Cricket - Matches & General Discussion Thread

[Gerrumonside ref]

21 minutes ago, JonM said:

Feels like the Aussies are playing for the draw, tbh. Really negative field. 

Yes, it’s taken the heat out of the potential the occasion had.

Australia will be happy with their three wickets especially Boland taking out Crawley on the last ball before lunch.

We need Root and Brook to really steady the ship now after lunch.

The only positive is that Australia seem to be trading building pressure on the batters for really restricting boundaries and waiting for the mistakes.

[DavidM]

When was Smith made captain again ? Even Sky cameras go to him with reviews 

[JonM]

Probably makes sense to keep the cameras on him and Warner, just in case they get up to their old tricks.

[GeordieSaint]

England are making hard work of this batting wicket…

[DavidM]

19 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

England are making hard work of this batting wicket…

This is a very very good batting track . I think as of now Aussies will be really happy 

[GeordieSaint]

51 minutes ago, DavidM said:

This is a very very good batting track . I think as of now Aussies will be really happy 

Even more so now with Bairstow throwing his wicket away after an exceptionally good knock. 450-500 pitch this. 

[Futtocks]

The Nighthawk's in.

[Futtocks]

16 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

The Nighthawk's in.

The Nighthawk's out.

[GeordieSaint]

They’ll be all out about a 100 short of a decent total - unless there is a Root counter-attack. 

[Futtocks]

Century for Root, but he's running out of batting partners.

[Futtocks]

England... declare! 

[gingerjon]

38 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

England... declare! 

I don't think that worked.

I get the bravado and I get making the Aussies uncomfortable but we were, ultimately, far, far too short of the 450 minimum that pitch requires and there is still time in the game.

[Gerrumonside ref]

Aussies’ day - think our bowling attack will need to be helped by the conditions if possible.

[GeordieSaint]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

I don't think that worked.

I get the bravado and I get making the Aussies uncomfortable but we were, ultimately, far, far too short of the 450 minimum that pitch requires and there is still time in the game.

I hadn’t realised they had declared - switched it off thinking it was the end of the day’s play. Stupid by Stokes and McCullum. I’d love to be proved wrong obviously…

… if the cloud doesn’t stay around tomorrow, the Aussies will wrack up a big score and it’ll be a draw considering the weather forecast for Sunday.

[gingerjon]

In the more important match of the day, Yorkshire make it 6 consecutive Blast wins by beating Leicester with two overs to spare. All the more surprising because the visitors blew so many chances to take their score well past 200.

[Josef K]

A medals should be dished out for those on the ale all day with that sun blazing down on them. I don’t know how they do it. 

[THE RED ROOSTER]

Anybody criticising Ben Stokes for declaring on 8 / 393 is missing one fundamental.point. 

Bazball is all about risk-taking and in order to win you have to be prepared to lose.

If England had knocked over Warner or Khawaja today's headlines would be different.

Of course, this means England could be ob the butt-end of a near 200 deficit come Monday evening with Lyon ready to exploit a crumbling pitch but if you take the Bazball approach is this not a challenge to the vaunted English seam attack to restrict Australia to a total near the England score.

[Gerrumonside ref]

Hmmm, these overcast conditions might help the ageing England attack today.

[Futtocks]

It's the weekend, the sun's out, there's Rugby league on FTA TV later and Broad's clean-bowled Warner again.

Life is good.

[GeordieSaint]

Smith gone. Massive wicket. 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

Boring Australia.....batting at 2 an over

Smith will have a poor series in my opinion 

[THE RED ROOSTER]

Australia marginally on top after day 2 as parity may suit them bettr than England. Still it is marginal and early wickets could change things though with Nathan Lyon in the Aussie line up England will not want to spot Australa a 50 run plus lead.

[ivans82]

Both Teams guilty of dropping catches that could have changed the way of the game , plus the no ball .Need to restrict them to somewhere near our total , if they get a lead of around a hundred it could be tricky . The weather might still have a big say .

[Bostik Bailey]

21 hours ago, GeordieSaint said:

Smith gone. Massive wicket. 

Even better that he reviewed a plumb LBW

[Futtocks]

Australia all out for 386, trailing by seven runs.