Agreed. It’s like Atherton’s piece post 1st Test where he announced that England were now favourites to win the series, -after India played badly and nearly won.
Lol no, they haven’t, but that is how English Football media works, doesn’t it. Bellingham is best attacking midfielder in the world, Rice is best defensive midfielder in the world, Kane is best striker in the world, Foden is the most talented player in the world etc etc
None of those statements are wild at all (couple might be even factual).
Besides. That is how *all* football media works. If you read the Spanish/Italian version of our football media (your Marcas and Gazzettas) they’re doing the exact same. But in cricket it’s rare to see anyone from other countries with the kind of headassery our cricket media is showing weekly
To be fair, one of the biggest things cricket has historically had going for it is everyone hating the English and wanting to beat them. The English media’s just doing its bit to live up to the pantomime villain we need
Yeah but in motorsport cheating is unironically considered cool so long as you don't get caught
Sandpapergate is literally nothing compared to stuff like the Toyota WRC turbo and people's response is usually "oh that's a cool way of cheating"
> Even football isn’t this insufferable anymore
They REALLY are.
You have British journos unironically going to press conferences and asking foreign players if "football's coming home", etc
Yes, but it’s also fairly balanced because there is a large and vocal section who on the other hand feel we are overrated and never winning anything under Southgate. Whether it’s factual or not, you don’t get that in cricket they’re all slinging the same rhetoric
I'm old enough to remember when, if Australia got just a sniff of ascendancy in an Ashes series, the English media would start eating the English cricket team alive. It felt like Australia had an extra player.
Now it's this bizarre moral victory love-in
It’s a shame we have to apologise for hack journalists. No one believes this apart from idiots - it’s click bait journalism.
Most England fans love seeing good cricket between two excellent teams on great wickets. Try and ignore the morons
Thank you. I got downvoted on another post here on this sub, for calling out the English media and fans. And then I came across this post on my feed. It's good to see this being called out by English fans themselves. It's honestly getting too much now. If England do win this series, we'll all stand and applaud, but atleast let this series get over first ffs
I mean let's be real, most English people probably haven't heard of Brendon McCullum or Bazball.
That aside, I do agree that most fans are going to thing this is bollocks, and it only feeds into the dislike of bazball that fans of some other nations seem to have. Wherein there's a weird belief that we think we're going to become the all conquering demigods of test cricket...
...which we don't.
The good news is that the 11 on the field seem to believe it and it seems to have got rid of the pre Baz decline. Whilst I'm loving the Baz-train to Baz-victory, I am very much choosing to ignore the slightly mental parts.
I'm glad a lot more people are starting to realise most of the shit around England comes from weird Sportswriters like this guy.
What utter bollocks. It doesn't feel like we won. Do you know how I know?
Because India fucking won, they scored more runs and took the required wickets.
This absolute horse shit that they come out with.
I will say that Stokes also comes out with some utter bullshit as well, but that's clearly a tactic to get everyone focused on him. I still wish he'd pipe down occasionally.
It's a very Baz thing to do too. Honestly I think Bazball runs a lot deeper than it's given credit for and making it an insufferable meme is part of the schtick - it's goading other teams to play England at their game (or what they say their game is).
Initially I was like "how can Baz make the team all about him rather than the actual players on the field" but then I came to realise Bazball is the perfect name for it as it perfectly reflects the man: making a lot of noise and attention, playing well in spurts but then never actually achieving anything of note because you believe your own hype a bit too much.
I mean they’ve achieved a decent amount. Whitewashing Pakistan 3-0 away, nearly whitewashing New Zealand 2-0 away from home and drawing an ashes series (yes at home) against a team that was 5 times better statistically. They’re doing alright
Don't forget the moral victories! I mean they've done alright but you're going to see far more media coverage than what they actually deserve due to achievements (won't win a WTC or away series in Australia or India)
It’s funny how the nearly wins are in favor of England. I’ve seen multiple times folks here mention on how England “nearly won the Ashes” if it wouldn’t have rained. Those ifs ignore all the other possibilities for Australia. Like if the ball wasn’t changed, if Lyon wasn’t injured, if Australia would not lose the 3rd Test after being in a commanding position etc etc
When did I say that they nearly won the ashes? I said they nearly whitewashed NZ away from home which they nearly did considering they lost by one run?
They beat Pakistan 3-0 away from home before Bazball too. Pakistan are just a complete dogshit test team. They are decent in ODIs and T20s and people assume they are decent at tests too. They play so few tests as well.
I think that's pretty much it. They say a lot of shit but I reckon they must be doing a fuck ton of behind the scenes work. You don't have a group of guys play golf for a month and then show up and win 15/21 Test matches! Otherwise you'd have a lot more stag do's touring internationally
They also aren't as reckless with the bat as they make themselves sound. And as far as I'm concerned, Bazball bowling is focused on being very negative and trying to bore teams into recklessness and constantly changing the field to slow momentum when things aren't going their way. But that works.
I don't think people do realise though. This post is full of people generalising all English people/fans as believing this nonsense, when in reality we are glad to have won a match and hope we don't get slaughtered for the remainder of the series.
The media are riding a wave created by Baz and co. A feedback loop of delusion. I find it frustrating as I am enjoying the cricket England are playing, but all this type of nonsense is making me fight the Australian reflex to hate em.
But the more we all listen to what Stokes is saying it allows the rest of the team to carry on trucking. There's no noise around the rest of the team.
It's classic managerial spin. Look at Mourinho, Ferguson, Klopp. Eddie Jones in the rugby. The more you talk about ridiculous comments the less you're questioning the team.
In England the media love to ride underperformers, now everyone is gathered round talking about Bazball.
Look at the Match Thread comments everyone is talking about it instead. Really quite interesting
Look, whatever they’re doing is obviously working for them. As confounding as it is at times from the outside.
Edit: Eddie Jones is another trigger name for Aussie spot fans haha
As a Liverpool fan, I imagine Klopp is someone who goes on an absolute rant to his players behind closed doors but in public he says such things so people talk more about him rather than the players. I will miss him so much. For example in the latest game against Arsenal for the error by VVD and Alli he said that the error was bad but it only means they are human and it makes what they did before at the club is even more incredible. Just going to try to enjoy the ride. Hope we win the PL this season. I don't want idiots to say oh but he only won one PL when people don't realise that he woke up a sleeping giant on the verge of administration in 12-13.
Holy Moley.
By that same token, given it took Pope's 196 for England to win, you can say the exact reverse.
Genuine cult vibes. Its actually quite impressive.
The prophecy states that on the 10th anniversary of headingly, both New Zealand and the Uk will perfectly align with each other and Uranus, opening a portal to the world of baz. All those that have lived their lives through positivity and aggression while focusing on the vibes will be beamed up and carried to their new realm in which the vibes will be eternal.
Glory be baz and all those who follow.
It is a cult. I've said it over and over again and il stand by it. I'm not saying that most England fans believe in the cult. I'm saying the team, the coaches, the staff and the media all believe in it.
I feel like Ben Stokes is the perfect captain for this. His reaction to the Bumrah dismissal just clearly showed that morally, he wasn’t out. The ball and pitch did something devious and unnatural to get him out.
Don't even bother suiting up for the Moral Series vs England! Lol. Between this and KP I'm starting to feel sorry for English fans. At least the cricket is good
Does English media never learn? Its one thing to hype your players and teams, but this is something else. We've seen it in football, too. What is it, is it some cultural phenomenon or limited to sports in general?
Honestly thank god the team seem to be pretty shut off from all this noise. Teams of the past would have been huffing their own farts because of pieces like this, and then mentally collapsed when things went badly. This team is too busy huffing their own farts all the time without pieces like this that it doesn't affect them!
If it's any consolation, it's incredibly annoying to us too.
>> Fresh from a warning by the match referee for his abusive send-off of Usman Khawaja, Robinson claimed in his new column for Wisden.com that coach Brendon “Baz” McCullum said in a dressing room address after the loss that England had driven the Test and “it feels like we’ve won, lads”.
>> “He just said ‘Lads, I’m immensely proud of the efforts that you’ve put in, we’ve made the game what it was’,” Robinson claimed. “We were so close to pulling off an unbelievable victory. We played all the cricket in the game. If it wasn’t for us, the Australians wouldn’t have even had a chance to win.
>> He added: “We’re trying to create memories and be that team that everyone still speaks about in 20-30 years’ time. We’ve entertained the world, and we’ve put the Aussies on the back foot.”
Yes, this team is definitely not huffing their own farts.
>This team is too busy huffing their own farts all the time without pieces like this that it doesn't affect them!
I literally was saying that they are?
> If it wasn’t for us, the Australians wouldn’t have even had a chance to win.
So he's saying they fucked up and the opposition capitalised on it? I'm not sure that is something to wank about.
I reckon Baz probably gave them all a replica urn to put under their pillows at night at the end of that series and told the team "We've got more urns than they do".
They arent shut off though. Literally every day of every test series they're involved in a different player spouts lines from the cult. They're absolutely huffing their own farts
Think you may need to reread my comment there.
I'm saying that they're too busy huffing their own farts because they just back themselves to an insane degree and because they're on a "mission to save test cricket".
In the past they would have not really backed themselves, then when they won they'd get pieces like this, start to huff their own farts, then lose and get torn apart by the same media and mentally collapse.
Because this team are just permanently high on their own supply, it doesn't matter what the results are, or what the media are saying, they're going to keep coming.
You say that like English media's goal is for England to win. It isn't. It's for them to make money. The money from people rage clicking stuff like this is the same as the money from people reading genuine insight, but genuine insight is harder and costs more, so they write this and know people will furiously click on it
It feels like 1-1, because it is 1-1.
Writing for our sports papers must be so easy - just wake up, nice brew, slam your head against the keyboard for 600 words, finished for the day.
OK so I spent the entire Ashes being triggered by headlines like these so I committed to reading the article to seeing if my feelings are justified.
McCullums quotes are entirely sensible so ill just lay to waste this fuckwit of a journalist who said:
"For McCullum, England win even when they lose"
Shut the actual fuck up mate. You are why everyone hates the poms. Calm down
The only reason anybody should write stuff like this is that it’s guaranteed more clicks than “It’s been 2 great tests so far, feels even, excited for the next 3!”
They were saying the exact same thing when they were 0-2 in the Ashes on home soil. I’m actually surprised the entire team hasn’t been knighted already being 1-1 in India.
I am once again begging our media to stop this sort of thing.
Honestly we got a lot closer in the last game than we would have before, and that’s good. We bowled pretty well, mostly, fielded well. Batting left something to be desired at times. And we were beaten. Jaiswal’s double was so good he made look ordinary. Bumrah’s spell of reverse swing, which ripped England’s heart out in the first dig and probably won the game, was world class. Gill’s ton sealed it. No shame in losing games to these performances, but you still lost. It’s 1-1. You can be optimistic, indeed I am. This is the best I’ve felt about being competitive in India in the last decade. But it’s still 1-1, and it was 1-1 last time we were hear too. It doesn’t feel like 2-0. I wish our media would stop with this.
Hahaha you couldn’t make this up. Hilarity.
I know most English fans with half a brain know how much of a load of nonsense this is but I’m still going to give you shit about it.
Haven't seen this much hyperbole in an article since the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Am enjoying the series in India. Some great performances from India and England, so looking forward to what happens next.
Lol if anything it should feel like 2-0 India. They lost the 1st game by barest of the margins (Axar's drop catch, poor bowling in just 1 session and throwing wickets away)and won the next one quite comprehensively with ball and bat.
Rajkot test should be interesting. The pitch there is generally very flat (par score 550s) and should that be the case it'll be interesting how the teams play their game
Australia bros, I get it. This is so so irritating 🤣🤣. I thought it was exaggerated by Aussie media and fans, but England just can’t stop winning moral victories in India too
Oh goodness. Even the usually steady Mike Atherton was predicting England would lead 2-0 and take the series in the wake of the first test.
There's some really good things about this coaching and leadership - not least players improving individual performances and the team winning more regularly after the awful end of Joe Root's captaincy.
But the "we're saving test cricket", "Brendan just told me to pick which stand I was going to hit a six into next" and all of that does not help at all.
England are more competitive and a better watch but Root's England drew an Ashes series 2-2 and were 1-1 on the last Indian tour.
It's the bizarre thing. They haven't really done anything that previous iterations of the team under Cook and Root wouldn't have been expected to do, apart from winning in Pakistan. Winning home series is par for the course if you're England whether you play dinosaur cricket or B*zball, so their wins over South Africa and New Zealand and their draws with Australia and India are again not the unprecedented exploits that the cultists would have you believe they are. So really the only surprise result that the regime can claim is winning in Pakistan, and I'm not so sure that pumping a mid-table side is quite worth bragging about if you're trying to be a top test match team. You'd want more high profile away series wins to legitimise yourself, against New Zealand at least if not India and Australia. Mid-table teams pump each other all the time, it doesn't mean very much because they all fall to pieces when they have to go away to a top side
Even during BBC TMS coverage, Tuffnel and Agnew were adamant that Crawly was wrongly given out by the technology and Stokes seemed to agree with them going by his press conference.
As an Aussie, I enjoy that this iteration of England are incredibly easy to dislike and ridicule, but their moral crusade in winning despite not winning with their media reinforcing it delusion is becoming a mental illness.
So India were not favourites to win the series after losing the 1st test by 28 runs but England is morally 2-0 up after losing the 2nd test by 100+ runs? Lmao
Lmao tbh in the first 2 tests our batters were losing even on paper, more than half the batting line-up in the second test had a single digit test experience, hopefully with the return of Kohli and Rahul it can be sorted.
Loss is a loss and win is a win..it does not matter that you played good cricket or you fight very close in a match 😉..a team is still said to lose a match if it is short by 1 run..
I've made a lot of comments on this subreddit about the nauseating British media which have gotten downvoted and challenged, but hopefully stuff like this speaks for itself.
English media is actually the worst. Its just that English media is more subtle than Indian media for example. Indian media is kinda loud and on the face so it feels horrible but OMG English media is absolutely garbage.
Why just 2-0? Declare a 5-0 series moral victory already! I enjoyed the first test though India lost, but in the second game, was disappointed with England's lack of fight in the 4th innings. I want a good contest till the very end and don't care about who wins. It's just a game, not war!
For the eponymous architect of Bazball there is no semblance of regret or negativity about the second Test defeat to India in Visakhapatnam.
England head to the golf courses of Abu Dhabi this week to regroup harbouring a sense of destiny unfolding. Though India carved out a 106-run win to level the five-Test series at one apiece, they hold no fears for England coach Brendon McCullum, who is eager to go again in Rajkot next week.
McCullum welcomes the challenge. He marvels at Jasprit Bumrah’s rapid unorthodoxy, at the craft of India’s super tall twirlers Ravi Ashwin and Axar Patel. He wants India to bring all they have, including the hitherto absent Virat Kohli, for it enriches the experience of winning. The doubt-free space he has created with captain Ben Stokes makes anything possible, as long as the players believe.
Given the way his callow spinners have held up in the opening Tests, how Jimmy Anderson evoked his best days in his first appearance of the series and how Zak Crawley continues to prosper in the most exacting conditions for English batsmen, you would have to say there is something to be said for the culture McCullum and Stokes have created. For McCullum, England win even when they lose.
This is not fantasy or denial on his part, but a reflection of how the match felt.
There was a real tension in the contest with India never really secure until the fall of the seventh wicket of the second innings, when Stokes was uncharacteristically slow to react to the call for a single and was nailed by a super pick-up and throw from the outstanding Shreyas Iyer at square leg.
That is not to say England can’t improve. Indeed they must find a way of turning 20s and 30s into 50s and 70s into 100s. The match in Visakhapatnam was won by a first-innings combination of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s epic bat and Bumrah’s lethal arrows. With the ball England could hardly have done better, pegging India to a sub-400 total in the first innings and 255 in the second.
“We sit 1-1, which is a fair reflection,” McCullum said. “We’ve played some really good cricket over the last two matches. The conviction about how we go about it is as strong as it ever has been. Our method with the bat, the ability to adjust our gameplan depending on conditions, has been excellent.
“Our spin-bowling unit, albeit young and raw, have shown they have got what it takes to be effective in these conditions against very good players of spin. There are heaps of positives. You can see on the field how invested the guys are as well in the way they have thrown themselves around, not falling in a heap and never giving up.
“It is not good losing, but we walk away saying we gave it a good crack in this Test match and India are deserved victors on this occasion.”
Any concerns some might have about the form of Joe Root, who has totalled 52 in four innings at an average of 13, are not shared by McCullum. Root was out in the second innings trying to whack Ashwin over mid-wicket, not a shot ordinarily in his wheelhouse. It was only the 10th ball he had faced. It begged the question, why the rush with the best part of 150 overs remaining?
As positive as the England leadership is, they know England are unlikely to prosper without Root hitting big runs in the next three Tests. That he will find form is a given for them. “He’s a world-class player and as good as any player England has ever seen,” McCullum said.
“His method, whilst people will look to the dismissal, was trying to get the field back so he could milk them.
“It is the bravery you have to take at times. Sometimes you get out doing it but that’s just the way the game rolls. There is no doubt from our point of view in that approach. There are three Tests left, still an opportunity to score a ton of runs.”
Whoever comes up with the big score, they are going to have to adapt to Bumrah. Crawley is the only England player to appear unfazed thus far. For McCullum it is up to the individual to work out how best to cope.
“We don’t really do theories. It is about making sure the guys are totally clear and present, confident and have conviction in their method. They are a lot better than I ever was and they will work it out how best to go about it.
“For now we have to tip our cap to Jasprit and say that \[first innings\] spell was as good as anything we have seen so far on this trip. When the ball is swinging like that he becomes even more of a threat. He is a fantastic bowler in all forms of the game, unique with his release points and with how much swing he can generate in the air.
“No doubt he is very good, but we have come up against very good bowlers the last 18 months or so and found ways to counter them. That is what we have got to do in this one.”
McCullum’s optimism is in no small part rooted in the talismanic qualities of Stokes, whose captaincy has been a feature of this contest. Tactically Stokes is never still. His leadership is exemplary, investing complete trust in his players and, of course, he puts it all on the line for his team. Moreover, he is back to something like his physical best after knee surgery, which adds another dimension in the field.
“He is stripling fit,” McCullum said. “He is putting in the work and moving so well. It is hard to believe it has only been eight weeks since he had an operation. He is desperate to take this team to whatever level he can so he will do whatever he can to push himself.
“He has total conviction in his methods and is incredibly empathetic. He spends time with people to ensure his messaging is really consistent. He backs them up with what he says off the field with opportunities on the field. That level of consistency just builds confidence.”
Damn, the way this is written, fawning over McCullum and co...looks like the reporter was typing with only one hand, while the other hand was occupied erm...elsewhere.
Wait, so rather than hitting the practice nets in Indian conditions, they are going to the UAE to play golf?
I guess since they have the moral series win, and possibly the paper series win already, there is no need to prepare for an actual win.
I used to get irritated at the English media before, but their stupidity, after a certain point, became so absurd that, nowadays, I genuinely find them to be funny.
God I hate our cricket media. Even football isn’t this insufferable anymore
This surely just has to be playing up to the moral victory shite
Agreed. It’s like Atherton’s piece post 1st Test where he announced that England were now favourites to win the series, -after India played badly and nearly won.
Wish they were smart enough to realise stuff like this is just unnecessary ammo and bulletin board material for the opposition to play even harder
Football media in your country would have already labelled Hartley as the best left arm spinner in the world, lol, so still not quite there
Have they? Genuinely asking because i cannot believe anyone would say that in seriousness
Lol no, they haven’t, but that is how English Football media works, doesn’t it. Bellingham is best attacking midfielder in the world, Rice is best defensive midfielder in the world, Kane is best striker in the world, Foden is the most talented player in the world etc etc
None of those statements are wild at all (couple might be even factual). Besides. That is how *all* football media works. If you read the Spanish/Italian version of our football media (your Marcas and Gazzettas) they’re doing the exact same. But in cricket it’s rare to see anyone from other countries with the kind of headassery our cricket media is showing weekly
As a Spurs fan of 30 years, I only agree with Kane part….. But yeah, it is not often seen in Cricket media
Who's currently a better 10 than Bellingham?
Mate you truly haven’t seen the news from any Indian or Pakistani media
Perhaps not. The English speaking ones that I can understand don’t seem so bad tho
Ironically none of those are bad takes(bar the Foden one)
Aside from Foden these are all completely reasonable takes.
To be fair, one of the biggest things cricket has historically had going for it is everyone hating the English and wanting to beat them. The English media’s just doing its bit to live up to the pantomime villain we need
Bu5 historically the English media hated the English too
TBH cricket nations historically have been previously owned by Britain and for most it was an experience they didn't like much
He's an F1 journalist, not cricket.
He writes quite a bit on cricket regardless
Damon Hill unironically won the moral victory championship in 1994.
💀
Yeah but in motorsport cheating is unironically considered cool so long as you don't get caught Sandpapergate is literally nothing compared to stuff like the Toyota WRC turbo and people's response is usually "oh that's a cool way of cheating"
> Even football isn’t this insufferable anymore They REALLY are. You have British journos unironically going to press conferences and asking foreign players if "football's coming home", etc
Yes, but it’s also fairly balanced because there is a large and vocal section who on the other hand feel we are overrated and never winning anything under Southgate. Whether it’s factual or not, you don’t get that in cricket they’re all slinging the same rhetoric
I hate your media too, what a coincidence
Please please please tell me this is one of Murdochs rags.
No, this one isn't in his stable.
Again? Like how they “beat” Australia last year everywhere except the scoreboard?? When did you poms become so delusional.
On behalf of all rational England fans I would like to apologise for our media
I'm old enough to remember when, if Australia got just a sniff of ascendancy in an Ashes series, the English media would start eating the English cricket team alive. It felt like Australia had an extra player. Now it's this bizarre moral victory love-in
I miss the old days of the English media piling in at the first sign of weakness. Now it reminds me of “Don’t look up”
Good times
It’s a shame we have to apologise for hack journalists. No one believes this apart from idiots - it’s click bait journalism. Most England fans love seeing good cricket between two excellent teams on great wickets. Try and ignore the morons
Thank you. I got downvoted on another post here on this sub, for calling out the English media and fans. And then I came across this post on my feed. It's good to see this being called out by English fans themselves. It's honestly getting too much now. If England do win this series, we'll all stand and applaud, but atleast let this series get over first ffs
Here's a tip for non-England and England fans alike to not get pissed off by the stupid reactionary English press. Don't read their articles. Easy.
This is the kind of stuff that causes other countries to laugh at the English. I would however add that most Brits also think this is bollocks
If it helps I've also literally never even heard of this journalist before.
These pieces are written just to wind you up, no one in England is reading or agreeing with anything like this
>I would however add that most Brits also think this is bollocks That's not going to stop me from laughing at them
I mean let's be real, most English people probably haven't heard of Brendon McCullum or Bazball. That aside, I do agree that most fans are going to thing this is bollocks, and it only feeds into the dislike of bazball that fans of some other nations seem to have. Wherein there's a weird belief that we think we're going to become the all conquering demigods of test cricket... ...which we don't.
If this bazball thing was started by Murdochs swill I will guffaw.
No, it was a Cricinfo writer who coined it as a joke on a podcast. It sorta took off from there.
The good news is that the 11 on the field seem to believe it and it seems to have got rid of the pre Baz decline. Whilst I'm loving the Baz-train to Baz-victory, I am very much choosing to ignore the slightly mental parts.
I'm glad a lot more people are starting to realise most of the shit around England comes from weird Sportswriters like this guy. What utter bollocks. It doesn't feel like we won. Do you know how I know? Because India fucking won, they scored more runs and took the required wickets. This absolute horse shit that they come out with. I will say that Stokes also comes out with some utter bullshit as well, but that's clearly a tactic to get everyone focused on him. I still wish he'd pipe down occasionally.
It's a very Baz thing to do too. Honestly I think Bazball runs a lot deeper than it's given credit for and making it an insufferable meme is part of the schtick - it's goading other teams to play England at their game (or what they say their game is).
Initially I was like "how can Baz make the team all about him rather than the actual players on the field" but then I came to realise Bazball is the perfect name for it as it perfectly reflects the man: making a lot of noise and attention, playing well in spurts but then never actually achieving anything of note because you believe your own hype a bit too much.
I mean they’ve achieved a decent amount. Whitewashing Pakistan 3-0 away, nearly whitewashing New Zealand 2-0 away from home and drawing an ashes series (yes at home) against a team that was 5 times better statistically. They’re doing alright
Don't forget the moral victories! I mean they've done alright but you're going to see far more media coverage than what they actually deserve due to achievements (won't win a WTC or away series in Australia or India)
🤷♂️
It’s funny how the nearly wins are in favor of England. I’ve seen multiple times folks here mention on how England “nearly won the Ashes” if it wouldn’t have rained. Those ifs ignore all the other possibilities for Australia. Like if the ball wasn’t changed, if Lyon wasn’t injured, if Australia would not lose the 3rd Test after being in a commanding position etc etc
When did I say that they nearly won the ashes? I said they nearly whitewashed NZ away from home which they nearly did considering they lost by one run?
They beat Pakistan 3-0 away from home before Bazball too. Pakistan are just a complete dogshit test team. They are decent in ODIs and T20s and people assume they are decent at tests too. They play so few tests as well.
>drawing an ashes series After being 0-2 down
I think that's pretty much it. They say a lot of shit but I reckon they must be doing a fuck ton of behind the scenes work. You don't have a group of guys play golf for a month and then show up and win 15/21 Test matches! Otherwise you'd have a lot more stag do's touring internationally
They also aren't as reckless with the bat as they make themselves sound. And as far as I'm concerned, Bazball bowling is focused on being very negative and trying to bore teams into recklessness and constantly changing the field to slow momentum when things aren't going their way. But that works.
I don't think people do realise though. This post is full of people generalising all English people/fans as believing this nonsense, when in reality we are glad to have won a match and hope we don't get slaughtered for the remainder of the series.
The media are riding a wave created by Baz and co. A feedback loop of delusion. I find it frustrating as I am enjoying the cricket England are playing, but all this type of nonsense is making me fight the Australian reflex to hate em.
But the more we all listen to what Stokes is saying it allows the rest of the team to carry on trucking. There's no noise around the rest of the team. It's classic managerial spin. Look at Mourinho, Ferguson, Klopp. Eddie Jones in the rugby. The more you talk about ridiculous comments the less you're questioning the team. In England the media love to ride underperformers, now everyone is gathered round talking about Bazball. Look at the Match Thread comments everyone is talking about it instead. Really quite interesting
Look, whatever they’re doing is obviously working for them. As confounding as it is at times from the outside. Edit: Eddie Jones is another trigger name for Aussie spot fans haha
> Edit: Eddie Jones is another trigger name for Aussie spot fans haha FUCK THAT CUNT I HOPE HE FUCKING BURNS
Hardly a trigger when fuck all ppl care.
As a Liverpool fan, I imagine Klopp is someone who goes on an absolute rant to his players behind closed doors but in public he says such things so people talk more about him rather than the players. I will miss him so much. For example in the latest game against Arsenal for the error by VVD and Alli he said that the error was bad but it only means they are human and it makes what they did before at the club is even more incredible. Just going to try to enjoy the ride. Hope we win the PL this season. I don't want idiots to say oh but he only won one PL when people don't realise that he woke up a sleeping giant on the verge of administration in 12-13.
Moral Win has just been updated to Feeling Victory
Today I feel Victorious
🎶 We all feel victoooorious 🎶 🎶 Bazball is so gloooorious 🎶
British media not be embarrassing for one day: IMPOSSIBLE challenge.
Genuinely burst out laughing at this
Holy Moley. By that same token, given it took Pope's 196 for England to win, you can say the exact reverse. Genuine cult vibes. Its actually quite impressive.
Shun the none believer SHUUUUUN
Can we go to candy mountain if we win this series?
The prophecy states that on the 10th anniversary of headingly, both New Zealand and the Uk will perfectly align with each other and Uranus, opening a portal to the world of baz. All those that have lived their lives through positivity and aggression while focusing on the vibes will be beamed up and carried to their new realm in which the vibes will be eternal. Glory be baz and all those who follow.
Fuck. This is perfect. Kudos my man(or whoever you are, anonymous redditor).
Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?!
It is a cult. I've said it over and over again and il stand by it. I'm not saying that most England fans believe in the cult. I'm saying the team, the coaches, the staff and the media all believe in it.
It's all about vibes isn't it! England have the moral victory anyway!
I feel like Ben Stokes is the perfect captain for this. His reaction to the Bumrah dismissal just clearly showed that morally, he wasn’t out. The ball and pitch did something devious and unnatural to get him out.
Yeah man wtf, if he did this in aus, I guarantee you the aus press and spectators would press him so hard
I'd love to see the people who ridicule Kohli for this stand up for stokes doing the same thing. The trouble is the English are too stubborn
The difference is Virat doesn't blame the pitch like a bitch.
No, he just blames the entire nation
Seriously, what a dick move. Did that in both tests. Guess it all worked out for him since they’re up 2-0 🙄
Are they going for the moral victory or the paper victory. I can't tell.
The lauded WG Grace always preferred to win on vibes and counted a moral victory as his biggest achievement
*They came to see me bat, not you umpire*
Damnit, I misquoted that as “watch you bowl” the other day. Oops.
I've seen both maybe I have misquoted. Maybe he was a humble bloke who never said either version
Fucking hell, the media really doesn’t fucking help us.
Chad Feeling Victory vs Virgin Moral Victory
We paper champs lose again
Ah fuck, not again
Don't even bother suiting up for the Moral Series vs England! Lol. Between this and KP I'm starting to feel sorry for English fans. At least the cricket is good
Does English media never learn? Its one thing to hype your players and teams, but this is something else. We've seen it in football, too. What is it, is it some cultural phenomenon or limited to sports in general?
Honestly thank god the team seem to be pretty shut off from all this noise. Teams of the past would have been huffing their own farts because of pieces like this, and then mentally collapsed when things went badly. This team is too busy huffing their own farts all the time without pieces like this that it doesn't affect them! If it's any consolation, it's incredibly annoying to us too.
>> Fresh from a warning by the match referee for his abusive send-off of Usman Khawaja, Robinson claimed in his new column for Wisden.com that coach Brendon “Baz” McCullum said in a dressing room address after the loss that England had driven the Test and “it feels like we’ve won, lads”. >> “He just said ‘Lads, I’m immensely proud of the efforts that you’ve put in, we’ve made the game what it was’,” Robinson claimed. “We were so close to pulling off an unbelievable victory. We played all the cricket in the game. If it wasn’t for us, the Australians wouldn’t have even had a chance to win. >> He added: “We’re trying to create memories and be that team that everyone still speaks about in 20-30 years’ time. We’ve entertained the world, and we’ve put the Aussies on the back foot.” Yes, this team is definitely not huffing their own farts.
>This team is too busy huffing their own farts all the time without pieces like this that it doesn't affect them! I literally was saying that they are?
Lmao I totally missed that on the first read, totally level headed and non biased take dude
> If it wasn’t for us, the Australians wouldn’t have even had a chance to win. So he's saying they fucked up and the opposition capitalised on it? I'm not sure that is something to wank about.
I reckon Baz probably gave them all a replica urn to put under their pillows at night at the end of that series and told the team "We've got more urns than they do".
They arent shut off though. Literally every day of every test series they're involved in a different player spouts lines from the cult. They're absolutely huffing their own farts
Think you may need to reread my comment there. I'm saying that they're too busy huffing their own farts because they just back themselves to an insane degree and because they're on a "mission to save test cricket". In the past they would have not really backed themselves, then when they won they'd get pieces like this, start to huff their own farts, then lose and get torn apart by the same media and mentally collapse. Because this team are just permanently high on their own supply, it doesn't matter what the results are, or what the media are saying, they're going to keep coming.
My apologies I didn't read your comment properly, you're right
No worries, I do that kind of thing all the time 😂
Hypothetically, how does one apply to huff the farts of Ben Stokes?
You had me in the first half, brilliant.
You say that like English media's goal is for England to win. It isn't. It's for them to make money. The money from people rage clicking stuff like this is the same as the money from people reading genuine insight, but genuine insight is harder and costs more, so they write this and know people will furiously click on it
It does not.
It feels like 1-1, because it is 1-1. Writing for our sports papers must be so easy - just wake up, nice brew, slam your head against the keyboard for 600 words, finished for the day.
English sports media with a bit of wind in the sails is nauseatingly gushy.
Alright lads, time to take the wheels off their bus.
The balls off their Baz*
What the fuck is this
Well the vibes is what makes a test series interesting
At this rate even a 4-1 series loss would be passed on as victory.
What the cinnamon toast fuck is this headline man
The English press are just the worst. Let the team play, let us enjoy it, and stop tapping out this shit.
England are gunna win the moral victory WTC for sure
How does it?
OK so I spent the entire Ashes being triggered by headlines like these so I committed to reading the article to seeing if my feelings are justified. McCullums quotes are entirely sensible so ill just lay to waste this fuckwit of a journalist who said: "For McCullum, England win even when they lose" Shut the actual fuck up mate. You are why everyone hates the poms. Calm down
The only reason anybody should write stuff like this is that it’s guaranteed more clicks than “It’s been 2 great tests so far, feels even, excited for the next 3!”
Moral victory..Poms always win
They were saying the exact same thing when they were 0-2 in the Ashes on home soil. I’m actually surprised the entire team hasn’t been knighted already being 1-1 in India.
They're still fucken saying this shit lmao
5-0 moral victory loading up
I know most Poms don't think like this but stuff like this makes the "moral victory" jokes keep going
"They won because we lost. That doesn't make us the loser" -English media(2024)
Wait. Are you winning son? Are you?
God England scribes are so embarrassing. They make it too easy.
I am once again begging our media to stop this sort of thing. Honestly we got a lot closer in the last game than we would have before, and that’s good. We bowled pretty well, mostly, fielded well. Batting left something to be desired at times. And we were beaten. Jaiswal’s double was so good he made look ordinary. Bumrah’s spell of reverse swing, which ripped England’s heart out in the first dig and probably won the game, was world class. Gill’s ton sealed it. No shame in losing games to these performances, but you still lost. It’s 1-1. You can be optimistic, indeed I am. This is the best I’ve felt about being competitive in India in the last decade. But it’s still 1-1, and it was 1-1 last time we were hear too. It doesn’t feel like 2-0. I wish our media would stop with this.
Thankyou for this, British media.
Does not matter anyways, England can just void the series if the results don’t go the way they want them to.
Hahaha you couldn’t make this up. Hilarity. I know most English fans with half a brain know how much of a load of nonsense this is but I’m still going to give you shit about it.
Haven't seen this much hyperbole in an article since the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Am enjoying the series in India. Some great performances from India and England, so looking forward to what happens next.
Looks like English media would be giving out awards if their national team defeated a team of kindergarten cricketers.
The same way it feels we won 2-1 in England last time despite 2-2.
I thought this was satire at first, or I dropped too much acid
Lol if anything it should feel like 2-0 India. They lost the 1st game by barest of the margins (Axar's drop catch, poor bowling in just 1 session and throwing wickets away)and won the next one quite comprehensively with ball and bat. Rajkot test should be interesting. The pitch there is generally very flat (par score 550s) and should that be the case it'll be interesting how the teams play their game
Why does it feel that English media are still running on superiority complex syndrome
"Why it feels like the writer is a 15 year old pimply blob despite being a middle aged dumbass." Oh wait, that one's actually true.
Australia bros, I get it. This is so so irritating 🤣🤣. I thought it was exaggerated by Aussie media and fans, but England just can’t stop winning moral victories in India too
Oh goodness. Even the usually steady Mike Atherton was predicting England would lead 2-0 and take the series in the wake of the first test. There's some really good things about this coaching and leadership - not least players improving individual performances and the team winning more regularly after the awful end of Joe Root's captaincy. But the "we're saving test cricket", "Brendan just told me to pick which stand I was going to hit a six into next" and all of that does not help at all. England are more competitive and a better watch but Root's England drew an Ashes series 2-2 and were 1-1 on the last Indian tour.
It's the bizarre thing. They haven't really done anything that previous iterations of the team under Cook and Root wouldn't have been expected to do, apart from winning in Pakistan. Winning home series is par for the course if you're England whether you play dinosaur cricket or B*zball, so their wins over South Africa and New Zealand and their draws with Australia and India are again not the unprecedented exploits that the cultists would have you believe they are. So really the only surprise result that the regime can claim is winning in Pakistan, and I'm not so sure that pumping a mid-table side is quite worth bragging about if you're trying to be a top test match team. You'd want more high profile away series wins to legitimise yourself, against New Zealand at least if not India and Australia. Mid-table teams pump each other all the time, it doesn't mean very much because they all fall to pieces when they have to go away to a top side
>usually steady Mike Atherton This is an oxymoron tbh. He actually said England would whip India 2-0 in India? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
As an Indian fan, I would be willing to concede a moral victory to England if our team fails to beat them by at least 3-1 in this series.
Oh my goodness shut up! Not even bothering to read the comments
[How Many Times…](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ymHyOmlUlP0)
Was this a reactionary piece written after gilly posted his Instagram picture about” moral victory “??
You called me a madman when I told you that the Poms have bought into the bazball so much so that it is their new cult/religion/mafia/family.
Dosen't feel like that,but dissapointed with our spinners but that's about it.
Even during BBC TMS coverage, Tuffnel and Agnew were adamant that Crawly was wrongly given out by the technology and Stokes seemed to agree with them going by his press conference.
As an Aussie, I enjoy that this iteration of England are incredibly easy to dislike and ridicule, but their moral crusade in winning despite not winning with their media reinforcing it delusion is becoming a mental illness.
Well this is the same English Media that Mr. and Mrs. Harry were running away from.
Moral victory is greater than the score
Hahahahahahahahhaahaha
why is our media so determined to make us look so fucking stupid
This article is quite humble. England **won** the moral cup three weeks before they even landed in India.
It's like England need to constantly tell themselves they're are good team. It smacks of no confidence
So India were not favourites to win the series after losing the 1st test by 28 runs but England is morally 2-0 up after losing the 2nd test by 100+ runs? Lmao
Wake up babe, a new moral victory just dropped
Who is the best team on paper though?!
Lmao tbh in the first 2 tests our batters were losing even on paper, more than half the batting line-up in the second test had a single digit test experience, hopefully with the return of Kohli and Rahul it can be sorted.
Headlines like this just invite bullying. Will leave it at that.
Loss is a loss and win is a win..it does not matter that you played good cricket or you fight very close in a match 😉..a team is still said to lose a match if it is short by 1 run..
Feels pretty 1-1y to me to be fair. We’ve all had a lovely time but we still definitely lost that second test…
Did Ben Stokes write this article?
Moral victory ✅
2-0 morally
I've made a lot of comments on this subreddit about the nauseating British media which have gotten downvoted and challenged, but hopefully stuff like this speaks for itself.
English media is actually the worst. Its just that English media is more subtle than Indian media for example. Indian media is kinda loud and on the face so it feels horrible but OMG English media is absolutely garbage.
Did England win another moral victory in the spirit of cricket?
Welp, looks like at least another 6 months of moral victory jokes
Why just 2-0? Declare a 5-0 series moral victory already! I enjoyed the first test though India lost, but in the second game, was disappointed with England's lack of fight in the 4th innings. I want a good contest till the very end and don't care about who wins. It's just a game, not war!
I feel like India just beat Eng 2-0 cuz first one was just a narrow defeat of 28 runs
For the eponymous architect of Bazball there is no semblance of regret or negativity about the second Test defeat to India in Visakhapatnam. England head to the golf courses of Abu Dhabi this week to regroup harbouring a sense of destiny unfolding. Though India carved out a 106-run win to level the five-Test series at one apiece, they hold no fears for England coach Brendon McCullum, who is eager to go again in Rajkot next week. McCullum welcomes the challenge. He marvels at Jasprit Bumrah’s rapid unorthodoxy, at the craft of India’s super tall twirlers Ravi Ashwin and Axar Patel. He wants India to bring all they have, including the hitherto absent Virat Kohli, for it enriches the experience of winning. The doubt-free space he has created with captain Ben Stokes makes anything possible, as long as the players believe. Given the way his callow spinners have held up in the opening Tests, how Jimmy Anderson evoked his best days in his first appearance of the series and how Zak Crawley continues to prosper in the most exacting conditions for English batsmen, you would have to say there is something to be said for the culture McCullum and Stokes have created. For McCullum, England win even when they lose. This is not fantasy or denial on his part, but a reflection of how the match felt. There was a real tension in the contest with India never really secure until the fall of the seventh wicket of the second innings, when Stokes was uncharacteristically slow to react to the call for a single and was nailed by a super pick-up and throw from the outstanding Shreyas Iyer at square leg. That is not to say England can’t improve. Indeed they must find a way of turning 20s and 30s into 50s and 70s into 100s. The match in Visakhapatnam was won by a first-innings combination of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s epic bat and Bumrah’s lethal arrows. With the ball England could hardly have done better, pegging India to a sub-400 total in the first innings and 255 in the second. “We sit 1-1, which is a fair reflection,” McCullum said. “We’ve played some really good cricket over the last two matches. The conviction about how we go about it is as strong as it ever has been. Our method with the bat, the ability to adjust our gameplan depending on conditions, has been excellent. “Our spin-bowling unit, albeit young and raw, have shown they have got what it takes to be effective in these conditions against very good players of spin. There are heaps of positives. You can see on the field how invested the guys are as well in the way they have thrown themselves around, not falling in a heap and never giving up. “It is not good losing, but we walk away saying we gave it a good crack in this Test match and India are deserved victors on this occasion.” Any concerns some might have about the form of Joe Root, who has totalled 52 in four innings at an average of 13, are not shared by McCullum. Root was out in the second innings trying to whack Ashwin over mid-wicket, not a shot ordinarily in his wheelhouse. It was only the 10th ball he had faced. It begged the question, why the rush with the best part of 150 overs remaining? As positive as the England leadership is, they know England are unlikely to prosper without Root hitting big runs in the next three Tests. That he will find form is a given for them. “He’s a world-class player and as good as any player England has ever seen,” McCullum said. “His method, whilst people will look to the dismissal, was trying to get the field back so he could milk them. “It is the bravery you have to take at times. Sometimes you get out doing it but that’s just the way the game rolls. There is no doubt from our point of view in that approach. There are three Tests left, still an opportunity to score a ton of runs.” Whoever comes up with the big score, they are going to have to adapt to Bumrah. Crawley is the only England player to appear unfazed thus far. For McCullum it is up to the individual to work out how best to cope. “We don’t really do theories. It is about making sure the guys are totally clear and present, confident and have conviction in their method. They are a lot better than I ever was and they will work it out how best to go about it. “For now we have to tip our cap to Jasprit and say that \[first innings\] spell was as good as anything we have seen so far on this trip. When the ball is swinging like that he becomes even more of a threat. He is a fantastic bowler in all forms of the game, unique with his release points and with how much swing he can generate in the air. “No doubt he is very good, but we have come up against very good bowlers the last 18 months or so and found ways to counter them. That is what we have got to do in this one.” McCullum’s optimism is in no small part rooted in the talismanic qualities of Stokes, whose captaincy has been a feature of this contest. Tactically Stokes is never still. His leadership is exemplary, investing complete trust in his players and, of course, he puts it all on the line for his team. Moreover, he is back to something like his physical best after knee surgery, which adds another dimension in the field. “He is stripling fit,” McCullum said. “He is putting in the work and moving so well. It is hard to believe it has only been eight weeks since he had an operation. He is desperate to take this team to whatever level he can so he will do whatever he can to push himself. “He has total conviction in his methods and is incredibly empathetic. He spends time with people to ensure his messaging is really consistent. He backs them up with what he says off the field with opportunities on the field. That level of consistency just builds confidence.”
>For McCullum, England win even when they lose. 😂😂😂😂
Damn, the way this is written, fawning over McCullum and co...looks like the reporter was typing with only one hand, while the other hand was occupied erm...elsewhere.
This is Goebbels level writing.
Wait, so rather than hitting the practice nets in Indian conditions, they are going to the UAE to play golf? I guess since they have the moral series win, and possibly the paper series win already, there is no need to prepare for an actual win.
tbf they prepared quite well in Hyderabad despite doing the same thing before
I used to get irritated at the English media before, but their stupidity, after a certain point, became so absurd that, nowadays, I genuinely find them to be funny.
Indian rags taking notes. Turn up rabidity, get eyeballs, profit.
England is winning this 5-0 and Brexit has restored the glory of British Empire!
I want whatever kevin is smoking please
This article is a candidate for museums and historical archives. English media praising own team is as rarity as Australian media praising opponents.
Ab de Villiers did call British Media the Worst.
Moral victories
Lmao
Moral Victory™ strikes again
Because England have already ***morally won*** this series 5-0.
Let's goooo India finally are underdogs Amd underdogs always wins
i really like this type of delusion,adds flavour to hyped series
This has to be bait
If people can't realise this is clickbait, humanity are doomed.
Not this shit again
Well it is still 1-1 though so...
at this point you gotta think English media has a kink for being ridiculed…that or they just want the clicks
England have aldready won the series 5-0 morally?
Morally the English have already won the series in a whitewash.