The Ashes 25/26

[Wsl]

[Ted Maul]

4 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

A test being over in 2 days is not good whichever way you look at it

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Edited 22 November 2025 by Ted Maul

[leicsmac]

I really hope the England team don't share the rather fatalistic mentality of some of the contributors here. 

[Super_horns]

TNT and TMS got a spare 3 days then 

 

Feel for the fans who have gone out there .

[Vacamion]

 

MOTM?

 

Tough on Starc with tenfer in the match, but Head's knock changed the mood and was match winning, Head, then.

 

 

 

[Ted Maul]

Just now, leicsmac said:

I really hope the England team don't share the rather fatalistic mentality of some of the contributors here. 

If you can't be pessimistic after going from effectively 100-1 to an 8 wicket defeat in 4 hours, when can you be? 

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, Ted Maul said:

If you can't be pessimistic after going from effectively 100-1 to an 8 wicket defeat in 4 hours, when can you be? 

You have to chalk it up as one shit day that's cost one match out of five, and move on.

 

Dwelling on it just makes losing a self fulfilling prophecy. 

 

Edit: speaking regarding the team here. The fans, of course, can and will be as negative as they want to be, and it's understandable given how this day has gone. 

Edited 22 November 2025 by leicsmac

[Vacamion]

 

It's a horrible way to lose, but losing the head over it and dismissing the team is not the right reaction.

 

"Treat these two imposters just the same".

 

The good news?  No getting up in the small hours, tomorrow.  

 

 

[leicesterlad1989]

Embarrassing. Our first innings was bad enough but the batters have massively let down the bowlers with their stupid shot selection. 

 

Genuinely thrown this test away. Credit to Head who was brilliant but he highlighted exactly how to play aggressively on this pitch. Our batters were idiotic. 

 

Uphill battle now. Only positive is an extra 3 days rest. 

[CL Fox]

6 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

I really hope the England team don't share the rather fatalistic mentality of some of the contributors here. 

They dont and it seems to wind people up more. 

[CL Fox]

4 minutes ago, Ted Maul said:

If you can't be pessimistic after going from effectively 100-1 to an 8 wicket defeat in 4 hours, when can you be? 

Do you need to be? This team has massive highs and massive lows, normally following each other.

[Wsl]

2 minutes ago, Ted Maul said:

If you can't be pessimistic after going from effectively 100-1 to an 8 wicket defeat in 4 hours, when can you be? 

And as a long-standing England cricket fan, I'm well within my comfort zone this dank November morning. Do not dizzy me with victories in an Australian Ashes test match; I'll get nothing done all day.

[leicsmac]

Just now, CL Fox said:

They dont and it seems to wind people up more. 

I think there's a certain frustration that this team puts itself in a position to win matches against the toughest of opponents with that mentality... but then with the same mentality, throws away such opportunities just as easily. 

 

But what's important is that mentality is what allows this team to compete with those toughest of opponents in the first place, because barring Root, Stokes and Brook, England don't have any truly world class players in the way other great teams have. 

[CL Fox]

5 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

I think there's a certain frustration that this team puts itself in a position to win matches against the toughest of opponents with that mentality... but then with the same mentality, throws away such opportunities just as easily. 

 

But what's important is that mentality is what allows this team to compete with those toughest of opponents in the first place, because barring Root, Stokes and Brook, England don't have any truly world class players in the way other great teams have. 

Maybe I have more of a pessimistic view about our chances but australia and india should be miles better than us - its their national sport.

[Wsl]

10 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

I think there's a certain frustration that this team puts itself in a position to win matches against the toughest of opponents with that mentality... but then with the same mentality, throws away such opportunities just as easily. 

 

But what's important is that mentality is what allows this team to compete with those toughest of opponents in the first place, because barring Root, Stokes and Brook, England don't have any truly world class players in the way other great teams have. 

We're not that weak a team. Aussies are playing Weatherald, Khawaja and Doggett. And while Boland played better in the second innings, a lot was down to our batting. Not many would call him truly world class. The teams are fairly even on paper, I think. Our weakness is our top four, and right now Root is not in any kind of form. But bar Head's extraordinary innings, Aussie batting hasn't really clicked either. 172, 132, 164 tells a story.

[Lionator]

24 minutes ago, CL Fox said:

They dont and it seems to wind people up more. 

It’s frustrating because they show how good they can be yet consistently throw it away. Ashes 2023, series in Pakistan 2024, series in New Zealand 2023, last summer v India. We’re in games and then throw them away through sheer reckless action time after time. If we were just simply crap it would be a lot easier to stomach. 

[Nalis]

Hard to see past 5 nil after that

[Manley Farrington-Brown]

There's a difference between aggressively taking risks (which is what Head did today) and playing stupid shots that are more than likely to get you out (which is what several English batters did today). Yeah, Head could have got out at any time, but it wouldn't have been because he did something idiotic, it would have been because a calulated risk didn't pay off. Several English wickets were just thrown away.

[Voll Blau]

Hate to get too reactionary with four games to go but the batters have absolutely embarrassed themselves there. When I woke up this morning we were favourites to win over five days, and, within hours, we've lost inside two days!

 

Collapses happen but giving a bowling unit who'd worked their bollocks off yesterday all of 15 overs rest (Vaughan rightly points out they'd be padding up from that point) is indefensible.

 

Hope every golf course in Australia is booked solid for the next two weeks so this lot actually have work at the sport that tens of thousands have spent money crossing the world to watch them play.

[Manley Farrington-Brown]

2 minutes ago, Nalis said:

Hard to see past 5 nil after that

Disagree. It might be, of course, but England's approach has proved it can work sometimes. Every chance it'll pay off at least once in the series, they'll rattle up 600 in about a day and a half and win comfortably. No guarantees either way. Although I'm fairly confident Crawley and Duckett won't go out to open and be 86 without loss at tea on the first day...

[Lionator]

7 minutes ago, Nalis said:

Hard to see past 5 nil after that

I think we will win a test as the Aussies aren’t all that, but we now have to win 3 of the last 4 tests which just isn’t happening. 

[Wsl]

2 minutes ago, Nalis said:

Hard to see past 5 nil after that

I have a horrible feeling that we'll do what we quite often do in Australia, namely win or draw one but only after the series is lost. I'm still miffed about the 2017 /18 series, when we got a tonking by 10 wickets, 120 runs, an innings and 42 runs and where Cook and Broad played so badly that even they finally admitted they thought they would be dropped, only to finally pull their finger out in the fourth test and England managed get a draw, for normal service to resume and a loss by an innings and 123 runs to top it off. 

[Tommy Fresh]

Really hoping Crawley doesn't have one of his 1 in 10 innings that keeps him opening for another year, this series should be the last we see of him

[Lionator]

8 minutes ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Really hoping Crawley doesn't have one of his 1 in 10 innings that keeps him opening for another year, this series should be the last we see of him

He won’t even need that, his Dad will just send some money to Key and it’ll be sorted. 

[EastAnglianFox]

The day/nighter is going to be an absolute massacre

 

Starc with that pink ball….christ!!