i bet chris woakes is laughing his head off. and i wouldn't blame him one little bit. which effwit chose him for the chop?
It's a shame the cheating **** is this good. Every person bowling against him should be allowed to use sandpaper, it's only fair.
that's the trick. finally get a yorkshire bowler on for the 118th over and smith has no answer! whoops, it was root's second over.
It's been an embarrassing series for England so far. Aussies are simply a one man team and we have no answer to it. Root is also clueless as captain.
nathan lyon must be fancying his chances of getting his 1000th test run in only 90 matches. might even get his average up to 12.
To be fair, I thought Overton was our best bowler this innings except Broad to left handers. I thought with our squad of bowlers and a genuine 5th bowler, we'd have the advantage of remaining fresh towards the end of the series. With Anderson and Wood injured, we are the ones who have been stretched, They've used squad rotation fantastically, so despite having four bowlers they still look fresh. The Aussies are probably the best prepared any touring team has ever been, having landed in the uk with TWO teams months before, and then choosing the squad from who's in form. Apart from Headingley 2nd innings, they always seem to have a plan (or plan B and C) for each batsmen. They have six good quality pace bowlers who do have injury issues, but have managed these well to make sure they were all fit for the Ashes. The last test, despite the three world class bowlers having a lot of experience, it was the first time they had ever played together.
I only saw a few overs of Overton just before lunch but I thought they were shocking! Round the wicket, over the wicket, 83mph bouncers, he was all over the place, not threatening at all. Any idea who Curran has upset to not get a game?
I've watched a lot of these two days. First day, no one wanted to bowl into a strong wind. He took that on and was actually threatening. He shared that with Stokes and Archer. Look at the stats. At the moment, Curran's bowling is nowhere near the same level as others mentioned. His batting exploits have masked this. He is going to be a great allrounder but has to decide his strongest suite, which even the best have to eventually ; Botham (bowler), Kallis (batsman). Freddie (bowler), Stokes (batsman), Procter (bowler), Kapil Dev (bowler)., Hadlee (bowler) So the challenge he has is; To become a bowler / batsman at no 8. He needs to dramatically increase his pace by another 5 mph. He's 5ft 8 ins, has any test bowler of similar height in recent history had any success? I suspect as a test bowler, he isn't able to progress his career. To become a batsmen/ bowler at no 6. He looks a natural with the bat and so could develop but that fella Stokes will always be in front of him. Not sure how this develops, I really liked his dad as a a massively competitive allrounder for Zimbabwe when they were not a bad team in the 80's There is now an alternative, Sam's brother, Tom (looks like David Beckham so if he becomes a star, has potential to be a super star) was in the WC winning squad without playing. It seems he has decided he has decided he will focus on the white ball game. He will become a multi millionaire, through playing IPL and other white ball competitions. And sadly Sam will decide to go down exactly the same route.
We just aren't good enough at this format of the game at the moment. There is no doubt in my mind that winning the world cup was the priority this year, and Ashes second. With the Aussies it is the other way round, they put a lot more preparation into the Ashes and as they had won the world cup on numerous occasions before, their focus was the Ashes. Our only chance is to try and see this one out for a draw, and then hope we can pull something out the hat at the Oval.
root is the player who should eventually pass cook's run total and, perhaps, everyone's run total, but his average should be way more than it currently is.
