The Ashes 2021/22

[Athos]

That's it.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Wow. Aus scored 267 and won by an innings.

 

[a_chap]

I’m only hanging around to hear what arse covering platitudes England come out with.

Root to announce his resignation, maybe?

Either way, he fucking well should. I'm really annoyed at England's gutless performance.

 

[Lord Camomile]

I’m only hanging around to hear what arse covering platitudes England come out with.

"The bowlers let us down when they had bat in hand"

 

[Puddy_Tat]

:facepaw:

 

[RileyOBlimey]

Lowest Ashes score in Australia since 1903

 

[littlebabyjesus]

only 9th in the all-time list, although two of the eight above them were in the 19th century.

Lowest score to win by an innings 153, Aus v SA in 1932.

 

[RileyOBlimey]

Pleased for Boland. That’s about as positive as it gets.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Root to announce his resignation, maybe?

Either way, he fucking well should. I'm really annoyed at England's gutless performance.

No he shouldn't.

It's a horrible way to lose the series, but to an extent you have to say hats off to Australia. These things do happen on wickets with some spice and with bowlers on fire. It happened to India last year in a series that they won.

 

[RileyOBlimey]

Who are England going to roll out to speak to the media?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Boland now has a rather useful test average of 7.8.

Gonna be hard on him when he's dropped for Hazlewood, which he probably still should be.

 

[brogdale]

FFS

 

[Balbi]

Root with some completely empty platitudes there tbh

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Root with some completely empty platitudes there tbh

Ach what can he say? Right after the game like that. It's almost unfair to ask him to say anything.

tbh I mostly hate the interviews with players straight after matches in any sport. You're only ever going to get platitudes. They're a waste of time really.

 

[Balbi]

"I resign" would go down well

 

[littlebabyjesus]

To be replaced by whom?

Root resigning doesn't solve anything.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Here's a stat for you.

Joe root is the top scorer on either side in this series so far.

 

[mhendo]

Ach what can he say? Right after the game like that. It's almost unfair to ask him to say anything.

tbh I mostly hate the interviews with players straight after matches in any sport. You're only ever going to get platitudes. They're a waste of time really.

Completely agree. Whether it's cricket, football, rugby, baseball, ice hockey, American football, tennis, golf, whatever. I don't think I've ever watched a post-match interview that cast any real light on the game or told me anything I couldn't have learned by watching the on-field performance.

As for the match and the series, you Poms really need to give your cricket board a good kick in the arse. I love winning the Ashes as much as the next Aussie, but only if it actually feels like a contest. I said to my Australian friends on Facebook this morning that I must be getting soft, because I was starting to feel sorry for England, and that was before they were bowled out for 68.

The 2019 series was far from perfect, but at least it was exciting: Australia suffering from some mediocre batting and relying far too heavily on the Steve Smith run-scoring machine, and a fairly mediocre England managing to draw a series they probably should have lost on the back of a all-time historic knock by Ben Stokes. Add to that some lively and pretty intimidating bowling at times, and at least it was fun to watch. This one seems like just going through the motions.

 

[RileyOBlimey]

 

[planetgeli]

These things do happen on wickets with some spice and with bowlers on fire. It happened to India last year in a series that they won.

But we're not India anymore than Burns is Steve Smith.

We're more Bangladesh.

 

[planetgeli]

It's the overwhelming humiliation that gets you. (Mark Nicholas - but he's right.)

It's not fun like this. And it certainly isn't a 'Test' of anyone when we're this bad. They should do something highly symbolic like burn the stumps or something.)

 

[littlebabyjesus]

But we're not India anymore than Burns is Steve Smith.

We're more Bangladesh.

Fair comment.

It is the lack of first innings runs that has killed the series as a contest, though, as it did in 2013-14.

Look back on that series now thinking we could do with the grit of a Michael Carberry at the top of the order.

 

[kabbes]

What we needed was Alistair Cook and Andrew Strauss opening, with Pieterson coming in at 3 before Root and Graham Thorpe.

 

[kabbes]

Graham Thorpe optional but I am a child of the 90s.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Thorpe had grit. Ugly to watch often, but he rarely gave it away.

Not such an effective coach sadly.

To think we used to moan about Collingwood. And even Bell. little did we know.

 

[kabbes]

To think I used to moan about Ronnie Irani.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Everyone moaned about the latest 'new Botham'.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Bring back Mark Ealham to trundle in at 71mph and score 17 with the bat

 

[littlebabyjesus]

We spent the last few years of Botham's career willing him to perform magic again when it was becoming obvious those days were over. A medium pace trundler and increasingly strokeless as he tried to be a 'proper' batter. (That was the Botham that Ealham was channelling.)

I hope we're not at the start of a similar period with Stokes.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

The jokes about bringing in Darren Stevens are looking less and less like jokes.