The Ashes, Second Test Lord's

First topic message reminder :

Harris and Khwaja in.
Aus's bowling depth is so good that they can drop who was rated to be their top fast bowler without blinking an eyelid.

So after all that hard work , England are probably still going to finish the day a bit behind ...or a lot behind , depending on what happens when the new ball arrives.
Never mind : this is another fascinating day of Test cricket.

Hope these two can get through to stumps...I am retiring tired.

Ian Bell averaged 25 (0 hundreds) against Australia when he had to face McGrath and Warne

Since their retirement he averages 54 with 3 Ashes hundreds.

Mental midget is Ian Bell.

Tiger - I dont hate him, I just dont like him. surely I cant like everyone? He has obviously done nothing towards me, done nothing for me either. I owe him nothing and thus I have no reason to like him... I wouldnt spit on him if he walked by, if thats what you thought I implied, but I wouldnt ask for a photo with him...

I've learned over the years that you can't judge people until you know them.

I used to make that mistake and I can't remember how many times people I thought I didn't like the look of or didnt like at first turned out to be lovely people.

I judge people as I find them and not until then these days.

alfie wrote:So after all that hard work , England are probably still going to finish the day a bit behind ...or a lot behind , depending on what happens when the new ball arrives.
Never mind : this is another fascinating day of Test cricket.

Hope these two can get through to stumps...I am retiring tired.

Cheers Alfie.
Yep on balance England lost the day but I hoped that bell could recover things a bit and he did well.

400 or so would be a target to have done well and I suppose less than 350 is a failure.

Yep I was the same trebbs. I used to have an issue with peoples faces that I worked with. And then bang they all turned out decent lovely people. never judge a book by its cover

And Bairstow.

Turning out to be a nice day for the Aussies

Oh that's poor from Bairstow. Australia's day yes, but England are far from out of it.

Duty281 wrote:Oh that's poor from Bairstow. Australia's day yes, but England are far from out of it.

Especially as Broad seems to be in good 'nick' with the bat.  

Another wicket tonight and Australia will be right on top. England well below par.

Hoggy_Bear wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Oh that's poor from Bairstow. Australia's day yes, but England are far from out of it.

Especially as Broad seems to be in good 'nick' with the bat.  

 Very true.

Sadly the damage was done in the first half hour, and its allowed Australia to just hang in there.

England might scrap to 350, but its not great.

20 minutes left. Do Australia have 1 more wicket in them to really put themselves in the driving seat

3 wickets to Smith. Diabolical from England after getting into a great position. We do seem to throw it away lately. What happened to the daddy hundreds?

Gerry SA wrote:

GSC wrote:Because they were playing against Warne and McGrath?  

Bell = weak attack bully.

gerry you made your point, you don't rate Bell, now move along.

Prior the next man to fall to Smith.

This is pretty pathetic batting.

I think 350 could be match-winning for England, I really do.

But damn and blast, Prior's gone and Smith has 3. 67 to get.

Typical England: 28/3 to 271/4. Then 271/4 to 283/7. Grrrr.

England really rate Broad as batsman. So much so that the Burnley express has come out to be nightwatchman.

Nightwatchman in to protect Broad and Swann:shock:  

Smith? Really? Collapse to Smith? Thats like being the victim of a Jamie Carragher hat-trick?

The only positive I can take from this is 1.5 matches done for the top 7, only Bell is playing well. Surely Cook, KP and Prior in particular are going to get a big score or two in the series.

EDIT: Trott is playing well too!

kingraf wrote:Smith? Really? Collapse to Smith? Thats like being the victim of a Jamie Carragher hat-trick?

England saw a blonde legspinner bowling and had horrible flashbacks!

kingraf wrote:Smith? Really? Collapse to Smith? Thats like being the victim of a Jamie Carragher hat-trick?

Well it would be like the Aussies collapsing to Joe Root which I can guarantee won't happen

I think my 750 is out the window duty. I am with you, 350 is good enough;)

Duty281 I half-suspect thats what Clarke was banking on

mystiroakey wrote:I think my 750 is out the window duty. I am with you, 350 is good enough;)

Bresnan double and a Broad ton. 50 from Swann. Easy  

For the 2nd time in 2 games, Jimmy Anderson is batting on day 1 of a test match.

Not good enough by the batsman by a long way,

aus final wicket partnership is at an average of over 120 this series!!

We will  be lucky with 17 from here on!

Much better hole from lee(long game ) and he has a birdie.. back to 1 over.

Cool Myst

Reliable Tim - Score of 35 with the bat, then a steady 2/40 from 15 overs. #control

289/7 at stumps. Australia's day.

Runs on the board at least, but England below par with the bat for the 2nd game running. Tail needs to wag tomorrow.

Oh wrong thread!!

Aus day here- if we could get to 400 its evens..

Duty281 wrote:289/7 at stumps. Australia's day.

True. But not by much IMO.

I think if we can get up to 350 that will be acceptable, but its a big if. Superb bowling will also be veru much required.

Easiest day to call the whole Ashes... 289/7, #8 & #11 batter in. Advantage Australia!

with swan, bres and broad left if they cant get to 350 on this track it doesnt say much for them tbh Nick..

350 should be attainable, and it should be enough to put pressure on a flaky Aussie top order.

I dont know, new ball taken, England can quite easily be skittled for 300. Early tomorrow. If you do get to 350 though, then I would say honours even, given the average score at Lord's is 380ish

Is that stat right, though? 380 sounds like astronomical average.

Lords is usually a road. Aus still have to bat last however, so all is not lost.

England just need to bowl pretty well.

its a 450 pitch tbh mate. That is the real par these days for lords- Not sure what the historical average is though. Its a draw pitch. The usual result is anyway. Lords tests should be 6 day events!

Pitch tends to die about day 3

Actually for the sake of accuracy to my suprise within the last 9 tests at Lords there has been a winner 8 times- the 6 before that were all draws!!(which is probally where my head still is!!)

Australia's day but I reckon most people would have been very very happy if they had been offered a total of 290-7 when we were on 28-3 staring down the barrel of an embarrassing batting collapse. Think swann will be a key bowler for us as the game progresses, just hope we can give him enough runs to play with.

I suppose if youre English it depends largely on how you view the bottle.
28/3 to 290/7, or 271/4 to 290/7.

well see what our final score is first Graf.

I would say see the Australian innings as well. Michael Holding always speaks about the difference between playing to par, and playing to your opponents par. Par at Lord's is 380, but is that what we can expect from Australia?

Australia's day no doubt on paper, but...

England have a semblance of a score on the board, which seemed like it may not happen early on. Whilst the pitch looks flat, we have surely learnt a long time ago not to judge pitches until both teams have batted on it. There is pace and carry and a hint of turn, and Australia's batting is not the most solid (an understatement).

There is a long way to go in this match yet.

By the way that was a terrific innings by Bell under pressure.

Clarke had a rather fantastic day as a captain I thought.