The Ashes

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Comments

  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    Starc gone now, 358-7.
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    Smith finally goes for 110, 393-8, Tongue with the wicket.
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    408-9.
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    416 all out. No doubt will be a testing few overs before lunch for England.
  • OldCastleSwiftOldCastleSwift
    Blimey, Starc's got it swinging already
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    13-0 at lunch. The afternoon session is going to be hugely important.
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    Good session for England, 145-1 at tea 😊
  • SlackerSlacker
    I’m listening on the old steam radio as my granddaughter is here and the telly is in full on Pepa Pig mode.❤️
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    Duckett out for 98, 208-3. Root lucky to survive a gloved caught behind as it was off a no-ball.
  • PrestonHammerPrestonHammer
    Throwing it all away with stupid shots.
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    Root goes cheaply, out for 10, 222-4. Looks another dodgy Aussie "catch" if you ask me.
  • IronHerbIronHerb
    And then suddenly a Test Match broke out. 🤷‍♂️
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    278-4 close of play. England trail by 138. Despite throwing away a couple of wickets, a good day for England, and the Test is fairly evenly poised imo. The injury to Lyon could have a big bearing if he's unable to bowl in the rest of the match.
  • OldCastleSwiftOldCastleSwift
    buffybegood said:

    278-4 close of play. England trail by 138. Despite throwing away a couple of wickets, a good day for England, and the Test is fairly evenly poised imo. The injury to Lyon could have a big bearing if he's unable to bowl in the rest of the match.

    Lyon's fitness might not be a problem if England keep giving their wickets away.

    All four wickets were avoidable IMO. Not a single good delivery there.

    Need a couple of good partnerships just to get to parity, but even then I don't think we have enough to get eleven cheap Australian wickets.

    Stokes might habe to consider playing for the draw here if he wants to stay in the series.
  • SlackerSlacker
    Great day’s play, I haven’t listened to TMS for a while but really enjoyed the descriptive commentary.
    In the balance innit.
  • IronHerbIronHerb
    OldCastleSwift said:

    buffybegood said:

    278-4 close of play. England trail by 138. Despite throwing away a couple of wickets, a good day for England, and the Test is fairly evenly poised imo. The injury to Lyon could have a big bearing if he's unable to bowl in the rest of the match.

    Lyon's fitness might not be a problem if England keep giving their wickets away.

    All four wickets were avoidable IMO. Not a single good delivery there.

    Need a couple of good partnerships just to get to parity, but even then I don't think we have enough to get eleven cheap Australian wickets.

    Stokes might habe to consider playing for the draw here if he wants to stay in the series.
    Can't see this being a draw, we're only two days in.
  • OldCastleSwiftOldCastleSwift
    Every chance, IMO. England might bat out two more sessions, tops. Might just about scrape parity. I would then expect Australia to bat out Day 3 and all of Day 4, given our struggles with the ball. That would leave England Day 5 to chase what would be a challenging target.

    Chasing it might provide some fireworks, but in the context of the series it might be too risky (unless Stokes and McCullum don't really care about the outcome).
  • SlackerSlacker
    That’s the spirit OCS!👏
  • thornburyironthornburyiron
    OCS we only need 10 not 11
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    OldCastleSwift said:

    Every chance, IMO. England might bat out two more sessions, tops. Might just about scrape parity. I would then expect Australia to bat out Day 3 and all of Day 4, given our struggles with the ball. That would leave England Day 5 to chase what would be a challenging target.

    Chasing it might provide some fireworks, but in the context of the series it might be too risky (unless Stokes and McCullum don't really care about the outcome).

    One more session batting and we'll be close to parity, can't see Australia batting for 5 sessions tbh but obviously it boils down to how good we'll be in the field in their second innings.

    On the plus side, it seems unlikely that Lyon will be able to bowl again in this match (and possibly series), so it's definitely possible we could get a first innings lead, especially as Stokes, for once, hasn't gone at things too aggressively; you can be positive without being reckless, which I feel he hasn't always done since he's been captain.
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    Will be interesting to see what England do if Pope's shoulder injury means he can't play the next Test. The only other batsman in the squad is Dan Lawrence; does he get played or will Foakes get a call up and Bairstow go up the order to 3? As I suspected might be the case, Bairstow hasn't been as bad with the gloves as in the first Test, but there's no doubt that Foakes is by far a better keeper, so it will be interesting to see if he gets called back up (let's hope so 🤞🤞🤞).
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    Stokes goes second ball, not what we needed.
  • OldCastleSwiftOldCastleSwift
    Think we have a bit of an issue with Stokes. Out of form with the bat, probably only at 75% with the ball because of his knee.

    Does he warrant a place in the side for his captaincy alone?
  • IronHerbIronHerb
    The new Mike Brearley.
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    OldCastleSwift said:

    Think we have a bit of an issue with Stokes. Out of form with the bat, probably only at 75% with the ball because of his knee.

    Does he warrant a place in the side for his captaincy alone?

    I think 75% with the ball is very generous, he only bowled 14 overs out of nearly 210 bowled at Edgbaston, and only 3 overs out of 100 in the first innings here. Wrt his batting, I feel, certainly a number of times last summer, that he tried to embrace "Bazball" too much, as though he had to try to lead by example by playing, or trying to play, ultra-aggressively. Technically he's a very good batsman, but I feel he completely overdid the desire for a positive approach and was beyond reckless at times.

    Does he warrant a place for his captaincy alone? Reminds me of Brearley in 1981, let's hope it works out as well 🤞🤞🤞.
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    Brook out, 293-6. We'll do well to reach parity now tbh.
  • OldCastleSwiftOldCastleSwift
    Into the tail. Do very well to get to 350.
  • PrestonHammerPrestonHammer
    Out to a stupid shot again. Are they going to learn?
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    Bairstow gone, we're in real trouble now, 311-7.
  • buffybegoodbuffybegood
    edited June 2023
    Can't believe, just before Bairstow's wicket, that the Win predictor thing had Eng at 52%, Aus at 38% with the draw at 10%, it will obviously have swung hugely now, but I never would have felt we were favourites just before Bairstow lost his wicket.

    Given our batting line-up, a poor collapse from 188-1 to 311-7.
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