******Cricket Thread******

[Dr Jacoby]

That may be the last ball we see today.

 

[bavarian blue]

Shame , we were in with a shout in this one , having 11 instead of 10 players.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

This is sauntering towards a draw, isn’t it. I don’t think we can say that we’ve been robbed, not while Smith is ominously at the crease. Had we got him out, we could perhaps, at a stretch, have claimed that. And even then, our batting has been so abject that even if we had got Australia out for 100 or 120 on the first innings, I wouldn’t have put money on us winning it.
Far, far too much weight of expectation is being placed on Archer’s shoulders. He’s not the bloody get-out-of-jail card for Root, Buttler and company. Batsmen - do your job in the next test!

 

[jimharri]

This is sauntering towards a draw, isn’t it. I don’t think we can say that we’ve been robbed, not while Smith is ominously at the crease. Had we got him out, we could perhaps, at a stretch, have claimed that. And even then, our batting has been so abject that even if we had got Australia out for 100 or 120 on the first innings, I wouldn’t have put money on us winning it.
Far, far too much weight of expectation is being placed on Archer’s shoulders. He’s not the bloody get-out-of-jail card for Root, Buttler and company. Batsmen - do your job in the next test!

Two mediocre batting sides, really. Take the cry baby out of the Aussies side, and they aren't THAT much better than England. Problem is, England have three or four that are pitifully out of form. Roy, Root, Buttler, Ali (though he's not a specialist batsman, to be fair). And Bairstow, up until yesterday. That's too many to be carrying.

 

[PannickAtTheDisco]

Two mediocre batting sides, really. Take the cry baby out of the Aussies side, and they aren't THAT much better than England. Problem is, England have three or four that are pitifully out of form. Roy, Root, Buttler, Ali (though he's not a specialist batsman, to be fair). And Bairstow, up until yesterday. That's too many to be carrying.

Roy's not a test match opening batsman, he's not even a County opening batsman, it's like putting Jesus as DM instead of Fernandinho because he's Brazilian. He'll be a hung as the whipping boy despite not having a hope in the hell, and the old farts who picked an unfit Anderson and have repeatedly snubbed both Curran and county cricket will carry on as per.

 

[M18CTID]

Funny really but before play started today, I was kind of hoping for the rain to come and save us. By the time they went off, I was thinking the opposite. Sure, Smith was still there but we’d stifled their run scoring as well as taking wickets - something I called for last night instead of giving them opportunities to score at 4 an over - and I think we could’ve got them all out for around 100 runs less than our score.

I still think there’s an outside chance of a result in this test. The weather is set fair for the next 2 days and there’s 98 overs to be bowled in both of them as a result of time lost to rain. I’m just not confident whether it will go our way though and the first couple of hours tomorrow will be crucial.

 

[Wretched Vengeance]

Just watching Mitchell Johnson explain bowling.

Good fun seeing him smash Nasser's stumps to pieces.

 

[hcblue95]

Smith is basically show boating with these leaves. He knows how much better he is than everyone else.

 

[foetus]

That ball from Broad would have gotten 99% of batsmen out. Smith survives

 

[Wretched Vengeance]

I wish Smith would just fuck off.

Maybe Leach can get to him....