Crap over from Plunkett there, including Starc smashing a 6 off the first ball.
206/7 from 45.
Chance England will shit it and leak 250 ish.
Edgbaston is a great old ground for drama.
I think the 1999 Australia-South Africa semi-final and the second test of the 2005 Ashes are probably the two most dramatic finishes on English soil in my lifetime anyway, and they were both at Edgbaston.
Shaping up like it could be another very dramatic finish this afternoon.
240ish looks like a likely posting for the Aussies here.
Smith done as are Australia
Unreal throw there
Not quite as good as that of New Zealandâ's Martin Guptill to get rid of Dhoni yesterday but a smashing throw all the same
Woakes now on a hat trick
217/9. Woakes on a hat trick.
Jack Russellâs Wikipedia page is an entertaining read
Russell was never seen as much of a team player,[ citation needed ] a perception reinforced by his being a loner off the field, his painting, and his protective attitude to his family life.[14] None of his Gloucestershire team-mates were ever invited to his home, and he claimed if they ever asked he would be more than willing if they agreed to be blindfolded; the builders who constructed the extension to it were subjected to the same treatment.[14]
His fitness regime included running every day, and while driving between games Russell would be clad in a sleeping bag with the bottom cut out, so as not to get a chill in his back and legs. He also had a block fitted beneath the accelerator, so as to avoid over-stretching the Achilles tendon.[12]
As can happen to many cricketers, if their era coincides with others who are as good, they are susceptible to whatever selection policies prevail. Jack Russell vied for many years with Alec Stewart for one place. Stewart, a superb player of quick bowling, often struggled against spin. This debate of whether Stewart (inferior to Russell with the gloves but a far superior batsman â especially against quicks) versus Russellsâs better glovework but lack of results against quick bowling raged from around 1990â1997. When England finally realised that Stewartâs best position was opening and not keeping in 1998, Russell was 35. On that tour of the West Indies in 1998, Stewart opened the batting with some success, but Russell endured a poor (for him) match in Guyana, crucially dropping Dinanath Ramnarine. With Stewart being made captain immediately after this tour, the writing was on the wall for Russell, as Stewart batted at 3, kept wicket, and captained the side from 1998â1999. The selectors signalled the end of Russellâs international career in 1998â1999 when they selected Warren Hegg as Stewartâs deputy.
Some of his more notable oddities included a diet to supplement his extreme fitness regime, which consisted largely of tea, biscuits, and baked beans. Like his mentor, Alan Knott, a heavy tea drinker, Russell would often get through 20 cups a day. He used to dip the tea bag in once, add plenty of milk, then hang it on a nail ready for subsequent use. In the final Test of the 1989 Ashes series (against Australia) at the Oval, Derek Randall counted that he used the same bag for all five days, which roughly equates to 100 cups.[15] For lunch, Russell would eat two Weetabix, soaked for exactly eight minutes in milk, and a mashed banana. For dinner, steak and chips or chicken without skin was a favourite meal â Russell once spent every night of a Test at a Chinese restaurant in Perth, ordering cashew chicken: without the cashews.[14]
He also insisted on always wearing the same battered old flowerpot sunhat during his time out in the field, a constant companion from his debut in 1981 to his last game in 2004.[14] Russell lined up the ball with the specially cut back rim, but it ended up rather worn out. Only his wife Aileen was allowed to repair it, while Russell carried an emergency repair kit of cotton thread and rubber.[14] Its state of age and hence apparent disrepair caused more than one argument with the authorities. Russell refused to wear the official coloured one-day sunhat in South Africa, with a compromise only reached when Russell agreed to wear his old flowerpot hat inside the new sun hat.[12][15] On a second occasion in the West Indies, he agreed to wash it, and placed it to dry in an oven. Forgotten and resultantly overbaked, the hat caught fire, and was only just rescued from total incineration â the top collapsed like puff pastry on removal.[14] The fire damage could still be seen on the hat years later.
Another eccentricity was his trademark black wicket-keeping gloves. These were falling to pieces, but when he was advised to get new ones, he simply claimed that the old ones gave him a better feel for the ball.[ citation needed ] Allegedly, the gloves were originally owned by Russell, and then given away to a fan. When his previous gloves finally fell to bits. Russell managed to track down where the other gloves were. The fan had left them in a garage, and was only too pleased to donate them back to the eccentric wicket-keeper.[ citation needed ]
Russell has stated his desire that his hands be amputated after his death, and preserved in formaldehyde.[12]
Politically, Russell is left wing.[16]
Art[edit]
Although not studying art at school, he had an interest in art, expressed at an early age through diorama railway modelling. During a rainy early-season county cricket game at Worcestershire, while sitting waiting for the rain to stop, he walked into town and bought a sketch-pad and some pencils.[17]
â If Rembrandt can do it, then why canât IâŚ?â. That first day, I strolled along the Severn at the back of the ground, but I was so shy that whenever someone came along, Iâd hide the sketch-pad. â
When England toured Pakistan in 1987, Russell had two daysâ cricket in a six-week tour, so kept his mind sane through sketching and photography. On return to the UK, he displayed 40 sketches in a gallery in Bristol, which sold out in two days.[17]
Russell now has his own gallery in Chipping Sodbury, and exhibits in London, displaying a portfolio of sights and scenes of his home area in Gloucestershire, architecture, classic military battlefields, and wildlife. Russell also undertakes commissions, and has painted comedian Eric Sykes (a fellow wicket keeper), Sir Norman Wisdom, Sir Bobby Charlton, Eric Clapton, Henry Allingham, and HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.[17] He states that his style shows influences of impressionismand pointillism.[18]
Post-retirement[edit]
From his retirement, Russell has been a full-time artist.[17] In 2009, to celebrate the first high-definition television transmission of the Ashes series, Russell was commissioned by BSkyB to hand-paint five Sky+ HD digiboxes.[19] The locations of 4 out of the 5 are known by Russell - the other remains a mystery.
In 2007, Russell was appointed goal-keeping coach for football team Forest Green Rovers then playing in the Conference National.[20] After his mentorship from Alan Knott throughout his own career, Russell later provided one-to-one coaching for Arfo maverick Geraint Jones.[ citation needed ][21] He also provided coaching and mentorship at Gloucestershire in 2008.[22][23]
1 Like
Australia all out for 223
The throw that got Steve Smith out nutmegged him on the way to the stumps
223 all out. Good mornings work for England. Edgbaston is one of those grounds where funny things happen. This is not in the bag by any means.
10 more than we got in 1999 and it was enough.
Starc is swinging it round corners according to nasser Hussain. I donât think England will make 200.
50/0 after 10 overs.
at the risk of jinxing myself, theyre just about to hit a 50 opening partnership off 10 overs, looking good for them unless they do a konta
13 off the 11th over, Nathan Lyonâs first in the attack. 63/0.
Cummins sends a bouncer wide and over the boundary for 5.the comeback is on.
Extras is batting well for EW&I
Is this knockout yet. Tournament seems to have been going on for months
Super sixes starting Saturday, then semis, then a final on the first Sunday in September
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EW&I are cruising
It would take a spectacular collapse for them to blow it from here
Animal 