On the positive side the match makes this team the best Ashes tourists for 15 years. 
More seriously it was a poor pitch, but that was exacerbated by poor batting. Two better(more correct?) lineups would have lasted a lot longer.
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A number of issues arise from this pyric victory:
- 10 mm of grass is not a surface for a test match; however, each side has the opportunity to make the most of it. Hence the result in England’s favour.
- Some pundits suggest that the result is a justification for Baz ball and a vindication of the method, others say it’s the players response to so much criticism over the last few weeks and by doing so support their captain and coach. Yet others suggest that Australia had subconsciously toned their killer instinct. I suppose all this contributes to the appeal of cricket - discuss!
- Stokes has appeared to be lost during this series; I mean his tactics have not been as sharp. Is this his last series as captain and is Brook ready?
- The powers that be need to consider the future of test cricket, perhaps with dedicated windows that permit decent preparation. How this meshes with white ball cricket is tricky. Perhaps the number of white ball tournaments needs to be limited, but every cricket playing nation sees them as the goose who lays the golden egg.
- I would not like to see groundskeepers dictated to over preparation of pitches, but perhaps the use of drop in pitches needs to reassessed?
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Please please not Brook.
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re no 2.
None of the above. For me this is a curiosity, definitely not a victory for Bazball or the white ball cross-fertilisation of Test cricket. Look at England’s white ball rankings incidentally! What it showed was that it has taken 4 Tests to get England’s bowlers to pick the right length for the wickets they are playing on. Batting-wise they got away with some agricultural swipes in the final innings and could have easily have lost. In my view there’s little to learn from that, Bethell didn’t show he was the Messiah and if they do that as a side in Sydney they will lose 9 times out of 10. They can enjoy the win but can they back it up in a ‘normal’ match?
Maybe the best that they can take is that this is not a legendary Australian team, and if you give yourselves a chance they can be beaten.
Bruce
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Really pleased that Root and Stokes have won a test in Australia. Many have not.
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1- It seems the weather may have dictated more grass to be left on the strip, but in other lands/venues, getting 2 days or so from a decent wicket and then having it de-grade, is better than a green-top on Day1 & 2.
2- All it showed was that England’s Test side were a better T20 team than the Aussies on this occasion. It’s obvious that England’s batsmen haven’t got strong defensive technique or mindsets.
This win isn’t anything to write home about IMHO, and certainly mustn’t be seen as a justification for England’s gung-ho approach. They’ve managed what I thought was impossible by reducing the red-ball game to white-ball timelines, recognising that England have several players who cannot even survive several short games in a row without breaking down.
I really don’t care about this tour now. We’ve not seen decent red-ball games IMHO, and there’s nothing stopping the white-ball juggernaut, so red-ball Test wickets will need to be like concrete runways for this form to survive.
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My eldest son has 4 mates who have flown over from London especially to attend the Melbourne test. Problem is they timed their flights and bought tickets for the third day assuming they would get to see some cricket. Probably a reasonable assumption.
It’s not just the financial ramifications, if you were them you would also be mightily p***ed off. It will be interesting to hear what the groundsman has to say at his press conference / interrogation.
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That is a shame, and yes, every right to be p***ed off.
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i agree Root is godlike - but key???
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Good point, well made. 
Your brother is obviously a Kiwi, I wouldn’t be listening to him.
Ha ha - well I think he thinks he is half kiwi and half English having spent a good chunk of his working life in the UK
What a debacle of a match that was Pete - could hardly call that a test match
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The groundsman should cough up for the lost sales of 2 x 90,000 tickets for days 3 and 4.
That should stop him forgetting to mow in the future.
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And they should have play a short format play on the Sunday (either T20 or 50 overs).
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This is a really good point, and not the first time today I have seen the same idea mooted.
Broadcasters pay a helluva lot for the rights, and that money goes in the federations and hopefully feeds it way down the food chain to grass roots cricket .
What is to stop play on the third or fourth day in a limited form. It is about entertainment and people spend a helluva lot of money to watch Australia play in England and vice versa
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According to some media here, playing an ODI/T20 format game was mooted, but it didn’t gain any traction within the Australian set-up, so wasn’t raised with England’s management.
When playing club cricket, a ‘beer match’ was often played if a match finished very early, on the basis people had given up the time etc,. Batting order was reversed, and bowlers were limited.
Oh, and batsmen were often given ‘one off the mark’.
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I guess if a player was injured in such a match it wouldn’t be a good look for the following Test matches.
Bruce
My guess is that the groundsman was not the end person, surely someone from the Australian Cricket Board would have overseen the ground ?
Wiilie the grounds keeper admitted he got it wrong but it wasn’t entirely his fault. The lack of technique by the batsmen on both sides were also a problem, particularly the Aussies second innings.
If we’re looking for a culprit I’d start with T20 and the other forms of limited overs.
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Someone said it’s the first Test Series ever, with 2x two day results.
I hate to say it, perhaps we need to “dumb down” pitch’s to take into account the clear batting standards/talent/tactics that have dropped worldwide in Test cricket.
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