The Ashes & Hampshire Cricket Summer Thread

England need to declare now. Hopefully they are waiting for Root to get 150 then declare but he seems to be batting too defensive now for that. With a 517 lead you need to be attacking..

 

Not sure that we need to.

 

I'm sure Australia will be happy if England keep batting tonight and tomorrow morning

 

I bet the bowlers won't be.

 

The batsmen probably would be indeed (Torture for the bowlers), but I think Brendy's point is that we should win at a canter either way, it's just a matter of preference/style of victory at this stage rather than a matter of need.

 

Well of course they would. But I can't see it stopping us from winning the game.

And besides, if we do bat on until tomorrow and 'only' have five and a half sessions to bowl them out, then if they do manage to bat out those five and half sessions, they'll be in with a chance if winning the game, let alone just drawing it.

 

It's spin from both ends at the moment anyway

 

That's right, better to grind them into the dirt and bat them totally out of the game and demoralise them...You want to be able to set attacking fields for the WHOLE of their innings without worrying about the score.

 

They clearly aren't taking into account Fran's dilemma....

 

Yes, but they'll still dread having to warm up and field tomorrow. Anderson, Broad and Bresnan will appreciate a full day off as well. Unless we bat past tea tomorrow this won't affect the result. To bat out for a draw Australia will need to bat for almost 2 days and in 2 of their 3 innings this series they've been bowled out in about 2 sessions!

 

I think 5 sessions would be enough time to bowl them out still if England were crazy enough to bat the whole of tomorrow morning's session.

 

They'd dread having to bat tonight a lot more. Years ago when we used to get trounced by Australia they'd have declared already.

 

Exactly. Hence there's no need to declare.

I'd have liked us to by now, yes. But I'm not fussed at all that we haven't. Whenever Australia go into bat, losing a couple of early wickets could still see this all over inside four days.

 

I don't think Australia would have been in this position in the first place. They would have made us follow on and the game would probably be over by now.

 

I wonder if they don't want to declare whilst Root is still in. This could be a big score for him.

 

And besides, winning by 400 runs sounds more impressive than winning by 150 runs. Once the dust has settled, no-one will care, or probably even remember, whether it was a four day or a five day win.

 

This is just embarassing

 

I'm liking this, I really am. We're not just beating them, we're crushing them into the ground. They're going to lose, they must know that. We're just going to make them suffer as much as possible. Great stuff.

 

A 566 lead overnight. I think they'll bat on tomorrow to give Root the chance of 200 and also to unsettle the Australian openers. Maybe go for a 600 lead?

 

That last session really can't have done Agar's confidence much good. Nor the Aussie selectors' and media's confidence in him.