Ashes 2015

Lovely Bloke

whahey!

Lovely Bloke

Smith Gone!

18/2

Great start by England

byronbay2

Aus 18-2. Great start for England, having lost the toss. Smith out for only 7.

Lovely Bloke

skittles!

34/3

Clarke bowled

Lovely Bloke

85/5

Voges, Marsh.

I'm loving this Ashes.

Richard Hillman

Australia's middle order is very weak. Pretty much all of 1-4 need to produce otherwise they are in trouble. The Aussies need a big tail wag to keep this test alive.

Skid X

86/6 now. Anderson and Finn making excellent use of the conditions (which might be gone by the time Australia are bowling).

Can't beat a competitive Test series.

Lovely Bloke

Ah heyor.

86/6

Nevill gone

Rjd2

All the dismissals have been dreadful since lunch, Voges, Marsh, Nevil absolute village, although none of them bar Rogers have looked like they had much of a clue from ball one.

vienne86

.....and there's another wicket. It's like swatting flies for England right now.

Lovely Bloke

Johnson gone

Lovely Bloke

Rogers gone, that's huge

Lovely Bloke

Starc

Dozen Wicked Words

Only getting updates from here, is the pitch a minefield? Fearful of when England get into bat now.

Wexicanfan

Cmon the Aussies!

TrueDub

All the commentators are saying it's a fine pitch, they'd all have batted first too. The other point they're making is that the Aussies have been too loose and aren't applying themselves.

We'll only really know what sort of a pitch it is when England have batted.

Lovely Bloke

far as I can make out from TMS and Cricinfo it's mostly really bad batting decisions.

byronbay2

Last rites for Australia: 120-9. Innings should be over in the next 15 minutes. Be interesting to see how England deal with this wicket and the Aussie bowlers. Obviously, huge opportunity for them now. Batting should be much easier for the next 3 days. Draw is basically a non-runner. If they can get away with only losing 1 or 2 (or no) wickets today, they should go on and win the match.

Lovely Bloke

all gone

136

vienne86

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

all gone

136

Slipped out for an hour and missed four wickets! What a day!

byronbay2

Another rain delay (tea taken early) with England on 7-0. Cook and (in particular) Lyth living on their wits at the moment. Could play until 19.30 this evening so England need to try and mind their wickets with tomorrow in mind. Can certainly see a few wickets (2 at least) falling in the final session - England need to make sure it is no more than that. Much better batting conditions expected tomorrow - time for some obduracy from England!

Beefy78

It is perfect Jimmy Anderson conditions, tbf.

it was so annoying watching England in the nets in Australia last winter. Finn looked young, fierce and very fast then the Test would start and Tim Bresnan would bowl instead.

vienne86

That was really silly from Lyth.

Rjd2

Beefy78 wrote: »

It is perfect Jimmy Anderson conditions, tbf.

it was so annoying watching England in the nets in Australia last winter. Finn looked young, fierce and very fast then the Test would start and Tim Bresnan would bowl instead.

Peter Charles ‏@peter27afcb 4h4 hours ago
Jimmy Anderson is so good, he could get Oscar Pistorius out LBW.

Sarkar ruined Finn, thankfully for England, a few seasons at Middlesex seems to have got him back to what he was.

No application from many Aussies today bar Rogers, the middle order was a shambles, yep Anderson was gun, but some of those leaves/shots were grotesque.

The bowling in what were awesome conditions was poor as well, 3 wickets, one a fluke (cook) and another which was down to silly batting (Bell)

Australia are ****ed here.

Rjd2

vienne86 wrote: »

That was really silly from Lyth.

Doesn't look up to it, he'l probably get another test if England win, but he needs something next innings, looked dire today.

skippymac6

Rjd2 wrote: »

Doesn't look up to it, he'l probably get another test if England win, but he needs something next innings, looked dire today.

You could see how little confidence he had with 1 run off his first 19 balls. Just really struggling at the minute and I'd agree that he's not up to it, but who takes his place beside Cook?

bilston

skippymac6 wrote: »

You could see how little confidence he had with 1 run off his first 19 balls. Just really struggling at the minute and I'd agree that he's not up to it, but who takes his place beside Cook?

I'd throw Hales in but he is more of a limited overs player but last time I looked he was averaging 45 in the County Championship this year.

Big chance for England to build a big lead (250+) but equally a few quick wickets and Australia could yet keep the lead under 100. It's that sort of series!

Rjd2

skippymac6 wrote: »

You could see how little confidence he had with 1 run off his first 19 balls. Just really struggling at the minute and I'd agree that he's not up to it, but who takes his place beside Cook?

Very few options really. Hales gunned it hard early in the season, but that was batting at three. Compton would be the sensible choice, in good form and didn't really deserve to be dropped, but is supposedly blacklisted by the ECB.

Alex Lees was the long term plan, but had a poor season, so can't be fast tracked.

I suppose if they were to look at county form, you'd have to look at Mitchell or Worc or Stoneman of Durham who have done well opening this season and are reasonably consistent. Neither are exactly thrilling options, nor have they any pedigree that would suggest they would do better than Lyth who has bossed it in county cricket for a while.

So basically I dunno.:p:o

Lovely Bloke

what's the forecast for the Birmingham area for today?

Inquitus

West Midlands
Forecast Summary

Today will be a fine and dry day with plenty of sunny spells. It will feel warmer than of late with light winds and temperatures reaching the high teens. Humidity 67%.