Ashes 2013/14

[taylorsworkrate]

That's right and they have the X factor now in Johnson and Clarke.

We've had the X factor in England the with Swann on dusty pitches and Bell with the bat.

Bottom line is though, if you field as poorly as we did in the 1st innings, where you effectively have to create 16 chances to take 9 wickets, you're gonna struggle to beat Bangladesh let alone Australia in Australia.

The real damage has been done in the last 20 minutes of last night and the first 40 minutes this morning. 

I agree that those have been the key periods of the game so far.

The problem I've got is that under Cook, when the opposition gets on top with the bat, we seem too quick to just basically accept   our fate. It happened twice in the summer at Old Trafford and the Oval aswell.

Today for instance, why wasn't broad given a 5 over spell where he was told to bowl at their heads? Why did Swann insist on bowling consistently round the wicket at the right handers, basically nulifying the chance of taking a wicket and at the same time allowing easy singles?

We are too formulaic in the field and there appears to be no plan b

[taylorsworkrate]

Root doesn't fill me with much confidence. Playing back constantly to balls he should be forward to.

[OzVilla]

Agreed, we gave Australia so many easy runs this morning that we didn't build any pressure and gave them back the momentum. 

The likes of Clarke and especially Haddin thrive in those circumstances.  We needed to go hard and look for an early breakthrough thus creating pressure. 

We just looked flat and the game went away from us very quickly.  It was an all-round poor effort today it really was and one I don't think we'll recover from, possibly in the entire series.  As pivotal a day and the 5th day at Adelaide proved to be in 06/07.

[TopDeck113]

I can see the urn being lost before Christmas...

[Proposition Joe]

This is an average at best Aussie side, but even they constantly keep the scoreboard ticking and don't get bogged down. Whereas our batsmen just turtle at the slightest pressure.

The bowlers the difference?

[eastie]

I'm starting to think that only weather or a glut of Australian injuries can save us from 5-0 in this series. We look completely shot.

I see blowers has tipped a 5-0 Aussie win too - we look a poor side and desperately need to hang on here for a draw - Perth next and you would have to fancy the Aussies to go 2-0 up in all honesty at Perth.

[willywombat]

Not looking good for England, had Australia reviewed the last ball of the innings then things would be considerably worse. I get the impression that halfway through the first day, Cook decided to try to avoid defeat rather than going all out to win. Pressure starting to tell maybe? Fair to say, if you lose this one you won't be able to deal with the Aussie attack in Perth and it's series over

[Meanwood Villa]

If we somehow get home with the urn it will have been a hell of a turnaround. We've been as poor in these first 2 tests as they were in the summer.

[Villan For Life]

This is beginning to remind me of the debacle that was 2006/2007.

[PaulWinch again]

Right well that day couldn't have gone much worse. However this isn't something that's happened overnight, our team has been in decline for a fair while now. The batsmen have consistently failed as a unit for a long period of time and we are completely swamped by negative thinking. Look at Australia how did they get into the position they did today? Clarke and Haddin played positively, whereas as soon as our batsmen go in they did in and go nowhere. I've said it for a while to be a successful side you need to be scoring at over 3 an over on a consistent basis. That way you put pressure on the opposition bowlers and they can't just keep running in with no fear of being dispatched. We've allowed Johnson to get his confidence up, we've allowed Lyon to look dangerous. As for our players -

Cook - Clarke 2 centuries in 3 innings, and Cook hasn't made 100 runs in 3 innings.

Carberry - Dreadful fielding, doing ok with the bat but hardly a long term selection.

Root - Promising young player messed about through panicked thinking(mainly).

KP - Not contributing consistently enough at all.

Bell - Only batsmen performing consistently.

Number 6 - Seems a complete lottery at the moment, but Bairstow has had plenty of opportunity and failed. Stokes I think long term will be a good options.

Prior- Completely shot as a batsmen, and glove work has gone downhill.

Broad - Bowling pretty well and one of the few senior players showing fight. Needs to keep up with his aggressive batting.

Swann - Looks like he's gone over the hill, pretty useless with the ball and rubbish with the bat.

3rd bowler - Seems to interchange, but Tremlett is shot, Bresnan is steady. The bowler they should be focussing on is Finn and getting his confidence up. If we got the team set up correctly then he could be our Johnson. You just tell Finn to bowl fast and aggressive for 4 over spells.

Anderson - Since Trent Bridge he has been pretty useless to be honest. He's been talked up and I don't know if it's gone to his head but he's not the same bowler he was.

I'm afraid questions have to be asked of Flower, because this negativity has to come from somewhere and it hasn't been addressed. As for Gooch well fuck knows what he's done to keep his job.

We need a complete change in attitude and approach and who knows we may yet dig out this game but it'll take a complete shift from what we've seen for a while now from England.

[OzVilla]

Agreed and the 3-0 flattered us and have made the players andmanagement complacent. You only had to look at the pre tour comments to see that

Without putting the cart before the horse, I can see this tour bringing an end tote international careers of a few, Swann and Prior and maybe Anderson and Pietersen too.

Even before the series I'd retry much conceded Perth, given our record there and their attack. Adelaide was meant to be the Test England got into the series at. Lose here and 5-0 is deffinetley on the cards.

We look lost.

[OCD]

The commentators mentioned that having been in the field for so long that it affected Cook's batting. If that's the case, should Anderson be captain with Cook just offering advice when sort after?

[Dave Cooper please]

Agreed and the 3-0 flattered us

No it didn't.
Without a couple of freakish last wicket Aussie stands that 3-0 would have looked even more emphatic.

[PaulWinch again]

3-0 didn't necessarily flatter us, but it did cover up some serious flaws with our game which are being exposed now.

[aj2k77]

Terrible rate of scoring to add to it all, the way we bat we are going to have to bat 150 overs just to avoid the follow on, the defensiveness of this side is pathetic.