Oooft!
Jesus, that is just fucking pathetic
If Warner goes early, the Aussies look fragile.
England highly likely to fill the togs however.
Is the fallout from the pay dispute an issue or can this just be put down to just another two predictable Australia batting collapses against spin? That’s something like 1 win 1 draw and 12 losses in their last 14 tests in Asia.
What happened in Dhaka shouldn’t have any great relevance ahead of the Ashes. The biggest concern for Australia has to be both Starc and now Hazelwood currently on the injured list.
Don’t think its necessarily a case of England filling the togs. England are just not very good at the moment. They haven’t a clue who should be batting at 2, 3 & 5 and don’t have a proper full time spin bowler. It could be a close and exciting Ashes series in Australia for a change between what seem to be two flawed enough teams. You’re going back to the early 80’s for the last time there was a competitive Ashes series in Australia. Australia have almost completely dominated, but the last two England wins in Australia in 2010/11 and 1986/87 were routs as well.
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Great for the game overall to have West Indies win in England and Bangladesh beat Australia. Test cricket is all the better for it. The pitch in Dhaka was obviously as I predicted a few days ago. Middle order a big problem now.
Cook has had twelve or thirteen opening partners since Strauss retired. If the Aussie quicks are fit then England will struggle. They will probably take Gary Ballance.
If the Aussie quicks are fit, England will mentally disintegrate, before winning the last test after going 3-0 down and the Aussies are on the beer. This will be hailed as a victory by one an all.
Edit. Cooke’s last series quite possibly, Anderson also, though he looked in remarkable fettle when I saw him in the flesh a few months ago.
Australia have a decent pace attack if all fit. Don’t see any of them having that mental hold that Mitchell Johnson did last time in Australia or Glenn McGrath/Warne for years though. Australia do look more likelier at home. Lot depends on Joe Root. Quite apart from the captaincy, he is by some distance the best player between both sides.
If Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins are fit (and that’s a big if) they won’t need the mental shenannigans and intimidation stuff. If Mitchell Starc tried that shite he’d be laughed at as he looks about 12. They don’t need it because they are very good, very efficient bowlers at home. Fit and they’ll win the Ashes. But Starc and Cummins in particular are fragile and break down easily.
It’s nothing to do with the pay dispute. I think it just comes down to the fact that at the test level, these players are not spending enough time batting. Pure and simple. If you look at it, the typical path for an Australian test cricketer now is youths, state sides, then up into a Shield side where they start playing some first class matches. More likely they are more interested in getting into a Big Bash side and start earning some coin. Impress in that and then you could get an IPL contract. Then they’re looking at maybe getting into the Aussie 20/20 side and progressing to the one day team. During this whole 3-4 period, they’re playing not very many 4 day games. If they’re serious about becoming a test cricketer, they’ll be told to ease up on the pyjama stuff and impress in Shield. They may spend 1-2 years playing a decent amount of shield games before getting a test call up. Then that’s it. Apart from test matches, until they get dropped, what other decent cricket will they play? They may get one or two Shield games during the season, but that’s pretty much it. They’re complaining about the test schedule and they have a point, but the fact is, for the batsmen at least, they’re not playing enough matches and learning to stay at the crease. I actually know of numerous occasions over the last few years where Test batsmen have turned up at their local club to play grade matches just to have some match practice, leading to some interesting conversations about whether the player was still registered to play in that competition.
Was listening to the radio yesterday and someone was making a case for England to recall Sam Robson as an opener for the Ashes tour. He’s in decent form and as a born and bred Aussie he knows Australian pitches.
Second test underway in Chittagong between Bangladesh and Australia.
Khawaja’s been dropped, they’ve brought Hilton Cartwright for his second test after he debuted against Pakistan in January. Three spinners in the Australian side, Lyon, Agar and O’Keefe. Lyons’ struck twice, Bangladesh 36-2 after 18 overs.
Some talk beforehand that they’d drop Matthew Wade as he hasn’t been scoring runs and isn’t a very good cricketer and a hopeless wicketkeeper. Pater Handscomb was actually practicising as the wicketkeeper in the nets yesterday and Smith was talking about dropping Wade. But they’ve reverted to the tried and tested tactic of dropping Khawaja instead.
Lyon has four wickets already and they came back from lunch an hour ago. 108-4.
Australia bowled Bangladesh out for 305, with Lyon taking 7. You’d think that’s a very good score, but Australia are 225/2 at the start of Day three (3), with Warner on 88, Handscomb on 69 after Smith was out for 58.
Peter Handscomb lost 4.5kgs yesterday in the heat (!) and was treated for heat stress during the match. Well set up for them to kick on and post a big score and Warner to get a century in consecutive tests in Asia.
Except, it’s pissing down in Chittagong and play has been delayed, for a long time by the looks of it.
Australia lead by 62 runs on 377/9 at stumps on Day 3.
It looked a lot better for Australia on 298/3 but they collapsed from there to 377/9.
Another middle order collapse, for once a bit of variety from the top of the order collapses.
Top order collapse from Bangladesh leaves them 83 / 5 at lunch Day four. Nathan Lyon has 10 wickets for the match now. Effectively it’s 11 / 5. Rahim and Rahman have steadied the ship somewhat for Bangladesh with a 40 odd partnership. If Australia take out the remaining 5 wickets handily enough this afternoon, they should win at a canter.
22 wickets in a two test series for Nathan Lyon. Aussies win by 7 wickets.
Day 1 of the deciding test of the Wisden series approaching stumps at Lord’s. Windies all out for 123. England not doing a whole lot better with the bat so far - 24/4