[bazzap]

We're doomed. No hope of chasing 400-odd in the last innings of the last Test of the series. This mob is not the 1948 Invincibles at Leeds. We need a miracle but I think we used our quota up in the 4th innings at Edgbaston


For many players here, this will be their last Ashes Test in the UK. Both teams will look completely different in four years' time. Lots of much-needed new blood in the Aussie team hopefully which will include young Murphy



The best thing? No more fucking Warner & Smith

[ferocious]

Originally Posted by bazzap

We're doomed. No hope of chasing 400-odd in the last innings of the last Test of the series. This mob is not the 1948 Invincibles at Leeds. We need a miracle but I think we used our quota up in the 4th innings at Edgbaston


For many players here, this will be their last Ashes Test in the UK. Both teams will look completely different in four years' time. Lots of much-needed new blood in the Aussie team hopefully which will include young Murphy



The best thing? No more fucking Warner & Smith

I’m not hearing much about bowlers coming through for England

[bazzap]

Originally Posted by ferocious

I’m not hearing much about bowlers coming through for England

I thought the same about Australia but maybe not as bad as we think


I read the cricket part of an Australian website called The Roar. People submit articles and lots more punters comment on those articles.


This one came out today



Why Australia need to start regenerating ageing Test team now before it’s too late



Some decent comments like this one on a positive note

Aus player ages at beginning of this game-

22- Murphy
24- Green
25- Morris, Pucovski
26- Kuhnemann, Richardson
27- Renshaw
28- Inglis
29- Agar, Head, Labuschagne, Swepson
30- Bancroft, Cummins, Peirson
31- Carey, Harris, Marsh

Some Eng players from this series or squads-

18- Rehan
24- Brook, Potts
25- Crawley, Pope, Tongue
26- Lawrence
28- Duckett (and Archer too)
29- Robinson


All still young enough for 2025/26 in Aus.

Followed by the negative stuff. This one on Test cricket in general being a light of other days

Not necessarily. West Indian cricket has never covered its glory days of the mid 1970s to mid 1990s. Now South African cricket appears to be going the same way.

Australian tennis has never recovered from its glory days of early 1950s to early 1970s. Now rugby union appears to be heading the same way.

Indian men’s hockey ruled the world from the 1920s through to the 1960s. They won 6 out of 7 gold medals/finals at the Olympics – 1928, 32, 36, 48, 52, 56 & 64, missing out only in 60. They’ve rarely been sighted since then.

Little Uruguay won the soccer world cup in 1930 & 50, but has been rarely sighted since. Hungary had one of the greatest soccer teams in the early to mid 50s, but are now just making up the numbers.

My fear is this might be the last hurrah of test cricket. Administrators are enamoured with the money spinning appeal of T20. Players are losing the skills to play test cricket & society is losing its patience.

Only series involving Australia, England & India are worth watching anymore. Possibly we can add New Zealand. All the other test nations are now just pretenders.

Test cricket, & its mate 1st class cricket, belong to another age, the horse & buggy age & tall sailing ships age, which has also more or less disappeared.

The Melbourne Cup will soon cease to be run over 3200m. Gamblers & punters prefer to lose their money quickly & frequently over much shorter distances, usually under 1600m.

Sadly, nothing lasts forever.

Oh dear

And the same fella said this about Australian sport which is quite true

I’m digressing a bit here, but our historical dominance has been in sports not well entrenched internationally, in other words, we are big fish in small ponds – cricket (9-10 countries), rugby union (about 10 serious players), rugby league (now only 3 serious players), swimming (maybe 10 serious players).

Then we have Australian football, which we have nobody else to test ourselves against. Oh, we irregularly play an abridged format against Ireland, but that helps neither country.

Until we can win either the men’s or women’s FIFA world cup & produce regular champions on the running track, places where all the world competes, then we’re largely pretenders.

[bazzap]

Meanwhile, back at The Oval, the Aussies have made a decent start to their innings. Our first 100+ opening stand since 2015 which shows how hard it is to win Ashes series away from home.


98 overs today assuming the weather is ok. So all set up for a fitting finish to the series. I still reckon Australia will struggle as usually not easy batting on 5th-day wickets. That said, England's bowlers are all getting on a bit so may struggle as well at the end of a long series played in a compressed time period.


Let's see what happens