Top order fail again.

What a dumb sport that the aim of the game is to play on a pitch with cracks like that hoping for a irregular bounce

Maybe I'll just go Play basketball or soccer with a footy
 
What a dumb sport that the aim of the game is to play on a pitch with cracks like that hoping for a irregular bounce

Maybe I'll just go Play basketball or soccer with a footy
Haha, It's hardly the aim of the sport.. it's just adding in another variable.

It's more interesting when the weather and ground conditions can be used to the advantage of a team.. add in wear of the ball and you can have swing and turn changing over time. Not sure any other sport has variability?
 
I thought it was fantastic.. brings another element into the game which the bowlers love. It would be boring if all the pitches were all exactly the same.

It's a bit like the variety in the tennis grand slam, grass in wimbledon, clay in france and different hard courts here and US.


Hmm? I know it would never happen, but I'd also like to see say one toss of the coin in the first game, and then if it's a 5 match series, the winner of the toss could have 3 picks of when they bat first or last, and the loser could have 2 picks. Seems a bit unfair for the Poms when they loose 3 out of 3 coin tosses? And especially moreso when a pitch cracks really bad like this one did?


See ya's.
 
Hmm? I know it would never happen, but I'd also like to see say one toss of the coin in the first game, and then if it's a 5 match series, the winner of the toss could have 3 picks of when they bat first or last, and the loser could have 2 picks. Seems a bit unfair for the Poms when they loose 3 out of 3 coin tosses? And especially moreso when a pitch cracks really bad like this one did?
See ya's.

I agree that the toss can have a big affect on the result, however I don't think alternating the choice to bat/bowl is workable - it would encourage pitch doctoring. ie. we know we will bat first this game so make the pitch fall apart in the last few days. or, leave some moisture in the wicket that will dry up after half a day as we'll be bowling first.

Jason
 
Hmm? I know it would never happen, but I'd also like to see say one toss of the coin in the first game, and then if it's a 5 match series, the winner of the toss could have 3 picks of when they bat first or last, and the loser could have 2 picks. Seems a bit unfair for the Poms when they loose 3 out of 3 coin tosses? And especially moreso when a pitch cracks really bad like this one did?


See ya's.
Why not simply have a toss for the first game, then alternate after this for each Test?

Or; the way the players carry on with sledging and "death stares" and all this other cr@p (a gentleman's game, right?)...they can just have an all-in brawl at the start of play on Day 1 of Test 1, and last man standing can keep the toss for the whole series.

Or; have it at the start of each Test. ;)

I'd go and watch that.
 
Why not simply have a toss for the first game, then alternate after this for each Test?

.

Pretty much what I suggested.

I reckon jrc77 above gave a good reason why that mightn't work as well as we thought. The pitch could be doctored by the home side to suit who's batting first.


See ya's.
 
I?m not convinced the toss plays such an important role, only a slight physiological role at best.. In Brisbane, our most convincing win, we crumbled in our first batting innings on a good batting pitch. We won from brilliant bowling which had little to do with the pitch (first and second innings).

That set the platform for Adelaide, again brilliant bowling with a lot of intimidation and had them beaten mentally. Dare I mention Trott returning home from stress?

I believe great bowling will always beat great batting.. get them beat mentally at the start and you?ve just about won the series.
 
I?m not convinced the toss plays such an important role, only a slight physiological role at best.. In Brisbane, our most convincing win, we crumbled in our first batting innings on a good batting pitch. We won from brilliant bowling which had little to do with the pitch (first and second innings).

Of the last 8 Ashes tests, in England and this summer, the team winning the toss has won 6 times. The other two were affected by rain, and the toss winner was ahead in those games. It's so hard to chase a decent total on deteriorating pitches.
 
Hmm? I know it would never happen, but I'd also like to see say one toss of the coin in the first game, and then if it's a 5 match series, the winner of the toss could have 3 picks of when they bat first or last, and the loser could have 2 picks. Seems a bit unfair for the Poms when they loose 3 out of 3 coin tosses? And especially moreso when a pitch cracks really bad like this one did?

It's a good point, and with the way pitches are prepared these days (and the shockers in England during our winter) the toss seems more important than ever.

Of the 8 tests so far (5 in UK, 3 here) the toss winner has batted first each time.

One way to fix it would be to prepare pitches with a bit more life in them, so it becomes a real choice for the toss winning captain. At the moment, the captain who wins the toss chooses to bat all the time. I can't remember the last time a captain elected to bowl first.
 
It's a good point, and with the way pitches are prepared these days (and the shockers in England during our winter) the toss seems more important than ever.

Of the 8 tests so far (5 in UK, 3 here) the toss winner has batted first each time.

One way to fix it would be to prepare pitches with a bit more life in them, so it becomes a real choice for the toss winning captain. At the moment, the captain who wins the toss chooses to bat all the time. I can't remember the last time a captain elected to bowl first.

England played NZ in NZ earlier this year. For all three tests, the winner of the toss elected to field. All three games were drawn.
 
Of the last 8 Ashes tests, in England and this summer, the team winning the toss has won 6 times. The other two were affected by rain, and the toss winner was ahead in those games. It's so hard to chase a decent total on deteriorating pitches.

Agree, but the Waca pitch was about as deteriorated as they come but wasn't key to getting them out i.e no wickets came from deviations in the crack and spin wasn't the main wicket taker. The English actually put up a really good fight.

In the past Ashes the deteriorating pitch has benefited the spin bowlers.. at least a lot more than this series.
 
Wiki actually gives the % figures for wins after winning the toss.. its pretty marginal.

Imo, its played no part in this series. England has been dominated by our bowling in 1st and 2nd innings of each test.
 
Wiki actually gives the % figures for wins after winning the toss.. its pretty marginal.

Imo, its played no part in this series. England has been dominated by our bowling in 1st and 2nd innings of each test.

I guess my point is it should require the captain to think about his decision, on winning the toss. On these pitches it is an automatic 'bat' when the coin comes up your way.
 
I guess my point is it should require the captain to think about his decision, on winning the toss. On these pitches it is an automatic 'bat' when the coin comes up your way.
Absolutely.

Seems a bit unfair for the Poms when they loose 3 out of 3 coin tosses? And especially moreso when a pitch cracks really bad like this one did?
My view is we should never feel sorry for the Poms :p They give it to us when they win so we should take much delight in winning 5-0.. I'm hoping we beat them by an innings in the 4th or 5th test!! Bring on boxing day :D
 
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