The Ashes | 2025-26 | 5 tests | Nov 21 to Jan 08 | Discussion Thread

[Lone Wolf]

Just now, Nikhil_cric said:

Plenty of uneven bounce and lateral movement for the first 40 overs. 

Standard in lord's it's not a high scoring venue but that chase was just too small.

It wasn't like chasing in Centurion or Newlands which can be impossible at times

[Gollum]

1 minute ago, Nikhil_cric said:

Plenty of uneven bounce and lateral movement for the first 40 overs. 

More like first 20 overs. You expect your batsmen to step up and play out those phases. 

[MK55]

U really should not win the match when you’ve got clowns like Khawaja Green and Labu in the batting lineup. 

[Nikhil_cric]

Just now, vvvslaxman said:

It was tough. but not tough enough to be losing that many wickets in such a short span of time. 

Sorry. When you have a high percentage of deliveries seaming mote than a certain level (0.75 degrees) , nobody can bat and 20 years of ball tracking has shown that. 

 

Nearly half the deliveries on day 1 were seaming that much or more and even more so when the ball was hard and new. 

 

Lottery pitch. 

[MK55]

England could have easily won the Adelaide test. They have been much better since the last 2 days of Adelaide 

[kosingh]

They're behaving like England won the Ashes

[Nikhil_cric]

1 minute ago, Lone Wolf said:

Standard in lord's it's not a high scoring venue but that chase was just too small.

It wasn't like chasing in Centurion or Newlands which can be impossible at times

The problem was the uneven bounce. There will always be seam movement at Lords because of the slope.

 

England themselves couldn't do jack in the 3rd innings. 

 

We lost it in the first innings. We should have got a decent lead. 

[Nikola]

1 minute ago, MK55 said:

U really should not win the match when you’ve got clowns like Khawaja Green and Labu in the batting lineup. 

England should be scratching their head just winning one test this series with the squad they had in the first test, and with the number of key players Australia has missed. 

[Bigg Brother]

Probably the worst ashes series in last 10 years. 2 days tests- joke 

[Lone Wolf]

MCG is just too difficult at Times.  This track was similar to that T20 game vs India.. but with red ball

[Nikhil_cric]

3 minutes ago, Gollum said:

More like first 20 overs. You expect your batsmen to step up and play out those phases. 

No, there was enough difficulty for 40 overs to make it really tough for batsmen.  Don't remember the exact numbers now but BBC had put out pitch difficulty numbers back then and it was really tough. 

 

[Manucrick]

Just now, kosingh said:

They're behaving like England won the Ashes

They were desperate for a win before this match 

[vvvslaxman]

Just now, Nikhil_cric said:

Sorry. When you have a high percentage of deliveries seaming mote than a certain level (0.75 degrees) , nobody can bat and 20 years of ball tracking has shown that. 

 

Nearly half the deliveries on day 1 were seaming that much or more and even more so when the ball was hard and new. 

 

Lottery pitch. 

 

Khawaja definitely did not get out for that. He nailed that hook shot. Weatherald also made an error in judgement. That was not unplayable.  Cam green one is the mos tridiculous.  They should have gone after the bowling. Actually Boland looked a lot better than these guys.

[MK55]

1 minute ago, Nikola said:

England should be scratching their head just winning one test this series with the squad they had in the first test, and with the number of key players Australia has missed. 

Exactly. They just had to see off Starc. 

[Lone Wolf]

Meltdown in Aussie forum

[vvvslaxman]

1 minute ago, Nikhil_cric said:

No, there was enough difficulty for 40 overs to make it really tough for batsmen.  Don't remember the exact numbers now but BBC had put out pitch difficulty numbers back then and it was really tough. 

 

If you look at Australian batting they batted like this in all the matches. Head, Carey saved their ass mostly.   SO not surprising they made it look worse than it is.   Head 437 runs. Carey 291 runs. That is it.  Everyone else under 200.  Smith 136, Labu 174, Weatheral 146, Green 112.

[MK55]

Bethel is gonna be a permanent member now. Looked good and great attitude.

[Suhaan]

2 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

If you look at Australian batting they batted like this in all the matches. Head, Carey saved their ass mostly.   SO not surprising they made it look worse than it is.   Head 437 runs. Carey 291 runs. That is it.  Everyone else under 200.  Smith 136, Labu 174, Weatheral 146, Green 112.

Green is their version of T20 specialist playing red ball

[Nikola]

1 minute ago, vvvslaxman said:

If you look at Australian batting they batted like this in all the matches. Head, Carey saved their ass mostly.   SO not surprising they made it look worse than it is.   Head 437 runs. Carey 291 runs. That is it.  Everyone else under 200.  Smith 136, Labu 174, Weatheral 146, Green 112.

The moment head has one bad series, Australia will lose badly even at home. They don't have many batsman standing up, even smith has lost it completely now.

[Nikhil_cric]

3 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

If you look at Australian batting they batted like this in all the matches. Head, Carey saved their ass mostly.   SO not surprising they made it look worse than it is.   Head 437 runs. Carey 291 runs. That is it.  Everyone else under 200.  Smith 136, Labu 174, Weatheral 146, Green 112.

You can put Dravid, Kallis and Laxman and even they'll get beaten on this pitch.