Well played Burns. Excellent 50. Looks a tough, nuggety character. The odious Lyon looking very dangerous ,extracting a lot of turn and bounce.
More bad umpiring today. Apparently, 8 of the 12 'elite' umpires are either English or Australian and are not allowed to stand in games involving their own nation. This leaves us with the 4 duff ones for the Ashes.
Saw the last hour. Tomorrow England go 150 ahead then at the end of the day Aussies 75 behind with 3 down
I was watching. A solid performance today, which puts us in a good position overnight. We'll need a decent lead with the pitch already taking spin. I'd like to see Stokes get after Lyon tomorrow. A very good innings from Burns, who looked more comfortable right from the start. A lot of playing and missing, but you need a bit of luck.
Saw quite a bit today & good performance except from umpires, we needed someone to stay & burns was up to & great knock, with Anderson probably not able to bowl again in the match we need at least 150/200 lead, but England are suspect to collapses, but hope they knuckle down & see off 2nd new ball
England need to bat as long as possible tomorrow, hopeully Stokes will rein in his natural instincts and carry on in the same vein as today. 450+ is possible and will put the Aussies under the cosh, batting last on this pitch will be a nightmare so we need a big lead...
Dodgy umpires and an already "fixed" ball, I see you cheat before the match even starts !!! Joking aside a good second days score by England. We need to get a couple of early wickets, Burns certainly and then we could have a good close contest. I really can't get to grips with top class cricket and these second class Umpires.
Saturdays weather looks like it should hold, according to the forecast, but Sunday doesn't look as promising
Droll very droll, sunny days and England don't often appear in the same sentence. So one eye on the weather whenever there is a test match in England is alway advisable
I don't understand how the fielding team can get the ball changed after sixty overs. After all of the hard work of the English batsman to knock the laquer off the ball and get it all nice and soft all of a sudden the Aussies are given a lovely cherry Duke Ball that suddenly starts turning corners when the previous ball was just going up and down. I know England attempted the same thing on day one without any joy but surely the bowling side should get to choose a ball and that's your ball for eighty overs regardless. Well done Rory Burns, I always thought that he should open for England and then had my doubts. That was a monumental innings and a deserved Ashes debut century
They do get a ball that's the same age......ie: 60 overs old or whatever. But quite often it does make quite a difference. It has to be out of shape before the umpires will change it.
