Aggy

What’s’ the drop / runs cost vs runs scored ratio for Root? Dropped six hasn’t he now? Cummins 40 odd and Marsh 100 odd after Root drops - bet he’s not far off being in the negatives? Bairstow’s speed of scoring and ability to counterattack is the only thing keeping him in the side at the moment. Foakes even in his best nick batting can’t do that. With Pope out too at the moment you’d have a weak batting line up if you swap in Foakes for Bairstow direct. Ali dropping out may be an option if you’re going to bowl Root regularly/decide to go without a frontline spinner.

So being a stats man, you presumably know that before this test Bairstow’s test batting average as a specialist batsman was 36.62 and his test batting average as a keeper batsman was 37.65?

Yeah I read it. It didn’t explain why you thought Foakes’ batting was as good as Bairstows though? PS if Foakes’ batting was anywhere near as good as Bairstow’s, we wouldn’t be having this discussion - he’d be walking into the team.

I’m not a stats man, but dismissing stats in cricket is a bit strange. It’s not like football where you can have a good game without three assists and twenty tackles. If you aren’t scoring runs, you’re not having a good time as a batsman. But, anyway, sounds like, assuming you take my word for it (if not Wikipedia it, it’ll take you five secs), we both agree Bairstow has the better stats. As for apples and pears - you appear to be forgetting you’re the one who just drew the comparison. On what basis do you think Foakes is as good a batsman as Bairstow if you also think you can’t compare them? Anyone who has watched any cricket can surely see Foakes is a number 7 bat at best in tests - he can support a proper batsman and protect the tail if you need to put on an extra 30 or 40 or bat out for a draw. He’s never going to single-handedly change the course of a game though, which Bairstow’s batting can do. I’m not disputing Foakes is the better keeper. I’m just disputing your statement he’s as good a bat as Bairstow. He clearly isn’t.

Really? Bairstow has a better test average at a higher strike rate, Bairstow averages a century every 13 test innings in tests as opposed to Foakes with two centuries in 36 innings, Bairstow scores a half century (or more) every 4 innings as opposed to Foakes every 6, and Bairstow has a higher highest score. Outside of tests, Bairstow also has a higher first class average and a a first class double century (Foakes’ highest ever score is 141). His keeping just isn’t there at the moment - he never was the best keeper and whether his recent injury isn’t helping his mobility or what, I don’t know. If stokes was bowling more, I’m pretty sure we’d have gone into the third test probably without woakes and had Foakes keeping with Bairstow as a specialist bat.

In fairness results against South Africa New Zealand Pakistan and India… Posted before this test that if you add up the averages of the players off the bat in this series, England would have won both tests - the batting isn’t the issue. The issue has been the much higher number of extras from englands bowlers and the dropped catches, sloppy fielding etc. This batting performance isn’t great today/yesterday but had we bowled and fielded better in the first two tests, we’d have probably been sitting here saying you’re allowed one bad day at the office batting when you’re already 2-0 up…

Balance of the team I expect. I reckon if Stokes was fit enough / wanting to bowl more then Foakes gets a look in with Moeen as the spin option. With Stokes not bowling too much, they clearly wanted the extra pace bowling option as well.

The tail certainly looks a lot shorter - but we’ve effectively swapped a top order batsman for an all rounder in Ali. Saw an interesting stat earlier : In this ashes series England have a higher collective batting average than Australia. Both teams have lost 38 wickets (England declared in the first test 8 wickets down and Australia won by two wickets), England have scored 1260 runs off the bat and Australia 1245, making England’s collective average 33.1 and Australia’s 32.7. This England team are the 274th team in men’s test history to be 2-0 down in a series and the first to ever have a higher collective batting average. The difference is England have bowled 118 extras compared to Australia’s 58.

Nearly 20k! Yes might need the Guardian’s plan b in that case… In fairness, I’ve done most of those so if I do tick off Istanbul this year, I may spend my 20k on something else!

Where did I say I did think otherwise? My full first post is repeated below and says virtually exactly the same. The only thing I’ve otherwise said is that Ricardo’s points about Bairstow turning around, grounding his bat etc are incorrect - he doesn’t look round, doesn’t ground his bat, he scratches very quickly and walks off without even checking the keeper has the ball. You then got upset and suggested cricket wasn’t for me. “Can’t get too worked up about the Bairstow “stumping”. The keeper picks it up and throws in one movement, he isn’t waiting for Bairstow to move out of his crease, and it’s split second - Bairstow really shouldn’t have been walking out of his crease at that point. Aussies could have called him back, but it’s like when people get slightly harsh second yellows for silly challenges they didn’t need to make - I haven’t got much sympathy if you put yourself in that position in the first place. If Bairstow had been batting out of his crease then absolutely no issue with it. It is slightly underhand to try and get him if they’ve just seen him walking down a bit early between balls previously - a bit like Mankading - you’d think a quick word in his ear about it first would have been preferable. But like I say, if Bairstow is switched on, it doesn’t happen. That’s the bottom line.”

I’ve been involved in games where we’ve warned a batsman at the non-striker’s end for backing up too much. Some where we’ve warned first, some where the bowler has run him out and then withdrawn the appeal. I don’t think this is that similar. Bairstow isn’t trying to get any advantage. And I do think if I was on the fielding team I’d have withdrawn the appeal. But I wasn’t ever playing test match cricket, on day 5 of an important second test, in an ashes series, where this wicket gets us into the long tail and probably wins us the match. Which brings me back to the point - from the batsman’s view, just don’t let that situation arise.

Err the growing up comment was clearly about your “perhaps cricket isn’t for you” nonsense. I can see the argument about “not in the spirit of the game”, but bottom line is one person could easily have stopped it all by simply not leaving his crease until the umpire had called over. I’ve coached at all age groups and know young kids who wouldn’t leave their crease until over is called. Most of them would also cry less about being given out for failing to follow the rules than many full grown Englishmen are doing on behalf of Bairstow right now. Bairstow more to blame than anyone else. Stays in his crease until over is caused, he isn’t out. As an ex England test captain has said (is cricket for him?) - dozy cricket. No point blaming the Aussies for an Englishman’s “dozy” play.

Possibly - see sky sports news link above at about 45 seconds in. The umpire literally just moves his hands to the cap as the ball hits the stumps - after the keeper has thrown it though. Edit: and to be fair to the Aussies, if the umpires did think the ball was dead it’s on the umpires to say so.

I’ll be alright without having a word with myself thanks. I’m not the one giving out the “perhaps x isn’t for you, I’m right you’re wrong” fingers waggling on noses playground nonsense while pretending not to be worked up about it. The catch clearly wasn’t out. He grounds it while sliding and before he gains control of his body. The run out, Aussies could have called him back and that would have been fair. But they didn’t. Bairstow stands in his crease for an extra two seconds until the keeper has caught it, thrown it, and the umpire calls over, he isn’t out. Really very simple.

Lol, why are you so worked up. It’s a game, grow up. Bottom line is (as lots of pundits who have actually played the game have said multiple times, perhaps it isn’t for them either) - yeah the Aussies could have called him back but bottom line is if he waits for over to be called before aimlessly wandering down the pitch before the keeper even has it in his hands, then he isn’t out.

https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/20876/12913515/the-ashes-was-jonny-bairstows-controversial-dismissal-fair-dozy-and-within-the-spirit-of-the-game multiple angles of it on the video at the top of this page. Best angle at 1:05. He doesn’t ground his bat (he is well within his crease at the moment the keeper throws the ball though), he doesn’t look around, and his scratching of the ground is one toe very briefly as he is on his way down the wicket. He doesn’t even check to see if the keeper has actually even caught it. If the keeper hadn’t taken it cleanly and Stokes called him through, he’d be on his way for a run - there was no chance Bairstow knew for certain the keeper even had hold of it when he started walking down the track. The bowler hasn’t even started to turn around, none of the fielders have started to walk to the other end etc. Schoolboy. edit: in fact all three views after 1:05 show really good angles of it. The penultimate one - noticeably Stokes is still in his crease.

Lots of beautiful lakes down there - I have friends in Munich, Kaufbeuren, and Augsburg, who I used to visit most summers for a good few years when younger - lots of swimming (badly on my part) and hiking (not much better). Never got across to Lake Constance though.

(Assuming night sleepers refers to trains??) Would love to do an old school Orient Express trip to Istanbul and back. I’m possibly looking at Istanbul fairly last minute maybe September or October this year - a place I’ve always wanted to go.

Can’t get too worked up about the Bairstow “stumping”. The keeper picks it up and throws in one movement, he isn’t waiting for Bairstow to move out of his crease, and it’s split second - Bairstow really shouldn’t have been walking out of his crease at that point. Aussies could have called him back, but it’s like when people get slightly harsh second yellows for silly challenges they didn’t need to make - I haven’t got much sympathy if you put yourself in that position in the first place. If Bairstow had been batting out of his crease then absolutely no issue with it. It is slightly underhand to try and get him if they’ve just seen him walking down a bit early between balls previously - a bit like Mankading - you’d think a quick word in his ear about it first would have been preferable. But like I say, if Bairstow is switched on, it doesn’t happen. That’s the bottom line. We were well short overall - a ridiculous knock from Stokes made it look better than it was, but the game was well lost in virtually every session except a couple when Stokes was batting second innings.

While some of the doom may have been overdone (as were some/most of the claims about the benefits of brexit) surely the only way to debate whether brexit was a ‘success’ or not is to compare with where we were before brexit. Are we still the only one of those 7 with a smaller economy than before brexit? (Genuine question, I’ve largely stopped following it but know towards the end of last year we were.)

I don’t listen to much radio other than occasionally in the car, but act of oblivion is good. Not sure I quite agree with the Times’ quote that it’s his best since Fatherland - slightly bloated and more slow paced than his usual I thought. But still good if you like historical fiction / ‘thrillers’.

Doesn’t it depend really on why you vote for your local mp? If you vote for them based on that specific individual making a difference in your local area, then right you should get a say if they resign. If you vote for the party leading the country (which I suspect most probably do nowadays rather than the individual MP) then less of an issue.

Skysports article the other day - only nine trebles in the history of the European cup (since 1955). Four in the 53 years between 1955 and 2008, five in the last 14 years since 2009. Does rather suggest something in the last 14 years makes it easier to win trebles - you’d think that’s likely to be the fact the really big clubs can now afford a second eleven who are still better than most of the rest of the division’s first eleven.

While I wouldn’t disagree re Charles, I struggle slightly to see how anyone who strongly supported banning people from leaving their own homes for months at a time can be too worked up about someone with no real political power ‘telling people how to live’.

While I could probably guess, I’m not sure I could tell you who any of my mates have ever actually voted for.