- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Day 1 of the 4th Test match in this year’s Ashes series was just another example of how England make Test matches boring.
England finished Day 1, 9 wickets down for just 238 runs at just a run rate of 2.64 run per over.
And that was after they scored 42 in the last 10 overs of the day.
So, in the first 80 overs of the day, England only managed to put on 196 runs. Who wants to sit into the early hours of the morning and watch that?
In fact, at the lunch break after 27 overs, England only had 57 runs on the board. That is just over two runs an over.
England only had four batsmen with a strike rate of 50 and above on the day and two of them were the unbeaten tailenders at the end.
In fact, in nearly every Test match in this Ashes series, England have got off to a ridiculously slow start. However, on most occasions they have been able to score at least 3 runs an over.
Even so, most of this is just power hitting by tailenders and Matt Prior to take the run rate up to 3 runs an over mark.
To give you an idea of just how slow England batted and just how boring it is to watch, here are some stats from England’s first innings.
Alastair Cook scored 51 runs off 164 balls in 230 minutes. So, Cook batted almost all the way to tea, which is four hours of play for just 51 runs. His strike rate was 31.09, that is less than a run every 3 balls.
Joe Root, did not do much better with 16 runs off 52 balls at a strike rate of just 30.76.
John Bairstow? Pathetic he was with just 14 runs scored off 77 balls at a strike rate of 18.18. Now, if anyone can say they want to sit there and watch England build their defence like the US army, then good luck.
As for Australia, you never know what to expect.
They have batsmen like David Warner, Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin, and Chris Rogers – who recorded almost a run each ball while scoring 80 odd in the 3rd Test.
If they get going then Australia’s run rate normally sits close to 4 runs an over, which is what fans want to see and Australia’s run rate was higher than 4 runs an over in their one good batting performance of the series to date.
Yes, England need credit where it is due, and their method seems to work and help them to win Test matches, but they do it slowly, gritty and determined in a way that fans might be more inclined to watch Lawn Bowls.