God help me - the Test Cricket thread

[ElwoodBlues1]

And they are captained by a bar room brawler, a street thug, what do we expect?

But we haven't any high ground to take when we keep playing Warner and selecting Starc!

Bazball is OK, but as Mark Nicholl stated last night on the broadcast, test cricket is a long game that requires changes in tactics and momentum, if you are silly enough to fall into using the same tactic over and over eventually you'll be shown up as falling short.

The real trick might be to have smart leadership that can think on it's feet!

The real trick is to fix county cricket and produce test cricketers with good techniques who can bat on seaming pitches so we can get back to playing traditional long format test cricket and not have to put up with teams like England and India fecking up the game.I have said it before but the game is now ruined with doctored pitches, IPL money running the game and how we now have a small elite group of test nations and a poor 3rd world group who barely can compete expect in short format cricket.
South Africa a former world power don't have the money to keep players and are on the verge of abandoning test cricket if you look at the up coming schedules and the long game is at the crossroads.

[RiverRat]

The game has been entertaining but having to put up with Mark Taylor's repetitive commentary is not.  What he says can be insightful but not when he repeats himself endlessly just to fill the silences.

[laj]

Ridiculous cricket late last night....Aus bowling 6 bouncers an over with everyone on the boundary in one day mode.
We have slipped to England's Bazball stupidity and it's a blight on the game.
It's going to cost us Lyon for the series after he popped a calf trying to take an outfield catch.
Some of the worst cricket I have seen ever...Starc and Green bowled garbage and even the accurate Hazelwood was forced to bowl bouncers every ball.
Might as well just play one day cricket for the ashes from now on down at a local park..what a joke from McCullum, Stokes and now Cummins.

Cummins nailed it. Set the field to their stupidity and worked a treat, as you should do as captain. As terrible as Starc was Thursday night, and it was awful, he was outstandingly brilliant as England collapsed last night.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Cummins nailed it. Set the field to their stupidity and worked a treat, as you should do as captain. As terrible as Starc was Thursday night, and it was awful, he was outstandingly brilliant as England collapsed last night.

Dont really enjoy one day cricket as part of test cricket and its was nice to see Khawaja return us to normal with some nice test batting with technique last evening. Fizzball vs Ozball is for the local park and if that gets repeated then I wont be watching.
England are incompetent as per usual and I think we can beat them with traditional cricket, it cost us Lyon getting injured and someone is probably going to get hit in the head from either side and probably next test we are going to see both sides trading bouncers every ball and thats not great for the game imho...

[dodge]

Getting to see the consequences of T20 on batting friendly pitches - no idea how to play short bowling and a plodding bowling attack.

It was good watching a tussle between bat and ball when Aussies were batting - could have been harder for us had theh all bowled 5km quicker.

While not counting chickens,  English tactics should have them lose again (and Australia's tactics have them win).  Press will be amazing to read.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Fizzball is now bounce ball...Aus being pounded by bouncers.
The two per over above the shoulder rule has been shelved it seems.
Head can't play short stuff at the body and nearly got cleaned up by Tongue, someone is going to get hit and hurt badly like I said previously.

[Macca37]

After a break of 90 years it seems that Bodyline bowling is now back in favour with the Poms.  In my lifetime I have never witnessed such an unrelenting attack of short length bowling, over after over, aimed at the body.

Even when Lyon was standing almost outside leg stump with off and middle exposed, and unable to move, Broard attacked his body relentlessly. 

if this is where  the future of Test cricket is heading,  the outlook is bleak.

[Gointocarlton]

The non-catch decision of Starc's catch to dismiss Duckett was an utter disgrace. To use the fingers under the ball rule in that  situation was 100% incorrect. Starc caught it way of the ground and the motion of going to ground with ball securely in his hand, the ball rubs onto the turf. No fumbles, held it and its deemed ho didn't control it. Farken cheats.

[ElwoodBlues1]

The non-catch decision of Starc's catch to dismiss Duckett was an utter disgrace. To use the fingers under the ball rule in that  situation was 100% incorrect. Starc caught it way of the ground and the motion of going to ground with ball securely in his hand, the ball rubs onto the turf. No fumbles, held it and its deemed ho didn't control it. Farken cheats.

Neutral 3rd umpire Marais Erasmus needs to retire....that was clear cut a catch .
Smith took one that wasn't and that was the payback decision...

[Micky0]

The non-catch decision of Starc's catch to dismiss Duckett was an utter disgrace. To use the fingers under the ball rule in that  situation was 100% incorrect. Starc caught it way of the ground and the motion of going to ground with ball securely in his hand, the ball rubs onto the turf. No fumbles, held it and its deemed ho didn't control it. Farken cheats.

Something really WRONG there.  As you say there was no fumbling he had complete control and held it for a while before hitting the ground.

So ground Ump called out but third came in saying no? ? you don’t like to say that’s corrupt
But….