From what I've read, the pitch is likely to nullify the Aussie quicks too. I think Australia will hope to build a ludicrous lead by tomorrow tea, put us in for a session and hope for a breakthrough, using it as a platform for 20 wickets. Their bowlers will have to find something we haven't so far in the pitch though, or we'll have to have a good old fashioned English batting collapse. Surely no way we can win from here though.
This made me smirk - sardonically Simon Mann @Cricket_Mann 3m3 minutes ago Play resumes at Lord's tomorrow at 11am. The Test match starts again about five o'clock tomorrow afternoon.
It's a perfect batting track, and the English batsmen should be licking their lips in anticipation. I think the only way the Aussies will bowl us out cheaply is if we give away our wickets.
Call me a pessimist but we have a bit of form in the "giving wickets away under pressure" department. Look at some of the Cardiff dismissals if you want to see some loose shots, particularly first innings when it mattered more. You can accept the odd loose shot when the brief is to go for quick runs but not in the first when it could have gone either way. As we sit here I'd be absolutely thrilled if we can do enough to avoid the follow-on, hold out for a draw and move on still 1-0 up.
mike selvey @selvecricket 51m51 minutes ago Steve Smith : " I'm surprised Trevor Bayliss allowed Alastair Cook to lose the toss " . Just WTF did we do before twitter
I don't think you're a pessimist at all. I thought similar when I wrote the above post, but resisted mentioning it because there's been times when we've endured similar circumstances and we've dug in deep and got the draw. Truth is I think it's 50/50 call - we could throw away our wickets and get blitzed or we could be celebrating a hero or two or three for playing a match saving innings. Whatever happens it'll be a test of the character for the squad. But firstly we've got to take a few early wickets and put the Aussies under pressure, even though I'm a glass half-full kinda person I can't see that happening. Fingers crossed I'm wrong.
Interesting article from Michael Vaughan who rightly, in my opinion, criticises the wicket and how, amongst other things, it might be an indication of the lack of trust English management have in their batsmens abilities to deal with the Aussie fast bowling threat... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cr...h-kills-Englands-attacking-bowling-style.html
Dare I say today went exactly as expected? Australia must wonder what on earth our bowlers were doing. Looks like we'll need to break out the rain dances.
Our middle order have bailed us out of the s**t recently, however this is a big heap of s**t we need bailing out of now. Root and Lyth what on earth were you thinking? Truth is you weren't thinking at all were you?
The pitch is pretty tame, the reason we faltered so badly is the psychology of responding to a huge total and we have come up short mentally. There is no reason though that we shouldn't be able to tough it out for a draw, however this is very unlikely.
Losing Stokes is a shame, he looked nailed on for a century. That said, the pitch isn't deteriorating, and our batsmen should be better rested by the time they come out again, regardless of whether we follow on or not.
Players like Stokes just do not feel like proper test players and are more akin to the 50 over or 20 over game. Things have changed a lot I appreciate but protecting your wicket was the first rule in a test side whereas too many of our batsmen like to knock it out of the ground too early in their innings. We can look a bit daft if the rub goes against us and we end up giving away too many cheap wickets.
Bollocks Cooks gone on 96! Hopefully Ali can put in a stubborn innings and Broad will play a steady game rather then slog it.
Well we didn't avoid it, but neither did Australia enforce it! Can't see the logic there myself, although I suppose they can bat today and tomorrow morning and then have 5 sessions to bowl us out.
Or if Lyth, Bell and Root manage to muster more than 2 (two) runs between them next time around, a draw is not out of the question. Neither is NCFC finishing top three next season
