*Official* Fourth Test (Old Trafford, Manchester) 19-23 July

[Aidan11]

Looking at the ground there is no way there's any chance of cricket here.

If this was a county game it would have been called off ages ago.

 

[CricAddict]

Time to start thread and discussion for the fifth test. This test is over.

 

[Michelle Fivefer]

I live about a half-hour drive from O.T. Have just been out to the shops. The rain is coming down in diluvian proportions. It’s most unlikely that there’ll be any cricket today and the “start delayed” information is entirely superfluous.

 

[Spofforth]

So the Poms "threw away" a couple of tests.

Enjoying this.

 

[Kirkut]

Congrats Australia on 2-2 series scorecard and the urn.

Wait, 2-2? How? Some serious bazballing awaits in the 5th test.

Or Boland/Haze/Patty get their snipers right, bowl in the channel and make it difficult to score freely.

 

[Ashes81]

How many other sports let players play for 6 to 7 hours per day though? Especially fastbowlers?

They are not machines

I'm not talking about bowling more overs in the day, I'm talking about actually bowling the number of overs that should be bowled.

If weather doesn't intervene then at least 90 overs should be bowled in a day. If that takes 7 hours then tough - get through your overs quicker.

If the forecast for the end of the day is poor, start earlier. If the forecast is poor early on, start later and use the floodlights if necessary to bowl the overs.

The paying customer, whether that be at the ground or on TV isn't given enough consideration.

 

[Kirkut]

Crawley for man of the match with his dream knock.

But Labuschagne is my man of the match for seeing off the new ball and overcast skies in those 30 overs, those were perfect conditions for an innings victory.

 

[cnerd123]

I think there needs to be more flexibility in the playing conditions to allow start and finishing times to alter due to the weather.

This already exists. Play often gets started earlier or extended later to compensate for lost time. There are a couple of pages dedicated to this in the ICC Test Playing Conditions.

Can't do a thing if the rain doesn't stop tho

 

[loterry1994]

Man I can’t remember a more hollow draw in a while. I hope the aussies aren’t celebrating this retaining the ashes for now and knuckle down for the next few days and mentally ready for the last test

 

[Ashes81]

I can see the case for make up time but surely yesterday is proof enough that even the most ironclad forecast can't be minute-perfect and you can't be pre-emptively adding overs.

I'm not talking about adding overs. I'm talking about bowling 90 overs in a day.

There should be no cut off time - if conditions are OK, play on until the 90 overs are completed.

 

[Spark]

I'm not talking about adding overs. I'm talking about bowling 90 overs in a day.

There should be no cut off time - if conditions are OK, play on until the 90 overs are completed.

Yeah I'm for that, particularly in England - in most other places it wouldn't make much difference though because of light.

 

[chris.hinton]

Man I can’t remember a more hollow draw in a while. I hope the aussies aren’t celebrating this retaining the ashes for now and knuckle down for the next few days and mentally ready for the last test

too late David Warner is doing the worm

 

[andruid]

This already exists. Play often gets started earlier or extended later to compensate for lost time. There are a couple of pages dedicated to this in the ICC Test Playing Conditions.

Can't do a thing if the rain doesn't stop tho

Perhaps they start incorporating reserve days in test cricket like ODIs sometimes have. If the total number of over lost to bad weather exceeds a session then you carry a session over into day 6, up until a full day's play

 

[Ashes81]

This already exists. Play often gets started earlier or extended later to compensate for lost time. There are a couple of pages dedicated to this in the ICC Test Playing Conditions.

Can't do a thing if the rain doesn't stop tho

I'm not specifically relating it to this test. It's rained for 2 days solid more or less, there's not alot you can do to.counter that.

But for the first 3 days, play finished when 90 overs hadn't been bowled - that shouldn't happen.

Times of play are never moved as a pre-emptive measure - ie the forecast for the last couple of hours is very poor, so let's move the start time forward an hour to maximise playing time.

It's not rocket science.

 

[hazsa19]

Ffs. This **** and ****ing Harman 5 shots clear at the Open. What an anti climax

 

[Kirkut]

I'm not specifically relating it to this test. It's rained for 2 days solid more or less, there's not alot you can do to.counter that.

But for the first 3 days, play finished when 90 overs hadn't been bowled - that shouldn't happen.

Times of play are never moved as a pre-emptive measure - ie the forecast for the last couple of hours is very poor, so let's move the start time forward an hour to maximise playing time.

It's not rocket science.

That has more got to do with poor over rates from England bowlers on first day. Not sure if Australia was guilty of the same.

 

[loterry1994]

Yeah I'm for that, particularly in England - in most other places it wouldn't make much difference though because of light.

The problem with that also as someone said yesterday. That disadvantages the other team
Who’s not wasting time if they suddenly bowl them out then they have to bowl later in the day and stay out longer when they did nothing wrong. Which is a good point.

I said yesterday also I think ICC and mainly the umpires need to grow more stones. In areas regarding things like reducing players and captains from frequently stopping play and talking to their bowlers or whoever about tactics it happens like 15-30 times a day or when people ask for drinks or gloves more often etc. Those sorts of things waste like 5-10 overs a day already in my opinion. A bowler has a chat with their captain about tactics that’s like a ball being bowled of time wasted you times those chats by 20-30 a day that’s overs gone

 

[Spark]

That has more got to do with poor over rates from England bowlers on first day. Not sure if Australia was guilty of the same.

I think everyone is equally bad on this these days. Both Australia and India were taking the piss with their over rates during the WTC final.

 

[GIMH]

I can see the case for make up time but surely yesterday is proof enough that even the most ironclad forecast can't be minute-perfect and you can't be pre-emptively adding overs.

I was more thinking along the same lines as Ashes81, but if you add half an hour because of weather that never comes, can’t you just end the following day half an hour early?

 

[Spark]

I was more thinking along the same lines as Ashes81, but if you add half an hour because of weather that never comes, can’t you just end the following day half an hour early?

What if it's day 5?