You can't play for 3.5 hours straight.
You can't play for 3.5 hours straight.
You obviously don't come from a good enough family to understand.
Sounds like absolute carnage.
We have been shit and are fucked, need plenty more rain in the match.
Good job it's in sunny Manchester then. Looks like at least another days worth of overs will be lost in the next few, if the forecast is anything to go by.
Still probably leaves us at risk.
8 consecutive 50+ for Smith in Ashes innings. GOAT
Definitely not that, as Bradman did the same but way better.
Well, here we go again.
Really need to make sure nobody hangs around with Smith too long. After the early spurt our bowling sounds like it was pretty tepid yesterday, even if the weather was a bit of a hindrance.
Worth a review there surely, looked like it could have been going down.
This is one of those times when I remember that how much contempt I had for Steve Smith as a cricketer at the beginning of his career.
That said, he probably wasn't going to make it as a frontline spinner, so he switched it up a bit. Worked.
Still remember David Lloyd getting stuck into him (presumably when we won down there?) for only being in the team for his 'good chat'.
I am utterly sick of him.
At least if he looks vaguely pleasant it may be more palatable to watch him bat FOREVER this summer. I kind of want to like him as he is a weirdo and that’s kind of endearing but it’s just too fucking ugly.
What the hell has happened to our catching? We're so, so bad at it now.
Fucking hell.
What will it take to get this guy out?
Feel that’s a big moment. Smith out there and possibly get them out for less than 350. Now it’s a nailed double hundred and batted out the game.
We need still to be batting at tea on Saturday. If we are, we might get away with it.
England are just sloppy. Best batsmen of their last two innings have now been dismissed with no-balls, add to that the plethora of dropped catches, you just can't get ahead like that (short of actual miracles).
We have far too many World Cup guys in the team, they must be mentally shattered by now.
Even Paine is getting runs ffs
This reads as pretty dire. Kind glad I've got a busy few days coming up and won't have much chance to watch it if this is anything to go by.
Just got to bat long twice and we'll draw it, and we go again at the Oval with a competently selected XI.
Never packed that much wishful thinking into one sentence before.
I’m saying 18/3 at close. Burns, Denly and Leach back in the shed.
Long on to Mitchell Starc batting on 1*. Oh he’s got a single and Smith is on strike. Jesus wept.
Root needs to go at the end of this series, he is absolutely shite.
Agreed, it’s not his thing. I think he would have been happy to not do it but you can’t say no....
Who, realistically, can you give it to? There’s really only a few players guaranteed their spot.
Can only be Stokes really can’t it? Strap in.
Can we not just not have a captain if it is going to kill whoever the honour is bestowed upon? Get Pep windmilling on the side or something telling them what to do.
Steve Smith. GOAT
Afghanistan got their first test centurion against Bangladesh, which is nice. That test had 90 overs in a day, with a rain delay. Shows what happens when your bowling lineup is entirely composed of spinners.
One seamer in the match. They must be playing on moon rocks.
I went today lads so Ital aside you can thank me. We were absolute dogshit all day sloppy in the field and to top it off it was fucking freezing. The 10 overs after the new ball was taken has to rank right up there with 10 of the worst overs of cricket by an England team under Bayliss and bearing in mind how many inept batting performances we have turned in during his tenure that is saying something.
Anyway Roots needs to go as captain and drop him down to 4 as well. Just free him from responsibility and let him be our best player again.
Did Archer bowl over 150kms?
They only put on the scoreboard one ball of his at 89.6mph all day in his first spell.
It didn’t feel like he cranked it up that much today.
I wonder if that was part of a plan or him carrying a niggle?
Seems a but pointless not pushing it in an Ashes?
Cricinfo had him mainly in the mid 80s occasionally getting up to 90-91.
Having known 'fast' bowlers at club level, it's only some days you can pound it down at top speed all day. If your rhythm isn't there, or the weather's a bit shit, or whatever then it's not so easy.
Yeah fair enough I guess I was hoping to wake up to bodyline.
Edit: Australian conditions are probably more suited to him as well.
Last edited by Queenslander; 06-09-2019 at 06:48 AM.
He launched a few quick ones down in that later 'short stuff' spell. Definitely saw one clocked at something like 92mph. But it's probably like fast running. You can't really do it when it's cold and windy in the north of England.
Elsewhere, Afghanistan have got Bangladesh in a right spot of bother on their own turf. Rashid has picked up Shakib, Mushfiqur, Mahmudullah and Liton Das for fuck all.
One session survived
Six down at the close would do me.
Hot damn we’ve batted sensibly for a session.
Derp.
Hot damn we’ve collapsed again
Roy's defence is an absolute shambles, as any Surrey fan could have told you, but county evidence is irrelevant compared to the mighty white ball myth.
He looked like a rank amateur trying to keep Lyon out.