THE ASHES

Another terrible decision from Broad on Smith. Very poor umpiring.

 

Officials always favor the home side at Old Trafford

 

Heh, I shoulda gone to bed earlier!

Heroic knock from Clarke. Knuckled down, dug in, and showed why he's the best player of spin in world cricket.

$1.60 the draw is where the money's at.

 

In what way, did that "even it up"?

Have you seen the ledger on decisions in this Ashes series? To say England have had it tipped in their favour is a fucking understatement.

 

The thing I hate about DRS more than anything is that shifty rule where the benefit of the doubt goes to the umpire on the field.

Back in the day without hawk eye,  it was agreed that the benefit of doubt went to the batsmen.  It was not perfect but it was never biased towards any one team.

The DRS legitimizes umpire bias... An umpire can choose to give all the marginal calls for or against one particular team and so long as he was not clearly wrong his decision will get attested by the third umpire and will stand..... Which is shite....

For me DRS has to go really.  It's a bad system that has made the umpiring standards worse.

 

Bit of a hyperbole that... It was a good knock on a batting wicket with the sun out.  It will become heroic based on what happens on day 2....

The likes of Sangakkara,  Jeya and Sachin may have something to say about best player of spin as well....

 

Did you see the Broad one for Smith? That was also a fucking disgrace. The umpires have been awful for both sides.

 

Depends how far back you want to go.. I'm talking about this test so try to avoid getting your knickers in a twist!

 

Interesting first day. The Aussies have a completely different approach and are now seemingly more content to stay at the crease. They should get 450-500+ but tea today and then the onus will be on England to score quickly. I think this one might end a draw unless the spinners are causing much more havoc come days 3 and 4.

 

A draw seems likely given the weather as well. Tomorrow and Monday are both going to be pretty wet apparently.

 

My worry would be Australia posting a large score might cause our batters to think they have to score quickly if a result it to be achieved and that is when we will lose silly wickets.

 

2 quick wickets - lets keep the pressure on before lunch!

 

There isn't much threat from the likes of Siddle and co but if Clarke stays in then they just need to avoid giving away their wicket.

I think Clarke could get his double century..

 

Are the Indians the only international side that still oppose DRS mate ?

The system is great it's just been the 3rd umpires/players who have fucked it up during this series.

The last time I read DRS had improved the number of correct decisions given on the cricket field.

 

Very true.

I'd like to chuck Amla into the mix as well.

 

That would be the last thing on their minds. All the English batsman will be thinking about is to bat as long as possible (well maybe not KP). Avoid defeat and we've won the Ashes.

 

That's gotta hurt.