Australia v England, 1st Test, Brisbane, 8-12 December, 2021

Never quite sure whether it’s politically driven or just your dislike of certain individuals, though Blowers was the last of the old-school toffs in the commentary box so that era has ended even if some of its traditions endure.

You were probably right on Vaughan with hindsight, not that I ever massively took to him as a personality or broadcaster. He will always be a legendary England captain though, whatever else surfaces, even if I saw someone say his whole post-playing career was built on McGrath stepping on that ball. Harsh but arguable And Aggers will always be the voice of cricket in my eyes (or ears) even if he is a bit holier-than-thou at times. Swann and Tufnell are entertaining in smallish doses…

Anyway, all of the aforementioned in their prime would probably improve the current England team. Even Blofeld (who did nearly accidentally play a Test once!)

PeterCS wrote:One giggle I had was at ChappellI.

Is he starting to go round in ever-decreasing circles?

"But England are not completely out of this yet. Scrape their way to 200, and it could still be a competitive total on this. BUT THEY'LL HAVE TO BOWL WELL ... AND CATCH WELL...."

He was summariser for the last +/- 20 mins before lunch, and summed up play to that point at the interval....  And he repeated the above, with variations of this or that word, but always exactly the same phrases I've put in capitals, AT LEAST SIX TIMES

Crappelli is a turd on a stick.

WideWally wrote:Could be some bad weather arriving shortly although it is probably going south of the Gabba. WideWallyWorld is about to cop a storm but we are 45km south of the Gabba.

59 mm fell at Pullenvale in about an hour

Sadly one woman lost her life when her car was swept away in a flash flood

Day 1 was a great experience. I’m in for day 2 as well.

QLD police tweet v premature ... wait until both sides have batted!!

MrK just posted (on another medium) a Rick Findlay stat showing there have been 233 openers with 20 Tests or more and Harris is 223 on the average list. Very average

Meanwhile GCS dodges a bullet - bowled off a no ball.

Excellent session for Aus.

A very hard working 100 partnership between GCS and Shrapnel. Early toil is now bearing fruit.

England bowled pretty well without luck.

Stokes paid the penalty of bowling 4 no balls in a row. Seems injured as well. Other than Robinson it is hard to think of a better arsehole.

GCS very lucky (5th time he has survived off a noey) but Marnus has looked good. Advantage to the good guys at Lunch.

Marnus chucks away an Ashes ton to a Leach long hop.

Ugh. Marnus's soft wicket brings 2.

Lazy waft by Smudge to Wood.

Fortunately Head is having one of his good days....and Stokes a shocker

no wonder cricket fans get frustrated. extra hour of play (possible 98 overs) and they only bowl 84 overs.

Cracking final session.

It started out very shitty with England taking 3 for 6, but then Blowie went to work.

He looked dusty for the first 10 runs and then exploded. What a fantastic knock. I hope it's the making of him as a Test player.

England looked sick and sorry at the end of the day. Stokes is not fit, Robinson broke down, Woakes and Wood were very tired and Leach is just rubbish.

Well played Dick. It seems only Wood late on had a plan for getting him out, retired hurt…

Game and series done already I think, they could declare overnight and get it done with by tea. At least we can freshen up our attack for the next match with young Anderson and Broad…

Another good day.

Root's go slow tactics are a disgrace. The twelve unbowled overs should see massive fines.

They tried to accelerate the over rate by bowling a spinner at one end, but the bastard Oz batsmen kept hitting him into Moreton Bay.

If Bobby Skilton had been commentating, the England pace attack could have been the second Three W's: Wood, Woakes & Wobinson.

Great day to be at the ground.

Head looked like complete rubbish for his first 10-15 mins, fiddling outside off stump, then just belted everything until a couple of false shots in the 90s. Appalling over rates, a very nasty Beamer at the end of the day, and two pathetic pitch invaders were the other memorable events. Warner played and missed 20 times never mind the 4-5 chances he gave ...

Where’s this sodding rain got to?

skully wrote:

PeterCS wrote:One giggle I had was at ChappellI.

Is he starting to go round in ever-decreasing circles?

"But England are not completely out of this yet. Scrape their way to 200, and it could still be a competitive total on this. BUT THEY'LL HAVE TO BOWL WELL ... AND CATCH WELL...."

He was summariser for the last +/- 20 mins before lunch, and summed up play to that point at the interval....  And he repeated the above, with variations of this or that word, but always exactly the same phrases I've put in capitals, AT LEAST SIX TIMES

Crappelli is a turd on a stick.

Too busy batting ineptly to hear the message...or did they just ignore the advice of a senile old qunt

Think I’d missed the fact that Jon Lewis FFS is now England’s bowling coach! FFS…

Aye.

Leach FFS deserves a Glossary entry. He was dreadful.

skully wrote:Aye.

Leach FFS deserves a Glossary entry. He was dreadful.

Sounds like he was thrown to the wolves a bit on a pitch that didn’t suit, and they decided to smash him out of the attack.

Given he’s clearly the best option we had, though, I doubt we’ll see a specialist spinner picked for England again in this series. Perhaps we should give up on the idea of playing one anywhere outside Asia. Root can bowl a few overs when required.

horace wrote:Another good day.

Root's go slow tactics are a disgrace. The twelve unbowled overs should see massive fines.

Not sure if fines are still a option , but they will most likely lose points from the Test Championship table.

Interesting day , Warner must be the charmed batsman in world cricket but still couldn't muster triple figures, Marnus looked in good touch until getting out to long hop.
Then the all to predictable middle order collapse got England back into the game, until Head went into 20/20 mode and after a scratchy start bludgeoned a century in a session.

Blackadder wrote:

horace wrote:Another good day.

Root's go slow tactics are a disgrace. The twelve unbowled overs should see massive fines.

Not sure if fines are still a option , but they will most likely lose points from the Test Championship table.

Can we end up negative? Get relegated to play Namibia and Papua New Guinea?