The Ashes

[marinello59]

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Yep it is and I wish I had the chance to play when I was at school - however Cricket in East Edinburgh schools wasn't on the agenda in the 80's.....

My daughter got some lessons for a few weeks at her school last year and has a decent bowling action on her, but she's a walking wicket with a bat in her hand

As for the test, another slow, flat road of a pitch. If the Aussies can rack up close to 600 then bowl well they have to hope England chuck it as they did in Cardiff.

Wee59 loves it. He is in to his third season now and he just gets more and more obsessed with the game.
Did I spot you in the crowd at the Grange for the Afghanistan game? If it wasn't you then you've got a twin.

[lord bunberry]

England can't win from this position, if they bat defensively they could get a draw. The slow wicket isn't making this very exciting.

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

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England can't win from this position, if they bat defensively they could get a draw. The slow wicket isn't making this very exciting.

I'm struggling to maintain interest, could be down to attending a few t20 matches over the last couple of weeks I suppose. We'll know more about the wicket after England have batted too.

[Haymaker]

Declared on 566, lyth out for a duck, 2nd ball.

[snooky]

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Cricket is a great game for kids. What age group is your laddie in?


Sent from a phone

Sorry - I totally disagree & I'm out (please excuse the pun )

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

England 29-3, oh dear!

[Haymaker]

Oh dear. Root goes for 1. 30-4.

[weecounty hibby]

Holy ****. That batting is absolutely diabolical. Good bowling but terrible shots and technique

[3pm]

The floodgates are about to open...

Stokes gone. Saturday afternoon collapse on the cards.

[--------]

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The floodgates are about to open...

Stokes gone. Saturday afternoon collapse on the cards.

Maybe. Buttler, Moeen and Broad can all do OK with the bat.

Joe Root can be excused for this one failure, but there are a couple of other top-order men who need to take a long hard look at themselves. Bell's a walking disaster.

It's a long way to avoid the follow-on, though, and I'll very be surprised if Lyth and Cook aren't back at the wicket for the second innings before stumps.

[lord bunberry]

England all out for 312, Aussies don't enforce the follow on

[weecounty hibby]

Would have been amazed if FO had been enforced. Need a super human effort from the bowlers to have any chance of saving this match

[lord bunberry]

Cricket commentators are the best in the world. Hilarious stuff from the boys.

[weecounty hibby]

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Cricket commentators are the best in the world. Hilarious stuff from the boys.

TMS or Sky? Not that it matters they are all excellent. Football commentators are very poor in comparison.

[lord bunberry]

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TMS or Sky? Not that it matters they are all excellent. Football commentators are very poor in comparison.

I'm watching on sky. I agree, football commentators don't get close.

[--------]

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Cricket commentators are the best in the world. Hilarious stuff from the boys.

Been like that as long as I can remember.

Brian Johnson, Henry Blofeld, Fred Truman, John Arlott, Jim Laker, Richie Benaud - the BBC's Test Match Special and TV coverage set the standard. It's like being privileged to listen in on a group of knowledgeable friends discussing the match over couple of bottles of good wine.

For them the game's always been more important than which team's winning, IMO. That, and the cakes listeners would send in to TMS, and the colours of the trains passing back and forth at Old Trafford or the buses behind the Kirkstall Lane end at Headingley. (I think I have that right)

And then there was the late and much-mourned Bearded Wonder, Bill Frindall ...

But the present bunch are shaping up very nicely.

PS - England look to be utterly sunk. London weather - 5% chance of rain today, tomorrow overcast but rain unlikely after early morning.

Oh dear. Overcast tends to make the ball swing?

[3pm]

47-3. Might get to tomorrow lunch if they are lucky.

[--------]

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47-3. Might get to tomorrow lunch if they are lucky.

You think? 5 down for 64 and their fate in the hands of Buttler and Root. They only need another 445 runs to win, mind.

How on earth did this lot draw with the Kiwis?

Blofeld (I think) on TMS said just now "The English batsmen are in a very bad place right now."

He was right - they're at the crease.

BAD BAD place for them to be.

[--------]

Hey, they haven't lost a wicket for about quarter of an hour!

Oh, right - it's the tea interval.

[--------]

OOPS! Buttler gone. 6 down for no addition. 64 for 6.

Sorry. 68 for 7. Moeen's gone.

Mitchell Johnston now trying to kill Broad.

Broad reacting well - he's now England's top scorer on 15.

Root on to 17.

Broad gone for 25 - top score. 8 for 101.

Root gone. 9 fir 101.

All out for 103.

Aussies win by 405 runs.

England rolled over and gave up TBH.

[Mibbes Aye]

Great response to the 1st Test from the Aussies.

England's turn to look at selection - to be 1-1 after two Tests against Australia isn't a bad thing but there's seeds of doubt been sown around a number of players - Lyth and Bell obviously, but potentially Ballance as well, while with the ball there's got to be questions about Moeen and Wood.

Good to see Johnson getting back into form and I'm impressed with Hazlewood - he's quietly getting on with a very good job.

[weecounty hibby]

Some pretty gutless batting from England, in particular Lyth, Bell, Ballance. Bell I think needs to be dropped as he just isnt doing it at all. Brilliant in the past but struggling badly now. Ballance has poor technique for test level, as does Lyth but at least he has scored a century this summer already

[IWasThere2016]

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1- 2 Aussies and 1 - 3 Aussies are my bets

Happier today. Engerland collapse was spectacular

[Stonewall]

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Happier today. Engerland collapse was spectacular

Ain't that the truth.

Hard to see England coming back at Edgbaston the way the Aussies did at Lords. Hope they do as it will make for a fantastic series.

[heretoday]

One in the eye for the triumphalists after Cardiff. As if the Aussies were finished!

[Haymaker]

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Ain't that the truth.

Hard to see England coming back at Edgbaston the way the Aussies did at Lords. Hope they do as it will make for a fantastic series.

No chance. England should have come out fighting to prove themselves in this series. This sort of defeat will break the spirit as I don't think the senior players can handle the pressure on them (especially Cook). It is also the sort of win that will spur on Australia, they have a will to win and the ashes is basically war to them.

4-1 Oz over all now. Cant see England coming back from that at all.

[marinello59]

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One in the eye for the triumphalists after Cardiff. As if the Aussies were finished!

Triumphalists? The coverage of cricket is probably as fair as it gets. Who said the Aussies were finished?

[marinello59]

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Ain't that the truth.

Hard to see England coming back at Edgbaston the way the Aussies did at Lords. Hope they do as it will make for a fantastic series.

I think the mental scars of this defeat will be too much. Hope I'm wrong.

[3pm]

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I think the mental scars of this defeat will be too much. Hope I'm wrong.

You'd like to think it'll motivate them but I agree with you.

The boy Lyth should be dropped.

[--------]

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You'd like to think it'll motivate them but I agree with you.

The boy Lyth should be dropped.

The SKY team did a piece about Lyth and Ballance. These guys keep getting out the same way over and over and over - Lyth gets done by line, Ballance by length. Both are talented young players in Test terms, but the batting coaches should have been working with them to prepare them much more effectively to deal with Johnson, Starc and Hazelwood - especially Johnson.

How many of those England batsmen were dismissed today playing deliveries that didn't need to be played? I would spend the next week working with Lyth and Ballance to sort out the faults that have crept into their game - actually, if I were either of them I'd take myself off back to my county and get a senior batsman I trust to work with me, reason being I'm not convinced that Mark Ramprakash is the best person to be preparing batsmen for an Ashes series. My memory of him is as a batsmen who promised great things and never ever delivered on the Test arena - he always looked good, but never seemed to get much beyond 40 before being sent back to the pavilion.

English cricket people always react to really fast bowlers the same way. They fail to coach their batsmen to play against them, and then when their batting order collapses as it did today, they start harrumphing about how it's "intimidation" and "not really cricket". They did it when Lillee and Thomson (and to a lesser extent Brett Lee and Graham Mackenzie and Merv Hughes and Glenn McGrath) came along; they did it when the Windies produced Roberts and Daniels and Holding and Croft and Garner and Marshall and Bishop and Walsh and Ambrose; they did it when Pakistan found Wasim and Waqar and Sarfraz and Shoaib. Actually there are English cricket writers who still whinge about each and all of the above-named great cricketers.

Johnson is in the long and honourable tradition of the "demon" fast bowler, going right back to Fred Spofforth who was the first bowler to take 50 Test wickets and the scourge of MCC batsmen around the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.

This you may find interesting:

Fred Spofforth -

Dennis Lillee -


Merv Hughes -

Mitchell Johnson -

Notice anything?