As we’ve all been up against it with work amongst other things, we haven’t had the chance to post a preview for the game.
The Aussies are batting first and might well be looking to make hay against what looked like a completely toothless English attack against Scotland.
Feel free to comment on the game below:
Being Outside Cricket 
It’s a bizarre decision for Australia to bat first, because England are significantly better when chasing in ODIs. England’s loss in Edinburgh was the first time they’ve lost batting second this year in 5 games (including 2 against Australia), but they’ve lost 3 out of 6 games when batting first.
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The Aussies must have a lot of faith in their bowlers’ ability to get the ball swinging.
Can’t think why.
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I’d like to be the first one to say that the existence of this series is a complete travesty and this will be my first and last comment for its entire duration.
Cheers all.
ENJOY.
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I know I’ve drifted a little bit away from cricket recently due to work and family lives taking up most of my time – but I didn’t even realise that this match was on today!!
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So we’re not playing any Tests against Australia this summer, although we’ve just played some against Pakistan and there’s a five match series against India coming up. Do England get the Ashes if we win this ODI series? No?
Yes I know England need to prepare for the World Cup but that’s still literally a year away and nothing that happens in the next few weeks will necessarily have much direct relevance by then. A year’s a long time in cricket. So quite what is the point of shoehorning in these ODI’s? What are we playing FOR? What is the context? What cycle do they comprise a part of? I really can’t see a sporting reason for these games, especially as we toured Australia just a few months ago. Yet the ECB and broadcasters would presumably like us all to get behind the thing and act like we give a shit. It’s a little presumptuous of them, I have to say.
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They’re the ODIs from next year’s Ashes, so to speak. With both the ODI World Cup and Ashes next year in England, Australia wanted to cut the length of their tour. Obviously that would cost the ECB a lot of money though, so they agreed (along with Pakistan) to have Australia do their ODIs this year and Pakistan will have their ODIs (from this series) next year as a perfect warm up to the World Cup.
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Thanks for the explanation, Danny. I suppose that makes SOME kind of sense. Still not feeling a lot of enthusiasm though…
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…especially as the Aussies are taking the series so unseriously that (notwithstanding the sandpaper suspensions) they’ve sent over a fairly poor looking team.
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To be fair, Starc, Cummins and Hazelwood are injured.
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As Oscar Wilde might’ve put it, to lose one seam bowler may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose three looks like carelessness 🙂
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I thought their bowlers might blow up in the Ashes. But for that to happen England needed to bat them into the ground in the first three test matches. Like batting five sessions and putting 450-550 on the board.
Didn’t happen as our greatest living cricketer of all time averaged about twelve.
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According to the lunchtime discussion on TMS, this is NuAustralia, the revised, mindful, politely hand-shaking version.
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New Australia, New Danger (just need some devils eyes framed around Tim Paine)…
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In that case, I wonder what they said when Tim Paine did a fake stumping in the 16th over. A clear, wilful attempt by Australia’s captain to deceive Morgan, it should have been at a minimum 5 penalty runs. New Australia? Same old cheating Australia, I think…
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I am sorry, but does the Australian middle order even compare favourably to Zimbabwe’s?
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I’m sure at some stage during the series England’s bowlers will make them look the 1980s West Indies.
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I’m assuming the shinny new non sledging policy is not working.
Can’t see it lasting very long before normal service has been resumed. After all, channel nine has hired David Warner. The new cricket culture looks remarkably like the old cricket culture in the commentary box.
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Hard to say, they haven’t fielded yet. Willey did throw the ball at Maxwell though somewhat unnecessarily though.
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And, of course, scoring 150 or so less than Scotland against the same attack is hardly a position in which sledging would be likely to have any effect other than laughter.
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The team that got thrashed by Scotland vs the team packed with second string players who, as you say, could only manage 150 or so fewer runs than Scotland against the same England attack. Suddenly I feel quite drowsy. Wake me up when it’s over…
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Just turned on Sky, I see they have to have their now obligatory female commentator on the men’s game. No exceptions, all games must have a compulsory woman pundit. Is this a directive from the ECB or the politically correct Disney corporation which now owns Sky? They have destroyed the Espan coverage in the US with their endless politically correct sports coverage.
I wonder how many games in the football World Cup the BBC will foist it’s female commentator on? Can’t men just be allowed to have one little oasis escape from endless female interference? No wonder our ancestors created male only clubs. It was their only sanctuary.
No problem with woman playing sport or woman commentary on woman’s sport, but stop pushing this politically correct cultural Marxism agenda on every part of culture. It’s completely fake, and very obvious. Oh well, at least I have the mute button to blank out this nonsense.
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☺ Why do you need sanctuary when watching TV commentary? Even if the TV pundit is an obligation to political correctness, given that commentary on TV is not staffed by a set of Richie benauds, we can adjust and not worry so much about it.
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Sorry I am really confused by this ‘cultural Marxism’ comment.
Women watch, enjoy and comment on men’s cricket (hey Zeph, Elaine et al), so why shouldn’t they commentate on it? Surely a woman breaking into the Sky ex-England captains club is meritorious and provides a different view? I’m pretty sure that isn’t Marxism, cultural or otherwise.
Some of my favourite sports broadcasters are women, however it doesn’t really bother me regarding their gender as it’s irrelevent. The two worst pundits/commentators in my view (football) are Jacqui Oatley and Michael Owen. Both know loads about the game and they aren’t fakers, but I can’t bear listening to either of them. Not because of their gender, because their voices grate on me.
It’s not an edict from on high, it’s just a recognition that society is finally having regarding women’s roles, this is a positive thing in my view.
Plus you can always turn the volume down (my choice particularly when Michael Owen is droning on)
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I am happy to have a women commentator, they have lots at the IPL, but the one Sky use has a voice I find irritating, sadly. Mind you Gower is the Ultimate Drone and when he and Beefy are on I usually fall asleep.
I have to sayI have zero interest inthese ODI games at the moment. They seem totally pointless.
And, as a woman, I have trouble cou ting how many overs they have played…..
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There is an old joke about a gorilla that plays golf. He just smashes it down every fairway, and somehow the ball always manages to roll into the hole in one shot. Then, one day the ball finishes one foot from the flag, and everyone thinks he will tap in. Instead he takes out the driver and smashes it another 400 yards into the distance.
The joke being that he can only play one way, and actually has no idea what he’s doing. England’s batsman are like that gorilla. Whatever the target, they bat as though they have to score 375, even when they only need 215. Will they run out of wickets?
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Ali holes out on the boundary trying to score 18 in about 90 balls.
He said earlier in the week that he plays how he wants. I remember when another player said something similar.
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We do sometimes forget, though, what we were before we became a gorilla. We were barely lemurs.
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But at least we weren’t cheetahs like Australia…
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I agree Q. They may have their off days but it is an excellent team and favorites to win a lot more than they lose.
I always wish India wins every match they play so from that perspective, mark is spot on in feeling they need to do better. 😁
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I wouldn’t mind being re-born as a lemur, they’re very elegant in their own way. Endangered, though, so perhaps rather a risky choice.
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Madagaskar also has a virtually non-existent infrastructure too, so that’s another knock on being a lemur, zeph.
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Well, I wouldn’t be needing broadband much. I think they mainly converse in howls and yips.
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Lemurs or social media users?
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Afghanistan looked to be having a very tricky welcome to Test cricket earlier as India racked up 280-1, but turned it around with 5 wickets in the last session. Rashid Khan, spin bowler leggie extraordinaire, got battered around for 5 an over most of the day. To be fair, that would be a handy economy rate in the IPL.
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I followed the match from afar with great interest. I think one of the most telling aspects of the day was the improvement between the first two sessions and the third. Rashid, Mujeed and Wafadar are all under 20, so I think the future of Afghan bowling is on good hands. The batting probably depends a lot on young Rahmat Shah, and is shakier.
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Looks like Afghanistan will be bowled out twice in a day. Fourth time in the history of Test cricket that that would have happened (last time was Zimbabwe against New Zealand in 2005).
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Actually last time it happened was Zimbabwe to New Zealand, in 2012.
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A tough day, that. Honestly, reckon all of sri’s protestations about the Indian seam attack’s chances in England should be taken with a little pinch of salt. Impressive performance, helped of course by a fair bit of Afghan impetuosity. Having read the cricinfo article about the route the Afghan team have travelled, I don’t fear for their future. But they’ll have to learn how to bat long.
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I have not complained about the likelihood of our bowlers doing well. Rather surprisingly, we have a decent pace attack that can hurt any team. We also have a decent spin attack.
However, the problem is with the batsmen.
Dhawan, che, kohli do not inspire much confidence in me. The lower order batting is also nothing sensational.
Vijay, rahane are the only two I expect will not do too badly.
If only the fab 4/5 at their peak had this Indian bowling attack, we may have beaten even Oz at its best in Oz.
Our problem seems to be that either the bowlers are good or the batsmen when we travel away and never the two together. ☺
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