16 h. ago MCG pitch is easy scapegoat but sloppy cricket is to blame for early Ashes finishes | Geoff Lemon

While the Melbourne curator had to face the media and say sorry, some of the players owe him an apology in returnYou know that something has gone wrong when the man in charge of the cricket pitch is giving a post-match press conference. Australian pitches are celebrities in their own right, each with a distinct perceived personality. Perth – gasoline, bounce. Sydney – intrigue, spin. Adelaide – graft, a late finale. Like any possessor of fame who has been around long enough, some trade on past glories that no longer apply, but what those ideas mean to the people repeating them is worth more than the truth itself.Aptly, these celebrities have agents, representatives, fluffers, heading to media appearances before each Test to prognosticate. Where the English grass gaffers are still called groundsmen, clomping around in gumboots yelling at interlopers to get off their giant lawn, the Australians are curators, artfully synthesising the elements of sun and rain and dew and morning mist i...

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57 h. ago Boxing Day Test 2025: Australia v England fourth Ashes Test, day two – live updates

Australia edge England in wild opening to Boxing Day Test Over-by-over updates from Melbourne Cricket Ground Live scorecard | Geoff Lemon on Australia’s bowlers“Dear Rob,” writes Robert Wilson. “I’ve got skin in the game as I am trying to arrange an all-night viewing sesh for day (night) three in an unexpectedly swish Aussie backpacker hostel near Stalingrad (in Paris). Logistically, it’s quite a lot of ducks to get in a row and punters fagging all the way in from below-zero Versailles or somesuch only to catch four overs while nursing a lukewarm Newky Brown might have views.“But seeing the highlights, I didn’t feel the pitch was as mega-jalapeno as some claimed. Yesterday’s turnstile innings seemed a perfect mix of often tack-sharp bowling, tasty pitch and Ballymena Academy Third Eleven batting (I watched the Duckett dismissal frame-by-frame and I still don’t even understand). Continue reading...

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8 d. ago Pat Cummins is in rare air as an Ashes captain. Can his Dad's Army go around again? | Geoff Lemon

He’s achieved an Ashes feat that few others have. But he’s still missing an outright win in EnglandStarc breaks England hearts again as Australia retain the AshesWhile it took longer than expected on the fifth day in Adelaide, eventually it was done. A series won, the Ashes retained for another year and a half until they next go up for grabs in England. For Pat Cummins, this makes three consecutive Ashes series captained without giving up the urn. The feat leaves him in sparse but fine company: the others to do it are Joe Darling, Don Bradman, Richie Benaud, Mike Brearley, Allan Border and Mark Taylor.It made things neater that Steve Smith missed this third Test, having captained the first two wins in Cummins’ absence, so that it didn’t feel like the full-time captain was swooping in to hoover up the stand-in’s lunch. Those situations can be odd, like Adam Gilchrist filling in to lead what was very much Ricky Ponting’s team, captaining two wins in India in 2004 before Ponting return...

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8 d. ago Pat Cummins primed to pop the corks after bursting England’s fragile bubble | Geoff Lemon

Australia’s captain marvel, the ultimate flat-wicket operator, stormed into this third Ashes Test like he had never been awayOn a redundancy scale, attending the Adelaide Test and noting that Pat Cummins was good is in the realm of noting that the Torrens was wet or the cathedral was spiky. Still, on day four, any one of those obvious things might justifiably have caught an observer’s eye. Perhaps it’s more notable just how natural, how inevitable, it felt that Cummins was indeed bowling at his best in his first match back after a nascent stress fracture cost him the first two Tests of this Ashes series and any match preparation before that.England observers will spend four years until their team’s next visit pondering explanations for this year’s poor showing, inevitably including much examination of the lack of chances for their bowlers to adjust to Australian conditions. Cummins spent five months in the gym and the nets without once seeing the middle of a ground, latterly powerin...

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3 w. ago He’ll always have Brisbane: Michael Neser revels in sweet day of Ashes glory | Geoff Lemon

Stand-in bowler makes the most of rare chance on what could yet prove to be his final moments in Test cricket• Australia beat England by eight wickets at the GabbaIn the end, the only tension was whether Brisbane’s rain would descend before Australia could knock off the last 32 runs in the final session, and so whether going 2-0 up in the Ashes would be delayed until the fifth day. It turned out that England’s resistance through the light of the afternoon had only dished up some evening entertainment for home fans, with Travis Head able to put on a brief show in dispatching the pink ball over the fence before he headed back the same way.And still. Through the longest partnership of the series so far, 221 balls on the hottest day of the second Test, Ben Stokes and Will Jacks made Australia work in the field, something that was perhaps worth doing for the simple fact of proving that it can be done. With Mitchell Starc tiring after leading the line all series, the contest became a grin...

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3 w. ago Steve Smith on top again after he resumes Ashes rivalry with Jofra Archer | Geoff Lemon

As Australia’s batting linchpin helps hosts pull away, England’s premier paceman is yet to get him out in a TestJofra Archer versus Steve Smith in 2019 is already Ashes folklore. The atmosphere at Lord’s that afternoon was charged in all senses, a huge slab of cloud bringing darkness to the day. Fresh off a match-winning World Cup final, Archer marked his Test debut with what was then the fastest spell recorded for England. Smith was in the middle of a Bradman-hued streak of 774 runs in seven innings. All that could pause him was a short-pitched attack of building ferocity, one that finally dropped Smith with a bouncer to the neck. It was a pure duel, the kind that cause spectators genuine fear.In the immediate aftermath, and again as Archer took six-fers in wins at Headingley and the Oval, one principal idea came up in every discussion: imagine, what might he be able to do in Australia? Imagine him on a fast and bouncy track in Perth or Brisbane. It was: “I can’t wait to get you to...

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