England vs Australia 4th Test, Trent Bridge

First topic message reminder :

As The Ashes thread has gone on a tangent arguing over who is SA's best fast bowler, let's get back on topic with a match thread.

Conditions for the 5 days look generally dry so there will be an almost certain result for either team. Also looking cloudy for large periods, so the loss of Anderson might be huge for England

England: Cook, Lyth, Bell, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Buttler, Ali, Broad, Wood, Finn

Australia: Rogers, Warner, Smith, S Marsh, Clarke, Voges, Nevill, Johnson, Starc, Hazlewood, Lyon

so the aussie all came out in support of their captain, getting low scores to boost him. Lovely guys.

think england just edged that session

'edged' huhuhuh

VTR wrote:

trebellbobaggins wrote:but could aussie not then get 350+ and make it a game VTR?

They could. If they can win from here fair play to them, it would be the greatest comeback in the history of cricket and possibly all sport

You wouldn't think they are capable of making 350 at the moment . Miracles happen ; but most of their batsmen look either short on confidence , out of form or just not good enough.

Anyway two more sessions today.

I think we can call that one England's

No, England 13/0!

Lyth has unfurled two gorgeous drives.

England's sesh, yeah? I await KP_fan's analysis in wonderment.

Duty281 wrote:No, England 13/0!

Lyth has unfurled two gorgeous drives.

England's sesh, yeah? I await KP_fan's analysis in wonderment.

Don't forget Steffan as well!

Nice to see Lyth getting a move on, England below the rate needed to get to 300 by the close. Still 5 wickets in hand mind

England to have a lead of 200-250 by close of play today. Wouldn't be surprised if they're able to declare by this time tomorrow with a lead of around 350.

Australia then to be 250-ish all out 2nd innings

Send them home...

Spineless...

No pitch is a 60 All Out. But, having said that. From watching Aus get 47 all out, there are some sessions where everything nicks off. Freak occurrences. Not watching, but I assume that's the case here?

Bat them into oblivion

Duty281 wrote:

England's sesh, yeah? I await KP_fan's analysis in wonderment.

No doubt it will home in on the inadequacies of the Australian batsmen and purely ignore the bowling attack. Totally disregarding the earlier postings that England were so inferior to this Australian side they wouldn't even win a test.

kingraf wrote:No pitch is a 60 All Out. But, having said that. From watching Aus get 47 all out, there are some sessions where everything nicks off. Freak occurrences. Not watching, but I assume that's the case here?

Indeed.

Sounds like its been Australia's "perfect storm" where everything that could go against them, has gone against them. Commentators have been saying the pitch should be a decent batting track and that England's bowlers haven't been serving up any demon balls...just doing the basics well.

Aussies sound shellshocked, low on confidence and displaying very poor technique. They'd probably like to catch the next flight home if they could.

Batting collapses are largely in the head I think. Batsmen need mental preparation before going in. Imagine being 5/6/7 in that lineup today, they were at the wicket after 10-15 mins!

I think this is why we occasionally see something like today's innings, and very often see clusters of 4 or 5 wickets going down from any position, as has been seen a few times in this series already

do England have to play the return series this year like last time? that was ridiculous timing and killed the interest for me.

I think the Aussie dressing room is in tatters.

trebellbobaggins wrote:do England have to play the return series this year like last time?  that was ridiculous timing and killed the interest for me.

17/18 is the next one as far as I can tell. The re-aligning appears to be complete thankfully, with some cash grabbed along the way no doubt

VTR wrote:

trebellbobaggins wrote:do England have to play the return series this year like last time?  that was ridiculous timing and killed the interest for me.

17/18 is the next one as far as I can tell. The re-aligning appears to be complete thankfully, with some cash grabbed along the way no doubt

oh thank God. That was ridiculous last time. Means far less if you play the ashes again in the next series.

trebellbobaggins wrote:

VTR wrote:

trebellbobaggins wrote:do England have to play the return series this year like last time?  that was ridiculous timing and killed the interest for me.

17/18 is the next one as far as I can tell. The re-aligning appears to be complete thankfully, with some cash grabbed along the way no doubt

oh thank God.  That was ridiculous last time.  Means far less if you play the ashes again in the next series.

Yes, especially if you lose it 5-0! Looks to me like its every 4 years from now on like it should be. I suppose this will only last until someone realises the wheelbarrows of cash aren't quite full enough, and they are re-aligned yet again to "help the ODI team"

Indeed.

I didn't feel it helped the trashing being an immediate return but they were bloody terrible for sure.

The big thing about Australia is there is this mindset, where if the pitch is lively the natural inclination is to counter attack, because "if you're defensive, eventually you'll get one with your name on it". While this mindset can see them get off to a flyer even on tingy wickets. It's also a good explanation as to why Aus have been bowled for less than 150 so often in the last five years.

I think 20/20 is affecting the mindset more...

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:I think 20/20 is affecting the mindset more...

I think that's a fair point. 20/20 has certainly flowed through into ODIs, which both in turn flow into Tests. No bad thing I would say, Test cricket needs to appear to be exciting to attract fans to the grounds, something most countries simply can't achieve. I think 4 days Tests could be seriously considered at this rate

I think four-day tests will be the future, inevitably. The first day-night test is later this year, I believe, which is something that will become of greater prominence in the next decade or so.

30/0. Deficit halved!

Difficult to know what a good score is, really. 300 would be grand and certainly match-winning, though I don't think we can expect Australia to bat as poorly, or Broad to bowl as well.

I think this Ashes is causing a bit of myopia. Both the NZ tests went five days. The Tests vs West Indies went all the way. All of the four Aus-India tests went all the way. Even the SL-Pak tests generally went five days. The majority of all games go five days.

Id just bat as long as possible

Sydney Morning Herald referring to Aussies' first innings as "Pomicide".

Very clever. Good that they're showing a sense of humour about it anyway.

This is England's biggest opening partnership of the series. Lyth is now in and has to be looking to score big here.

EDIT Lyth caught behind - the next ball for 14.

England 32 for 1. The saviour for Lyth will be if England win this test. I cannot see them changing a winning team.

The Sydney Morning Herald live Text is an excellent read

Might be it for Lyth. Hales to get a go at the Oval if its a dead rubber?

Lyth is an irritation.

Surely cannot take him to the U.A.E. in this form; similarly, you surely cannot pick a new opener to bed in on the subcontinent.

Is a recall for Compton about to become viable?

Lyth out, still not good enough IMHO, but shouldn't be a problem in this match, a win would probably mean he gets the final Test as well

Shane Warne talking his usual brand of drivel, now instead of calling Bell the Sherminator...he's called the Stiffmeister

oof perilously close to a no-ball that one, but unfortunately another failure for Lyth. I think he'll play the next game (and it would be maybe unfair to bring in a new player for just one Test) but for me they're just too many issues there. Openers will fail occasionally of course, but I think Lyth only has two scores above 20 so far? from 11 innings that's not good enough..

If Lyth is axed for the UAE I think the best option out there is Compton.

PaulHv2 wrote:Shane Warne talking his usual brand of drivel, now instead of calling Bell the Sherminator...he's called the Stiffmeister

Warne is living proof that being a great sportsman and an absolute b£ll£nd are not mutually exclusive pursuits

I actually don't mind Warne. He comes across far better as a pundit as does Ponting.

I don't think there's any argument on lyth. In the context if this game so far it's hard to judge him, and if they were going to ditch him it would've been before that Latest failure.
But his post ashes future must be in doubt, maximum 3 innings to make a score that demands his retention.

Talk about this summer being a tough place to start an opener, next winter won't be much better with the spin graveyard followed by the best pace bowler since Donald

VTR wrote:

PaulHv2 wrote:Shane Warne talking his usual brand of drivel, now instead of calling Bell the Sherminator...he's called the Stiffmeister

Warne is living proof that being a great sportsman and an absolute b£ll£nd are not mutually exclusive pursuits

KP wasn't that great a player

Bell out for 1 and England 34 for 2. Decision reviewed without success.

Bell perhaps unfortunate, given out on umpires call

Australia coming back into it.

There's nothing unfortunate about being out on umpire's call.

kingraf wrote:There's nothing unfortunate about being out on umpire's call.

I agree.

I think one of the things Hawk-Eye has shown over the years is that it's actually quite rare for the inswinger from the left-armer to be swinging down leg from over the wicket (or indeed from the right-armer to a left-handed batsman). Cracking ball from Starc to be fair, not sure Bell could do that much about it having just come in...

Lyth missing out again...thought he looked better today ; but still no runs.
He is running out of chances.

And nothing from Bell this time ; so England need a steadying partnership now. Have seen Bell trapped like that a few times , when he gets a full swinging ball early on - Starc bowling some good ones at the moment. Close margins though : the Lyth wicket was almost a no ball ; and Bell's lbw was marginal. Guess Australia will think they need a bit to go their way...

Why, even after this morning, am I still nervous? Will start to feel a bit happier if these two can take us ahead of the Aussies and start to build a partnership.

I can't shake the feeling though that if Broad can run through a side here, the Aussie bowlers have the potential to do the same.

I think the nerves are because there is still so much time left in the game, that Australia could ostensibly be 150 behind, and still have good enough batting conditions to make a real fist of it.

Won't happen though.

CaledonianCraig wrote:This is England's biggest opening partnership of the series. Lyth is now in and has to be looking to score big here.

EDIT Lyth caught behind - the next ball for 14.

naughty! never do that. Only reverse jinxes allowed.

eng will be all out for 28.