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Sport Cricket Summer 2025

Good series between two talented but deeply flawed teams. 2-2 probably the right result, but I can't help thinking that if England has played just a *little* more conventionally at times, we would have won. Australia will most likely wallop us - not sure I fancy waking up to the overnight scores.

The last home test this year (due to the stupid Hundred b*****s), but the football is back!
 
Mateo Corbo's Tackle said:
England threw wickets away BUT…

The umpire can’t call Overton out. It’s too tight, and he knew it. Call it not out, let India request the inevitable review and they will see it’s missing.

I’m not saying it would have changed the outcome, but it could well have done.
Click to expand...

Kumar Dharmasena went with the appealing, and took an age, but buckled under pressure.
 
Mateo Corbo's Tackle said:
England threw wickets away BUT…

The umpire can’t call Overton out. It’s too tight, and he knew it. Call it not out, let India request the inevitable review and they will see it’s missing.

I’m not saying it would have changed the outcome, but it could well have done.
Click to expand...
I agree that was a key decision. I couldn’t believe the call to give Atkinson out just after which was missing by two stumps.
I still think that Brook and Bethell dismissals were the critical turning point.
 
Sums up Bazball really. Brilliant to watch, undeniably entertaining, and Root just on another level. But lacking the real merciless tough streak, strategic nous and cold-blooded decision-making to truly be a dominant, conquering test match team.

Brook not realising the job was more than three quarters done and/or being unable to go back down the gears to see it home. Bethell getting to 30 balls, then deciding to have a hack rather than playing for Root. Smith wafting a wide one he had no reason to play at this morning. In isolation none of those instances are inexplicable; Brook was brilliant to get us into a strong position, Bethell has hardly played all summer, and by the time it got to Smith this morning the pressure was white hot. But that is kind of the point. This England team are lovely to watch. But they are a team full of luxury players who don’t have any gears or subtlety to their game. They play ‘their way’ and it either works or doesn’t. And that’s why we either win or lose - and are consistent only in our inconsistent ability to win despite being compelling viewing.

(Although I think Australia are also pretty flawed, and this winter’s Ashes will be a similarly thrilling, evenly matched battle where both teams frequently spurn golden opportunities to go for the jugular)
 
You can break it down to little moments but these happen to every side most of the time, its never going to be faultless. But this is just what this team is, not got 11 players good enough to be dominating test cricket, doesn't seem like there is much more out there to come in either. If you are a great team Crawley doesn't get to 50 plus test caps, Pope isn't vice captain, you have a good spinner and you have some quality fast bowlers who can be fit most of the time. Those are some pretty glaring gaps that changing style and minimising mistakes in the field are not going to cover over.

We are a good but not great, entertaining team who will beat most at home, can get close to beating the Aussies and Indians, 50/50 away against most sides apart from the big two who will turn us over.

To get more than that we need better players.
 
Mateo Corbo's Tackle said:
England threw wickets away BUT…

The umpire can’t call Overton out. It’s too tight, and he knew it. Call it not out, let India request the inevitable review and they will see it’s missing.

I’m not saying it would have changed the outcome, but it could well have done.
Click to expand...
Absolutely it was a really long wait for the finger to go up.

Also a bit later the LBW shout when we had run a leg bye chalked off because it went to 3rd umpire. Yesterday claiming the catch off the bump ball which took forever when the ball clearly hit the deck after passing the bat whether it was hit or not.

Don’t like playing India. They were trying to change the ball yesterday and in the past we have played test series here without 3rd umpire reviews because they didn’t want it.

Them and Pakistan are serial cheaters. I worked in a bookies call centre where a lot of Asian cricket fans were putting bets on after the ball was bowled as they were getting pictures through quicker than we were.
 
I think the loss of Broad and Anderson together with the injury prone Stokes, Archer and Wood were a big loss.

I do think we retire players too early when they are still holding form. I hope we don’t make the same mistake with Root.

Pope is not vice captain material. Going to Australia I would give it to Root because if Stokes is injured for the Ashes we are going to get some heavy defeats.
 
SSO said:
I think the loss of Broad and Anderson together with the injury prone Stokes, Archer and Wood were a big loss.

I do think we retire players too early when they are still holding form. I hope we don’t make the same mistake with Root.

Pope is not vice captain material. Going to Australia I would give it to Root because if Stokes is injured for the Ashes we are going to get some heavy defeats.
Click to expand...

Didn't Broad retire himself? Anderson was starting to look a pale version of himself as well. Everyone retires sometime, but we don't appear to have much coming through. Wood and Stokes are 36 and 34, coming to the end even if they were not injury prone (can't see either playing much longer). Root is 34 as well, in 3 to 5 years time unless we find some more players we will look back at this time quite fondly.
 
holdsteady said:
You can break it down to little moments but these happen to every side most of the time, its never going to be faultless. But this is just what this team is, not got 11 players good enough to be dominating test cricket, doesn't seem like there is much more out there to come in either. If you are a great team Crawley doesn't get to 50 plus test caps, Pope isn't vice captain, you have a good spinner and you have some quality fast bowlers who can be fit most of the time. Those are some pretty glaring gaps that changing style and minimising mistakes in the field are not going to cover over.

We are a good but not great, entertaining team who will beat most at home, can get close to beating the Aussies and Indians, 50/50 away against most sides apart from the big two who will turn us over.

To get more than that we need better players.
Click to expand...

Agree with this, but we're not going to find them if we keep giving Test after Test to players who have shown that they're not quite good enough to play for a truly top team. Crawley and Pope are the two most obvious examples, but this summer we played Woakes (well past his peak) and Carse (not quite good enough) far too much. Can't help the suspicion that we might have won the 4th Test with Atkinson and Tongue in there instead of those two (yes, Tongue is utterly wild, but he does bowl wicket-taking deliveries in amongst the dross) instead of only taking two wickets in the last five sessions!


Otherwise, I'm just going to repeat what I usually do, and point out that 2022 under Stokes/Baz was utterly glorious. The home series wins against South Africa & New Zealand, the amazing 3-0 thumping of Pakistan on their turf.

In the two and a half years since then, we've had one good series win (in NZ this past winter). Other than that, we've been thumped in India, lost a series in Pakistan we probably shouldn't, drawn three series (2023 Ashes, 2023 in NZ and this one) that were there for the taking and we've beaten a couple of club sides at home.

It's a poor record. Stokes & Baz should be on notice in Oz this winter.
 
Last edited:
Whingit said:
Bethel and Smith are who I blame. Great series though.
Click to expand...

Bethel should never have been put in a position where he had to come in with the series on the line having barely played a first class innings all year. He looked so out of touch, it's insane!

He should have either been brought back early from the IPL and played all summer, as a chance to build on his great start in NZ.

Or we should have been playing Ahmed instead.

That one was on Baz and Stokes.
 
SSO said:
I think the loss of Broad and Anderson together with the injury prone Stokes, Archer and Wood were a big loss.

I do think we retire players too early when they are still holding form. I hope we don’t make the same mistake with Root.

Pope is not vice captain material. Going to Australia I would give it to Root because if Stokes is injured for the Ashes we are going to get some heavy defeats.
Click to expand...
Brook will almost certainly be the next taxi on that rank.
 
I thought the rule changes were bad enough in The Hundred but now it seems subs are being allowed to bowl (and keep wicket) in the Metro Bank Cup... :)

1756125031406.png
 
Mike_H said:
I thought the rule changes were bad enough in The Hundred but now it seems subs are being allowed to bowl (and keep wicket) in the Metro Bank Cup... :)

View attachment 30642
Click to expand...
Well in the men's game they can't, it follows standard 'List A' regulations, and I thought the Women's competition was the same. I was going to suggest that it could be a concussion sub, which could keep or bowl, but having 2 concussion subs for the fielding team in the first innings seems very unlikely. So no idea what is going on there.
 
I think the scorer went for a quick wee/cuppa/snooze and came back to find there had been a wicket but had no idea who had taken it, so was going to catch up a few balls later. Or else the opposition scorer disappeared and he/she had no idea who the other side's players were. Been there and done it myself!! But not seen it on a BBC scorecard before now.

1756134068000.png
 
Like most on here, I am not a huge fan of the hundred ( although the crowds of young people qnd finances it brings into the game are probably a good thing).

Just looking at thd scores and Sam Curran seems to have become some batsman Rehan Ahmed has been a teriffic bowler AND batsman.
And Joe Root- what a player he is. He is scoring at far more than a run a ball, is opening and seems to be having a big impact on hundred games now!
 
Foley said:
Like most on here, I am not a huge fan of the hundred ( although the crowds of young people qnd finances it brings into the game are probably a good thing).

Just looking at thd scores and Sam Curran seems to have become some batsman Rehan Ahmed has been a teriffic bowler AND batsman.
And Joe Root- what a player he is. He is scoring at far more than a run a ball, is opening and seems to be having a big impact on hundred games now!
Click to expand...
... and given his improvement with the bat, I find it difficult to understand why Sam Curran has disappeared off England's radar after being player of the tournament when England won the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022.
 
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