1 week ago Sack the vibe: goodbye Bazball and hello England’s search for a cricketing soul | Barney Ronay

There have to be consequences for Rob Key and Brendon McCullum but English cricket’s problems lie much deeper and will be much harder to fixIt seemed fitting, as the final moments ticked down at the Sydney Cricket Ground, as the day, the match, the tour seemed to ooze and melt a little at the edges under a hard white January sun, that Ben Stokes should finish this Ashes series still standing, but only just.It was at least a suitably slapstick final session in front of a scattered, holiday-ish crowd. Australia custard-pied their way to a victory total of 160, narrowly avoiding falling pianos, dangling off giant clocktowers along the way. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Australia hold on to win fifth Ashes Test leaving England to rue missed chances

5th Test, D5: Australia, 567 & 161 bt England 384 & 342, by five wicketsAlex Carey hits winning runs at SCG as hosts wrap up series 4-1 There were a couple of wobbles along the way but at 2.30pm on the final day in Sydney, Australia had knocked off a target of 160 runs to win the fifth Test by five wickets and claim this Ashes series by a 4-1 scoreline.Like their tour as a whole, there was a nagging sense of what might have been for England with a few more runs on the board, or better catching and tighter bowling earlier in the contest. But there could be few quibbles from the injured Ben Stokes as he watched the final rites from first slip. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Australia hold on to win fifth Ashes Test and leave England rueing missed chances

Australia, 567 & 161 bt England 384 & 342, by five wicketsCarey hits winning runs at SCG as hosts wrap up series 4-1There were a couple of wobbles along the way but at 2.30pm on the final day in Sydney, Australia had knocked off a target of 160 runs to win the fifth Test by five wickets and claim this Ashes series by a 4-1 scoreline.Like their tour as a whole, there was a nagging sense of what might have been for England with a few more runs on the board, or better catching and tighter bowling earlier in the contest. But there could be few quibbles from the injured Ben Stokes as he watched the final rites from first slip. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Jacob Bethell plays starring role in Ashes Wars Episode 5: A New Hope | Barney Ronay

A brilliant hundred against an elite attack on a wearing pitch shows this England team can survive and evolveEt in dystopia ego. In the midst of death, we are in life. On a throbbingly hot deep blue afternoon in Sydney, as this ghost ship of an England Ashes tour creaked towards its final dock, the fourth day of the fifth Test produced an unexpected late plot twist. Something good happened.Jacob Bethell batted for six hours from mid-morning to close of play and scored a hundred of rare beauty at the SCG. It was an easy, crisp kind of beauty too, all classical lines and symmetry, an innings of layers and gears, of comforting rhythms, shot through with moments of balletic power. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Conscript Potts is England’s paratrooper fighting a lonely Ashes war in Sydney | Barney Ronay

While England’s batting always gets to hog the limelight, this tour has also been lost in the bowling fade-outsForty-five minutes into a quietly overcast morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts came into the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began running through his variations.His first ball was wide and smashed through cover by Travis Head. His second ball was both short and wide and hacked over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was short and straight and smashed past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was defended with a show of furrowed caution, to loud, mocking cheers from a crowd that had begun to tuck into the day. Welcome to the treadmill, Pottsy. And yes, it’s always like this around here. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago England hopes of final Ashes win fading after Steve Smith hundred gives Australia commanding lead

England pushed towards defeat after punishing third day in Sydney

Politics

2 w. ago Ashes Fifth Test Australia v England: Prediction, Betting Tips & Odds

Following England’s first away Ashes win in almost 15 years, the series concludes with the Fifth Test in Sydney

Politics

3 w. ago McCullum must be held to account even if England end Ashes with another win | Barney Ronay

A 3-2 series scoreline may make it hard to change coach but you don’t reward a failure of planning because the players clawed a bit back when it was too lateThere’s a good origins-story-style video in the Sky Sports masterclass archive. Filmed at Edgbaston in 2016, it shows the blue-sky brothers, Brendon McCullum and Rob Key, back when the world was still young, looking sharp and chiselled, laughing and joshing on the outfield, and nominally discussing how to bat in T20 cricket.And yes, the chemistry, well, the chemistry is overpowering. It almost feels like a romantic intrusion, the viewer cast as gooseberry. This is Coldplay kiss-cam energy. This is like watching Bacall and Bogart fall in love on screen. You know how to whistle don’t you, Keysey? You just put your lips together and enter into a transcendent game state. Continue reading...

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3 w. ago England attack’s holiday fling might be the start of something more serious | Barney Ronay

If Josh Tongue and Brydon Carse can repeat their MCG displays, this may be more than a marriage of convenienceWhat does it mean? How should we feel? What are the roots that clutch? What branches grow out of this stony rubbish? For most of its combined 142 overs, watching England’s fourth Test victory in Melbourne felt like drifting in and out of a drunken sleep while trying and failing to follow the plot of a particularly gruelling action movie.Why is this car chase happening? Why is The Rock defusing a torpedo inside a collapsing Maya temple? Why are they running to the top of the nearest generic tall building for this final, final, final showdown? Wait. Will Jacks is playing? Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago England's win to cost Australia MILLIONS as repercussions of rapid Ashes victory emerge

England ended their long wait win for a Test victory on Australian soil as Ben Stokes' side wrapped up victory inside two days with thousands of fans in line for refunds

Economics

3 w. ago England’s MCG triumph is a genuine coup – and a picture of what might have been | Barney Ronay

A properly prepped, balanced and weaponised team finally had the chops to expose Australia’s weaknessesNa-na na-na na-na na na na, Duckett’s on the piss. On the piss. Duckett’s on the piss.Don’t take me home, please don’t take me home. And while we’re here, stand up, stand up, please do stand up if you love a two-day Test on a pitch as green and ridged as an under-ripe roasting potato. For an hour in mid-afternoon on day two at the MCG England’s top order finally did the thing. The clocks stopped. Dogs miaowed. Birds flew backwards across the sky. And Test cricket turned into darts. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Ben Stokes admits England’s chaotic Ashes win ‘not the best advertisement’ for Test cricket

England recorded a first Ashes Test win in Australia for 15 years by winning inside two days at the MCG, where chaos and mayhem reigned supreme

Politics

3 w. ago England emerge from the chaos to salvage some Ashes pride with wild two

England won an Ashes Test in Australia for the first time in 15 years, to end a run of 16 defeats and two draws across four tours

Events

3 w. ago England seal first win in Australia for 15 years to avoid Ashes whitewash

England chase down 175 to win by four wickets inside two days in Melbourne

Events

3 w. ago England survive MCG mayhem to break Ashes drought in Australia with win in fourth Test

4th Test, D2: England, 110 & 178-6, bt Australia, 152 & 132, by 4 wktsCrawley, Duckett and Bethell help set up win inside two daysStop press. Hold the back page. Drag out the dusty bunting and book three more nights in Noosa. England’s men have won a Test in Australia for the first time in nearly 15 years, chasing down 175 to win by four wickets and prevent an Ashes defeat from becoming a whitewash.Granted it was not a live victory, England merely dragging the scoreline back to 3-1 and doing so courtesy of a two-day heist on a pitch that made batting a lottery. But given the ordeal of this tour, and that grim run of 18 Tests without a win on Australian soil, it was not insignificant either. Though robbed of three days’ play, their supporters could finally crack a smile. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Ashes LIVE: Shocking Aussie collapse gifts England chance to win first Ashes Test on Australian soil since 2010 as Boxing Day match goes down to the wire

DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA LIVE BLOG: Australia will be looking to pile up a big total after a chaotic opening day of the Boxing Day Ashes Test that saw 20 wickets fall

Events

3 w. ago Duckett and Bethell were dangled out to dry by failings of a slack setup | Barney Ronay

No rational judge could have expected England’s fall guys to succeed at the MCG where they were thrown on to a festive bonfireGuess who just got back today? Those wild-eyed boys that had been away. This was a day of brittle, over-caffeinated cricket, on an MCG pitch streaked with faint green ridges. But it was also a day when the boys were, however briefly, back in town.Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell have been the two protagonists in the grainy, Zapruder-style footage from England’s six-day, mid-series jig-about by the sea. True to apparent recent form, both were here for a good time not a long time as England were bowled out for 110 in 29.5 overs. Both batted like men groping for the light switch in the dark against a new ball that seamed the width of the bat at times. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Auf Wiedersehen, pets: Duckett and Bethell were (briefly) back in town but failings lie at the top | Barney Ronay

No rational judge could have expected England’s fall guys to succeed at the MCG where they were thrown on to a festive bonfire by a lack of red-ball cricket and a slack set-upGuess who just got back today? Those wild-eyed boys that had been away. This was a day of brittle, over-caffeinated cricket, on an MCG pitch streaked with faint green ridges at the start, like an under-ripe, peeled potato. But it was also a day when the boys were, however briefly, back in town.Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell have been the two protagonists in the grainy, Zapruder-style footage from England’s six-day, mid-series jig-about by the sea. True to apparent recent form, both were here for a good time not a long time as England were bowled out for 110 in 29.5 overs. Both batted like men groping for the light switch in the dark against a new ball that seamed the width of the bat at times. Continue reading...

Events

4 w. ago English cricket meets Spinal Tap as Rob Key delivers latest Ashes autopsy | Barney Ronay

The England men’s cricket MD offered a postmortem that didn’t address the nuts and bolts of the system he manages“It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.” David St Hubbins, lead vocalist Spinal Tap.“There’s a real difference between aggressive and dumb.” Rob Key, managing director, England cricket. Continue reading...

Politics