13 thoughts on “Ashes 2015: Third Test Comments Thread”
When I saw Australia had won the toss and chosen to bat, I thought this would be a serious uphill struggle for England and that if they hadn’t taken 2 wickets by lunchtime (Warner’s was a given, but we needed Smith’s or Rogers’) we’d be in trouble. Now Australia are 155/8 thanks to some absolutely magnificent bowling from Anderson, Finn, and Broad. I guess it was a good toss to lose after all.
England will almost certainly bat today, and we need to make sure Australia haven’t dragged themselves back into this by closing okay with us at 30/3 with Cook, Lyth, and Root back in the shed. England have done well, but need to follow it up with the bat.
Well, having requested a comment threat, I don’t think I want to comment at this point.
Great bowling by Anderson.
Australia 136, and England 3/133 in reply. Root 30 not out and undoubtedly dangerous. Australia will need to bowl England out by lunchtime tomorrow and then bat a lot better to have any hope at all. If England can score 350 or more, well, Australia might lose before the weekend.
Clearly the English have doctored the pitch again. This is an absolute travesty and completely against the spirit of the game.
I suggest we petition the ICC to bring in a new law allowing the visiting team to provide their own groundsman for two months prior to every test match to ensure that a “fair go” can be had.
It’s asking a lot, but I’d think England need a lead of 200 before they can feel reasonably confident. Otherwise they’d still have to fear Oz scoring 350 or so and setting them a nasty fourth innings target.
Oh Dear God. Dear God.
Close of play, day two. I make England favourites.
@Michael Jennings,
Don’t dismiss the option that you stick a further 40 runs on tonight and then we find ourselves staring down the barrel of 55-8 at lunch. We’ve got form for this type of behaviour.
Goodness me, it’s been hard to make any comments on this test because it’s been moving forwards at such a breakneck speed. I watched the Australian first innings in Patong’s Aussie Bar, and even the Aussies I was surrounded by admitted that Rogers was the only batsmen who looked as if he belonged in a test match. I followed the England innings online because the bars here are shut for two days for some Bhuddist holiday, and I was disappointed that England didn’t start yesterday with the type of batting which would see them reach a 200+ run lead.
But once the English wickets started to tumble, and then Ali and Broad’s partnership starting taking shape, I thought on this pitch an 80-run lead would be very handy (it would effectively cancel out probably the best Australian batsman, which with Warner departing on 77 might not have been a bad call). Australia slipped up massively by allowing Ali and Broad to pile on 87 runs. As England’s lead increased I was texting a Trinidadian mate that every run added to this lead could be vital and a lead of a 100 might be enough to win the match. With Australia in the position they’re in now, this is probably the case.
TNA’s very valid comment notwithstanding, any lead of less than 80 will be knocked off with ease. Over that, and if it gets to the 120-140 territory, could be extremely tricky. But if England clear out the Aussie tail in the morning – which might not be so easy sans Anderson, but Finn has been on fire – and we chase a lead of 60-odd the game is ours.
I wonder if Lehmann still thinks Cardiff was a minor hiccup? If England win this match comfortably, the whole situation will have flipped another 180 degrees back to where it was before Lord’s. What a peculiar series!
I think the Ali and Broad partnership was crucial. My thought was that if Australia could bowl England out for 200 they were right back in the game. If they could bowl them out with the lead less than 100 they had a chance, and much more than that they were screwed. Ali and Broad were the difference between “right back in the game” and “screwed” from the Australian point of view.
Australia faced the possibility of losing in 2 days for a while yesterday. They last did this in 1890 and you could see they were very determined not to do it at the end yesterday. That will be their only success though. Australia will lose fairly quickly this morning. Dreams of Australia putting together a 100+ lead and then Mitchell Johnson blasting England out. Nah. Not going to happen.
My fear at the start of the series was that the Australian top order would be found out, and would stop being rescued by a couple of top notch players and the tail. That’s happened, and a big problem is that one of those top notch players (Clarke) isn’t scoring any runs. The game where the other one (Smith) did score runs is the game Australia won easily, which is not coincidental. Australia have not had any trouble getting England out in this series. They simply haven’t scored enough runs.
All that said, while I have given up on this match, I haven’t given up on the series. The series has been simply all over the place. Anything can still happen from here.
Well, they’ve got the 100+ lead but England should knock these off without too much problem. We can expect Lyth to go early as usual and give the Aussies some hope, but we only need one batsman to have a decent knock and another 4 getting double figures. Cook might even make it through to the end.
Yeah. Australia lost it between lunch and tea on the first day. Pathetic batting performance. Not much else to say.
Squeaked home by eight wickets!
Does anyone know why Oz didn’t start with their best quick?
When I saw Australia had won the toss and chosen to bat, I thought this would be a serious uphill struggle for England and that if they hadn’t taken 2 wickets by lunchtime (Warner’s was a given, but we needed Smith’s or Rogers’) we’d be in trouble. Now Australia are 155/8 thanks to some absolutely magnificent bowling from Anderson, Finn, and Broad. I guess it was a good toss to lose after all.
England will almost certainly bat today, and we need to make sure Australia haven’t dragged themselves back into this by closing okay with us at 30/3 with Cook, Lyth, and Root back in the shed. England have done well, but need to follow it up with the bat.
Well, having requested a comment threat, I don’t think I want to comment at this point.
Great bowling by Anderson.
Australia 136, and England 3/133 in reply. Root 30 not out and undoubtedly dangerous. Australia will need to bowl England out by lunchtime tomorrow and then bat a lot better to have any hope at all. If England can score 350 or more, well, Australia might lose before the weekend.
Clearly the English have doctored the pitch again. This is an absolute travesty and completely against the spirit of the game.
I suggest we petition the ICC to bring in a new law allowing the visiting team to provide their own groundsman for two months prior to every test match to ensure that a “fair go” can be had.
It’s asking a lot, but I’d think England need a lead of 200 before they can feel reasonably confident. Otherwise they’d still have to fear Oz scoring 350 or so and setting them a nasty fourth innings target.
Oh Dear God. Dear God.
Close of play, day two. I make England favourites.
@Michael Jennings,
Don’t dismiss the option that you stick a further 40 runs on tonight and then we find ourselves staring down the barrel of 55-8 at lunch. We’ve got form for this type of behaviour.
Goodness me, it’s been hard to make any comments on this test because it’s been moving forwards at such a breakneck speed. I watched the Australian first innings in Patong’s Aussie Bar, and even the Aussies I was surrounded by admitted that Rogers was the only batsmen who looked as if he belonged in a test match. I followed the England innings online because the bars here are shut for two days for some Bhuddist holiday, and I was disappointed that England didn’t start yesterday with the type of batting which would see them reach a 200+ run lead.
But once the English wickets started to tumble, and then Ali and Broad’s partnership starting taking shape, I thought on this pitch an 80-run lead would be very handy (it would effectively cancel out probably the best Australian batsman, which with Warner departing on 77 might not have been a bad call). Australia slipped up massively by allowing Ali and Broad to pile on 87 runs. As England’s lead increased I was texting a Trinidadian mate that every run added to this lead could be vital and a lead of a 100 might be enough to win the match. With Australia in the position they’re in now, this is probably the case.
TNA’s very valid comment notwithstanding, any lead of less than 80 will be knocked off with ease. Over that, and if it gets to the 120-140 territory, could be extremely tricky. But if England clear out the Aussie tail in the morning – which might not be so easy sans Anderson, but Finn has been on fire – and we chase a lead of 60-odd the game is ours.
I wonder if Lehmann still thinks Cardiff was a minor hiccup? If England win this match comfortably, the whole situation will have flipped another 180 degrees back to where it was before Lord’s. What a peculiar series!
I think the Ali and Broad partnership was crucial. My thought was that if Australia could bowl England out for 200 they were right back in the game. If they could bowl them out with the lead less than 100 they had a chance, and much more than that they were screwed. Ali and Broad were the difference between “right back in the game” and “screwed” from the Australian point of view.
Australia faced the possibility of losing in 2 days for a while yesterday. They last did this in 1890 and you could see they were very determined not to do it at the end yesterday. That will be their only success though. Australia will lose fairly quickly this morning. Dreams of Australia putting together a 100+ lead and then Mitchell Johnson blasting England out. Nah. Not going to happen.
My fear at the start of the series was that the Australian top order would be found out, and would stop being rescued by a couple of top notch players and the tail. That’s happened, and a big problem is that one of those top notch players (Clarke) isn’t scoring any runs. The game where the other one (Smith) did score runs is the game Australia won easily, which is not coincidental. Australia have not had any trouble getting England out in this series. They simply haven’t scored enough runs.
All that said, while I have given up on this match, I haven’t given up on the series. The series has been simply all over the place. Anything can still happen from here.
Well, they’ve got the 100+ lead but England should knock these off without too much problem. We can expect Lyth to go early as usual and give the Aussies some hope, but we only need one batsman to have a decent knock and another 4 getting double figures. Cook might even make it through to the end.
Yeah. Australia lost it between lunch and tea on the first day. Pathetic batting performance. Not much else to say.
Squeaked home by eight wickets!
Does anyone know why Oz didn’t start with their best quick?