Any cricket fans out there?

[ilovetomatoes]

Been watching the ashes this week. Need a hand hold 😂😂

I just finished saying that Stokes can help them get to 100 lead, in best case scenario 150. Sipped my cocoa and wicket!
The good news is, Australia won't win this by an innings and 8 runs. They will have to come in and bat

England have been poor but Australia have been great. Can’t deny it sadly.

Not an encouraging start to the Second Test.

I watched a bit of it yesterday. England bowled well, making the Australians score slowly, but the Australians know they can afford to be patient. They weren't giving many chances and the pitch looks pretty flat.

A bit of variety could have helped. Robinson, Broad, Anderson, Stokes: they all do the same thing.

Totally agree, look out of ideas. Incredibly frustrating. Going to be a tough day today with the heat. I think Australia will rack up the runs, declare and then attack England in the evening.

Burns gone again cheaply. I used to think that Cook only got selected for the last two years of his career because, given his record, it was polite to wait for him to retire.

Given the procession of openers since, I'm more inclined to think Cook's still the best English opener in the game. He's 36. Gooch was 40 when he scored 333 against India.

@TomPinch I properly sobbed when Cook retired from test cricket, because of all that he'd done, and how well he kept himself together. He just felt so steady as an opener.

I think we have some incredible bowlers, but aside from Root, the batting just isn't there. Ian Bell was quite fragile, but he was bolstered by those around him. This current crop just seem too easily intimidated, and there isn't a Pietersen or a Flintoff or a Collingwood to give them that belief.

It's just so depressing that it's not at all competitive, no fight from England
We were talking about Cook last night too...

And it hasn't got any better. The only plusses so far are:

Root has met his standard.
Malan has exceeded his.
Anderson has been hard to score off.

And that's literally it. No danger in the bowling, batting like Zimbabwe, and dropped catches in the field.

There was a perceptive comment on a Guardian article yesterday: England have only produced 8 successful batsmen since the millennium. And the replies could only name 4: Root, Trescothick, Bell and Cook.

I actually can't think of any others. But in the meantime we've had Pieterson, Strauss and Trott (all from SA), and in the current team we have Stokes (NZ, although he learned most of his cricket in England) and the only person apart from Root who is getting any runs: Malan, who is English-born but learned a lot of his cricket in SA.

England have had South Africans papering over the cracks for years. Imagine Marnus Labuschagne playing for England right now. Or Trott playing against England in 2010/11. Although batting isn't, to my surprise, the only problem.

I'm afraid this is going to be the rankest 5-0 defeat I've witnessed in 30+ years of playing and following cricket.

Also, what's with the no-balls? Stokes had a wicket denied on the first test, and Robinson in this one for overstepping. Bowlers at this level shouldn't be making this mistake. It's basic!

Can we please have a small corner of MN for cricket and cricket-mamas (esp of girls because it is less straightforward a bit of a postcode lottery)?

Now, 468 to win, or, rather, a day and a half to survive on a deteriorating wicket.

After England's part-timers finished off Australia's tail.

Come on Burns. Now's the time to find your inner Atherton.

I'm assuming we all know about TMS, but if I can flag up two cricket podcasts that I utterly adore, then Tailenders has to be up there obviously. The other one that I think is brilliant is Stumped which is a BBC World Service programme that's jointly shared between the UK, India & Australia. It covers the main stories obviously, but it also has interviews with people like the coach of the Afghan womens team, or the head of Pakistan cricket. It's often overlooked, but it's great for giving an insight into world cricket.

@TomPinch I think the problem with the no balls was that there was a failure in technology? So it should have been the TV umpire telling the on field umpires it was a no ball, but they couldn't, so it was up to the on field to warn the bowlers they were getting close. Apparently Stokes had already bowled 11 no balls before the wicket that wasn't, but he hadn't been told he was over, and none of them were called by the umpires, so he assumed his run up was fine. Agree it was definitely his mistake, but there was a definite failure in communication/technology there.

@doesthatmakesense

Can we please have a small corner of MN for cricket and cricket-mamas (esp of girls because it is less straightforward a bit of a postcode lottery)?

I've been trying to get DD into cricket for ages, but there's nothing local to us at all, and we don't have a cricketing history as a family! I do have to say that cricket is doing better than a lot of sports in promoting women in the sport though, both as players and as commentators. Having The Hundred as an equal competition was a HUGE leap forward.

Apparently Joe Root batted in considerable pain today (before getting out cheaply). Because earlier he got hit in the balls while batting in the nets without wearing a box.

Without a box. FFS.

@sadeyedladyofthelowlandsea

Thanks for the podcast recommends.

I read about Stokes' previous no balls and wondered if he and the others had been coached to play that way. It's not hard to avoid overstepping.

Tailenders is brilliant. Love Matchin, who 4 years ago knew nothing about cricket and only phoned in to ask a question his friend gave him to ask.

Then his blagging tickets to the world cup games was just genius

Burns 🔫

@Summerofcontent I've been listening to Tailenders since the first episode when it was frankly, not very good! But it's really found a voice and I love it, especially with Mattchin's quiz each week

@TomPinch I think it was Steven Finn on TMS who said you'd expect the umpires to warn you if you were getting close to overstepping, never mind actually bowling a no ball. He actually seemed to feel the umpires were at fault. And yes, FFS ROOT! Why would you do that? Just why? I'm sure it wasn't a coincidence he got out just after being hit FOR A SECOND TIME in the balls...

@sadeyedladyofthelowlandsea,

Well, I think it's the bowler's responsibility not to bowl them and the umpire's responsibility to spot then when they're bowled. Meaning there should be two pairs of eyes on where the front foot is landing.

But as this happened to Robinson too, the cynic in me wonders if they're being coached to release the ball as close to the batter as they can, meaning they're being told to put their feet as close to being over as they can.

It's just the sort of thing that modern coaching (supported by oodles of tech) would be tempted by, even if the advantage is tiny.

2-0.

I take it everyone is still fuming.

@doesthatmakesense yes!! Much needed! I’m about to start coaching girls cricket and it’s quite daunting trying to a) find matches for them and b) break through the indifferent county leadership. Excited by it but terrified too.

@sadeyedladyofthelowlandsea love Tailenders! Go well!

Cheers

@Summerofcontent 😂😂😂

@ilovetomatoes

Good luck with the coaching and well done for giving it a go. I'd have hoped that the county would be biting your arm off. And how hard would it be for them to facilite a small league of a few teams?

I'm in NZ - girls' cricket is doing well and the DDs' schools have girls' teams. Unfortunately I couldn't get them interested.

@TomPinch thanks! The problem with county is that they know they have to do more on girls cricket but they really aren’t bothered. Playing lip service is probably a flattering description.

Another depressing session today. I don’t know why but I was starting to have some hope it wouldn’t be a total humiliation!

@ilovetomatoes

I'm appalled by the county's complacency. Is there any way you can organise something without them? They don't get to say who plays cricket and who doesn't. But I remember from the UK, leastways in London, how few nets and wickets there were for people to hire.

It's hard to explain how easy it is to play cricket here, in comparison, or how commonplace.

Yes, a bad start again. I'm predicting England all out for 250 with Root getting 150 of them. Or if he gets out for less, England's score less by the same amount.