Australia declare on 649 / 7, a lead of 303. Would be very good for all parties involved if they bowled England out today.
Stoneman gone for a duck, 6 / 1 and Cook very nearly caught. Australoa all over the Poms here.
Cook bowled by Lyon in his first over. 15 / 2.
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Very good for what parties? Are you another one of these advocates of four day test cricket?
Just to end it all Geoffrey. You"ve really struggked to start a fight in this series haven’t you?
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Raining all day in Cape Town. Which at least alleviates the drought they have been facing
Joe Root unable to bat. Had to go to hospital for dehydration after the heat yesterday. Might bat later.
If there is a later.
Vaughan on the radio earlier was scathing about the England set up. Reckons most of the players are not training enough and not putting enough hours in the nets.
Also reckons county cricket is set up entirely incorrectly and the April - September season not doing anyone any favours.
Second highest temperature since records began seemingly in Sydney yesterday. They stop play at the Australian Open Tennis in Melbourne when temperatures get too hot.
April to September is late Spring to early Autumn in England. Does he want winter cricket?
The issue with the first class season is that it is disproportionately played in the early and late parts of that range. Particularly too many April and May games, where medium pace seamers are deadly and spin is non-existent
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Which is exactly what Vaughan said
Moeen loses his wicket to Lyon, surprisingly. Root takes offbthe hospital wristband he had on when he arrived at the ground this morning and goes out to bat. Fair play to him, I don’t think anyone would doubt his commitment anyway.
There’s more pressing issues to be addressed than the County scene.
Why are the ECB after largely ignoring pyjama cricket for the near 50 years of its existence suddenly prioritizing it over the test team? England don’t even have a bowling coach at the moment and Bayliss is a one day coach, he’s not up to the job of coaching a test team. Liam Plunkett is in the One Day Squad. How can Plunkett not be selected ahead of the hopeless Tom Curran or Jake Ball.
You can’t dispute the fact that Anderson apart the bowling has been awful but England have been decimated by injuries and absences. Roland-Jones and Steve Finn injured just before the tour, Jamie Overton, Mark Wood and Plunkett who would offer genuine pace either injured/coming back from injury/held back for one days, the promising Craig Overton and Chris Woakes getting injured and ruled out of the tour and Ben Stokes not even getting to the starting blocks.
General trend for a long time now in test cricket is increasingly few wins overseas. Reverting to longer tours and proper matches against Sheffield Shield teams on each of the test pitches before the test matches would help in that regard but not going to happen.
It’s a similar issue for Australia in England now, not playing the likes of Notts, Yorkshire and Lancashire before test matches at Trent Bridge, Headingley and Old Trafford, like they used to.
Odd that you were predicting an English win with all these pressing problems
Hardly that odd. Most of the Australian batting personnel that are now posting scores of 500 and 600 were repeatedly written off by their own supporters and press as not up to it after serial batting collapses over the years - getting bowled out for 85 against South Africa at home just over a year ago and bowled out for 60 by England (the last time the Ashes was on the line prior to this series) most prominent.
Your line of questioning to @GeoffreyBoycott is extremely tiresome. You made your point, geoff got it wrong. This constant badgering is unbecoming. The test match thread would be an abomination without geoffs musings, stick to the EPL, mate.
Absolutely agree. The variation in coditions and even the ball used would point to it being obvious that you need to spend some significant time in the country before a series to give yourself any advantage. The players calendars with the limited stuff is so packed now it’s impossible to do so.
Australia should have a long period of tour matches if they want to retain these Ashes in 2019 and preferably have as many players as possible playing county cricket also. Otherwise it just pings back to England and vice versa here.
Very few visiting sides seem to win series any more.
I don’t have any names other than Steve Smith but it’s been reported in the English press that as many as 6 of the current Australian team want to play a full county season in England this summer. Probably the only Australian batsman who has prospered in England over the last decade was the 35 debutant Chris Rogers in 2013. Rogers had played for nearly 15 years in England and had played more first class cricket in England than he had in his native Australia.