*Official* 2nd Test (Brisbane) 4-8 December

[Ju7]

A few points I want to make:

1. All very interesting and valid comments from everyone in here especially about England and "which direction they take" (or similar words) for the rest of this Ashes series.

2. A few comments suggesting that a lot of England's batsman are not able to change their game and put a high price on their wicket. Isn't the cornerstone of batting all about defence? Defence in regards to batting is taught at an early age. Surely England's batters can adjust accordingly? You can not possibly do Bazball regularly - it doesn't work. High reward but it brings high risk.

3. Before I became an umpire, I used to play. Me along with the rest of my team got the same messaging from our coach "Bat out the overs, work the singles and put the bad ball away" Nice simple cricket. Nice simple batting - effective too. The messaging was simple. Why can't England adopt a similar approach. Clearly Bazball isn't working and may not work against the better Test teams in world Test cricket. Their mindset and shot selections have been horrific so far this series.

4. Finally, Dom Sibley.....what happened to him? He was an old fashioned Test opening batsman, a grinder. He hasn't played Test cricket for England in like 3 or 4 years? Why is that? Not good enough? Not rated? He averages 28 in Test cricket. Obviously not suited to Bazball? How has he been going in domestic cricket/First-Class cricket back in England? Better player now than 4 or 5 years ago? I ask about Dom Sibley because back in 2014/2015 he played for Midland Guildford Cricket Club in Western Australian Premier Cricket in 1st Grade and he played in some of the games that I umpired. Good player and a nice guy too. At least when he opened, he put a high price on his wicket, something England batters need to do more of. They could do with him opening right now for England (if he has been performing in domestic cricket back in England).

Cheers.

Pope and Crawley do not have sound defensive techniques to rely on.Even if they were asked to play more circumspectely they wouldn't be upto it at Test level.

 

[kevinw]

Pope and Rahul seem quite similar bats to me. Both average mid -30s after 60 tests but at least based on memory the latter plays many,many more pivotal innings. Has Pope played a strong innings in adversity besides the one in Hyderabad - possibly in Saf early in his career when he and Sibley looked like potentially good test batters.

 

[Spark]

Pope and Rahul seem quite similar bats to me. Both average mid -30s after 60 tests but at least based on memory the latter plays many,many more pivotal innings. Has Pope played a strong innings in adversity besides the one in Hyderabad - possibly in Saf early in his career when he and Sibley looked like potentially good test batters.

I don't know if I agree with this at all tbh. Pope is anything struggling for air with his mid-30s average. Meanwhile any time I see Rahul play a substantial innings I struggle to believe he doesn't average mid-40s, he has the most rock solid technique in the international game imo (at least against seam), he just oozes quality when he actually gets set. Just doesn't cash in/seems to have a poor mental game

 

[wellAlbidarned]

I don't know if I agree with this at all tbh. Pope is anything struggling for air with his mid-30s average. Meanwhile any time I see Rahul play a substantial innings I struggle to believe he doesn't average mid-40s, he has the most rock solid technique in the international game imo (at least against seam), he just oozes quality when he actually gets set. Just doesn't cash in/seems to have a poor mental game

Rahul consistently gets thrown hospital passes (e.g. hey bro can you open in Australia against one of the strongest new ball attacks of all time) and has done astonishingly well for a guy who barely knows where he'll be from 1 to 7 in any given month.

 

[Kraken]

Purely on the eye test, Rahul is a clearly better stick than Pope imo

 

[Johan]

Rahul comfortably better than Pope on the eye-Test, Pope is an imbecile who chases everything he can leave, and has a bigger bat-pad gap than the English Channel. He is a representation of everything wrong with the English First-class structure.

 

[kevinw]

I'd be curious to assess the quality of their big scores. From what I recall of Pope he basically stat pads against minnows.

 

[Johan]

I'd be curious to assess the quality of their big scores. From what I recall of Pope he basically stat pads against minnows.

I posted it a few days ago I think, but he averages 31-32 in the Bazball period without minnows.

 

[Ju7]

Rahul has developed as a Test player Pope hasn't.
Pope is like Monty - plays the same innings every time.

 

[Anthony Clayden]

Has the ICC let England off for the slow over rate penalty in the second test?

 

[Molehill]

Has the ICC let England off for the slow over rate penalty in the second test?

It looks like they haven't been, although they absolutely should have under the rules. But I wonder if the ICC have finally realised that their rules are ridiculous and this match highlighted them perfectly. Australia actually bowled at a slower rate, but would have avoided a fine because neither England innings went beyond 80 overs (although both came close). They'd have ended up fining the losing team who bowled at a faster rate than the winning one.

I wonder if changes could be coming again soon.....

 

[Coronis]

I’m also confused with D/N matches, there should be absolutely no reason not to make up the overs, right?

 

[Molehill]

I’m also confused with D/N matches, there should be absolutely no reason not to make up the overs, right?

Probably not. Imagine the over rate in the first 2 sessions if you know every over has to be bowled later under the lights…

 

[Victor Ian]

They should do a night test. When we play India that would put the viewing in their prime time. When we play england it would make them able to watch in the day - when we play NZ its a big FU! And then you could make up all the overs you need because it's all under lights. Or maybe the sun is probably coming up in the last session so you want to minimise that as it is best for batting. So get all your overs in on time up front.

 

[honestbharani]

When we play India that would put the viewing in their prime time.

tbh it just makes it the usual 9:30 to 4:30 or something. Personally I like the early morning starts of the Australia tests. There is something about waking up at 5:30 AM in the winter to watch tests in Australia. It feels more special than it probably should, maybe coz of nostalgia.