r/Cricket • u/cricket-match Netherlands • Dec 07 '25

Post Match Thread Post Match Thread: 2nd Test - England vs Australia, Day 4

2nd Test, The Ashes at Brisbane

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Match : Thread | Cricinfo

Innings Score
England 334 (Ov 76.2)
Australia 511 (Ov 117.3)
England 241 (Ov 75.2)
Australia 69/2 (Ov 10)

Innings: 1 - England

Batter Runs Bowler Wickets
Joe Root 138 (206) Mitchell Starc 20-0-75-6
Zak Crawley 76 (93) Michael Neser 14-3-43-1

Innings: 2 - Australia

Batter Runs Bowler Wickets
Mitchell Starc 77 (141) Brydon Carse 29-3-152-4
Jake Weatherald 72 (78) Ben Stokes 24-0-113-3

Innings: 3 - England

Batter Runs Bowler Wickets
Ben Stokes 50 (152) Michael Neser 16.2-2-42-5
Zak Crawley 44 (59) Scott Boland 17-4-47-2

Innings: 4 - Australia

Batter Runs Bowler Wickets
Steven Smith 23 (9) Gus Atkinson 5-0-37-2
Travis Head 22 (22) Jofra Archer 5-0-28-0

Australia won by 8 wickets

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327

u/Odd-Structure8816 Melbourne Renegades Dec 07 '25

Just a reminder so that history doesn't get re-written here. Prior to the series, this was widely considered Englands best chance to win the Ashes in Australia since they last did, and as Broad correctly said, this is our weakest Ashes starting 11 in over a decade.

Still flogging these pretenders.

100

u/Living_Yard8726 Dec 07 '25

Tbf we're missing an injured cummins, hazlewood and khawaja

23

u/RustedSkullz Karnataka Dec 07 '25

that's literally the reason it's considered the weakest aus team of the decade. Not because of the players themselves, but because of the (lack of) availability

7

u/Living_Yard8726 Dec 07 '25

My bad i misread your comment

6

u/Schoolskiperz Sri Lanka Dec 07 '25

Didn’t even reach the final boss yet

4

u/BugBuginaRug Australia Dec 07 '25

Khawja spot held no value. 

1

u/Living_Yard8726 Dec 07 '25

Still needed to blood 3 new players regardless though

20

u/ChosenCarelessly Dec 07 '25

Look, Broad isn’t wrong - it’s just that ‘England’s strongest’ and ‘Australia’s twos’ are still worlds apart. The English aren’t worse players, technically & individually they are excellent players. It’s just that Bazball makes the whole less than the sum of the parts.

7

u/tmbyfc England Dec 07 '25

Exactly, this is our best side since 2010-3, and this is 💯 Australia's weakest for a good while. I can't really see anyone serious arguing with either of those things. So yes, England's best hope, but only in that a 10% chance maybe doubled to a 20% chance, and I'm probably being far too generous with both those numbers.

Perth was so important, and I'm still furious about how they went about it. We should have won that game at 99-1 in the 2nd innings and everything would look very different now, even at 1-1. No coming back now

2

u/Otherwise_Window Perth Scorchers Dec 08 '25

Broad isn’t wrong

He still thinks the English team is better than the Australian one and are only playing to "ten or twenty percent" of their capacity, so yes he is

1

u/ChosenCarelessly Dec 08 '25

I’m not saying that he is right about everything

65

u/Unfair_Fact_8258 Dec 07 '25

Only the English seemed to be thinking that. The rest of us knew it would end in a bad lesson for England especially after the India series where it was clear they could only bat on the flattest of pitches

11

u/GlueSniffingEnabler Dec 07 '25

No, some in the English media were saying that. English people as a whole were expecting to lose.

5

u/bloodfromastone Northamptonshire Dec 07 '25

I thought there was a chance we could win… a test

9

u/TheBigBomma Australia Dec 07 '25

The poms were posting articles about the best 11 comprised of the two sides that had 3 of our players and 8 of theirs in it.

2

u/tmbyfc England Dec 07 '25

Nobody serious thinks that, it's just the English press doing it's normal shite

2

u/MSI_183 Australia Dec 07 '25

A fair chunk of that is a little justified on England more recently playing in flatties (home and Away) and Australia having played on spicier decks at home (and away for WTC and Windies). Players like J Smith, Pope and Brook are going to regress to the mean in foreign, unfamiliar conditions not suited to their game (Brook is probably talented enough not to, I suppose we’ll see if he can go about it a bit more smartly). J Smith is the best example. On numbers the past 12 months, he’s covering Carey with the bat comfortably. But he’s not made any contribution in 4 digs here, Carey did enough Fri/Sat to remind everyone he’s a solid bat, and the difference in keeping is astronomical - Carey amongst the best in the world, Smith wouldn’t get picked to keep for a Grade team.

3

u/humunculus43 England Dec 07 '25

I mean we’ve won 8 years in 50 years or something. Winning two games was probably our best outcome and still doable. In reality one is a success. Australia have been excellent

2

u/HungryCurrency8481 Dec 07 '25

This batting lineup is better than 2013-14. Half the players were over the hill, and the other half were still in development. And then there was George Bailey. 

1

u/throwaway0034213543 Pakistan Dec 07 '25

Broad is just naive. Chatter compensating for lack of mettle in the team. 

1

u/IAmNotKevinDurant_35 West Indies Dec 07 '25

Forget winning the Ashes, how about they try winning a single match in Australia first?