The Ashes: Perth.

[budgetmeansbudget]

If Mitch Marsh is scoring like this, Id have to guess the par score was 9000

Or England's bowlers are shite.

We go on about the batters, but the bowlers have been pretty poor in this series as well, except for the odd session.

The fielding has been average too.

Stokes wouldn't have made a jot of difference either.

Psyched out from the start, they were clearly worried about another humiliation before the series started, and it looks like being one.

[sussexpob]

England's bowlers are constantly on the back foot, and almost constantly bowling knowing that they have to win games themselves. That places a lot on that corp of bowlers. Take for instance here, the natural instinct is to bowl tight and grind teams out with attrition, but with 400 runs on the board you are well under par, you have to try to be overtly aggressive, and when that happens on a pitch and outfield like this, you can go for runs at uncontrollable pace. Smith ground down the England line up, and once the tide starts to turn you are placed in a position where its difficult to know what to do; at 300-4, on this pitch, are you trying to restrict, or do you hunt wickets desperately?

As I said, give them 550-600 to bowl at, the added pressure helps buy wickets as each Aussie coming in knows a failure is hurting them getting to the target. Whens the last time our bowlers had a nice buffer to bowl at, or werent being asked to win the game from nothing?

It takes its toll.

[sussexpob]

Either way, England have forced opportunities in all three test matches to take the upper hand, and have been beaten to the punch in every one. There is a terminal problem with this team, once the opposition react and up their game, they are unable to do the same. Malan and Bairstow set the platform to win this game or at least put severe pressure on the Aussies, and in the blink of an eye it was gone. We looked all odds to carve a lead at Brisbane, even a decent one, and got thrashed. At Adelaide we had them 200-6 and the rest put on 250 for 2 wickets. Put simply, we have been given opportunities in every game and taken nothing.

Its pretty shameful to see someone like Pat Cummins bat and look better than most of our top order. He has scored two critical 40s, in both looking assured to be able to bat time and take the sting out of the game. Who does that for us? When a batsman makes a score for us, hes probably smashing every ball, edging all over the place, riding his luck

[meninblue]

England has two of the most experienced strike bowlers pacers in test format right now. Somehow they are failing to pick wickets when conditions are batting friendly. Jimmy was outstanding in the test when conditions suited him. This test in batting friendly conditions , Jimmy as well as Broad flopped even though they have so much experience. Off course Aussies batting is stronger on paper as well as on field. Without Cooks doubles they cannot fight with Smith's doubles. If Cook continues to flop England will flop. The 100's and 50's are not enough to match Smith's doubles or big tons. England's top scorer has to be in form to erase out Smith's runs. Bad for England that he isn't scoring and Jimmy and Broad are flopping as well. The seniors haven't put on a good show.

[sussexpob]

The seniors haven't put on a good show.

Just wondering what you expect of England's seamers on three pitches that havent done a great deal? At Brisbane they reduced Australia to 320 on a flat, lifeless bowl with no pace or movement from the pitch. At Adelaide they bowled out Australia for under 200. These are opening, but I dont see the batsman making one par innings as yet.

[meninblue]

The seniors haven't put on a good show.

Just wondering what you expect of England's seamers on three pitches that havent done a great deal? At Brisbane they reduced Australia to 320 on a flat, lifeless bowl with no pace or movement from the pitch. At Adelaide they bowled out Australia for under 200. These are opening, but I dont see the batsman making one par innings as yet.

I agree that England need to put a better score while batting as well.

Succession planning strategy has flopped, if there was any.

[Making_Splinters]

Well, at least we've seen that Malan and Stoneman are probably worth persisting with long term. Have to hope there'll be no enforced blood letting after this tour

[yuppie]

Well, at least we've seen that Malan and Stoneman are probably worth persisting with long term. Have to hope there'll be no enforced blood letting after this tour

Malan also looks like he could offer something with the ball. First time i have seen him bowl, look potentially handy. Whats he like in country cricket?

[Arthur Crabtree]

I never see his name come up in fc cricket, but he has 52 wickets at 40 in 153 games. One 5-fer.

[The Professor]

Seems the writing is on the wall here. The only batsman in any kind of firm at the moment is Bairstow. Cook looked dodgy in the summer and is having his sixth crap Ashes out of seven whilst Cook's super touch has been effected by pressure, captaincy or both.

We are too reliant on Anderson and Broad - both of whom are in the twilight of their careers and both of whom, historically, underperform in Australia. Couple this with the obscure decision to pick Crane over Rashid and the bowling line up has always been fragile.

Strauss and Bayliss' MO of improving the shorter form of the game is going swimmingly though so *modded* it.

[bigfluffylemon]

This pitch has nothing. With that and the rain, England should be capable of saving this game. Whether they will or not is another matter, and if they lose, the blame will rightly go to the half hour on Friday when we lost 6-35. All but one (Bairstow, who got an absolute brute of a delivery) of those wickets was basically gifted away. Quite why our tail insists on trying to play the short ball I have no idea - it's Perth, if the ball is short, just leave it alone.

Malan and Bairstow, and now Smith and Marsh, have basically shown that if you get in on this pitch, it's almost impossible to get you out if you maintain your concentration.

[bigfluffylemon]

Even the rain isn't going to save England. They're going to have to bat 4 sessions or so to save this game.

[from_the_stands]

Robbed.

[from_the_stands]

Well, this is going swimmingly.

[bigfluffylemon]

Where was this about 200 runs ago?

It's better than letting Australia bat on until the declaration, if only psychologically, plus the lower the target for England to make Australia bat again, the better the odds of a draw. Still, England will need to bat well into tomorrow to save this game. I can't see them doing it.