Great session for England. 43/3 that session. If England can get a 50 run lead I fancy us to win the game.
Last session today is the first I've been able to watch live. Real test cricket. Gripping, enthralling, played to the max. No quarter given. Brutal. But when Joe Root was hit on the head - three years to the day that Phil Hughes suffered his fatal blow - the Aussies reacted with admirable care and concern. Excellent stuff. Steve Smith the difference though, I fear.
Have to agree Ernie, enthralling days cricket, swung one way then the other. Aussies shading it at the moment, lots depends on Root and Stoneman tomorrow first session, if they can get through the first 10 overs unscathed then we could build a lead that can be bowled at.
Oh bollocks, I have been disciplined so far. The Ashes just remains absolutely absorbing, I've got half a bottle of vodka , meeting DBT Doesn't this wicket flatten out? Not sure 150 would be enough?
Well that's us going 1-0 down, capitulated in the second innings, they're a bit like City do in the second half of game.
Yes, I think that is about right, Root could have done to have emulated Smith, and gone on to get a hundred. Though Ali was unlucky with his stumping, on another day he might have got away with it.
I was being careful not to mention that!! Apparently our first half display was awful, but Lee Johnson has assembled a young hungry group of players (no-one over 28 in our side) and they showed a bit of character to turn things around Need to get something in Adelaide because I worry for us at the WACCA
We have had a habit this season of conceding late goals, we have conceded now either 9 or 10 goals in different games, which has affected the result, either from a winning position to get a draw, or drawing to lose. This has made all the difference, and now they get to the last few minutes and start to panic. You are right about Adelaide, the wicket there suits Anderson and Broad as the ball is likely to swing.
One huge huge difference is Lyon vs Mo, with Lyon being able to tie and end down and look a lot more threatening it's allowed the aussies to play an extra batsmen, bowl their quicks in short bursts and has left England with an appalling 9, 10, jack. The English bowling looks shot and i'd have backed the aussies to chase 400 if we'd managed to put that many on the board. edit....there are, for me, a 2 really quite significant differences between the side: - pace of the bowling attack - England had the best of the batting on the first day when the pitch nullified the aussie pace attack and didn't make them pay. If those 3 aussies keep fit we're ****ed as we don't have the pace to worry the aussies on quick pitches - strength of the tail - will be the key defining factor in who wins this series, both teams have some star batsmen and some bang average ones, the aus first innings showed this with their last 3 wickets making over 100 runs, compare that to ours being blasted out last night for about 4, whichever team makes the most runs from 7 down will likely win the series, our only hope on this front is a 3 man seam attack, dropping Ball and bringing another bat in,but this will put a lot of pressure on Mo, who is possibly unfit after his side strain and bowling some bang ordinary stuff
Agree with pretty much all of this. Lyon is underrated - you don't take 270 Test wickets without being pretty good. And Moeen is a fantastic, creative batsman but not a great bowler - he's had some success at home but his record outside England is not good (bowling average 44.35). Hope nothing comes of this Bairstow headbutting story, meanwhile...
