The Ashes Tour of Australia 2025/26

....& if people continue to post in a discussion manner until the start of play will you have to keep deleting & reposting. It could be a popular thread, one solution would be a separate chat & discussion thread.

Yep I agree.
New thread created for scorecard only.
This thread can be kept for chat.

As for the series itself I would like to adopt a logical approach but with this England team I wonder whether much logic will prevail?
Whatever I predict will be wrong so I shan't make any predictions.

I think the key really will be first innings runs. If England can make good first innings totals in this series they give themselves a better chance. First Test is always important.
Get out of Perth having not lost and get out of the Gabba without losing as well then maybe I might allow myself to dare to dream.........
Possibly

England win the toss and........BAT!!

So then.
Is it time to hide behind the sofa?
Or could England get off to a good start?

Oh dear.
Crawley gone first over .

Any small threads of optimism have been completely shattered. Getting bowled out in 32.5 overs is unacceptable. This was suppose to be our best chance, no Cummins or Hazlewood, but we succumb to the only remaining of the regular trio of fast bowlers. Mitchell Starc who will be 36 in January is showing no signs of slowing down, he recently passed 400 Test wickets against the West Indies in his 100th Test, his 7-58 today added to that tally. Just 4 batsmen made double figures. Regardless of the quality of the bowling or the demands of a bouncy pitch, the inability of not being able to stay at the crease long enough to score runs. This is a follow on from the New Zealand ODI series were they unable to bat for 50 overs, different format same problem with many of the same batsmen. Batting for in excess of 100 overs should be possible in most conditions, do that & the game will last into day 5. This should be the death of Bazball, the headless chicken style didn't work today against one high class bowler.

Lack of preparation. How many warm up matches have they had?

And they'll probably decide to bowl the next time that they win a toss.

Looking at the 2 teams I tried to convince myself that England's 8-11 should provide more runs, Atkinson early in his career, but with a Test century, Starc is a decent No.8 averaging 20, with 11 half centuries, but the rest shouldn't offer much.
England had reached 160-5 before Brook was dismissed & they collapsed from that point losing 5-12 in 3 overs.

Close of play: England out for 172-10, Starc 7-58. Australia 123-9. Stokes 5-23. Great comeback by England. Insane First Test, Day 1 of the Ashes 2025-2026.

(21-11-2025 09:54 )TDK2008 Wrote:  Close of play: England out for 172-10, Starc 7-58. Australia 123-9. Stokes 5-23. Great comeback by England. Insane First Test, Day 1 of the Ashes 2025-2026.

There is a separate thread for the scorecard as linked below. I am updating the score as often as I can in that thread.
https://www.babeshows.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=90714

I haven't been to see the ball by ball.

And the highlights show will be on later today.

But I take it that it's not the normal Australian wicket. And they must be getting worried that it won't last the four days, or even two.

Unbelievable first innings the pace of the bowling from both sides. Surely this 1st test will be done in 3 days ??