Ashes 17-18

Beasty

OK, bed time now. Hopefully I'll be waking up to some positive news!

StringerBell

Huge wicket! Bairstow gone to Lyon, top edge caught by Paine.

The deficit is about 50, big moment in the match there.

StringerBell

Moeen came out like a man on a mission, lasted 14 balls, scored 20. Got out to a not great delivery, a bad shot and a fantastic catch by Shaun Marsh. Lyon gets his man again.

StringerBell

Cook goes to 150, he needs to not run out of partners as he is batting superbly. Huge Cook fan so delighted for him, Englands best ever batsman in my eyes.

311/6

Mysterypunter

5 English batsmen out between 14 and 22, strange

StringerBell

Woakes doing well just hanging in there. In terms of balls faced he is already cooks second longest partner!

This wicket is a road, Aussie middle order need to have a look at themselves here, the slower pitch is after negating the pace attack and they do miss start though bird has bowled well. Outside of it on and Hazelwood nine of them actually look threatening though.

Bit like England in earlier tests. Cummins is definitely off on this match

StringerBell

Bit embarrassing, woakes gets a boundary in between the gap to first slip, Paine left it to Smith and vice versa.

Mysterypunter

360-6 at tea, lead by 33, Lyon left the field with a finger injury, Cook 173*

Mr. Guappa

Double century for Cook.
Lead nearing 100 with England 8 down.

exaisle

England 491-9....

One wonders if Mitch Starc makes that much difference?

The one sure thing is that England have to bring faster bowlers to Australia.....where's Harold Larmour when you want him? (Cue googling "harold larmour")

exaisle

...but before anybody gets carried away, without Cook, 491-9 becomes 247-8...

flatty

exaisle wrote: »

...but before anybody gets carried away, without Cook, 491-9 becomes 247-8...

And Australia without Warner?
Slightly pointless.

flatty

I still think the aussies aren't out of this. It will be interesting to see how the English bowlers go with something to aim at for the first time in the series.
Keeping Ali in the side can only mean they have absolutely no faith in the back up spinner. He has been a passenger for four tests now. Should have been dropped for this match.
England have in effect a four man attack on a bland pitch. Two, possibly three of the English batsmen weren't actually out, and the three Australian chop ons are unlikely to be repeated. Smith is in the form of his life. Australia could get 400 and bowl for two sessions at a very jittery England side on a deteriorating pitch. They could more realistically force a draw. Reverse swing (or lack of) is likely to be the key factor. I'm just interested to see if England bowl better now that they are in the ascendancy.

StringerBell

England are in a very strong position here being a pretty big understatement. Some day for cook. Delighted for him, feel for bird he has not bowled badly he is just bowling 120-130km on that pitch!

I'd imagine he will let cook go as far as he can, but expect Australia to be in batting again by lunch tomorrow at the very latest with a big deficit on their hands and for the first time batting to save a test match this series.

Even avoiding the whitewash is something for England go take home at this point as a positive

Royale with Cheese

Pleased for Cook. He seems like quite a likeable guy, unlike some of the other senior players struggling in this tour (*cough* Stuart Broad), so would have been a shame for his career to have fizzled out like the previous few inninngs.

I thought the talk of retirements for all of them was very premature though. All it takes is one bar tour at that age and people start talking about the end. Didn't Tendulkar have a slump in his early to mid 30s only to come back and play like Tendulkar again? Ok he was a cut above everyone else, but poor form at that age shouldn't automatically spell the end. It's not like England have a huge amount of batting talent to replace him with.

StringerBell

I am a huge fan of Cook over the years, as I said imo he is England best ever batsman. I would use caution though when pointing to this innings as any indicator of future performance, last time he got a double was v WI in August, he went past 50 only once in his next 7 Tests then, going past 30 only twice iirc

This pitch suits him quite well, and this innings has brought his yearly avg above 43 which salvages the year for him really but there will be bigger Tests to come. The resilience shown is something to admire though, from himself and Broad who I am not as much of a fan of You just knew Broad was going to contribute with the bat as well as bowl much better!

Rekop dog

I'd imagine the Aussie lads enjoyed their Christmas having already sealed the series. Hard to have that same edge with a series whitewash as their only incentive.

Beasty

Just watched the highlights of that second and third session. Got to say thoroughly enjoyable that was

To suggest the Aussies lost their drive over Xmas is in my view absurd. They were missing one of their best bowlers and the backup did not perform. However they won the toss and were looking for a whitewash. They had plenty of motivation, but came up against a Cook doing exactly what a Cook is capable of doing. The England team have adapted better to local conditions as the tour has progressed. We typically see a similar pattern when teams come to England

Without doubt the Aussie team have thoroughly deserved the series win, particularly when England did win the toss in each of those 3 defeats, but there are some positives England can take, including some decent performances from the newer batsmen. Hopefully the resurgence of Cook will see him performing at this level for a few more years yet. England's main issue is likely to be finding someone to pick up Jimmy's mantle, as when he goes there will be a massive hole in England's bowling. Having said that I would hope he can stick around for a couple more years

flatty

I saw Anderson in a coffee shop in the summer. My two observations were that he looked a very nice quiet and polite man, queuing up to buy the coffees for his pals, and being very pleasant to the staff, which went against some of the things written about him, and secondly that he looked in absolutely fantastic fettle. He really did look young and fit, and better than he does on the telly.

Inquitus

Too little.too late, but if it heads off a 5-0 whitewash then all good I guess!

StringerBell

Pretty quick batting innings for England this morning Anderson out to Cummins first ball. Cook carries his bat for 244no

Australia are 26 without loss through 10 overs so far

England have already been notified the umpires have noticed them throwing the ball into the ground trying to scuff it up. The umpires are taking particular interest in the ball Curran is looking good.

Oh yeah, England have lost a review too.

StringerBell

England been told again about the ball, telling them to keep it up when throwing it in from the field.

The pitch itself is still playing quite slow, the ball keeping low at times which will interest the bowlers for sure

StringerBell

Hahahaha Anderson seen scraping his nail along the ball Determined to get this scuffed asap

StringerBell

Breakthrough

Another drag on, Woakes to Bancroft.

51/1

Absolutely nothing happening for England up to this point, pressure will pile on Bancroft now after that aberration.

StringerBell

100 runs behind now, 64/1

StringerBell

Warner has been very disciplined in general in this series, but this defensive tactic from England has to be driving him mad today. At some point you expect him to get out by losing his discipline

Khawaja is out, Anderson strikes. Another batsman who will be feeling the pressure. Edged and gone.

Just not good enough from your number 3 to be honest, and hasn't been in this series.

The main man comes to the crease and if England can get rid of these two in the next couple of hours this could even be wrapped up by the end of play!

Shocking from the two batsmen who got out, for all the talk of this pitch they are still finding ways to get themselves out.

StringerBell

He has been the difference maker this series and they need a captains innings from him here

StringerBell

Can't actually watch anymore, the pitch and the RR are pathetic and its like watching paint dry.

Bed for me!

Rekop dog

StringerBell wrote: »

Can't actually watch anymore, the pitch and the RR are pathetic and its like watching paint dry.

Bed for me!

There's only about 10 people in the MCG so you're not the only one who can't watch. Test cricket is dead.

StringerBell

Test cricket isn't dead, but dead rubbers on dead pitches with defensive tactics from the bowling team and the batting team is never going to encourage many people to view!

I see it got rained off not too long after I threw in the towel anyway.

David Warner has a striker rate of 28.5 ffs

Test cricket is far from dead, I would argue strongly against that. This match is certainly dead though!

Drop in pitches just don't work as well as traditional ones and the worrying thing for Test cricket is that drop pitches are becoming more common