Wood fit enough to do Test matches? Doubtful

First country to have won the Football, Rugby and Cricket World Cup, fact fans.

Started to become a cricket fan over this World Cup and today probably cemented it. Mrs is confused as fuck as I've always thought it boring and suddenly I'm bouncing round the house.

Is this some kind of reverse psychology/fate in play?

Reg doubts, we win.

I'd still expect us to win this one.... but the batting collapses have become too regular, for there to be any great hopes for the Ashes

I'm still not convinced that we've enough in the batting to win The Ashes.... and with Broiady coming in at 9 it could be another out in a session job.

 Having said that, the Convicts are playing an intra warm up game, apparently they reckoned no point playing Derby seconds or something.... one lot got 105, t'other 120. 

Is this some kind of reverse psychology/fate in play?

Reg doubts, we win.

Conversely we could apply the school of thought he has that we're England and obviously will always lack the bottle to win anything.

Reg, statistically speaking, is this the worst England batting line-up ever?

It's amazing how we can top the world in one format and be rank useless at the other.  There is nobody n the team who I watch and think they command the crease, they all look like a wicket walking.  Stokes maybe, usually, has a bit about him, the rest look streaky at best.

We could be on for one of the lowest scoring 4 innings tests here.  Absolutely shambolic batting - the problem is we can't even drop the top 6, because we already know most of the replacements are worse or just as bad.  May take a number of years to turn this around, it's clearly a systemic issue because we've been collapsing off and on for too long now, and now it's occurring more often than not.  ON that be batting side, there can't have been a single player who has come in an improves the position they have taken for several years now.  How you can fall so quickly in a sport is interesting, and we know you get cycles of talent, but this seems completely structural - the complete opposite of the One day approach!

Labuschagne showed the way.... remember he's been playing CC cricket for Glamorgan this summer, locate your off pole, and leave anything beyond there, wait for the bowler to go straighter and knock it way on the leg side. Smith does the same.

We know Bayliss is going, and he has done what they got him in for.... but was never a Test coach. I think Root should go, for his own sake.  The new coach should be looking to build towards the return Ashes, trying to make it at least a bit competitive has to be the aim

We can pick 'n' mix all we like, but the fact is that we just can't produce test batsmen any more. We've been moaning about it for years, but as the one-day game gains ascendancy, it just gets worse. We've made three sub-100 test scores this year already. Sadly, there aren't even that many test batsmen left in the world - Australia only have one, for instance. It's a shame to see a great format fading inexorably.

Agree about Root. He is our best batsman and captaincy isn't helping that side of his game. Need to find some grafters from somewhere. The Roy experiment has failed and Root needs to go back to 4. Denley doesn't look a long term solution, would persevere with Burns, so require a new opener and number 3 as a minimum. If, as seems likely, we lose this test, we should try Sibley and Crawley for the remaining tests. Buttler would be my choice as captain.

Buttler shouldn't even be in a Test team, let alone being in a position to be considered a captain.  The fact he is, well, that just sums it up.

Burns is worth continuing with, Root can probably be a batsman again, Stokes should be the teams all rounder.  Nobody else should even remotely be missed by a Test side when it comes to the batting line-up, and Root would have batted himself out of the team in any other set of circumstances.

Well bugger me. That was incredible.  :eek:

Edge of seat stuff that.
Lyons fumble, no reviews left when out then go on to win it

 :pint:

England's best ever bowler should be back on his home ground, that'll help.

The quandary now is what to change for the next test.

I would hope that Roy and to a lesser extent Buttler places are in doubt. Would Ben Foakes as wicket keeper improve anything by telling Bairstow to focus on batting only? Would that stop him playing namby pamby shots to get out out cheaply? (I doubt it) Or, do you consider a backwards step and recall 37 year old Ian Bell. He's 'technically' a better batsman than all of the England players (bar perhaps Root)

Burns and Denly have a one decent innings each in the series and will probably survive for longer. I don't think either are good enough at Test level though but don't know of anyone better.

On the bowling front, if Anderson is fit then who does he play instead of? Woakes perhaps? But then that weakens the batting too.

Aussie batting will be stronger in the next test and as shown in this series, its all about which 'poor' batting line up bats the best.

Aussies can’t choke from this position surely.

Paine seems to be getting absolute pelters from all sides (especially the Aussies) and yet he's outscored Buttler, and not far off Bairstow, both of whom are clearly more talented, and is a better keeper than either too.

The loss at Headingley was pretty much down to him.  Stokes was phenomenal but Australia lost that test, E&W didn't win it.

It's strange that this series has featured just about as bad an England top 5 as we have ever fielded and yet we would  probably be winning if Smith hadn't played and would be at least 3-0 up if he was playing for us.  Can't think of the last time that one player had such a pivotal effect on a 5 match ashes series.

 

Ian Bell 2013.

Whichever team has Smith in it wins this series.  In our case it would have been overwhelmingly.

Bell in 2013 is not remotely equivalent.

Whichever team has Smith in it wins this series.  In our case it would have been overwhelmingly.

Bell in 2013 is not remotely equivalent.

you asked a question and there's the answer

Root  someone drag the captaincy away from him, it's ruining him

Stokes - great performance in the previous game, has it in him, but his Test average is still not stellar - he has games like the last one, probably over use him to be honest

...and replace him with...?!
Early career figures distort his overall averages but for the last couple of years he is >30 with the bat and <30 with the ball: The yardstick for “All Rounder”.

...and replace him with...?!
Early career figures distort his overall averages but for the last couple of years he is >30 with the bat and <30 with the ball: The yardstick for “All Rounder”.

On the captaincy, I have no idea, but currently it seems to be impeding the only Test Batsman we have.

Yep proper all rounders after a significant number of games need a batting average higher than bowling average. Stokes gets in, whereas Moeen although good doesn't quite, nor does Sam Curran.

Sam Curran does get in on your criterion in both Test and First Class.  For the record (batting first), it's about 31:30 and 30:29 respectively.

I wiki'd it.  Wiki is more up to date but no bible.  His less flattering one day record may be incorporated in your stats?

Boycott's strike rate away from cricket was the more notable.

I think these are up to date, and would mean he just 'edges' in  :)

https://www.ecb.co.uk/england/men/players/2939/sam-curran

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/662973.html

Doesn’t say much about England when 1 Aussie player retained the Ashes on his own. Say what you like about Smith but he’s a fabulous batsman.

Can’t see much knocking about in the Counties to bolster a rather lame top order. Maybe there’s a batting Archer we can nick from somewhere.