England v Australia, 5th Test, The Oval, 27-31 July, 2023

Nath wrote:

beamer wrote:

horace wrote:Neser deserves a crack and hopefully Murphy is better used by Cummins.

I hope Ussie finds his best after a quiet OT. Who knows, maybe his idiot opening partner will make a rare contribution... of course pigs are more likely to fly in formation over The Oval.

He will make a double and book his place for 2025/26

we'll need to crowdfund for a rubber room for horrie if both happen.

Broad needs an incentive to stick around and chase down Jimmy, Warnie and Chuck.

He must have steel knees and ankles (like Jimmeh).

I played a reasonably high level of district cricket and was pretty fit, and by age 32 my knees and ankles where really feeling the pinch of bowling and fielding so I decided I'd had enough of the pain each summer. And I certainly didn't have a run up even as long as Jimmeh's (let alone Sturat's) as a medium pace bowler.

So I remain amazed at Jimmeh and Sturat's longevity.

horace wrote:Neser deserves a crack and hopefully Murphy is better used by Cummins.

I hope Ussie finds his best after a quiet OT. Who knows, maybe his idiot opening partner will make a rare contribution... of course pigs are more likely to fly in formation over The Oval.

Koaja has failed 4 out of 8 innings (6 out of 10 if you count the WTC) 

GCS has failed in 3 out of 8 innings (4 out of 10 if you count the WTC) 

Koaja is flattered by 1 innings ...GCS has failed to go big and is hampered by being Broad's bunny

24 hours … looking forward to this one

Let's hope Aus makes a decent fist of it.

England unchanged. Very harsh on Tongue to be carrying drinks again. Jimmy not opting for a fanfare send-off, maybe still eyeing up 700 and Warne’s mark. Surely we don’t take him to India even if he gets the best part of six months off before then, but he will probably sense easy pickings from two relative minnow home opponents next summer. Let’s just hope we don’t end up stuck in a situation where he can’t bring himself to retire and the selectors can’t bring themselves to drop him, to the detriment of everyone.

beamer wrote:Let’s just hope we don’t end up stuck in a situation where he can’t bring himself to retire and the selectors can’t bring themselves to drop him, to the detriment of everyone.

Too late.

He should have been made 12th here.

lardbucket wrote:

beamer wrote:Let’s just hope we don’t end up stuck in a situation where he can’t bring himself to retire and the selectors can’t bring themselves to drop him, to the detriment of everyone.

Too late.

Could be a couple of years of it, easily. He still feels he’s up to it fitness-wise and has just had one of those series where things haven’t gone his way…

Anyone seen pics of the wicket yet?

Aussie mail is that Murphy will be recalled and Green left out.

we won the toss, unbelievable~

Pat finally calls right. We are bowling.

Hmm, India got it wrong in the WTC Final by sending us in at this ground, as did Tim Paine in this fixture 4 years ago.

Smacks of protecting the Grub.

And continued lack of confidence in the Steaming Great Murphy....

we suck. should have batted

Poor session so far for Aus.

Warner - can't bat, can't catch.

On another day Smudge's drop would've stuck.

Except for a great 15 minutes either side of drinks, it was a poor session by Aus.

It took them 55 minutes to realise that length balls were not the go on this deck. They then put together a brilliant spell of 3-11 with fast short-of-a-length stuff to grab hold of the game.

Alex Carey then dropped a 3-1 result for Aus when he went one handed at a nick from Brook (on 6) off Cummins.

Aus then bizarrely reverted to a full length which Brook took full toll of.

Brook now looks on-song for a big innings.

At 3-73 Aus was on top (should've been 4-80), but they've let that slip to 3-131 at Lunch.

embee wrote:

horace wrote:Neser deserves a crack and hopefully Murphy is better used by Cummins.

I hope Ussie finds his best after a quiet OT. Who knows, maybe his idiot opening partner will make a rare contribution... of course pigs are more likely to fly in formation over The Oval.

Koaja has failed 4 out of 8 innings (6 out of 10 if you count the WTC) 

GCS has failed in 3 out of 8 innings (4 out of 10 if you count the WTC) 

Koaja is flattered by 1 innings ...GCS has failed to go big and is hampered by being Broad's bunny

And Koaja was dropped early in innings a couple of times.

skully wrote:On another day Smudge's drop would've stuck.

Smith takes a lot of catches and some really good ones, but he has dropped quite a few too, more than the sort of players who are rated as really good catchers.

You're a barrel of joy, Red.

Red wrote:



And Koaja was dropped early in innings a couple of times.

You can always rely on somebody to bring up that factoid....nine times in ten there's a bit of a sook floating in the background, somebody is making a point that would have more convincing stats behind it IF the catch had not been dropped, so is trying to argue as such.

Australia were crap for 90% of that sesh.

Murphy has started OK.

Starc knocks Stokes over....well done fellas, that's two guys who can hardly walk you've managed to get out in the last half hour

and now Murphy’s off … not sure that’s a great call

Haze proves me wrong. Bye bye Jonny.