This #Ashes #cricket series has been a joy to listen to.

My American friends would struggle to believe that a 5-match series that lasts for 30 days (not including breaks between matches) can end in a draw and yet still be a thrilling spectacle.

Superb #BazBall cricket by England to level things at the very brink.

The left-arm pacer found his rhythm as Australia bowled England out for 283 on day 1 of the fifth Test
#Starc #Bazball
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/starc-takes-the-buzz-out-of-bazball-101690482045845.html

This first hour is going to be the apotheosis of #BazBall isn't it? #TheAshes #Cricket

This is #Bazball at its core. #Ashes

#ashes someone forgot to give Woakes the updated brief re. #Bazball

Looking forward to England declaring soon. Wood and Woakes can probably get five more before day's end.

#Ashes #Bazball

@RanaldClouston Yes, the actual tests were quite close. I agree.

I'm referring to the bombastic hype of #BazBall by the English team and press pre- and -post 1st test. The 'moral victory' stuff still being trotted out.

In this context, 'epic fail' seems quite a reasonable description of their failure to dominate/entertain/triumph, Stokes' run chase excluding.

Pretty much think this whole #Ashes outrage is concocted by McCullum and Stokes to distract from the #EpicFail of their #BazBall strategy in the first two tests.

#Cricket
#AusvEng

#Ashes Second Test Summary: lol, lmao, cry more. Stokes is playing #bazball now, rest of the England team still playing pocket hockey.

Another epic ashes day on the cards.
Hoping for #Bazball to shine through this time.

#cricket #ashes

Currently sitting in NZ @ 1:15am eating spicy noodles and watching #TheAshes. I can't help but hope #England can #BazBall their way to victory after that appalling display of sportsmanship by #Australia #Cricket

#ashes starc is playing #bazball! 6!

The boys won’t get a better chance to pile on runs for their legacy than today. Hope Uzzie and Smith go big. Bury #BazBall and salt the earth then let the English tabloids do the rest

#cricket #ashes

England’s men of Bazball are putting fun before winning. Why not try both? | Jonathan Liew https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2023/jun/30/englands-new-fun-style-is-admirable-but-maybe-try-winning-ashes-cricket #cricket #bazball #ashes

I didn't mind the cricket finishing a little earlier last night, as it allowed me to go to bed before 3am - a rarity when The Ashes is on in England.

Anyway, after going to bed I started thinking about the cult that is known as BazBall. And it really has become a cult to many cricket fans. Every criticism of batters throwing away their wickets is parried away with the line:

"But they won 11 out of 13 tests playing BazBall!".

Of course they won 11 out of 13 tests! That is what happens with team sports when one team implements thoroughly new tactics! It takes a little time for the other teams to respond to those tactical changes.

For example, I've watched rugby league all of my life. During that time there have been many changes in defense and attack. Initially players would mark their opposite player (winger vs winger, outside centre vs outside centre etc). But one-on-one defense had problems. Too easy for an attacking player to break the tackle or offload the ball.

So, sliding defense was invented (I think by Manly's Bob Fulton in the early 1990s). The defense became slightly compressed and slid across the field, following the ball. This allowed multiple defenders to tackle a player, preventing offloads. Because it takes time to pass a ball, if the attack decided to move the ball out wide, the defense was still able to slide across & cover it.

Attacking teams responded by implementing rapid changes of direction, such as short passes to players running on an angle, causing gaps in the defense when some continued to slide one way while others reversed their slide to deal with the change in attacking direction.

Changes in rugby league defense & attack tactics have been continuous for the past 3 decades. Every time a coach comes up with a new tactic that works, the other teams soon work out a way to negate it.

And I think that's what is happening with BazBall, which has only been around for a short time. Australia have spent the past 6 months or so studying everything about the new England tactics, and working out ways to neutralise them. On the field the Aussies are adapting rapidly, as was shown yesterday when they lost their front-line spinner to injury, so they decided to let the English batters get themselves out to irresistible BazBall-style shots by bowling fast & short at them. BazBall means a batter cannot let a ball within the hitting zone go through to the keeper - they have to attack it. And they did - to England's detriment.

We're only halfway through the 2nd test of a 5-test series, and England could still win. But I think all of the other test cricket-playing nations will be watching this series very closely and carefully studying Australia's methods of neutralising BazBall.

BazBall's glory days may already be over. #cricket #Ashes #TheAshes #ENGvAUS #AUSvENG #sport #Australia #England #BazBall

When #England loose the #ashes some needs to burn the #BazBall and give in to #BrendonMcCullum and #BenStokes.

First time I've ever got into the #cricket and have been absolutely loving (although not so much today) #TheAshes. I've found #Bazball to really help as an entry point and was heartened to see the #ICEC report, which no doubt signals a coming era of positive change. However. I have just considered buying a couple of tickets for me and a friend and across all remaining Tests, you can't pick up a ticket for less than £300. Class-based discrimination indeed.

#Ashes

So #bazball is over after Smith walking outside the off stump to every ball, then the Aussie quicks bouncing the ballers into silly shots? They haven’t faced a set of good quicks before? #cricket #ashes

All fun and games until someone loses the Ashes. #Bazball

Spot on from Jarrod about how #Bazball is rapidly becoming cultish!

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/red-inker-with-jarrod-kimber/id1503878544?i=1000618570015