The Winter Cricket Thread 2013/14 - The Ashes Down Under

[fatbasher]

Get the increasing feeling that England were not a happy bunch of "mates". Cricket is a very individualistic game but it also requires a good team spirit which seemed lacking at times. Probably when the autobiographies are eventually written we might get to know where it all went wrong.

Concur.

[Reg Smeeton]

After all of that, I still can't get my head around how you go from 3-0 in the summer to 0-5 less than 6 months later.  The embarrassing thing for me was that at no point was there even a contest.  It was a procession.  A long, drawn out formality.  Quite how Jonathan Agnew managed to maintain the enthusiasm to report on this non-event for over a month is beyond me.

If you think back to the summer, we won 3-0, but it could have been very different, apart from a few key things which went our way....I said back then we weren't as good as some people thought and the Convicts not as bad.

Similarly I said this series was over egging the pudding....all the cracks revealed in our summer like how to get Trott and Cook out....the creaking knackeredness of Swann and Anderson....Prior's loss of form, muddled selection in Woakes and Kerrigan...and the Aussies effectively widened the cracks until the whole edifice collapsed.

The blame for this debacle lies firmly with the ECB....should never have put this series in straight after the summer.

[RobertT]

I don't think losing a series should mean knee jerk reactions usually, but I feel Cook needs to give up the captaincy, if only to release him from the burden which seems to be weighing down on his batting.  He does seem to have dragged the team into a very dour way of playing, which has not caused as many problems as it might do because we had a good team that took a year or two to finally lose all semblance of form when approaching the game this way.  Both series against New Zealand were awful in terms of how we played vs. how we should have been able to play, and then individual performances took games away from Australia in the summer.  At no point have we looked like a team who believe in what we are doing in the past year.

[sonicyouth]

The first six pages of this thread make interesting reading kn hindsight.

Despite our luck in the summer, a 5-0 reversal was never really on the cards.

[Ardiles]

The first six pages of this thread make interesting reading kn hindsight.

Despite our luck in the summer, a 5-0 reversal was never really on the cards.

It's true.  No one saw it coming.  And there needs to be some detailed analysis now as to why.

Not having a pop at DMR (honest), but this quote from the first page of this thread is probably the pick of the bunch...

I fucking love it that Mitchell Johnson is the great hope for Aus. I'd be fucking terrified if I was sat at fine leg with that clown bowling.

[Reg Smeeton]

The first six pages of this thread make interesting reading kn hindsight.

One or two poster's predicting skills need a bit of work....

[Nemo]

Ugh.

That's all I can summon up the spirit to say.

[TheMajorSTFC]

Series Predictions: Is it too early to make one? At present, I fancy England to retain The Ashes but I think the Aussies will run us very close. We won't see 'spinning' pitches that we saw here in the Summer to suit Swanny, I think they'll prepare hard, bouncy wickets for the likes of Johnson, Harris and others to hit the deck. I don't think it will be the same 3-1 scoreline as the 10/11 Ashes series, so I'm going to say 2-1 England.

Here's to a great series ahead, and I look forward to sharing many late nights with you all over the coming weeks!  Hopefully it'll be more celebrations come the end of the Sydney test in January!!!
 

Well I got it wrong ^, this tour has been nothing short of abysmal and a shambles! Lots of players futures up in the air - England have 6 months now to make changes and get it right for that 1st test against Sri Lanka in June and build for the 2015 Ashes series! Not one England top order batsman (1-5) averaged over 30 in the series (KP 29.4) and the highest average was Ben Stokes, who also made the only century for England, at 34.87. Only 1 (?) score over 300 in the series, no score reaching 400 in 20+ innings (not sure if that's correct but feels like it - last one I remember was away to NZ in Feb). The wheels of change are already in motion. Flower/Cook will still be in charge but there needs to be an instalment of passion/pride which has seriously been lacking/missing in this England team.  

England will bounce back and it may take a couple of years (a la the Aussies), so don't be surprised if regain The Urn in the Summer of 2015 - a long way to go, expect a few more defeats before it gets better, but things will come together once again!

FWIW I think we'll get a drubbing in the ODI/t20 series as well if anyone is interested.

[kerry red]

If you think back to the summer, we won 3-0, but it could have been very different, apart from a few key things which went our way....I said back then we weren't as good as some people thought and the Convicts not as bad.

In some ways England were the same in this series. Almost in every test we got in a good position with the Aussies 5 down for a 100 or so but managed to fuck it up spectacularly every time.

The problem is the batting, pure and simple.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

Put your house on it then

We'll draw the series 2-2. A heroic draw in Perth and two easy wins follow.

David Warner discovers his love for poetry and leaves cricket.

I wish I had put my house on it now. Damn.

[sonicyouth]

I wish I had put my house on it now. Damn.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[Nemo]

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

You seem to have put an extraneous 'l" into your post

[sonicyouth]

[DMR]

I'm sure I'll be in a minority of 1 but I really don't think MJ has bowled as well as 37 at 14 apiece.

Apparently something like 7% of his deliveries would have hit the stumps. He hasn't really swung it or seamed it. He's bowled absolute gas but that shouldn't be enought to get test players out. We've made him look good.

Haddin should have been man of the series.

[Nomoreheroes]

Was quite shocked to see Borthwick batting that low down the order if he was picked as a batsman who could bowl a few overs! Didn't make much difference anyway 

I think he was just picked to give him some international experience rather than to actually deliver in the game itself.