The cricket thread

earwighoney

Dopesick said:

Burns and Denly hanging on.

The Aussie over rate is awful - 24 overs in nearly two hours is pitiful.

It was 27 in the end, which is actually a decent rate.  

In the first test there times where the Over Rate was 11 or 12 to the hour. 

crunchman

guitars4you said:

A good recovery by Burns and Denley - Hope it develops into something we can build on and then allow, Bairstow, Butler and Stokes to be more expansive

Will be interesting to see what bounce Archer can get out of this pitch

Best thing for the long term would be for Bairstow to get bowled cheaply again, so they finally see sense and get Foakes in.

scrumhalf

Bloody hell. Six down and we've not reached 150.

And it's sunny. 

munckee

Reckon Woakes is good for 200??

RandallFlagg

I can't hear any singing from the subdued Lords crowd

scrumhalf

RandallFlagg said:

I can't hear any singing from the subdued Lords crowd

After a Lords lunch? They're three parts pissed. 

octatonic

I'd struggle to see this being anything other than a draw with the loss of an entire day.

crunchman

octatonic said:

I'd struggle to see this being anything other than a draw with the loss of an entire day.

With tomorrow's weather forecast, you are probably right, but with England's batting it's not guaranteed.

We could still be bowled out for 230, and your lot could have 50 on the board tonight.  Even if most of tomorrow was lost to rain, you could still have a decent first innings lead by tea on Saturday.  England could easily get bowled out for 150 again on the last day.

England are heading slightly in the right direction though.  We've got past tea.  In the last match at Lord's Ireland we got bowled out before lunch by Ireland on the first day.

scrumhalf

258 all out.

Probably what you'd expect if you put the opposition in.

Now to see what Archer's made of. Will he open the bowling? 

iseverynamegone

You could warner had knicked that in real time watching on tv!

RandallFlagg

iseverynamegone said:

You could warner had knicked that in real time watching on tv!

Yes I heard it from the stump mic on TV, but he went shortly after so no real harm done.

RandallFlagg

Aus only 228 runs behind with 1 down. England's bowling not looking as dangerous as the Aussie attack. Game could be decided by the way the first session goes tomorrow. In spite of my earlier optimism, it's clear that Aus have the better bowling and better batting so it's going to take some special sessions for England to get this series.

crunchman

The only thing England have over the Aussies is a 5 man bowling attack.  If the top order could last long enough to wear the Aussies down, that would be an advantage.  With the likes of Roy at the top of the order though, it isn't likely to happen.

RandallFlagg

If Aus bat well through this session, even with rain this afternoon, bat all day tomorrow and get 400+ they will come out very confident they can bowl England out on day 5 for 150 or less

RandallFlagg

 2 wickets since I typed my pessimistic diatribe above! I should be pessimistic more often.

Dopesick

Two wickets in two overs! Trust us to gain a bit of momentum just when the rain looks to interrupt things.

guitars4you

RandallFlagg said:

 2 wickets since I typed my pessimistic diatribe above! I should be pessimistic more often.

I'm on the radio today, so no Sky - But it sounds like an initial poor opening spell by our bowlers - Archer looks a big prospect, but he needs to tighten up his line/length, but hopefully that will come - Early days for him, but already you have a feeling we are putting all our hopes on him 

RandallFlagg

71-4, 3 wickets a in this session has definitely tipped the play in England's favour but the low total England posted keeps the pressure on the English bowlers, if they were bowling against 400 Aus would be sweating

munckee

For the love of god get Smith out, even if it's due to injury (not too serious, just something that stops him batting for 6 weeks).

scrumhalf

We've dried up the runs but aren't bowling enough wicket-taking balls. Aussies seem to be happy not scoring, compare that to our batsmen who seem to want to hit the cover off the ball after a few dots.