1st Ashes Test England v Australia June 16-20 1930hrs @ Edgbaston

[Belnakor]

I’m so tired, one night to go. I might go to bed early and set an alarm for midnight.

must be brutal the eastern states, i'm pretty tired even from WA lol

 

[LukeParkerno1]

must be brutal the eastern states, i'm pretty tired even from WA lol

Thursday is gunna be hell

Have a meeting at 8am too

 

[FreoRicci]

I was really confident at 8/229, but those extra 44 runs for the final 2 wickets could prove the difference. Imagine allowing Anderson to make 12 runs, how embarrassing. Losing Labuschange and Smith with only 13 runs between them has tipped the Test England's way. Can Khawaja do it again, Carey and Cummins look in good form, and here's a real chance for Cameron Green to make a name for himself.

Exactly the problem. Should’ve been bowled out for 240-260. The last 2 wickets’ with 40 runs makes this a match

 

[Moonwatcher]

Batted all 5 days

Wonder how often that happens.

 

[RookiePick]

Wonder how often that happens.

That would be an interesting stat potentially.

If it's only happened once or twice it's good quiz night fodder.

 

[M Malice]

I’m so tired, one night to go. I might go to bed early and set an alarm for midnight.

Look out the game could be over by midnight, either/or Head goes berserk... we collapse.

 

[Guardian Hawk]

It's annoying but a lot depends on the conditions.

If it's overcast and "pre-rain" the ball has been shown to be moving around a lot. In our one period of overcast conditions t we took 2 wickets for 1 run and nearly every ball was unplayable or could have been a wicket. We won't get the runs in that scenario.

When it's sunny, the pitch is flat as a pancake and wickets have simply come from errors. Decent chance if that is the case.

Current forcast predicts no rain until the early afternoon. Up until then, it is "partly sunny" - as distinct from "sunny" or "mostly sunny", this suggests it will be mostly overcast with patches of sun.

Basically, if the ball remains predictable I reckon it's a real 50/50 (with current advantage to England). If the cloud cover is heavy and it starts moving, we have little chance IMO.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Exactly the problem. Should’ve been bowled out for 240-260. The last 2 wickets’ with 40 runs makes this a match

Well blame Cummins for bringing Boland back to bowl medium trundlers when he should have brought himself back. It’s cost us 30 runs at a minimum. I know they were tough but smith not taking Broad early hurt too, tough catch but one he’d expect to take himself

 

[darcytiger]

Look out the game could be over by midnight, either/or Head goes berserk... we collapse.

I don’t reckon we’ll get any play before lunch. I’d rather stomp on my nuts than sit there and watch the covers with the 9 crew providing ‘expert analysis’

 

[Moonwatcher]

That would be an interesting stat potentially.

If it's only happened once or twice it's good quiz night fodder.

The Khawaja scenario is the most likely. Opener gets a tricky 20 minute period at the end of day 1 then bats through day 2 giving him the first 3 days.

 

[LukeParkerno1]

I don’t reckon we’ll get any play before lunch. I’d rather stomp on my nuts than sit there and watch the covers with the 9 crew providing ‘expert analysis’

Maybe KP can talk to us for 2 hours lol

 

[One Dimensional]

must be brutal the eastern states, i'm pretty tired even from WA lol

I thought I was clever timing being a stay at home dad during this series.

It has however felt more brutal looking after a toddler and baby than working during previous Ashes tours

 

[frankrizzo]

And I still have Australia as heavy favourites here, the pitch is still good

Surely past performance matters with these chases? we are probably best front running team in world have been for a long long time but out of major test sides we are probably worst in tight games, we simply dont chase 4th innnings totals well and we dont win close test matches when did we even last chase down a total 280+? 2011 in pat cummins rookie match from what i can see compare that to england who have 3 300 run chases just last couple of years.

 

[FredLeDeux]

The Khawaja scenario is the most likely. Opener gets a tricky 20 minute period at the end of day 1 then bats through day 2 giving him the first 3 days.

List of batsmen to bat on all five days of a Test match

 

[Guardian Hawk]

Exactly the problem. Should’ve been bowled out for 240-260. The last 2 wickets’ with 40 runs makes this a match

Also emphasises the stupidity of the first innings declaration by the "genius" Stokes.

If they managed an extra 40-50 runs in the first inning as well, the game would be just about beyond reach for Australia.

and they had Root in on an unbeaten century and a comfortable looking Robinson not out as well so an extra 50 runs was more 'probable' than 'possible'.

Ego decision that has given us a real sniff despite losing the toss and getting the worst of the conditions.

 

[FredLeDeux]

Maybe KP can talk to us for 2 hours lol

Mel Jones could do it underwater, she never shuts up

 

[LukeParkerno1]

Mel Jones could do it underwater, she never shuts up

Give me her over KP easily

 

[FredLeDeux]

Give me her over KP easily

She's fine if you like a non-stop flood of (usually) inappropriate cliches

 

[NYRB]

Would Australia have a go at the target if its around 174 to get off 50 overs (what some analysts are predicting in terms of overs)

The thing is, as soon as you lose a couple of wickets , Australia may look to shut down shop.

 

[peternorth]

First session will be vital

 

[Guardian Hawk]

It's a pretty tough ask to get the runs and I know the first innings has little bearing but we have all spoken of who are the 'walking wickets' in the team and who we anticipate will 'carry the batting load'.

Compared to our 1st innings performance we 'only' need to get within 100 runs of that to win the match.

So far, we've had...

Warner (who is +25 on his first innings score)
Labushagne (+13), and
Smith (-10)

so of the 3 completed bats so far, we are +28 on first innings runs, with Boland still in already at '+13'.

Of course, Khawaja made 140 in the first innings (and is currently 34) which is tough to replicate, and Cummins made 38 (when he rarely makes runs these days). 50's from Head and Carey.

Point being, whilst it's a long way away still, it's the 'performing' bats in our team that are still to come so anything is possible, given we have gotten more from the 'non-performers' so far. Here's hoping....

 

[Smoooothy]

Maybe KP can talk to us for 2 hours lol

please no...

 

[LukeParkerno1]

She's fine if you like a non-stop flood of (usually) inappropriate cliches

They are all horrible weirdly the Indian commentators are generally very good. Ponting the best easily

 

[Taylor]

must be brutal the eastern states, i'm pretty tired even from WA lol

1:30am in bed, about 3:30am the thunder starts and the dog decides it needs to see if the thunder is still under the bed.

 

[BlueBayou]

I'm not sure what the nationalities are of the DRS operators. Given DRS is independent from the host broadcasters, overseen by neutral umpires and approved and monitored by the ICC, I'm not going to get into fanciful conspiracies about manipulation of the data it produces.

When in Australia, it is operated by Australians. Are you suggesting that they are also in on favouring the team of their origin?

I've never seen such big discrepancies between what I saw live and what the DRS comes back with, ever.
I played the game at various levels for 50 years. I umpired a lot of games during that time. I think I have a fair idea what 'out' looks like, and where the ball is going to go. Both the Smith decision and th Bairstowe one look very iffy.