England v Australia, 3rd Test, Edgbaston, 29 July - 3 August, 2015

Smashed in 2.5 days - ferkin ordinary. Well done England.

Henry wrote:By the way- How good is Edgbaston? The atmosphere there for an Ashes test is unparalleled. The ECB are foolish (well we already know that) if they don't allocate a test there every year.

I haven't been to Edgbaston since the redevelopment, but it was always a good viewing ground from wherever you were sat.

Henry wrote:By the way- How good is Edgbaston? The atmosphere there for an Ashes test is unparalleled. The ECB are foolish (well we already know that) if they don't allocate a test there every year.

And how much are they going to lose because of the 3 day finish? Surely they will have to refund all the Saturday and Sunday ticket holders.

They won't lose anything. Apparently they're insured not only for the loss of gate receipts, but also for the loss of bar takings.

Good for them.

Brass Monkey wrote:They won't lose anything. Apparently they're insured not only for the loss of gate receipts, but also for the loss of bar takings.

It begs the question- Why can't EVERY test ground get this insurance? It would make it more likely that they will produce a decent pitch with something in it for the bowlers.

But this certainly wasn't a three day pitch. Some of the batting from both sides was awful. Most of the wickets were through terrible shots. If you could get through 30 overs of the new ball, it was a very good pitch for batting. It was by a long way the best pitch of the series so far.

I wonder who their insurer is

The premium will no doubt go through the roof next year, so they will produce an absolute pudding next time.

beamer wrote:The premium will no doubt go through the roof next year, so they will produce an absolute pudding next time.

They will still have to pay the premium if they want to be insured regardless of what pitch is prepared. I am assuming that the insurance was probably more to cover days lost to rain anyway. In any event I don't think the pitch is the villain of the piece.

Yeah I don't know the ins and outs of it, just something on cricinfo. But as both above have said, it wasn't the fault of the pitch... Collectively it was an absolute shambles of Test match batting. Some  atrocious dismissals. Amateurish on both sides. I think T20 is really kicking in. Exciting to watch at times, but flabby at best.

I just meant that if they have claimed once, the price of the insurance will go up and if they claim two years running they may be uninsurable, which is why a bore draw pitch might still be on the menu for next year.

That's what I got the first time.

WGAF shitbricks. GFY

Warne and McGrath are looking pretty stupid right now. Both predicted an easy win for the tourists back in May. Well the best case scenario is by one test and that's looking decidedly shaky.

There was a lot of 'easy Australian win' predicting here, too, before the series.

Mostly by English forumers!

lardbucket wrote:There was a lot of 'easy Australian win' predicting here, too, before the series.

Mostly by English forumers!

Not me.

Well, it always seemed the most likely outcome that the Aussie pacemen would blow us away, especially with the scars of 13-14 still visible for many of the players and a few not yet established or out of form.

As in 2013 over here though, it's a battle of two fairly brittle batting line-ups, and which one will crumble first. There was always a chance their batsmen would struggle to adapt to English conditions.

Ooh beamer you negged me. I was turning over your new leaf!

lardbucket wrote:There was a lot of 'easy Australian win' predicting here, too, before the series.

Mostly by English forumers!

I said a rational assessmentt - because nobody can really predict with any certainty - would either 3-1 or 2-1 to Australia, depending on the weather.

That's already wrong in terms of England wins (tho 3-2 to Oz is of course still possible) - but I don't think I made a mistake. Rational judgments are based on form, assessments of previous experience, relative morale/purposiveness, etc. Not on intuitive hunches, hopes, water-divining or doom-mongering.


And I only jinx or counter-jinx in a sort of ironic/defiant dudgeon against someone here (usu JGK) doing so to an outrageous/abysmal degree.

Anyone recall what the bookies were giving before the series?

Brass Monkey wrote:Ooh beamer you negged me. I was turning over your new leaf!

Can you tell who voted a post up/down?

Monkehh is a computer wiz. He can extrapolate anything with magic keystrokes and a screwdriver.

PeterCS wrote: He can extrapolate anything with magic keystrokes and a screwdriver.

most chicks need more than one screwdriver. but i suppose if the key strokes are magic enough the booze isnt that important

beamer wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:Ooh beamer you negged me. I was turning over your new leaf!

Can you tell who voted a post up/down?

Not that I know of. You can tell who sends out the neg reps generally, and who doesn't, though.

Apparently* this was the first Ashes test that England has won since 1909 where none of its batsmen faced 100+ balls in an innings.