Steven Finn. :rolleyes:
Is it over?
1332:
LUNCH - Aus 291-9 (20 runs needed)
Swann changes the angle, coming around the wicket, but Haddin is unmoved. A maiden to end the session and the players, agonisingly, head for lunch. Australia will return in need of 20 runs, England just one wicket.
[quote=“mickee321, post: 801358, member: 367”]1332:
LUNCH - Aus 291-9 (20 runs needed)
Swann changes the angle, coming around the wicket, but Haddin is unmoved. A maiden to end the session and the players, agonisingly, head for lunch. Australia will return in need of 20 runs, England just one wicket.[/quote]
Its on a knife edge alright. Aussies look like holding on, England bowlers pretty shocking today bar Anderson.
England need to get Anderson patched up over lunch. He looks their only prospect of a wicket. Will be seriously careless of England to lose this test after skittling out Australia’s top order cheaply twice. 163 tenth wicket partnership first time around and if Australia pull it off here, it’ll be a tenth wicket partnership of 80.
Controversial DRS gives Anderson his 10th wicket and England a 14 run victory. All very unsatisfactory. Tough luck on Haddin, he battled hard. Still you can’t be relying on 250 runs from your last wicket partnership to see you home.
Jimmy Anderson. 
Surely England will win the next one more comfortably. Australia needed some heroic batting from their tail in both innings to get close. That’s not a tactic that can be relied on.
Its not a tactic talkback.
Well that was a deadly test, full of drama. There seems to be a view that it was a killer blow to Australia, but I don’t agree. The top order has to tighten up and score runs, no question about that. Cowan will be droped and Khawaja brought in. There were signs that Watson, Rogers, Hughes, Haddin can and will score. Clarke is obviously still playing in pain. The bowlers can take wickets and score runs.
England were the better team, but they are over reliant on the quite brilliant Jimmy Anderson. If he gets injured, they will be in all sorts of trouble.
I thought both teams played with a great attitude and aggressively. As for walking, fuck that. Gilly’s the only player I’ve ever seen walking and he had nothing to prove and had that luxury. Bradman never walked. If the umpire doesn’t call you out, then you’re not out.
But the DRS is a complete and utter disaster. It was implemented to make sure we didn’t have howlers. We had howlers. It was implemented to reduce controversy. We’ve had nothing but since its inception. You get 2 appeals per innings. Whats the point of that? If the technology is so great, then why limit the amount of appeals? Whydon’t umpires get to use the technology if they are a bit dodgy about a decision? India won’t use it and the ICC is powerless (as usual) to force them. So its not a level playing field. Its the half pregnant solution to a problem that wasn’t there.
Its a crock of shit and so long as its there, it will continue to be the main talking point when tests like this occur. We’ve lost sight of the cricket and the ICC has given us this bullshit instead.
Umpire makes a decision, right or wrong, players accept decision, then continue to play cricket. Whats the problem?
The Pandora’s box of technology has been opened so it can’t be closed. What needs to happen is for the players to be taken out of the equation. Let the umpires use the technology to review their own decision. Having players determining whenb something is reviewed is plain silly.
Great test. Australia can win at Lords.
Just watched the highlights from yesterday, phenomenal stuff. Anderson getting himself into the pantheon of all time greats now I would suggest. Very likely to end his career as England’s all-time wicket taker, probably their first to get to 400 wickets. 13 overs is a hell of a spell though, and they’d want to be careful that they don’t ruin him through overuse. Great knock by Haddin too.
DRS led to the final decision being made correctly. It’s unquestionably a good thing in my view, though perhaps its implementation needs to be tweaked. I think there should be specialist third umpires, think it’s a completely different job to umpiring in the middle and should be treated as such. I prefer having the reviews in the hands of the players to be honest, if they waste them then that’s their bad.
Cowan looked a walking wicket in this match, and Lehmann had a bit of a pop at him after the match so presume he will be dropped for Khawaja. I’d expect Bresnan to start in place of Finn too. Fairly clear that Cook didn’t trust him yesterday, and his two overs were fairly disastrous. Pitch didn’t suit him with the lack of bounce I’d suppose, but I don’t expect Lord’s to be any different in this weather.
Despite an obvious looking gap between the teams on paper, as I predicted there won’t be much between them on the playing field. Australia have more to take from this match,they kept England to respectable totals.
All this with pitches prepared for home side and the top and middle order not really performing. Nothing to fear from the much vaunted England attack either,Anderson aside.
All in all I’m much more optimistic about series after this and fancy Australia to win at lords.
Boof you’re doing a great job,as bumble told you in commentary.
Hilarious stuff as Mickey Arthur’s legal claim against Cricket Australia has been leaked. Claims that Clarke referred to Watson and his faction as a cancer on the squad. Also says that Watson told him about the Warner-Root incident, directly contradicting Watson’s public statements on the matter, and that the Board didn’t back him after the homework incident.
:rolleyes:Yawn. Arthur looks like a right prick now, as Brad Haddin said, the team have moved on.
I struggle to see how you could have anything other than sympathy for Arthur given what is publicly known (though leaking this seems like a silly move if he was behind it). He basically went from being a successful international coach to working with the equivalent of a bunch of squabbling teenagers with behavioural issues. Doubt the “unity” in the camp will last long either if Watson remains in the squad with Clarke as captain.
I have sympathy for Arthur, he had to deal with a dysfunctional set up, not the players, the whole cricket australia management and the stupid idea of imposing Pat Howard as high performance manager above him. Arthuir’s a very good coach, but he had no hope with this structure. Howard is the real cancer here. The issue I have is with the leaking of these documents and the timing of the action by Arthur. The disunity in the camp thing is a non story now, they seem unified. What people are forgetting is that while Watson and Clarke may have had some recent issues, as Watson previously said, they have known each other since they were 12 and are good friends. Lehmann is someone the players know and respect and none of them want to be seen as the one who breaks unity now and makes life hard for Boof.
Looks like Cowan will retain his place and be told to play his natural, defensive game, instead of trying to impersonate Adam Gilchrist. I expect Starc to be dropped with Ryan Harris coming in, a risky move as Harris could break down at any time, I would have much preferred to see Jackson Bird coming in. Lords, the glory of it.
Oz will be grand now that they have all the legends advising them.
England 289/7 at stumps. Definitely Australia’s day as its a really good batting track. England needed to be posting at least 450. England let it slip first half hour of play and last 45 minutes before stumps. From 28/3, they effectively then went 243/1 to 271/4 before Steve Smith picked up 3 late wickets.
Difficult to rationalise how three wickets were lost in the first six overs. I suspect nerves was a big factor with the added pressure of her Majesty, the Queen of England and the Commonwealth Realms being present for the first hour of play.
I’m not so sure about it being England’s day. A terrific start and while I’m always dodgy about Ryan Harris’s ability to last a day, never mind a test, he did so well. But Trott and then Bairstow and the redoubtable Bell have inflicted a lot of runs. Steve Smith, fair play to him, he’s shipped a lot of criticism, but never stopped believing in himself, a future Aussie captain?
While 289/7 would normally be considered a great firast day in the field at Lords on this track, the Aussie batting worries me immensley and could collapse at any time. The top order HAS to perform in this test.
Clarke is proving his worth as a captain with the calls on Watson and Smith.