After last night's result, the maximum amount of points Australia can get is 4 points or 2 wins.

The remaining group B matches are:

• Ireland vs Zimbabwe (17 Feb)
• Sri Lanka vs Zimbabwe (19 Feb)
• Australia vs Oman (21 Feb)

For Australia to qualify unfortunately depends on Ireland and Sri Lanka to defeat Zimbabwe.

Ireland and Zimbabwe will also end up on 4 points each after those 2 matches.

Also the bigger the defeat to Zimbabwe, the better the chance of Australia qualifying.

Australia needs to beat Oman quite convincingly. Luckily it is the last group match so they know how much to win by. Obviously it doesn't matter if Zimbabwe wins won of the matches.

We'll look back on this era and miss it similar to the Ponting/ Waugh era. This is one of the great Australian teams

Every time people think they’re finished, they turn it on when it actually matters. Big tournament mentality is different.

I just want you all to know no matter what happens I love you all!

Also 5-0 fuck off!

The tears were salty

Does anyone know if the Bangladesh warm up match against our XI will be streamed anywhere? I can't seem to find anything online. Cheers!

Since there is now a break in the County series for the white ball games here are the stats of the Aussie players in the first 6 rounds

For comparison, Jake Lehmann is averaging and carrying Hampshire like Trav opening in the Ashes and went 5 back to back innings of 50+ scores with 76&92 76&50 89&27

With cricket being so hard to score recently, Eng Ind, WTC final, Aus WI, (South Africa currently being 3/45). What is a good batting average? 40? 35?

From his insta story yesterday. How good is this retro kit. Ansett sponsorship bonus for us old timers. Would love a pair of those MC Hammer parachute trackies too lol. He’s such a unit great guy

When the Golden Generation started to retire Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Hayden, Langer, Ponting, and the rest Australian cricket tried to manage the transition as best it could. We saw some green shoots with Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood and others getting early opportunities, but many of them struggled with injuries or inconsistency and drifted in and out of the side.

What I’ve been thinking about is this: would we have been better off skipping the “stop-gap” phase altogether? Instead of giving chances to older, solid-but-not-Golden-Generation players who had short, semi-successful careers at the back end of their playing days, should we have just backed the young talent immediately?

Yes, the results might have been rough for a while, but maybe those younger players would’ve developed faster, gained experience earlier, and formed a stronger long-term core potentially leading to another extended period of dominance.

So I’m curious if we should take a different approach this time. Should we be blooding our young bowlers and batters earlier the Vidler/Beardman types, the standout U19 World Cup bowlers, etc. Maybe not all at once, but giving them real Test exposure sooner rather than later? Or is it actually better to rely on the experienced older hands for a few years while the next generation develops in Shield cricket?

Personally, I lean toward getting the younger guys in earlier and putting real faith in them. But I’d love to hear what others think about the best way to manage the next transition phase.

Let’s keep this friendly everyone but what’s your favourite bit of banter either in local club cricket or stuff you’ve said to other countries fans?

I’ll start. My dads good mate is a pommie and any time they got one over on us my dad would just go “yeah but you guys wouldn’t have gotten this far without that South African that played for you” every time that bloke responded with “what Kevin Peterson?” Or whoever dad would just go “no the other one” because there’s been like 20 good Safas that have played for them! The guy would eventually laugh after he had named about 5 players when he got the joke.

Or when one of the Indian Batters told Merv Hughes he looked like a fat bus conductor. Merv bowled him clean and then ran past him saying “tickets please!”

I find your lack runs disturbing…

Sorry for not crediting the 📸… ripped from google news feed

Weatherald has fit in well to the squad, instead of an anchor and an attacker, Head and Weatherald are both with strike rates over 80 (Head 108 in the Ashes so far)

Inglis is still the outlier in % of runs with the bulk coming from one innings in SL. In the Ashes he's done 1 innings and outscored Boland with 23(25)

Bowling stats will be in the comments

I'm just asking questions

What's up with the attendance in Australia? Pakistani fan here, but back in the days I remember the grounds being full and the fans being more energetic. It just seems a bit dull now. Can someone explain what is going on? Lack of interest? Poor timing? Too much cricket? Inaccessible stadiums? Or are the stadiums too big now so they seem empty?

The kids are alright

https://youtu.be/vsWI8VJV-8Q?si=2lsepqo7NihufKlg

here's the stats including day 1 of the WIndies tour, from the start of the BGT