Vince - Boycott very critical. Ball was in the right area and there was a bit of extra pace and bounce but probably shouldn't have played at it.
Root - played a loose drive far too early in his innings. Better than that but isn't getting into line with his head at the moment. Pressure of captaincy?
Cook - battled but played at Lyon with bat too far away from him and gave catching practice to Smith at slip. Similar to first Test.
Malan - got a good one from Cummins and an excellent catch from Paine.
Really do not understand what Bairstow is doing batting at 7 - he should be in our top 6 and even if we only move him up one batting place it will mean that Lyon isn't bowling against two left handers. Well not straightaway anyway.
Lyon now has 7 wickets in the series - 6 of them are against left handers with Woakes being the exception. The others are Stoneman, Cook, Malan and Moeen who has got out to Lyon in all three innings to date!
I blame the ball. Give Broad & Andersen a Duke ball & we would be bossing the Series.
The main problem,and has been for a number of years, is our batting. A batting collapse is not very far away. The Australian batsmen are mentally strong and will tough it out. Most of our fold like a pack of cards. The ball we use is immaterial.
I bet the selectors are thinking "if only we had someone who just occupied the crease!" And you just know what that sort of thinking leads to - the return of The Snail!!!!!
And Ballance is, of course, another left hander. What is about us having so many of them? If we drop Vince for him then Root would be the only right hander in our top six and we'd have seven in the side. In club cricket you'd probably come across one maybe two in a side.
We just need some grit, fight and determination. At the moment I am not sure this lot are capable of it at the moment. It is back to the worst of the 80s.
This comment just posted on the BBC thread has hit the nail on the head for me:
Jonny Morgan: Waking up to the Ashes is a bit like leaving a child unattended in the kitchen. There’s a possibility they’ve done something amazing. More likely, everything is a total mess and it’s probably for the best you didn’t see it.
Comments
Cook 35*
Malan 8*
80-4
Ali 22* (53)
Bairstow 17* (34)
Root - played a loose drive far too early in his innings. Better than that but isn't getting into line with his head at the moment. Pressure of captaincy?
Cook - battled but played at Lyon with bat too far away from him and gave catching practice to Smith at slip. Similar to first Test.
Malan - got a good one from Cummins and an excellent catch from Paine.
132-6
147-7
Jonny Morgan: Waking up to the Ashes is a bit like leaving a child unattended in the kitchen. There’s a possibility they’ve done something amazing. More likely, everything is a total mess and it’s probably for the best you didn’t see it.
194-7.
49 more needed to avoid a follow on.
WICKET
Woakes c&b Woakes 36 (Eng 208-8)
24 more runs to avoid a follow on.
Overton 36*
Broad 0*
Woakes and Overton have presumably batted their way in to the next Test given that they have more than all bar one of our top seven