Ashes 2015

Richard Hillman

To be honest I would have Faulkner in as the All-Rounder instead of Watson LBW or Marsh. Admittedly I do not know much of Mitchell Marsh, just that there was a real overdose on calling your children Mitchell during the late 80s and early 90s in Australia. They must have only got Eastenders over there at the time.

Haddin needs to be replaced unfortunitely.

England should be unchanged but I would be rather worried if I were Adam Lyth. He has one good century and a 37 from his 6 innings. If he fails twice in this test match he may be getting replaced. Bairstow is waiting in the wings and they may move Moeen Ali up to number 2. Im not sure about the 2 NZ tests, but I am pretty sure Lyth batted at 2 in those but was moved to 1 in the Cardiff test.

bilston

Richard Hillman wrote: »

To be honest I would have Faulkner in as the All-Rounder instead of Watson LBW or Marsh. Admittedly I do not know much of Mitchell Marsh, just that there was a real overdose on calling your children Mitchell during the late 80s and early 90s in Australia. They must have only got Eastenders over there at the time.

Haddin needs to be replaced unfortunitely.

England should be unchanged but I would be rather worried if I were Adam Lyth. He has one good century and a 37 from his 6 innings. If he fails twice in this test match he may be getting replaced. Bairstow is waiting in the wings and they may move Moeen Ali up to number 2. Im not sure about the 2 NZ tests, but I am pretty sure Lyth batted at 2 in those but was moved to 1 in the Cardiff test.

Having Moeen coming in at 8 gives the English batting order a lot more depth but I suppose if you go down your route you'd have Bairstow and Stokes at 6 and 7 and Buttler at 8 which would give them the same depth.

Richard Hillman

James Faulkner has been banned for 4 games for drink driving.

Lovely Bloke

Lords!

Australia to bat, two changes, England unchanged.

Harry Palmr

Ha!

Lovely Bloke

they were playing like a one day.

might reign it in now

Luckycharms_74

Just saw a tweet from Jonathan Agnew. He received a letter from the MCC about his dress attire

Harry Palmr

Aggers can do no wrong!

riffmongous

It's a truly awful looking tie



Always reminds me of Tunnocks

Luckycharms_74

Nothing better than listening to the cricket on 5live or radio 4 LW for Harry .
Blowers dulcet tones make it all the better

MrKingsley

Ponting is doing my head in on Sky.

He can let 10 seconds go by without chiming in about something

smackbunnybaby

Solid partnership for the Aussies.
Should both get their centuries...

bilston

Good day for Australia. Good track for batting but England will be lucky to see any of it before the dying embers of Day 2. Australia could get 600 here.

paulie21

Draw written all over this one

Cricket fan

Test cricket fast dying a death all over the world, viewing figures falling year on year, and what do they do?

Prepare another absolute pancake.

Test matches on these surfaces are absolute poison, either incredibly dull draws or massively one sided hammerings.

Sad how nowadays home boards, rather than challenge themselves to beat a tough team on a sporting track, seem to go with flat decks and pray they win the toss.

bilston

Cricket fan wrote: »

Test cricket fast dying a death all over the world, viewing figures falling year on year, and what do they do?

Prepare another absolute pancake.

Test matches on these surfaces are absolute poison, either incredibly dull draws or massively one sided hammerings.

Sad how nowadays home boards, rather than challenge themselves to beat a tough team on a sporting track, seem to go with flat decks and pray they win the toss.

The three tests played in England so far this year have been humdingers. Plus it is still early days for this match. It could get interesting yet. England hanging on for a draw on the final day with Australia trying to bowl them out could be entertaining.

smackbunnybaby

Give the pitch, what do people think Australia will declare on (assuming no collapse)....?

bilston

smackbunnybaby wrote: »

Give the pitch, what do people think Australia will declare on (assuming no collapse)....?

I think they should be looking for 650-700. Set the follow on target upwards of 500 and they probably won't have to worry about batting again. 3 days to take 20 wickets.

bilston

Two quick wickets for England and Australia now 442/5. My earlier estimate of 650 seems a long way off for Australia now. A score of 550 or less makes the follow on a lot easier for England to reach.

Lovely Bloke

530odd now, shouldn't be long getting to 650+

byronbay2

Cricket fan wrote: »

Sad how nowadays home boards, rather than challenge themselves to beat a tough team on a sporting track, seem to go with flat decks and pray they win the toss.

Yeah, agree with that - England absolutely sh*tless of the Aussie quicks! Ponting made a couple of pointed (and funny) remarks on the subject, his main point being that if England are going to prepare wickets like the last 2 (Cardiff and Lords), they need to make damn sure that they win the toss!

smackbunnybaby wrote: »

Give the pitch, what do people think Australia will declare on (assuming no collapse)....?

Smith and Nevill smashing the ball around now (512-5) so the declaration can't be too far away. They will probably look for about 600-650 (follow-on target of 400+) with about an hour or 90 minutes of bowling today to get a couple of wickets. Looks like tough work to take 20 wickets on this pitch in 3 days but it will definitely deteriorate in days 4 and 5. Lyon will be vital if Australia are to win and, with no rain delays forecast, they will have a good go at it. Probably an even match (Aus/draw) at the moment but, based on years of experience, I would favour Australia. As bilston says, the last day could be exciting/entertaining.

Lovely Bloke

Hats off to Smith.

Beefy78

I think I'd have batted for another hour.

bilston

FFS Lyth

KevIRL

Some start aussies

bilston

Beefy78 wrote: »

I think I'd have batted for another hour.

Yeah I'd have thought they would have made the follow on as hard as possible for England (400+) but since they are already 4/1 I was maybe overestimating what Australia needed!

bilston

Tough session here for England. I could see them being something like 60/3 at the close here. It has that feel about it.

riffmongous

bilston wrote: »

Tough session here for England. I could see them being something like 60/3 at the close here. It has that feel about it.

One down already

bilston

Ah jog on England.

Lyth, Ballance and Bell have to be under pressure now.

Cook and Root basically need to put on a 300 run partnership here.

bilston

Beyond pathetic from England.

30/4