Starting at 7 for me
In laws are here for thanksgiving but no way this isn’t going on the laptop.
Starting at 7 for me
In laws are here for thanksgiving but no way this isn’t going on the laptop.
Here we go.
Thank god we have, er, James Vince striding out...
oh no
Fucking Vince striding out at three at 00.13, it's going to be another one of those tours isn't it.
I genuinely believe Vince is one of the worst England selections of the last 30 years, so let's hope he proves me wrong here.
Go to bed boys.
Well, rain or no, it's a relief to get up and see us still batting and only a couple down.
Has Nathan Lyon ended anybody's career yet?
Edit: did that run out happen as I was typing that!?
If our 2 and 3 score runs then we're in with a chance. Probably a one off though.
Stoneman is a good player and will have a good series. Despite today, I'm not convinced by James Vince.Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
Nice to see the series isn't in ruins after one day, although that was the case last time out as well (it was the second day in Brisbane where it all went south). At least our mini-collapse today didn't go the same way as things did then. First session tomorrow is going to be critical. Mo is such a dangerous player, if he can stay around for any length of time he can do some serious damage. Especially if they've rolled out a bit of a bunsen as confidence from batting will help his bowling.
On the wireless it all sounded a bit streaky despite the 83 runs, also the bizarre clown Paine dropped him.
I don't know why, but I expected a bit better from you than to be the first wally to tempt fate during an England test series. After all the damage this thread has caused over the years.
Nice to see some runs from unexpected places, but I suspect this is going to be one of those matches where England get a semi reasonable score, do some smug interviews, only to have the opposition 600 without loss at the end of the next day.
Hold on hold on we a good for a collapse at anytime.
They have four left handers in their top eight, although having said that Mo actually averages 28 against righties and 33 against lefties. I bet England don't even know that as they're too concerned about his revolutions per minute or something.
This sub-plot about Adele doctoring the pitch is absolutely classic as well.
'Aw, look, mate, it isn't fair, we didn't send Men At Work to play Trent Bridge in 2015.'
Sure enough, at one point I woke up and he was talking about mankinis.
Reaction to the BT commentary has been seriously bad, anyone hear it?
It's telling about my current worklife that I didn't even realise this was on until midway through the last session.
It’s appalling. Ponting is decent but otherwise it’s pure banter bus. Swann in particular is unbearable - hopefully he makes like 13/14 and fucks off half way through.
A lot of the people they have on have clearly done a lot of radio so they really have no idea of when to be quiet and let the pictures do the talking.
That's why I am a big fan of true pros like, run with me on this, Rameez Raja who can switch from one to the other in ten minutes and know the drill on both.
Someone I was talking to said BT made him appreciate Michael Holding a lot more.
It's fine, I'm going to go with the jinx later with a nice line about a sweep for which of the two batsmen goes in the first over tomorrow.
It only works when you mean it. Vince owes me all those runs.
Do I stay up in anticipation of Moeen porn or have some well earned sleep and wake up at 5 to watch the final session and see Australia go past our first innings total (Warner 135*)
The BT coverage wasn't as appalling as I thought it would be. Ponting is really good, Gilchrist is alright, but my god Swann is the pits. Within about 5 minutes of Swann and Gilchrist's first spell together, Swann was banging on about the fucking A-League, and Gilchrist was barely hiding his contempt as he tried to drag things back to the cricket.
The answer is always Moeen. Even when its not an option,
People talking about football on the cricket commentary is always the absolute pits, neck and neck with banter about what they've been up to on the golf course.
Swann a terrible offender on TMS as well, sometimes he'll just ignore whatever the commentator has said about the game and randomly start some banter about reality TV.
Fleming is especially bad because he's banterific but seems like a bit of a weirdo too. According to my pal at work he said "he must have downloaded the cover drive app" after one shot. Like, what the fuck is that?
Vaughan is okay when he's kept on a leash. Boycott I don't actually mind. He's like a classic granddad who doesn't particularly engage with what the other person says and just talks about what HE wants to talk about. Over and over again. But it's usually not totally lacking in insight. Ish. I dunno, probably just Stockholm syndrome.
Boycott knows the most about cricket by a long chalk, but he's just such an old caricature now.
So I wake up to the interesting scenario of us being in a decent position but Sir Roobaaarb giving our bowling a going-over.
Aye. You wake up to the curious headline that 'England are on top' and then click through to find out that what is actually happening is that Smith and Shaun fucking Marsh are busy batting their way to a first innings lead.
Also, you can't argue with this sort of belting logic from Vaughan:
Erm.There's a stat I've just seen which says Steve Smith has edged 8% of deliveries he's faced in his career. The global average is 14%. That means he's almost twice as good as everyone else.
Vaughan is an utter embarrassment of a human being.
So, so good.
Speaking of so, so good, TMS has reached god tier now that Blowers has fucked off. There was a passage I was awake for during the night where England were losing wickets and Dan Norcross was on with first Tufnell, then Boycott, and it was sensational radio, better really than having the pictures as your mind was made to create something.
Suck on that, BT.
Well, bad as BT might be, Channel 4 news have just told me "Steve Smith got his half century before calling it a day, leaving Australia chasing 137 runs."
Why has sports journalism for 'the news' been so badly thrown under the equality bus? It can't be that hard to find an ethnic or a woman who actually knows something about it, can it?
Steve Smith being a legit world class batsman will probably never sit right with me, but you can't knock him, fair play.
Bumble's playing long and hard for some of the comments he made in 2010/11.
Very nicely poised. Well, until we lose 6 wickets in the morning tomorrow.
That should have said paying.
Also, feels like we've had them at various points in this match (120-1, 240-4, 70-4, 210-7) but haven't been able to really press home the advantage, so it's going to be extra galling if tomorrow is the dreaded wake up to being fucked morning. Them having a first innings led is a real kick in the testes considering the above positions in the match.
Vince Almighty has already used up all his series runs, I think, which is an issue at number three.
Our problem here so far and in the last tour down under is compulsive pulling and hooking. Half the team simply cannot stop themselves, Malan and Moeen being the worst offenders but they're not alone. We need to learn a lot from Smith's innings and be a lot more patient. Run rate is simply not relevant in any way.
Yeah, I saw Malan's dismissal, and then read about Cook's and wondered how hard it can be, as a professional batsman, to just keep your fucking hands down and not go for it? There is no value in the shot, even if you play it well, they will keep bouncing you. If you resolve to keep your hands low, and just dodge anything short they'll give up a lot quicker (or knacker themselves out). It's depressing seeing such a simple, and relatively skill free, plan be so successful.
shame i've slept through most of it, but it's been a cracking opener
Exactly, it's just not a percentage shot, and Test cricket is a percentage game. Without wanting to sound like Boycott, I think it's due to a limited overs mentality.
If you're not interested in pulling/hooking, they will stop bowling there and that just brings the better percentage shots into play.
I can forgive Moeen (obviously) as he's a bit of a Bevan with the short stuff, but proper batsmen (not being unkind), and most of all Cook, piss me off to high heaven when they get out caught deep square/fine leg. Cook should only ever be out nicking off or falling over his front foot and being trapped lbw. Pietersen was awful for it in the last series, wasn't he? I don't know if it's limited overs or just ego driven (aggressive brand etc).
I have memories of innings in the last series when we lost 6/7 wickets caught on the leg side. Pietersen was the worst offender but it was a disease running through the whole side.
Is it that the players can't get out of the limited overs aggression or are the coaches all obsessed with "positivity" as well at the expense of all else, even with the test side?
There is a lot of the latter with Bayliss I think. A classic Australian approach.
Why is there no one in the Gabba?
It is pretty unpleasant outside atm.
Tbf I'd probably go wherever the Barmy Army aren't.
Ffs Dawid.
Sending Moeen out 6 here against a rampaging Lyon is utterly braindead, get the right hander in.
Is Root bowling a "we're out of options" move? Or does he have something about him?
Root seems like a really likeable guy. It's going to be difficult to hate his guts this Summer.
Glad to see Lyon performing really well. He might be the most popular person not named Smith in Australia at the moment. I bet the selectors drop him.
He's capable, but hardly 'an option'. Last resort/let's give this a go/relief sort of stuff. I still think it's good he bowls himself, Vaughan completely binning his part-timer tweakers once he became captain always seemed a bit of a loss to the team.
Lyon is probably going to be the difference between the teams in this series.
That and England not having Stokes, but that is what it is.
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