Cricket

thornburyiron

2 down. Their bowlers are putting ours to shame.

Lukerz

Crawley must be one of the worst openers in history.

thornburyiron

Root gone now. Their paceman are all over us.

buffybegood

70-3 at the close, will be an amazing performance to get anytjing out of the game tomorrow.

thornburyiron

Pope gone

thornburyiron

Brook gone. All over before lunch and a loss of nearly 500 runs. Must be a record

buffybegood

Stokes out in the last over before lunch. Not quite as bad as thornbury's last post, but a massive blow to lose Stokes.

thornburyiron

Stokes gone in last over before lunch. He just can’t play spin unlike Gill who can play any of our bowlers.
It’s a waste of time going off for lunch as the last 4 wickets will go for about 6 runs in a couple of overs.

IronHerb

Stokes is an all rounder, Gill a specialist batter.

thornburyiron

An all rounder should be able to do both. He hardly bowls these days so he needs to start contributing more.

thornburyiron

We’ve been humiliated in this test and India will be well up for Lords especially with Bumrah back.
We need a complete bowling change but who is there.
Doesn’t bode well for the Ashes as the Aussie bowling attack is even better than India’s. Luckily their batting line up isn’t as good as India’s so our inept attack may be able to cope.

buffybegood

Could be something special going on in Zimbabwe who are in the field against South Africa whose captain, Wiaan Mulder, is 367 not out at lunch on day 2, closing in on Lara's record 400no.

buffybegood

buffybegood said:

Could be something special going on in Zimbabwe who are in the field against South Africa whose captain, Wiaan Mulder, is 367 not out at lunch on day 2, closing in on Lara's record 400no.

Or maybe not, he declared at lunch leaving himself stranded on 367no 😂🤣😂.

IronHerb

I think he did himself a favour. Getting the top score against one of the weakest Test teams around would take the shine off it. Not decrying the feat itself just that it would be a bit hollow.

buffybegood

England win another toss, and this time will bat. Only one change, Archer comes in for Tongue, let's hope Carse is fully fit as he seemed to be hobbling rather a lot in the last Test with the big toe of his landing foot seemingly the problem. With Archer having his first Test for 4 years after all his injury issues, and Stokes himself only really able to bowl short spells, it's putting a lot of pressure on Woakes and Bashir.

buffybegood

Both openers fall just after the drinks break, 44-2.

buffybegood

83-2 at lunch.

buffybegood

153-2 at tea, only just over runs an over, it's like old school Test cricket.

buffybegood

Pope goes first ball after tea, we've not handled the breaks in play very well.

buffybegood

Brook goes for just 11, England are 172-4.

buffybegood

Not good news, Stokes appears to have a groin strain; he's going to carry on batting, but you've got to wonder whether he'll be able to bowl when the times comes, seems highly unlikely to me.

buffybegood

251-4 at the close, with Root not out on 99, and the injured Stokes on 39. A very slow day, especially compared to others in the Bazball era, but the bigger worry is the injury to Stokes and the likelihood that we'll be a bowler down when we take the field.

buffybegood

Ton up for Root.

buffybegood

Stokes gone for 44, 260-5.

buffybegood

Root goes for 104, 271-6.

buffybegood

Woakes goes first ball, on review, caught behind.

buffybegood

A good fightback by Smith and Carse, 353-7 at lunch.

But then Smith falls in the first over after lunch.

buffybegood

Archer goes as Bumrah gets his fifth, 370-9.

buffybegood

387 all out, not too bad considering where we were at times.

buffybegood

Archer strikes in his first, and England's second, over, 13-1.