From Newsgroup: uk.sport.cricket
On 06/01/2026 01:37, Mad Hamish wrote:
On Sun, 4 Jan 2026 18:23:32 +0000, John Hall <john@jhall.co.uk> wrote:
A good day for England. As an England supporter, I can't help wondering
how this series might have gone had England had some proper match
practice before the first Test, preferably on pitches with a fair amount
of pace and bounce to acclimatise them = to the pitches at Perth and
Brisbane.
One thing to bear in mind is that Cummins would probably have played in
at least one of the fourth and fifth Tests had the series still been
live, which would have made a big difference to the Australian attack.
Lunch on day 3 England 384 after finishing day 1 at 211/3, Aus 3/281
England just hasn't had the consistency
And by the end of the day England were in an even worse position. Days
two and three have been very disappointing, with their old faults
resurfacing: a brain-fade dismissal (Smith), and bowling short and wide
(when Head is the last player you want to do that to). Potts did have
the excuse of not having had any match practice for ages, but Carse
wasn't that much better. England can't really complain about all the
injuries they have had to their bowlers, when you look at the injuries
that Australia have had to deal with.
It looks as though a draw is the best that England can now hope for, and
even that is likely to be an almighty struggle, especially if the
speculation that there will be increasingly uneven bounce is correct.
--
John Hall
You can divide people into two categories:
those who divide people into two categories and those who don't
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