The Ashes Thread.

[Jordon]

Ban Root for 15 months for cheating. These umpires are blind. Only about 20 dud decisions so far.

[Saint Willy]

Great game, despite the rain. Proves test cricket is and always will be king!

[Loy Toy]

Who received man of the match?

[kmart]

Great game, despite the rain. Proves test cricket is and always will be king!

Yeah. Only managed to catch the highlights yesterday. Some superb cricket played in that 2nd Test, wish I'd been there to watch it live.

[Bettyboo]

Smith out of the third test, and rightly so: https://news.sky.com/story/the-ashes...-test-11789701

The area he was hit is full of nerve bundles going up to the brainstem, and was an awful area to be hit; once the area swells up a couple of hours later, significant damage can then develop. He will be fortunate if he has no long term damage, imho. Let's hope not, but his safety must be put first, he should never have been allowed back on the pitch, and there needs to be an inquiry into how the Aussie doctor (and the Lords staff) let him back on the pitch - he clearly need to go straight to hospital for a couple of days of observations.

Helmets must have those side neck protectors, the laws must be changed.

[Troy]

Indeed, Smith should be ruled out for the rest of the series. That blow was worse than my proposed food poisoning.

[Loy Toy]

he should never have been allowed back on the pitch

Shows how terrible the Aussie batting line up is without Smith.

Warner needs to stand up and play like the Warner of old and forget this defensive poking around.

To be fair the English batting is not much better.

[Saint Willy]

Yep, this 3rd Test now looks very different without Smith

[kmart]

Smith out of the third test, and rightly so: https://news.sky.com/story/the-ashes...-test-11789701

The area he was hit is full of nerve bundles going up to the brainstem, and was an awful area to be hit; once the area swells up a couple of hours later, significant damage can then develop. He will be fortunate if he has no long term damage, imho. Let's hope not, but his safety must be put first, he should never have been allowed back on the pitch, and there needs to be an inquiry into how the Aussie doctor (and the Lords staff) let him back on the pitch - he clearly need to go straight to hospital for a couple of days of observations.

Helmets must have those side neck protectors, the laws must be changed.

Yep, that's exactly what happened to Philip Hughes, five years ago.

[reddog]

It's just not cricket i tell you.
The UK Daily Telegraph is saying the English cricket administrators slashed the their eligibility rules
from 7 to 3 years after realising they had a Barbados born fast bowler at their fingertips.
So it was a dastardly plan to once again to try and blunt the fair minded and all round champion OZ juggernaut side
by selecting Mr Archer.

[Bettyboo]

It's just not cricket i tell you.
The UK Daily Telegraph is saying the English cricket administrators slashed the their eligibility rules
from 7 to 3 years after realising they had a Barbados born fast bowler at their fingertips.
So it was a dastardly plan to once again to try and blunt the fair minded and all round champion OZ juggernaut side
by selecting Mr Archer.

That's disgraceful, to make all that effort and only bring in one player - where are the couple of batsmen and a spinner, I ask you who pays these administrators' wages...

[David48atTD]

By an Australian Journalist ...

How the third Ashes Test could be won and lost – five big factors


1/ The speed machine


Jofra Archer is the talk of the cricket world after his series-shifting Test debut.



2/ The frustrated opener


David Warner has had a forgettable series with the bat so far


3/ The England top four


England's Jason Roy has been a problem for the hosts at the top of the order


4/ The spinners


Nathan Lyon drew level with Dennis Lillee's career tally of 355 Test wickets at Lord's and can move in front of him this week


5/ The venue


Credit Headingley Cricket Ground @ Leeds

All the bla bla is at https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket...21-p52j4n.html

[David48atTD]

From the Bookie ...

The Venue

The teams head north to Headingley at Leeds for the Third Test. They have only met in two tests at the venue this century (in 2001 & 2009), splitting the results one win apiece. The Aussies – with Peter Siddle (who took 5-21) and Stuart Broad (6-91) the only surviving current players from the match – would have at least enjoyed the 2009 romp, winning by an innings and 80 runs. The pitch is predicted to play slightly slower without as much bounce as Lord’s.


The ground’s most famous Ashes moment came way back in 1981, when England – well, Ian Botham and then Bob Willis – performed a miracle double act to win the Test and turn the whole series in their favour.
England was 5-105 in their 2nd innings and still 122 runs behind the Aussies and looked like losing by an innings.
The Urn was seemingly Australia-bound.

Botham, who had been stood down as skipper earlier in that series, then played one of his finest innings. After flaying the Aussies to all corners to amass 149 off 148 balls, he at least gave England hope, setting the Aussies a target of 130.

Enter wily fast bowler Bob Willis, who bowled like a man possessed to take a career-best 8-43 to rattle and roll the Aussies for a stunning 111.

After glumly looking down the barrel to go down 0-2 after that Test, England went on to win the series 3-1.

The Weather

Apart from some clouds about on Day 1 (Thursday), it looks like sunshine and happiness for five days’ straight. Given the relative bowling strengths (and batting frailties) of both sides, The Wolf thinks there should be enough time to bowl each side out three times over in this match.

England:- 1.63
Draw:- 8.50
Australia :- 3.00

[Saint Willy]

Can you pass on this red to the bookie?

[David48atTD]

England has won the toss

And England will bowl first.


Confirmation of the teams: Harris, Labuschagne and Pattinson in for Bancroft, Smith and Siddle. England unchanged.

[reddog]

Bought some snacks and turned the TV on,what do i get,no play,bloody English weather.
They tried to rule half the world just to try and make people put milk in their tea and drink warm beer.
Then they try to have cricket matches in between the rain.

[Bettyboo]

Very 50/50...

Ok, if we bowl well then we can put them to the sword, but if they get through the day, only leaving 2 or 3 wickets then they're favourites for the game.

[Bettyboo]

That's a shame, going off for rain, just when it was looking very hard for the batsmen...

Still, one down. Archer. He hasn't started bowling fast yet.

[Saint Willy]

This stop start stop cricket is just unsettles the batsmen and causes more wickets.

fuckn English weather bloody poms grumble grunble

[buriramboy]

Why are they playing tests in the North of England at the end of August, hot and sunny down South.

[Bettyboo]

Fuk me.... Any chance these wanker umpires will allow us to watch a bit of cricket???

[klong toey]

Fuk me.... Any chance these wanker umpires will allow us to watch a bit of cricket???

Maybe the Australians have bunged th umpires e a bribe so they don't have to bat today,
Cheating bastards.

[NamPikToot]

Maybe the Australians have bunged th umpires e a bribe so they don't have to bat today,
Cheating bastards.

Isn't this a combined Aussie and Saffer 11?

[Bettyboo]

Woakes & Stokes have been crap... The Convicts are now bossing the game. Archer needs 3 or 4 wickets today to get us back ontop or the series is gone...

[NamPikToot]

Betts we need another series of your game changing pessimistic posts.