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The Oval Test

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The last Test of the summer is already upon us even though it’s only the end of July…England perhaps surprisingly field an unchanged team.
Unbelievably there’s no more Test cricket until the Indian series at the end of next January.

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  3. Impressive from Broad to play 5 in a row, also Wood 3. Anderson can probably count himself a bit lucky, though if anyone deserves that luck he obviously does. Feel a bit sorry for Tongue though. I don’t know who’ll win, but it’s unlikely to be a draw…

  4. I found this tweet from 2 years ago where I was bemoaning the passive approach of England’s top 4. Just allowing the bowlers to bowl their lines, their lengths. So to see Crawley, Duckett, Mo, Root, Brook etc doing what they’re doing has been enough for me. Whatever happens at the Oval this team is still in development. The bowling needs refreshing but overall if we can get to 2-2 it will be Australia going away for a rethink.

  5. Ok – any forecasts?
    I predict Murphy plays, Cummins loses the toss and despite England having the greatest ever fast bowler in their team I think we ( for the avoidance of doubt – Australia) will win.

  6. I think Australia have much more to lose … 2-2 don’t make a heap of coconuts if the other side regain the Ashes, but Australia haven’t won a series here since 2001.

    That said, I reckon they’re a spent force.
    That Indian Test, a great benefit earlier in the summer, has come back to haunt them. But, we’ll see.

    The visiting side getting tired/homesick/picking up injuries etc. are precisely the reasons why proper captaincy (no early declaration on the 1st Day, grinding the Australian bowlers into the ground when Lyon got injured, not batting for 108 overs in what was always going to be a 3-Day match at Old Trafford) should and would have won the Ashes for England.

    I’ve never known a series were one team has so obviously thrown it away.

  7. Ok I gotta ask. What is with the bucket hats- even at press conferences ? No rain, no sun , Stokes is indoors !
    If this was us you’d be, rightfully, mocking the bejesus out of us.

  9. @junior-wells I remember Warne and McGrath etc wearing bright white zinc sunblock during a particularly gloomy, cloudy English summer and us ridiculing them. But it turned out that they were doing it to encourage Aussie kids to be sun smart. Could that be the thinking behind the bucket hats?

  16. I was watching the footy for much of the first session – my Melbourne Storm thrashed the Parramatta Eels – thanks for asking.
    Re dull cricket. Is ir that we need big hitting constantly for a game to be engrossing? The tension and mind games of Test cricket are different to other forms of the game. Admittedly this may not be the same at the game where you don’t have close up views.
    The conditions must have been very difficult if you have lights on at 11 am and your bowlers are very good on your pitches. I do think they are winning the mental game.
    Having said all that we are pretty much square.
    I wonder also whether, having won the toss finally, Cummins erred in choosing to bowl.

  17. I wonder if, had England been 2-1 up with a draw needed to win the series, Stokes would have played for the win? Australia were awful to watch yesterday but Cummings has the chance here to do something previous captains like Ponting never did. Unfortunately they we so cautious they ended up neither scoring enough nor taking sufficient time out of the game.

    • Absolutely he would. Stokes knows his players. Imagine asking his batting line up to bat like Marnus? Duckett and Crawley will walk out today and play from ball one. We’ll either be 450-500 at the close or 150 all out by lunch. This is how it will be in India too. Can’t wait

  18. I wonder if bowling their own bowlers into the ground is a cunning plan by the Chuckle Brothers to avoid having the awkward “Jimmy, about your retirement” conversation.

    They won’t have to if he can’t walk.

    • In a way I admire him for not doing the obvious thing and announcing his retirement before the Old Trafford test. Most would have loved to walk off their home ground after that, and it would have given the commentators something to talk about on the last two days. But that’s not his way.

      I’m sure even he doesn’t think he’ll go to India in January or be back in the team a year from now.

  19. It was dark , the ball was swinging, England bowlers were very tight , the batters couldn’t even get off the strike. Why on earth wouldn’t you hunker down until conditions improve and the bowlers have tired?
    In the end, the scores are pretty much level so you can’t say it was a failure of a strategy.

    • It’s a tactic definitely. Marnus especially handed England the initiative in my opinion and could have left his team in a real pickle if the tail hadn’t wagged. That morning session took nothing out of England these guys can bowl all day. The contrast has created some fantastic stats though and an incredible tight series.

  24. Just watched All Blacks beat the Wallabies convincingly now this. Where would you like it Mr Crawley ? A bit shorter, a bit fuller? Leg side or off ? FFS Midsummer Murders is looking appealing the way things are going.

  28. And that’s the difference between Anderson and Broad. Jimmy just wants to bowl for England until he dies, not realising he’s played his last game. Broady knows he’s playing his best game, he’s got the Knighthood coming at Christmas and the Sky contract to follow. Now we know why the cameras were showing his missus as he came in to bat.

    I watched him destroy Australia that afternoon at The Oval in 2009 and frankly I wish him everything that’s coming his way.

    • I have said a lot of this on previous threads, but the effect on the team really needs some examination, but goes deeper than that.
      Losing Lyon was a critical loss, but Australia haven’t found a way to compensate. Murphy has actually done OK this game, and has played well for them elsewhere, so not trusting him much before this game was a mistake and over cautious. Australia have relied on Lyon for a long time – it has enabled them to rotate a world class seam attack at one end while the similarly world class Lyon whirls away for long spells at the other – but like many aspects, Australia have no plan B it seems. When bowling, they have been oddly very poor at times, and I’m sure this is because of how England have disrupted the approach to Test cricket. The lazy view is that England just come out all guns blazing, but they don’t do that at all. Australia thought they knew what was coming, but did they? Their analysis seemed fairly poor, and that translated into confused captaincy and an inability to change. England’s batting has become very flexible with an ability to just put the foot down when the opportunity or game situation demands. Australia are actually quite one dimensional with their batting and only seem to be able to play one way. England sorted most of them out with their plans, but the Australian batters seem a disjointed unit despite having, in theory, some of the best players in the world. Watching their first innings in this game they seemed to have no situation awareness and were caught between pushing on and protecting their wicket. Intriguingly, the lower order did better because, I think, much less is expected of them and they can play without fear of failure, which is exactly the England approach throughout the batting line up. In leadership terms, this is about giving people responsibility and letting them play the game as the situation and opportunity demands, and to go out there without worrying about getting out.

      Having banged on about all that, Australia have retained the Ashes. Assuming England win this game, I think it will feel like a Pyrrhic victory as they have been largely outplayed, especially after Lords. England have certainly made mistakes too, particularly in the bowling department, but have also been unlucky to lose Leach….and Jofra Archer! Imagine him playing with Wood in these matches.

      • “… particularly in the bowling department…”

        Eh? The three pivotal decisions that have seen the Ashes retained by Australia were all made by England when they had the bat in their hand.
        Declaration (0-1), not batting for ages after Lyon’s injury (0-2), and batting for 107.4 overs in what everybody knew a full week in advance was going to be a 3-Day game at Old Trafford (1-2).

        If the percentage of time spent batting/fielding is the same for the five Tests in the Indian heat (40-60?), England will be annihilated.

  30. Good observations Nigel. My comment regarding Lyon, is not just about the bowling though – Cummins could rely on him to hold down an end and strangle the opponent for runs so that they lash out against the quicks at the other end and are more likely to make a mistake. He is a general, he sings the song, he exudes positivity, a bit like Warnie and is part of the on-field strategy. Certainly there are others who assist Cummins on the field but they have had their demons to fight. And who would expect so many of the top order to be so unreliable? I have praised the English bowling many times but you’d still expect some to do better more often.
    The frustration in our strategy from the Aussies in the commentary box has been palpable ,but it is always easier and more obvious from there and the couch isn’t it?
    They are playing like they just want to go home. Worn out bowlers ,disheartened batters sick of so many tests jammed into such a short space of time, esp after the World Cup and ,probably, sick of being abused day after day. It would be great for a close ,exciting, sporting finish but I think this one might just fizzle.

    • For the record, I did mean that his loss had permeated the whole team and not just the bowling unit.

      Sometimes there seemed to be too many assisting Cummins in the field. I like him a lot – great bowler, of course, but also clearly a nice bloke and level headed. He has contributed enormously to this being a series pretty free of acrimony, besides the odd spat. I much prefer to see the game played in this spirit (actually, that is the ‘spirit of cricket’, not all that nonsense we heard a while ago) – it doesn’t mean it isn’t fiercely competitive, but the likes of Starc can have a laugh with the crowd and so on; it’s entertainment, not World War 3. However, a bowling captain at this level is tricky – to be an effective bowler on the field he has to be continually thinking about his own bowling, but Cummins has to switch to captaincy mode all the time. He hasn’t really captained that effectively for whatever reason. Give it to the charming Labuschagne!

      I take your point about commentators, but the coaches can see the same as they are seeing. As Nasser was saying, he thought Ponting was going to explode in the commentary box!

      Great to converse with Junior, btw.

    • It will be record, and by some margin, if they do. These are the successful run chases at this ground….(nicked from elsewhere obviously!).

      As far as the ongoing century is concerned, only England (2008) and Pakistan (2010) are the two teams to have successfully chased down a target at this venue in the fourth innings. While England had achieved the target of 197 runs against South Africa, Pakistan had chased down a 148-run target against the home team.

      S.No. Target Team Opposition Year
      1 263 England Australia 1902
      2 253 West Indies England 1963
      3 242 Australia England 1972
      4 225 West Indies England 1988
      5 204 England South Africa 1994
      6 197 England South Africa 2008
      7 173 India England 1971
      8 163 England South Africa 1951
      9 148 Pakistan England 2010
      10 143 England West Indies 1991

  39. Spare us the viking funeral.
    Lol.

    I wonder whether, in the continuing self aggrandising self congratulatory mode of this current English team, Broad thought if I announce now it will give the team extra motivation to win , to do it for Broady.

  41. Broad’s decision to launch his media career a day early does seem a little pompous now, the sort of bloated English pride thing that an Australian team would love to puncture by beating them. Anderson’s approach, wriggling out of Broad’s attempt to pre-retire him before the game was won, suddenly seems like the dignified exit.

    There’s going to be some soul-searching if Australia win 3-1, which incidentally is about the score may of us expected before the series. It’s been great to watch and Bazball may just save test cricket, but… a 3-1 defeat at home should have Captain and Coach updating their CVs. If you undervalue winning, and don’t use the appropriate tactics to ensure a win, it’s no longer a sport, it’s entertainment.

    • The flaw, if it is a flaw, with Bazball is that once you’ve whirred your way to, say, 300 for 4, you really should take it on to 450+. Too often, as per England’s second Oval innings, that hasn’t happened. Not everyone can be a Root or a Stokes.
      Saying that, I for one hope that days of watching/listening to a Test Match where “Play each ball on its merits, get yourself in, consolidate, no silly mistakes, that’s the fifth maiden in a row” are numbered. Somewhere between Bazball and Snailball is a sweet spot.

  43. In a remarkable irony, the last time Australia won a series in England, 2001, was also the year of the England v. Greece 2-2 draw.
    The similarities between the two England teams? Both celebrate minor victories like they’re major victories… and then someone else wins.

  44. New ball. WTF !!!!I flipped over from Women’s Footy World Cup to see old ball exchanged for “ equivalent” ball. The new Duke looked like it. Came straight out of the local sports store with the wrapper still on. What a joke.

  45. As an aside. It is tough going here. Over the last fortnight on free to air tv , not cable, we have had the regular rugby league and Aussie rules. Bledisloe Cup rugby union, Ashes, Women’s Football World Cup and the World Swimming Championship.oh yeah and the Tour de France.
    Lucky I am retired.

  46. Aussie commentators ropeable about that ball swap. The new one swung so much more. It was nothing like the one replaced. I, like them, find it unfathomable.
    Any case for the defence here? All very quiet.

    • Ponting was fulminating about it too, and I can understand that, because England got it swinging whereas the old one wouldn’t at all. There are other factors that cause swing and seam, like overhead conditions and humidity and so on, but it seems totally unpredictable from ball to ball. The ball looked much newer, but a newer ball isn’t guaranteed to be better – witness the fact that they didn’t take the new ball this afternoon, which normally would be pretty automatic. The England bowlers certainly made the most of it too and bowled brilliantly, and it’s also worth remembering Ali’s contribution which had little to do with the state of the ball. Having said all that, it can’t be beyond the wit of man to have more balls in different states to choose from.

      Are there conspiracy theories..?

  47. Look it is after midnight and I am stuck here watching a rerun of Stokes hitting us around the park at Lords. Hardly nice.
    Can anyone give any indication of when summer might resume otherwise I may have to retire before they resume.

  50. Great series, England should have won it hands down.

    How many of that bowling attack will be in India? There’s a reasonable chance it may be only Woakes, given retirements and Wood’s injuries and, as the problem the whole series has been the batting – Correction: the captaincy of the batting – and, although I never gamble, here’s a nod to anyone who does …

    Buy a couple of tabloids tomorrow morning, they’re great, plop them down on a Ladbrooks’ counter cricket side up, wax-lyrical on how great England are to bump up the odds, and lump on India 5, England 0 big-time … after all, it’s unlikely to rain.

  51. I’m so tired of the negativity around this England side. March 2022 they passively surrendered to West Indies losing by 10 wickets. Since then they’ve beaten everyone except the very best who they took right to the wire. This approach for these players is absolutely the way to go. Sibley and Burns anyone? These 5 tests have only been this way through England’s push the game forward approach. If they’d batted in a “traditional” manor and used the overs Australia did we would probably have had 5 bore draws. Win, lose or draw today this series will be remembered for many more reasons than the result. Two top teams, contrasting styles, sell out crowds, front page coverage, exhilarating cricket. Loved it.

  54. I think everyone agrees that that was a series for the ages.

    I was lucky enough to be pretty much able to watch it all (domestic duties allowing), but how much better would it be if this was available free to air. Now that would get youngsters into the test game!

  55. Two observations

    1. Really England won the series, given they were on top in the third test till the rain came
    2. Although Australia didn’t make the 384 target in this last test, 334 is a good fourth innings score anywhere

    • Yes and yes…OTOH if Oz had managed more in their first innings than 295 in 103 overs…looking at you, Labuschagne…

      Murphy clocked up 52 runs at no.10 and 6 for 132 – expensive, but he got the wickets. He should stay.

  56. OK, let’s get this out of the way then.
    Yes great series ,congratulations to England you played the far better cricket, saved Test Cricket, nay, saved the world. ….No stop that Junior.

    Congratulkations to England you won the match, our middle order failed us yet again and Woakes was very good.

    But I must take issue coz I was a bit confused – so from 2 matches where you lost but it felt like you won it is now being put that you “really” won the series because of well, rain and all that.So I went to the interweb for Test series results. Here they are https://www.espncricinfo.com/records/trophy/team-series-results/the-ashes-1

    Well blow me down. We had you on the ropes in 2005 until rain saved your bacon. Incredibly history records England won the series 2-1 out of 5 games. Incredibly, history has chosen not to take Saint Stuart’s advice and the 2021/22 series has not been voided but recorded as 4-0 out of 5 matches in Australia’s favour. And fuck me dead, it’s happened again! This current series is recorded 2-2 out of 5.
    It is almost like they are saying , it doesn’t matter who you selected or didn’t ,or who got injured and flew home, or whether a declaration was too late ,or whether a stumping was “sporting” or whether catches were declared dropped according to some arcane rule, or whether one captain could only manage one toss win out of 5 , or whether the clouds would cluster every time Australia padded up and part whenever they chose to bowl or that umpires would replace a worn ball with a red shiny one with the gold print still visible or a host of other things. The results are in. There are no moral victories, the series was drawn and Australia retained the Ashes.

    The self referentialism of England commentary including on here has been staggering. If we had done X then we would have won.Almost asserted as fact. Well, if you had done X then maybe we wouldn’t have done Y or even Z. And what if we had done B rahter than A? Hmm, well then England might not have done C. If we had won would it have been Stokes’ fault in stuffing up that catch? I don’t think so. The only situation I can recall right now is, sadly, when Nathan Lyon fumbled that return to the stumps right at the death of that match.

    See you in Oz when 2 very different squads will resume the contest. Bazball appeared to be developed due to a paucity of success with an orthodox strategy and one intended to match the temperament of England’s squad. It was touted as being all about entertainment and winning didn’t matter- especially when you lost. But it sure as heck seemed to matter once you did start winning and it seemed to matter incredibly at The Oval even though Australia had already retained the Ashes. I wonder how long it will continue, this Bazball thing, without the admittedly mightily impressive generalship of Stokes and the unblinking resolve of McCullum? I hope it continues. It is entertaining and, as has been observed so often already, the battle between this format versus orthodoxy has been fascinating.

    Regarding the Australian team – a few observations. Cummins was a brilliant bowler and a dab hand with the willow. He came into this series still grieving the loss of his mother, hot on the heels of the World Cup, loses our most important bowler in Lyon and then the Bairstow stumping pretty much changed the whole vibe of the tour. The experience may have tempered the steel of his skill and nerve as a captain or he might say “I am better off focussing on my bowling”. I assume Lyon will play on but Cummins won’t have the on-field stategy and positional advice of Smith and Warner for much longer.
    We had a lot of players who failed. Singular stand-out innings do not earn a passmark. Warner , Labuschagne, Head, Green. Scott Boland was meant to be our secret weapon but someone must have smuggled you the plans to this weapon before the series because, in the main, you countered him very readily. He is getting on so I am not sure he will be running in in 2 years time. Murphy was encouraging. A bit expensive but he is young competing in the cauldron of Ashes cricket. And he had the kahunas to take to your quicks on occasion.And Alex Carey was a standout. His first tour of England where so many keepers struggle to adjust to the different conditions he was catching while Jonny was dropping them. And made some critical runs-all the while receiving a torrent of abuse
    We have a few quicks that haven’t had a look in and for mine, Cameron Bancroft, yes that Bancroft, should be the new opener. I am optimistic of the prospects for the next iteration of the Aussie squad.

    So to reiterate, congratulations both teams on a great series. It was a challenge at times being the Lone Aussie on here for a lot of the time. Now, maybe, I can get some sleep.

    • I can sympathise with how lonely it must have felt as an Aussie on here Junior, and I agree with a fair few of your comments.

      My view, for what it’s worth, is that a draw is probably a fair result, and a real achievement by a squad of players who were humiliated over there less than two years ago. England should have won the series but threw away the first test and were too obsessed with not ducking the short ball to bat properly in the first innings at Lords. From an England perspective I am pleased that they seemed to have developed some moderation in the approach to batting and seem now to be prepared to dig in at times. The bowling was ok but the attack is well past its best (although Woakes bowled as well as I’ve seen him), and who knows who will be in the attack the next time we play you.

      I found some of the peripheral stuff around the England side embarrassing and self-aggrandising (bucket hats, not being a “results driven team”, Broad and bails, Broad’s retirement announcement, saviours of test cricket etc) and can fully understand why it wound up the Aussie players, press and supporters. But, notwithstanding all this, they are fantastic to watch and the results over the last 18 months are a staggering turnaround from where we were. So bucket hats off to Stokes and McCullum.

      As for Australia, I was surprised that the seamers (with the exception of Cummins) struggled a bit with the English approach and sprayed it around early in most innings. I thought Cummins’ captaincy on the field was very poor and allowed England to score at 5 an over without taking too many risks. And his thinking was so inflexible that this was still going on at The Oval. The batting just never really fired – Kuwaja played well throughout, Warner got starts and did better, I think, than the press around him has suggested, but Smith, Labuschagne and Head didn’t really impose themselves.

      Ultimately it was a great series that would have benefited from being over 8 weeks rather than 6, allowing more breaks for players and spectators alike. The Aussie players and press were, at best, sniffy about the “Bazball” approach at the start but had more respect for it by the end. And if the trajectories of each squad follow their current paths I fully expect us to beat you 4-0 over there in 25/26. LOL – as the kids say….

    • Good post Junes, if understandably a little spiky! Still can’t understand why Carey got quite so much stick, not really sure he did anything wrong.

      Be interesting to see how both teams evolve over the next few years. We will need to find some new bowlers for sure.

    • I think you’ve held up an end admirably Junior on what is a predominantly English site. Of course we look at where things could have been different. How many times has the McGrath ball interface been held up as reason England won in 2005? It’s obviously correct as was Kasprowicz not touching that last delivery before Billy Bowdens crooked finger went up? That’s sport. The barest of margins indeed.

      Someone asked BBC stats man Andy Zaltzman to do a boundary count back as in the 50 over world cup final. These frankly staggering stats are for you Junior. Bazball my arse. Enjoy

      Australia hit 370 boundaries (31 sixes, 339 fours) to England’s 346 (43 sixes, 303 fours)

  57. I took my grandson and an old schoolmate yesterday. What a series, what a day, great memories made. I’ve been able to watch pretty much all of the series on tv and yesterday was a fab way to finish it. I feel knackered after just watching it. The players must be exhausted. Thank you Broady et all.

  58. Nice piece here about the real star of the Ashes, who wasn’t picked for the games England lost, who won his personal series 2-0, who turned each of these games around, who was England’s player of the series (not that anyone would notice amid all the Braodhaha), and who has never been given the respect he deserves.

    https://wisden.com/series-stories/ashes-2023/forget-the-what-ifs-and-the-what-might-bes-and-revel-in-chris-woakes-ashes?fbclid=IwAR2-1tjR0KAKazk28DErG74F4M8JQST6l6nEwkycJmxgpUV400-aUvQWXkA

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