"That [performance] shows how we are still massively in this series" : Joe Root

[MenInG]

Can England make a comeback despite bravado by Root?

"The way we went about it yesterday was exceptional and that has to be the benchmark going forward. That shows how we are still massively in this series." : Joe Root

Australia 442/8d & 138
England 227 & 233 (84.2 ov, target: 354)
Australia won by 120 runs

 

[MenInG]

IMO England have the firepower - just need to drop the whole sledging thing etc and concentrate on making right decisions on the field

 

[Savitar]

#RootMaths

 

[style_guru]

As I said yesterday, Australia have no doubt won the match, but the moral victory has been achieved by England. They have a lot of positives to take from this match, like:

A) Australia plummeted to a paltry 138 in their 2nd inning, which means England now believe they can get Aussies out cheaply. Just imagine, had the Aussies collapsed in the 1st inning, it would've been game over for them.

B) The resurgence of English batting which was on display on the 4th day. England would now believe they can wither the storm & take the attack to those Aussie bowlers.

I think we would see a far better England side in the next game, & Rooooot would cement his status as one of the best batsman of this era. Now all that Strauss needs to do is get Stokes into the side & you never know, England could still win the remaining matches.

 

[Convict]

IMO England have the firepower - just need to drop the whole sledging thing etc and concentrate on making right decisions on the field

If anything their problem is that they clearly don't have the firepower.
Australia have a very flawed batting lineup and it gets exposed often enough but England don't have the ability to exploit that.

England's batting is worse than Australia's with Root the only really good batsman and he is not a man who can set up matches with the bat.

England are also completely unable to trouble Australia with spin.

 

[Chief Destroyer]

I really doubt Australia will collapse like that again against the red ball.

 

[Convict]

As I said yesterday, Australia have no doubt won the match, but the moral victory has been achieved by England. They have a lot of positives to take from this match, like:

A) Australia plummeted to a paltry 138 in their 2nd inning, which means England now believe they can get Aussies out cheaply. Just imagine, had the Aussies collapsed in the 1st inning, it would've been game over for them.

B) The resurgence of English batting which was on display on the 4th day. England would now believe they can wither the storm & take the attack to those Aussie bowlers.

I think we would see a far better England side in the next game, & Rooooot would cement his status as one of the best batsman of this era. Now all that Strauss needs to do is get Stokes into the side & you never know, England could still win the remaining matches.

I'd say the opposite. In both tests England's had a whole day where they were completely on top of Australia but in the end Australia won both tests rather comfortably.

Two nil down and playing at a venue where they have only ever won once - when the entire Australian team was suspended.

 

[Varun]

The problem is England can never win in Perth: bowlers like Anderson cannot hope to extract the juice from a fiery, bouncy pitch like Starc and Hazlewood.

And once they go 3-0 down, their shoulders will continue to slump through Melbourne and Sydney as well.

 

[Aman]

You essentially lost the match by an innings )

 

[Bilal7]

England to win at Perth. Aussies will be over confident, already dreaming of a 5:0 whitewash and it'll cost 'em.

 

[Aman]

England to win at Perth. Aussies will be over confident, already dreaming of a 5:0 whitewash and it'll cost 'em.

Aus were over confident in this match and still romped home to victory.

 

[Abdullah]

This was Englands chance.
Long way back now. They have to keep fighting.
If wood is fully fit i would get him in. No point bringing him in if he isn't fully fit as he won't be able to bowl fast enough

 

[Godhelpma]

Complete the series as quickly as possible with matches Finishing within 4 days at maximum, concede 5-0 defeat and go back to England safely .This is all that England deserves (and probably intends to do )at the moment .

 

[Hasan123]

Don't see England coming back in this series.

 

[Boi]

They're not winning anything unless he himself stands up and scores big hundreds instead of pretty 50s.

 

[Abdullah719]

Moral victory for England.

 

[The cricket enthusiast]

As I said yesterday, Australia have no doubt won the match, but the moral victory has been achieved by England. They have a lot of positives to take from this match, like:

A) Australia plummeted to a paltry 138 in their 2nd inning, which means England now believe they can get Aussies out cheaply. Just imagine, had the Aussies collapsed in the 1st inning, it would've been game over for them.

B) The resurgence of English batting which was on display on the 4th day. England would now believe they can wither the storm & take the attack to those Aussie bowlers.

I think we would see a far better England side in the next game, & Rooooot would cement his status as one of the best batsman of this era. Now all that Strauss needs to do is get Stokes into the side & you never know, England could still win the remaining matches.

well one more moral victory and ashes is gone to aussie.

 

[MMHS]

Sorry Joe - had the 3rd Test been at MCG (4th one at SCG, 5th at Adelaide, like old days), may be there was an outside chance to prolong the series. But, 3rd Test is at WACA and Aussies are going to make it 3-0.

Now, you did scare Aussies in 2nd innings both with ball & bat; but couldn’t knock them out. They’ll be more careful now & come back harder - and they won’t mess toss like you if they win it (not saying it’s a given bat first decision- on a green WACA track, if Aussies put Poms in, they might start batting after tea or even before).

 

[Ab Fan]

England and beating Australia in Perth? No chance.

Adelaide was England chance tbh.

 

[hadi123]

They've given better accounts in this series than in the 5-0 series but they still need to improve massively if they are to have any chance in this series. One thing going for them is that they only need to draw this series to retain the Ashes.

 

[The_Odd_One]

England's problem is batting. Who is going to score those daddy hundreds that win matches?

 

[Sadevdesai]

England are still in the Series because of Mathematics ..... practically, they are Out !!!!!!!

 

[giri26]

Moral victories don't mean anything. When they go to Perth, they will start with a clean slate. The fact is that in spite of all the good work on the 4th day, England just collapsed without fight on the 5th. Australia did not even have to sweat on day 5. If England had probably reached 300 and had given Australia a scare, then I would agree. Here Australia still go to Perth with the victory and confidence.

 

[Gilly]

B) The resurgence of English batting which was on display on the 4th day. England would now believe they can wither the storm & take the attack to those Aussie bowlers.

.

Was that when scored a massive 233 all out?.

 

[AlizeeFan]

Was that when scored a massive 233 all out?.

They scored 6 more than their first inning score.

233 - resurgence.

83 - by James Vince leaving mark on cricketing map.

50 by Root - fight back

Standards are quite low for England team.

 

[waleed88]

Joe Root is not captaincy material, he is going in the opposite direction Steven Smith has gone as captain.

 

[Markhor]

Get Mark Wood in and maybe you'll have a chance.

However the batting is so fragile with an out-of-form Alastair Cook, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali, whilst Malan and Vince are not Test quality, so its hard to see where the 400-450+ scores you need to win in Australia are coming from.

Its all on Joe Root and even he's struggling to convert his fifties into bigger knocks.

You essentially lost the match by an innings )

England should take inspiration from New Zealand's crushing victory of 2015 in Australia.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

I think England needed to win the last test match and it would have put some pressure on the Aussies and that could have changed the whole series. The day night test probably suited England's bowlers more than any other conditions will, and now that's gone, can't see England stopping the Aussies now.

 

[Aman]

Get Mark Wood in and maybe you'll have a chance.

However the batting is so fragile with an out-of-form Alastair Cook, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali, whilst Malan and Vince are not Test quality, so its hard to see where the 400-450+ scores you need to win in Australia are coming from.

Its all on Joe Root and even he's struggling to convert his fifties into bigger knocks.



England should take inspiration from New Zealand's crushing victory of 2015 in Australia.

We got closer to winning a match in Australia than you have the last two tours.

We drew 1-1 and lost a 3 match series 2-0. The D/N was controversial and we drew in Perth, your 0-7 from 7 and looking strong for the complete 0-10.

 

[giri26]

For all the talks, the fact is that England were bowled out for 227 and 233 in both the innings. Yeah Australia were bowled out cheaply in the second innings but English bowlers are not going to get similar conditions again to bowl in. Even before the series started people mentioned that England's only hope to win was the Day/Night Adelaide game. Also the weather in Adelaide has been so up and down. Uncharacteristically cold, so Anderson and co caught a lucky break. They aren't going to get that in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.