Ashes 2013/14

[paul_e]

Cricket is definitely my armchair sport but still my second sport. As such I don't understand the intricacies of the rules like I do in footy (i.e. Suarez the the other week, should have been booked for diving).

That wicket that Luke Wright just had chalked off for being over waist height was a bit strange. The guy takes a pace or so down the wicket and strikes the ball just about over waist height,gets caught and is given not out. But on replay the ball would probably have gone on to hit the top of the stumps,but no one mentioned it on commentary. So what's the rule then?

Height at the stumps isn't important, height at the crease is, if it was judged that it was going to pass the crease over waist high then it's a no ball, I haven't seen it so I have no idea if that's likely but that'll be the reasoning.

[paul_e]

Very expensive from Dernbach and Briggs there, which will just add fuel to all the Dernbach hate on the internet, the guy is ranked 7th in the world in T20 bowling but every game the BBC and sky feeds are full of people slagging him off, pretty much regardless of what actually happens (he deserves a bit of stick today on his figures).

As I've said before he has a strike rate of 1 wicket every 16 deliveries and an economy of less than 8, I don't really care how erratic he looks, his figures justify his inclusion

[PaulWinch again]

I think Dernbach's figures are somewhat influenced by his early career, because he started very well. However since people have worked him out, he's gone for a lot more runs and he should be getting wickets when he bowls at the death.

[PaulWinch again]

Also Bresnan should not be going for 10 an over for no wickets given his experience level.

[paul_e]

I think Dernbach's figures are somewhat influenced by his early career, because he started very well. However since people have worked him out, he's gone for a lot more runs and he should be getting wickets when he bowls at the death.

I disagree, before today his last 2 England games he took 6 for 57 and was superb in both games, but still got slagged off by everyone.  As I say, his erratic style and perceived arrogance is held against him constantly so every run he concedes is the worst delivery ever and every wicket ball is either ignored or lucky.

[Dr Butler]

3 down already in 5 overs..   

come on England !!

[paul_e]

Awful shot from Wright giving his wicket away and then poor decision making from Hales to put himself in that position when he had a new guy in there with him.  We need a 60-70 stand from these 2 at a decent rate now then Buttler will have the platform to win it for us still.

[PaulWinch again]

Well Twenty20 seems to be going the same way as the other forms. This is such a bad tour.

[paul_e]

Buttler is the key man as he was always going to be in such a big chase, he needs to be there at the end now really.

[danlanza]

All over now.

[paul_e]

Losing Wright, Hales and Morgan so close together killed it, meant Buttler was in far too early and under too much pressure, We need to be on 140+ with 5-6 overs to go when Buttler came in, he's got the power and ability to finish from there but we needed the rest to go at 9-10 an over and give him the chance.

[Dr Butler]

Ravi will sort it....oh he has Bresnan with him......our goose is cooked.

[PaulWinch again]

Bopara and Broad did very well, but once again it's a fairly comfortable hammering. The idea of selecting our last twenty20 line up rather than picking on form was crazy. Across all forms of the game I have absolutely no clue how Bresnan consistently gets a place in the first 11. He is a decent bowler and a pretty average bat, he should be nowhere near the team.

[paul_e]

Gotta give Ravi a lot of credit, he's single-handedly made our score respectable there.

Bresnan, I like him at test level but he's not a T20 player.  I was very disappointed with Wright as well, he was trying to put it into orbit with every hit, yes it was a big target but there was no need to be swinging like that in the 5th over.  Dernbach and Briggs were both too expensive but I think both should stay in for the next match, Bres for Stokes would be my only change.

[OCD]

What did we lose by in the end, about 12 runs? There was one phase late on where the Aussies were able to keep Bopara off strike. With his performance today, it would have been very interesting if he could have got on strike in those overs. Admittedly it would have been papering over the cracks but it goes to show just what a good performance it was from Bopara.