It's The Ashes (again)

[rsbaggy2]

I'm seeing a load of nonsense on the BBC feed calling Australia boring. Presumably idiots that only want to watch sixes. It's called Test cricket. It's how it's been played for over a hundred years. And guess what? It's winning cricket. I know which cricket team I'd rather be watching.

I wish these folks would sod off and stick to the Hundred rather than criticise the beauty of Test cricket.

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Wake me up when the Aussies decide to wake up. Snooze fest.

Ash in Elland
SMS Message: If England are playing 'Bazball', then Australia are playing 'do whatever it takes to win the series ball.' from Paul (Ashford)
If England are playing 'Bazball', then Australia are playing 'do whatever it takes to win the series ball.'

Paul (Ashford)
SMS Message: All joking aside, England have tried to play attacking, exciting cricket and right now Australia... aren't. from Ben in France
All joking aside, England have tried to play attacking, exciting cricket and right now Australia... aren't.

Ben in France

What utter drivel. Michael Vaughan is also a knob.

That's bollocks losers chat. Reminds me of when we used to lose to Stoke all the time and we had people saying "they'd rather lose than win like that" to make themselves feel better.

Isn't "do whatever it takes to win the series ball" the entire fucking point anyway?

A lot of shit being spouted on the BBC live feed, including the commentators! It would help if England bowlers (particularly Broad) would stop incessantly asking for the ball to be changed.

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A wicket at last!

[SuperBob2002]

I'm seeing a load of nonsense on the BBC feed calling Australia boring. Presumably idiots that only want to watch sixes. It's called Test cricket. It's how it's been played for over a hundred years. And guess what? It's winning cricket. I know which cricket team I'd rather be watching.

I wish these folks would sod off and stick to the Hundred rather than criticise the beauty of Test cricket.

---

Wake me up when the Aussies decide to wake up. Snooze fest.

Ash in Elland
SMS Message: If England are playing 'Bazball', then Australia are playing 'do whatever it takes to win the series ball.' from Paul (Ashford)
If England are playing 'Bazball', then Australia are playing 'do whatever it takes to win the series ball.'

Paul (Ashford)
SMS Message: All joking aside, England have tried to play attacking, exciting cricket and right now Australia... aren't. from Ben in France
All joking aside, England have tried to play attacking, exciting cricket and right now Australia... aren't.

Ben in France

What utter drivel. Michael Vaughan is also a knob.

That's bollocks losers chat. Reminds me of when we used to lose to Stoke all the time and we had people saying "they'd rather lose than win like that" to make themselves feel better.

Isn't "do whatever it takes to win the series ball" the entire fucking point anyway?

A lot of shit being spouted on the BBC live feed, including the commentators! It would help if England bowlers (particularly Broad) would stop incessantly asking for the ball to be changed.

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A wicket at last!

Changing the ball is happening too often in county cricket. Not as bad as last summer, which was farcical, but it's all too frequent for my liking.

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Why didn't Bairstow bother moving for that catch? But for Root's brilliance that would have been another wicket he'd have cost us. Surely there's enough evidence now to select a genuine wicket keeper and let Bairstow concentrate on batting. Even England can't be so stubborn as to ignore the obvious? Surely?

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Again, I want to reiterate I'm not blaming Bairstow, he's being asked to fulfill a role he's clearly not fit for. He's a wonderful batter and should be selected as a batsman. This is on the selectors.

[Mr Nimbus]

Best team in world beating a team that was on its arse not too long ago, and only beating them by the slimmest of margins so far. I'm enjoying this whole Bazzball bollocks and happy for it to continue, but in sport the best team inevitably takes the prize.

[Cuzer]

RS is spot on, the loss of Ali will cripple England here, the ball will turn

Great first session, complete ends of the spectrum from Englands approach to Australia's but for an old fart like me, equally compelling

Aussies going nowehre though in that session, just would have been nice to have them 3-4 down, played and missed all morning

Cuzer

[SuperBob2002]

Stuart Broad is special.

[Malcolm Tucker]

I'm seeing a load of nonsense on the BBC feed calling Australia boring. Presumably idiots that only want to watch sixes. It's called Test cricket. It's how it's been played for over a hundred years. And guess what? It's winning cricket. I know which cricket team I'd rather be watching.

I wish these folks would sod off and stick to the Hundred rather than criticise the beauty of Test cricket.

---

Wake me up when the Aussies decide to wake up. Snooze fest.

Ash in Elland
SMS Message: If England are playing 'Bazball', then Australia are playing 'do whatever it takes to win the series ball.' from Paul (Ashford)
If England are playing 'Bazball', then Australia are playing 'do whatever it takes to win the series ball.'

Paul (Ashford)
SMS Message: All joking aside, England have tried to play attacking, exciting cricket and right now Australia... aren't. from Ben in France
All joking aside, England have tried to play attacking, exciting cricket and right now Australia... aren't.

Ben in France

What utter drivel. Michael Vaughan is also a knob.

You do actually need to score runs in Test Cricket, though. These lot have blocked themselves into a corner this morning.

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172/6

As the old saying goes - never start an online dirty protest until both sides have batted…

[AnelkasBeard]

So who was exulting the virtues of "classic, boring test cricket"? 7 down, still 98 behind. They've scored about 120 runs all day.

This is exactly why we play with "bazball" tactics. If we batted "properly" we'd be all out for around 150 anyway in double the overs.

[SausEggBaton]

So who was exulting the virtues of "classic, boring test cricket"? 7 down, still 98 behind. They've scored about 120 runs all day.

This is exactly why we play with "bazball" tactics. If we batted "properly" we'd be all out for around 150 anyway in double the overs.

We've bowled extremely well though today. If we'd have been chucking absolute spuds down the wicket it could well have been a completely different story altogether.

[Ted Maul]

So who was exulting the virtues of "classic, boring test cricket"? 7 down, still 98 behind. They've scored about 120 runs all day.

This is exactly why we play with "bazball" tactics. If we batted "properly" we'd be all out for around 150 anyway in double the overs.

As ever the point is a fair one, he's just picked some crap evidence to support it.

[SuperBob2002]

So who was exulting the virtues of "classic, boring test cricket"? 7 down, still 98 behind. They've scored about 120 runs all day.

This is exactly why we play with "bazball" tactics. If we batted "properly" we'd be all out for around 150 anyway in double the overs.

So you're just ignoring excellent bowling and very tough batting conditions? 

This is why Test cricket is fascinating and intriguing. Australia going at 2 runs an over wasn't boring. Unless you're a moron. 

They played correctly and tried to see off very good bowling by not risking their wicket. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us, Broad and Co have bowled on another level since lunch.

If you want to see consistent boundary hitting go and watch the Hundred. (Not you personally, the idiots moaning at Aussies playing 'boring' cricket).