Bide our time against Hazelwood and Cummins. Starc will naturally go for runs so keep doing that. Lyon not likely to bowl and Green being managed. Attack their part time spinners who will have to bowl and wait for their quicks to tire. When they do go full Bazball.
Nah! Strike the ball repeatedly out of the ground, without taking chances.
I appreciate the you aren't someone prone to being ironic so will agree that if you repeatedly hit the ball out of the ground then you certainly aren't taking any chances. If you mishit it or guide it into the hands of fielders because the ball isn't there to hit cleanly then you are taking chances which is what we repeatedly did today.
Difficult to predict until we see what the overhead conditions are. It's also only 19 overs to the new ball. In the position we are in I would be disappointed if we can't get somewhere near parity.
Difficult to predict until we see what the overhead conditions are. It's also only 19 overs to the new ball. In the position we are in I would be disappointed if we can't get somewhere near parity.
Tomorrow looks like being overcast and relatively cool.
Funny how the main advocate of Bazball was about the only one playing the conditions & binding his time.
Reminded me of 4 years ago at Headingley when he took ages to score a run & blocked an end before close of play. We all know what happened the next day 🙂
Crawley, duckett, pope and root all should be reminded of this.
Crawley is a low score waiting to happen and missed the opportunity to get runs that were on offer duckett, well the clues in his name, duck it and he gets 100 pope was silly root, not sure why englands second highest run scorer is changing his approach
If England played aggressively but sensibly, they would be in a good position, especially with Lyon unable to bowl.
We should be in for another fabulously compelling, gripping and exciting day's cricket today.
But, before it starts, can I make a plea for anyone who hasn't already visited the "How Are You?" thread to do so, in particular, the short (three line) post from JohnFromNorfolk from two days ago.
I'm sure John would appreciate any kind words left for him on that thread.
Contrived a way to lose the initiative in a session when, with the loss of Lyon, we should have seized it and capitalised. I expected the aussies to be galvanized after losing Lyon, but they didn't need to be. This is the ashes and we're gifting it to them in the name of entertainment. Lose the first session today and this test is gone, notwithstanding the weather.
Have sympathy for Duckett - he tried to hit his down (unlike Pope/Root) as he'd been doing for the previous half-hour, just got the top edge
Also have a bit of sympathy for Pope to be fair. He got into a great position to execute the shot and just didn't hit it correctly, that happens. Root was just going after ones that the odds were completely against him. Far too high to be playing with any control.
Do you know what really concerns me about our strategy is that our greatest batsman of all time so easily got sucked into playing as if he was born to bat like Jos Buttler. In the First Test he truly showed his class, took 75 balls to reach 50, played himself in and then launched an assault once he was seeing like a football to score 118 not out off 152 balls. Here, he was given a chance when Green overstepped but still repeated the same error to get out. That isn't his game. Then look what happened when Stokes came in. The very person who has been telling everyone "this is how we play" opted to bat like Dominic Sibley in scoring 17 off 57 - thus probably making Root feel like the fall guy for our tactics.
So after all of that we've ended up scoring at 4.55 runs per over. And we should be at least 5 down too with Brook having been dropped and just the tail to come. Australia lost the toss again, survived the worst of the conditions in making only 39 off their first 17 overs and still managed to score at 4.53 an over for the rest of the innings. And they didn't have to at any time resort to brain dead cricket.
UPDATE from Cricket Australia: Nathan Lyon has been diagnosed with a significant calf strain. He will require a period of rehabilitation after this match is concluded. A decision regarding his availability for the remainder of the series will be made at the conclusion of the game. ...
Comments
I am going for deficit of 46 runs
DM4xnFA.jpg (1224×1224) (imgur.com)
You can't blame Marais Erasmus, I doubt he had this view, still a rubbish shot by Root though.
duckett, well the clues in his name, duck it and he gets 100
pope was silly
root, not sure why englands second highest run scorer is changing his approach
If England played aggressively but sensibly, they would be in a good position, especially with Lyon unable to bowl.
But, before it starts, can I make a plea for anyone who hasn't already visited the "How Are You?" thread to do so, in particular, the short (three line) post from JohnFromNorfolk from two days ago.
I'm sure John would appreciate any kind words left for him on that thread.
https://forum.charltonlife.com/discussion/94289/how-are-you/p19
Stokes nicks off, England 279/5.
...
So out of this game and at least the next Test.
So the main advantage will be this Test, we need to take advantage while we can!