I saw both scenarios for sunday; occasional heavy showers along with the sunny periods you mention, or a washout, which has seemingly come to pass. As I said in my post; if the weather had been okay, the game plan was perfect. Put them in, dismiss them relatively cheaply, get a decent lead and then try to get them out cheaply again. The game management would have been spot on. I'm not arguing that at all.
I didn't. And I checked it on Friday and yesterday. That's not the way the figures looked to me. In any case, predicting the weather is not an exact science, in either direction.
Look, we could argue till the cows come home. It's now immaterial to me. My broader point is that Stokes's general style involves a measure of risk-taking — it's what you get with the package, the whole man: the previous captain had a cautious style which got us pretty much nowhere, and Stokes's style has brought us and the world an immeasurably greater degree of success (and entertainment).
And the even bigger picture beyond that: if cricket is to survive as a sport in the modern world, if the five-day format is to survive, well, this
just isn't good enough. This is the Ashes on the line, here. It has been settled, not by excellence by one side or the other, but by something entirely extraneous. If a club ends up at the top of the table in football, there is no rational arguing about it — their team was the best that year.
There is nothing even vaguely exciting or uplifting about the way this series is being resolved. A very exciting series is sputtering out into, literally, a damp squib. Who, if they were thinking of following test cricket as a novice, would be convinced to part with their hard-earned cash by such a prospect? I cannot imagine that even the most rabid Australian fan is excited by looking at rain at Old Trafford (although they'll probably be smug about it). There are a number of variables that can be thought about to take account of very poor weather for one day out of five. They must be thought about at the highest levels. This has been the Ashes. It just hasn't been good enough.
I've said my piece, and this will be my last word in this particular exchange.
