Really disappointing from Moeen. Shuffled around in his crease, looking like a walking wicket. First attempt to force the pace, picks wrong ball, gone. And good night.
Really disappointing from Moeen. Shuffled around in his crease, looking like a walking wicket. First attempt to force the pace, picks wrong ball, gone. And good night.
I don't think he should have done an interview 10 mins before the start. Not saying that it had anything to do with his dismissal, but imo no player should be talking to the media just BEFORE they go out to bat.
So Lyon now has 11 wickets in the series and 10 of them are to left handers - and Moeen has got out to him in all 4 innings!!!!
We have to find a way of rotating and not getting out.
Time to call for Hales and the snail?
Ballance is left handed too - and he won't even survive long enough against their quickies to face Lyon!!! Not sure Hales is the answer either because, again technically, I just don't think he's good enough against the best fast bowlers. His first class average is less than 38 and Notts have dropped him down the order so he doesn't have to face the new ball.
Another marginal decision that Aleem gives to Australia...
I refer you to my earlier post. It seems that Aleem Dar wants the Aussies to win. That review had 2 "umpires call"............which means the umpire holds sway even if the ball "may" be missing or not pitching in line. Remember, if it was the other way round, then we would only be 5 down.
It's a shame because I really don't think that there is that much between the teams. In fact, it's probably as much down to the fact that Lyon has figures of 106-27-242-11 in the series and our supposed best spinner has 63-11-196-2.
At the risk of sounding like a scratched record, Rashid should be playing - yes, undoubtedly, at times would go for runs but he would get wickets by virtue of the fact that he turns the ball and has variations. You don't get 27 wickets in a series against the best players of spin in the world without doing something with the ball. And wickets win matches.
Had Stokes not been such a stupid boy, we had picked Rashid and batted Bairstow higher (at 6 instead of today's 8) I really think that this side would have won here:
So now we have, as feared, Bairstow batting with the tail.
I'm also fed up with this. I really like Bairstow as a batsman these days. In a weak batting line-up, I don't understand why we are wasting one of our potential assets in this series. What's he meant to do in this situation? It defies any logic.
Bayliss has just indicated that there will be no changes to the England team for the next Test - which would rather confirm that, despite Stokes playing for Canterbury, the CPS aren't likely to make a decision any time soon.
England's bowling is OK, Anderson, Broad and Woakes are all Test class and Overton did well.
The batting is an absolute joke - Cook hasn't done it against class fast bowling for a long time, Stoneman is the new Carberry, Vince is too flakey, Malan battles but doesn't go on, Root needed to make a big ton to make a statement like Smith and failed to do it.
The bottom line is that to win Tests in Australia - just like we did in 2010/11 - you need to put big runs on the board as in 450+ and we don't have the players to do it either in the squad or out of it for that matter.
England are fine at home where they can cobble together 300 from a couple of 60's and 70's and then roll the oppo for 200 but that won't work in Australia.
From a batting point of view England may as well jettison the dead wood post-series and look to give 2-3 new players a real chance to embed themselves in New Zealand and in the coming English summer.
One immediate change is to bring Bairstow up the order to at least number 5 - he is our 3rd best bat behind Root and Cook and he is batting at 7 or 8 - that's a joke, he needs the chance to shape an innings rather than rescue it, you may as well also bring Ali up the order to at least 6 as well if that allows us to drop Vince or Malan.
Bottom line is that we have only three Test class batsmen available in Root, Cook and Bairstow and we are wasting the latter as keeper/batsman when we don't need to given we already have all-rounders in Ali and Woakes anyway.
I can't see anything other than another 5-0 looming unless the weather intervenes or unless Cook and Root can put some serious runs on the board.
Ultimately the dire first innings left themselves with too much to do. Yes we had a chance but in all fairness, Smith should never have even given us that chance. Realistically we could've easily lost inside 3 days by an innings.
Did well to get themselves back into it though after being given the chance so credit to them for yesterday but you can't only play well for 3-4 sessions in an entire 5 day test match and expect to win.
I set the alarm for 5am on the basis that it was a sensible time and if we were still doing ok, it would be worth watching. I beat the alarm by 15 minutes and excitedly grabbed my phone.
I now feel a bit like an over expectant child. Why was I imagining we would still be 4 wickets down? Indeed, I first woke up thinking we were 3 wickets down until the mist cleared. The bookmakers were right yet again. My optimism for this series has plummeted.
I set the alarm for 5am on the basis that it was a sensible time and if we were still doing ok, it would be worth watching. I beat the alarm by 15 minutes and excitedly grabbed my phone.
I now feel a bit like an over expectant child. Why was I imagining we would still be 4 wickets down? Indeed, I first woke up thinking we were 3 wickets down until the mist cleared. The bookmakers were right yet again. My optimism for this series has plummeted.
An expectant child waking on Christmas day to find the only visitor was a burglar who left only a glittery dump in the reindeer food
Comments
We have to find a way of rotating and not getting out.
At the risk of sounding like a scratched record, Rashid should be playing - yes, undoubtedly, at times would go for runs but he would get wickets by virtue of the fact that he turns the ball and has variations. You don't get 27 wickets in a series against the best players of spin in the world without doing something with the ball. And wickets win matches.
Cook
Stoneman
Vince
Root
Stokes
Bairstow
Moeen
Woakes
Rashid
Broad
Anderson
233 all out.
Aus win by 120
England's bowling is OK, Anderson, Broad and Woakes are all Test class and Overton did well.
The batting is an absolute joke - Cook hasn't done it against class fast bowling for a long time, Stoneman is the new Carberry, Vince is too flakey, Malan battles but doesn't go on, Root needed to make a big ton to make a statement like Smith and failed to do it.
The bottom line is that to win Tests in Australia - just like we did in 2010/11 - you need to put big runs on the board as in 450+ and we don't have the players to do it either in the squad or out of it for that matter.
England are fine at home where they can cobble together 300 from a couple of 60's and 70's and then roll the oppo for 200 but that won't work in Australia.
From a batting point of view England may as well jettison the dead wood post-series and look to give 2-3 new players a real chance to embed themselves in New Zealand and in the coming English summer.
One immediate change is to bring Bairstow up the order to at least number 5 - he is our 3rd best bat behind Root and Cook and he is batting at 7 or 8 - that's a joke, he needs the chance to shape an innings rather than rescue it, you may as well also bring Ali up the order to at least 6 as well if that allows us to drop Vince or Malan.
Bottom line is that we have only three Test class batsmen available in Root, Cook and Bairstow and we are wasting the latter as keeper/batsman when we don't need to given we already have all-rounders in Ali and Woakes anyway.
I can't see anything other than another 5-0 looming unless the weather intervenes or unless Cook and Root can put some serious runs on the board.
For Perth I would go with.....
Cook, Stoneman, Root, Malan, Bairstow, Ali, Woakes, Foakes, Broad, Wood, Anderson.
Did well to get themselves back into it though after being given the chance so credit to them for yesterday but you can't only play well for 3-4 sessions in an entire 5 day test match and expect to win.
I now feel a bit like an over expectant child. Why was I imagining we would still be 4 wickets down? Indeed, I first woke up thinking we were 3 wickets down until the mist cleared. The bookmakers were right yet again. My optimism for this series has plummeted.
A young man having a few beevies had a fight whooppe fucking doo