Cricket

[Baz]

10 hours ago, Gav said:

Poor start once again by England, no chances at all, on a great batting wicket granted.

Think its TMS through the night and bit of shut eye, its going to be a long test match, AGAIN.

Definitely a batting wicket. New ball did zero.

Mike Hussey said the pitch has been this way for the past several years now and doesn't deteriorate and in the Sheffield Shield 400+ in the 4th innings is a regular score.

My guess is the Aussies will be 150 ahead after 1st innings, get 400, and England will be all out in 3 sessions for around 200.

[chaddyrovers]

12 hours ago, Gav said:

Poor start once again by England, no chances at all, on a great batting wicket granted.

Think its TMS through the night and bit of shut eye, its going to be a long test match, AGAIN.

The pace bowlers started poorly but improved. Encouraged by Curran bowling. Kept it simple, bowled 4 maidens in a row. 

Broad pace was better and quicker reaching 89mph. Where this been all series? 

But yet again we lack a spinner. Ali bowled poorly(again) and Malan bowled his leg spin. Decent but is a part timer. 

I will say this again Crane should have played

[Gav]

Curran gets Smith, good effort lad, let's get a couple more quick wickets and make a game of it.

[chaddyrovers]

318/7 now..

All pace bowlers bowling well. 

Curran deserved the Smith wicket..

[chaddyrovers]

326/8 lunch

[chaddyrovers]

Great day for England.

Hundred for Cook

[matt83]

Shame we didn’t turn up until it was a dead rubber.

I suspect it’s more to do with the absence of Starc and them not being able to keep the pressure on the same than any collective England players responsibility. Plus I wonder whether the cons have dropped intensity a bit having completed the job.

[Baz]

Pleasantly surprised so far, but still far too early to be getting confident about this. Every game so far England's good days have been blown away quickly the next morning.

[Baz]

7 hours ago, Baz said:

Pleasantly surprised so far, but still far too early to be getting confident about this. Every game so far England's good days have been blown away quickly the next morning.

Another cracking day for England. Well on top in this match now.

Very pleased for Cook, who has now gone past Brian Lara record of test runs scored, and also pleased for Broad too, who did a tremendous support role for Cook (and was very unlucky to be given out -looked like a dropped catch to me).

If it's cloudy overhead tomorrow morning,  I'd declare, if it's clear, then try and get another 20-30 runs.

[den]

On 21/12/2017 at 08:28, Kamy100 said:

Broad and Moeen have had one really bad series no need to panic and completely drop them.  Ditto Cook.  

I am not excusing the performances in the Ashes as they have been pathetic but you cannot just drop everyone and start all over again.  We have struggled in Australian conditions previously so this is no major surprise.  

Nice one Kamy. ?

[AllRoverAsia]

Just as Boycott was getting stuck into the Broad dismissal he gets replaced by Vaughan. Was that coincidence or BT saving Sir Geoff from saying something too controversial.

My immediate reaction was 'not out' and it has not changed.

Cannot understand not reviewing the 2 snicks, disappointed by Root and more so by Bairstow and Ali had some sort of brainstorm.

Majestic by Cooke and a great show with the bat by Broad.

Only the 2nd time those two have had a meaningful innnings together in well over 100 Test matches.

[Norbert Rassragr]

Nice of Cook, Broad and co to turn up once we lost the Ashes. Just in time to save their central contracts.

[chaddyrovers]

4th test drawn. 

The fast bowlers did everything they could to take wickets but the pitch was poor. 

Ali need to be drop now. Done nothing in this test again. Time for Crane. 

[Kamy100]

It is pitches like the one at MCG that will kill test cricket.  No problems with a pitch assisting batsmen on days 1-3 but day 4 and day 5 it needs to start to offer assistance to the bowlers.  That pitch did not offer anything to the bowlers despite them trying absolutely everything.

 

[Mattyblue]

Very much like the Trent Bridge Test pitch against India in 2014.

It was marked ‘poor’ by the ICC and they were officially warned and I think fined.

What are the chances the MCG will get the same treatment? 0, 1%?

[Gav]

With over 260k fans coming through the gates at MCG isn't it about time we built a stadium that can cope with the demand for tickets in this country?

I've not been to as much cricket as I once did in recent times, but the demand for tickets still seems to be high, this despite the disgraceful prices now being charged around the country.

I never want cricket to go the way football has with the influx of Sky money, but a 50k national stadium surly makes sense from a fan perspective, at international level anyway?

 

[Mattyblue]

I believe The Oval has plans to go to 40,000, Lord’s 35,000.

[Gav]

17 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

I believe The Oval has plans to go to 40,000, Lord’s 35,000.

You can hear the champagne corks now.......

A proper ground for proper cricket fans, and a local shop, somewhere in the Midlands or North of England. 

[Al]

20 minutes ago, Gav said:

You can hear the champagne corks now.......

A proper ground for proper cricket fans, and a local shop, somewhere in the Midlands or North of England. 

Bloody London bias as usual.

[Mattyblue]

Problem is London can sell out three Test matches a summer at top whack, plus all the corporate hospitality.

Apart from the Ashes, Old Trafford for example, struggles to sell three days of one Test. Stupid ticket prices are partly to blame, but there’s no market for a 40k OT or Headingley currently- though Edgbaston seems to be doing well.

Edited January 1, 2018 by Mattyblue

[jim mk2]

 Chicken and egg. If there weren't so many matches in London cricket fans would have to travel to other grounds.

Won't happen though. Money talks. Like the economy, everything is skewed towards London and the south. 

[Baz]

The ECG give out test matches on a bidding basis though, so there's nothing Old Trafford can do, they either stump up the money and have to pass it on to fans, or have no test matches. I don' know if this is followed in other countries like Aus, as the venues for test matches doesn't seem to change like it does here - I.e. Durham, Cardiff etc.

Lancs have probably made the right decision in trying to maximise non-test match revenues, to support this process at present, but it's a shame if the growth of the game is set only by money.

[chaddyrovers]

Looks like Mason Crane will play after Bayliss's comments. Also said about maybe playing some younger players against New Zealand. 

Hopefully this Stokes Police case will be sorted by then. Wats the hold up i dont know. Either charge him or not. 

[dave birch]

On 12/30/2017 at 20:51, Mattyblue said:

Very much like the Trent Bridge Test pitch against India in 2014.

It was marked ‘poor’ by the ICC and they were officially warned and I think fined.

What are the chances the MCG will get the same treatment? 0, 1%?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-02/mcg-pitch-becomes-first-in-australia-to-be-labelled-poor/9299708

 

There's your reply, Matty.

edit:

Matty, there is one other matter that doesn't affect cricket pitches in the UK, and that is that the grounds like the MCG, Adelaide, Waca, Gabba and the SCG are used all year round for Aussie Rules and other winter codes.

This has led to the introduction of drop in pitches, (you don't want to be tackled on a rock hard cricket square at the beginning of the football season)

Having said that, it is recognized that drop in pitches do take the traditional character of the cricket pitch away, and it will be interesting to see how the administrators of the grounds react, given that they have competing interests (ie winter v summer sports)

Edited January 2, 2018 by dave birch
additional info

[Baz]

In fact, the WACA is being replaced by the brand new Optus stadium, funded by the government as a multi-use stadium with an increased capacity of 55k for cricket and more for other sports https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_Stadium