Just nowFri 26 Dec 2025 at 10:57pm

Yesterday’s stats in a single tweet3m agoFri 26 Dec 2025 at 10:54pm’Carnage and chaos’ at the G(Getty)

Everyone has a take on the first day’s play at the MCG after a ridiculous 20 wickets fell and we saw Boxing Day end with the start of the third innings of the Test.

I think most people agree the bowling was pretty good and the batting was lacking decent technique, but that the pitch was probably a bit too helpful to ball movement.

“There’s a pretty fine balance between action and excitement, and carnage and chaos. And I think this tipped the balance into carnage and chaos,” former Test opener Ed Cowan said on the ABC Cricket Podcast.

“Would it have been possible for it to have been a 13- or 14-wicket day? And how much is attributable to the conducive conditions and how much is attributable to some pretty average batting? I think it’s probs 60/40 conditions. There was some pretty average batting.

“I’ll tell you what’s gone out of the game: The forward defence, the locked-in forward defence under the eyes, bat and pad together where the ball just trickles back to the bowler, you show the maker’s name.

“Call me old fashioned, but a few more of those today and — I still think it would’ve been a 13- or 14-wicket day, because there would’ve been balls with your name on it — but a little bit more graft, a little bit of technique, a little bit more patience and I think we would’ve seen a lesser outcome of carnage. But I think there was too much grass on the wicket.”

9m agoFri 26 Dec 2025 at 10:48pm

Welcome to day two(Getty Images)

Hello everybody and welcome to day two of the Boxing Day Test.

Blip, zog, wug, flike, spoat, skron, spleg, drom, bibble, slambition…

Oh, I’m sorry, given the nonsense we saw yesterday I figured I’d just start with some complete gobbledygook on this morning’s blog.

A ridiculous 20 wickets fell on day one, a combination of some terrible shots, excellent bowling and a pitch that in my opinion moved excessively off the seam.

England finally discovered what a good length looked like in Australia — it only took them 12 days to be fair — but as has been the case all series, the batters completely negated any good the men with the ball did by throwing their wickets away with complete abandon.

Will we see similar carnage today? We’ll find out soon enough.