The Official Cricket Thread

[JM2K6]

Very funny how the Australian commentators and players don't understand that if you're walking down the pitch and get hit above the knee roll, the ball is more likely to be bouncing over the stumps than if you get hit above the knee roll when trapped in the crease.

Weird to see a guy as smart as Ponting kick off about this. Bairstow was yards down the track

[FalseBayFC]

With the pitch playing like it is, Aus may just be looking to nose ahead here. With the weather like it is and both teams playing to win I feel 250 is a 70/30 chance of winning for England.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

Would they dare declare with a lead of 240?

[Mahoney]

Going to be tough to judge the weather tomorrow - some forecasts make it look like we might lose a lot of play, some that we'll get most of the day. If we get most of the day then there's no need for anything crazy declaration wise to force a result.

[Thor Sedan]

Anti Duke Ball rage getting fired up on cric info.

The words 'Kookaburra seems like a better ball right now.....' has been bought into the conversation.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

Hmm, the lead my end up closer to 240 than I'd like. Just wondering if they really want to move the game on and back themselves to win how ballsy might they prove if given an option

[TB63]

[Insane_Homer]

281 - could go both ways

[Biffer]

Aussies need 280. What’s everyone thinking?

[SaintK]

281 - could go both ways

Reckon we're a few runs light to win this

[Thor Sedan]

I think Aussie will feck this evening session up.....go to stumps with maybe 3 or 4 down and then I guess it comes down to the weather tomorrow.

[JM2K6]

Bairstow needs to take some screamers just to break even here. His mistakes with the gloves have fucked us badly.

[Paddington Bear]

Aussies look very comfortable here, Ali bowling plenty of throw downs. Hard to look beyond them winning from here

[Paddington Bear]

Issuing a correction to my ‘it’s all over’ previous post - here we fucking go

[Thor Sedan]

I think the Aussies will be hoping for crappy weather more than the English.

Fecked it up indeed.

[Slick]

England getting bogged down a bit. Stokes looking out of touch and seeking to bat time, which impacted Brook who was unable to find boundaries after that. Eventually Brook gets caught pulling. Bairstow in now, hopefully with his greater experience he can manage the Stokes situation.

Still, a handy example of what England are like if they're not ultra-aggressive. Just a bit shit with the bat. We need this partnership to be a big one.

Root and Brook looked sublime together for a while then did some stupid things. Need to reign it in when a partnership like that gets going

[JM2K6]

England getting bogged down a bit. Stokes looking out of touch and seeking to bat time, which impacted Brook who was unable to find boundaries after that. Eventually Brook gets caught pulling. Bairstow in now, hopefully with his greater experience he can manage the Stokes situation.

Still, a handy example of what England are like if they're not ultra-aggressive. Just a bit shit with the bat. We need this partnership to be a big one.

Root and Brook looked sublime together for a while then did some stupid things. Need to reign it in when a partnership like that gets going

Why change a successful approach?

[Slick]

England getting bogged down a bit. Stokes looking out of touch and seeking to bat time, which impacted Brook who was unable to find boundaries after that. Eventually Brook gets caught pulling. Bairstow in now, hopefully with his greater experience he can manage the Stokes situation.

Still, a handy example of what England are like if they're not ultra-aggressive. Just a bit shit with the bat. We need this partnership to be a big one.

Root and Brook looked sublime together for a while then did some stupid things. Need to reign it in when a partnership like that gets going

Why change a successful approach?

I guess we will see if it's successful here, might well be.

I'm not against this approach by any means, just think it needs a bit of refinement. The declaration still seems silly and yesterday, on the 4th day, when a partnership was looking really comfortable why sabotage it to do a few stupid things.

[Guy Smiley]

Fair to give some credit to Australia for creating the pressure that lead to the error?

[Slick]

Fair to give some credit to Australia for creating the pressure that lead to the error?

Of course, and goes back to my earlier point that the Aussies are unlikely to get too ruffled by most of it.

[Guy Smiley]

Fair to give some credit to Australia for creating the pressure that lead to the error?

Of course, and goes back to my earlier point that the Aussies are unlikely to get too ruffled by most of it.

It's an excellent clash of differing styles isn't it? One where each team is well equipped for the style they've chosen.

[Slick]

Fair to give some credit to Australia for creating the pressure that lead to the error?

Of course, and goes back to my earlier point that the Aussies are unlikely to get too ruffled by most of it.

It's an excellent clash of differing styles isn't it? One where each team is well equipped for the style they've chosen.

Yes, Guy.

Why do I get the feeling I'm being led to a trap.

[Guy Smiley]

Of course, and goes back to my earlier point that the Aussies are unlikely to get too ruffled by most of it.

It's an excellent clash of differing styles isn't it? One where each team is well equipped for the style they've chosen.

Yes, Guy.

Why do I get the feeling I'm being led to a trap.

I'm not doing that. I think you and I are roughly agreed about the hype surrounding Bazball. It's my observation that as entertaining as it is to see a side known more for it's conservative approach playing with a cavalier disregard for safety, security and sensibility... Test cricket at its best is a complex beast involving a lot more than sheer run rate.

Australia are well up to the task, it's an enthralling contest between contrasting styles and I'm not sure it hasn't been exactly that from the first ball. Both teams had a plan and I think both have roughly stuck to their own.

here we are... poised for a cliff hanger last day. I'll have to sleep through it too... night time here and I'm into work early tomorrow.

[tabascoboy]

Morning rain and suggestions play may not start until after - presumably early - lunch, time will be added on though so may not end up losing too many overs.

ENG seem to be in the better position given that the pitch and humidity might give more assistance to bowlers, unless they have a really raggedy start

[Mahoney]

I thought Root's approach was excellent - he used the crazy stuff to manipulate the field, and then with the field back and only 1 or 2 slips set about accumulating.

I thought some of the later bats were being less intelligent, trying to hit it out of the park with the field back. I think running along at 5 singles an over is just as valid a way of being very positive as playing T20, and if you do that eventually the oppo will have to bring the field up, and then you can start hitting boundaries again. For me the great thing is to be looking to score at 5+ an over, and forcing the oppo to react to that, rather than to be playing cavalier cricket.

I feel like in a strange way we've let the Aussies off the hook a bit. Smith and Labuschagne have together averaged 8.75 this test. Cummins has gone very defensive very early in the field. And yet it's still anyone's game.

[Slick]

It's an excellent clash of differing styles isn't it? One where each team is well equipped for the style they've chosen.

Yes, Guy.

Why do I get the feeling I'm being led to a trap.

I'm not doing that. I think you and I are roughly agreed about the hype surrounding Bazball. It's my observation that as entertaining as it is to see a side known more for it's conservative approach playing with a cavalier disregard for safety, security and sensibility... Test cricket at its best is a complex beast involving a lot more than sheer run rate.

Australia are well up to the task, it's an enthralling contest between contrasting styles and I'm not sure it hasn't been exactly that from the first ball. Both teams had a plan and I think both have roughly stuck to their own.

here we are... poised for a cliff hanger last day. I'll have to sleep through it too... night time here and I'm into work early tomorrow.

Oh yeah, it has been brilliant!

[Insane_Homer]

10.50am: We officially have a delayed start, as if that wasn't already clear, with lunch to be taken at 12.30pm - which means no play before 1.10pm at the very earliest. Dash and blast. Let's rewind to happier times, with Matt and Gnasher's summary of how day four ended

[Thor Sedan]

I can see this being over in a session. If they get a start after lunch, Anderson and Broad are going to be running up with hard ons the conditions are going to be so good for them.

[Biffer]

Bairstow needs to take some screamers just to break even here. His mistakes with the gloves have fucked us badly.

Yeah, his mistakes are probably worth 30 or 40 runs, which is a massive difference in this test. Poor technique for the mistakes as well tbh, pretty sure Foakes would have snaffled the stumping and one of the catches.

[JM2K6]

Root and Brook looked sublime together for a while then did some stupid things. Need to reign it in when a partnership like that gets going

Why change a successful approach?

I guess we will see if it's successful here, might well be.

I'm not against this approach by any means, just think it needs a bit of refinement. The declaration still seems silly and yesterday, on the 4th day, when a partnership was looking really comfortable why sabotage it to do a few stupid things.

I'm amazed that anyone still thinks the declaration was silly, honestly. Who wouldn't take equal scores going into the second half of the game when you're going to have the better conditions?

One thing to bear in mind is that for all the hype and guff, one thing that Bazball does focus on massively is time. How much time they have to bowl teams out, sure, but also the times they want to be batting vs the times they want to be bowling.They're willing to sacrifice runs with a declaration if it means having a bowl at what they consider the best possible times. This was made clear last year and fair's fair, they're not far wrong so far. The declaration essentially gave them two bites at fresh openers, and they needed them.

I thought their approach yesterday with the bat felt confused and maybe they had misjudged the wicket, that perhaps they thought there were more demons in the pitch because of that period last night post-storm where the ball was doing things it hadn't done all game. I thought that Stokes dropping anchor was a sign that they were reversing course because they'd misjudged it.

But in retrospect, it's very likely they simply thought that there would not be much time to bowl out Australia because of the weather forecast, so they wanted to give themselves as much time as possible with their initial assault. Stokes probably wanted faster scoring when he was in but looked very limited by his knee. Such is life.

England do have problems for the next Test. Moeen must be touch and go. Bairstow's keeping probably won't be that bad again but he has been awful. Stokes was barely able to move at times when batting. If you lose Stokes, that's a blow because he's been ridiculously effective as captain. You could replace his impact with bat and ball with someone like Sam Curran, or maybe Chris Woakes, but would Pope (vc) be anywhere near his quality as a captain who makes things happen?

[JM2K6]

Target less than 100 now. Sadly our great start has run into the Khawaja Wall and our inability to bowl spin without leaking runs. Good stuff to get rid of Head but the Aussie batsmen in general are doing an excellent job here.

I very much doubt Stokes' knee is up to the task of bowling so we're essentially down to our 3 quicks and two expensive part-time spinners. Eek.

[Thor Sedan]

Remove Khawaja and the game is lost. They only have Carey left.

Still England for the win would be the more likely outcome?

[JM2K6]

Aussies are the bookies favourite here. It's not impossible for England to win of course but it's definitely swung in their direction. Really hope that Mo is able to improve in time for the next Test (or we can find a replacement). The Stokes situation is a real concern - if he can't bowl today then he's a bit of a dead weight, captaincy aside.

[Insane_Homer]

Not been able to watch this afternoon, are Eng creating chances for wickets?

[Insane_Homer]

two expensive part-time spinners. Eek.

Root's bowled 4 overs for 6 runs. Will this jix that?

[JM2K6]

two expensive part-time spinners. Eek.

Root's bowled 4 overs for 6 runs. Will this jix that?

Yup he's done great tbf.

[JM2K6]

Not been able to watch this afternoon, are Eng creating chances for wickets?

Not really. Root did just rip one past the edge. England are being milked.

[Margin__Walker]

Needed that one desperately.

[JM2K6]

Yeah, came out of nowhere really. Great stuff by Robinson. Opens up a chink in the armour.

[JM2K6]

And that's why we need Stokes able to bowl. Started causing problems as soon as he came on. Get Khawaja playing away from the body and chops on.

Game on!