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Second test

by 58 Comments

Things have gone rather quiet on the blog eh what.
Curate a pitch slower than a wet week and look where it has got you.

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Comments

  1. It was never going to increase our woeful record v Aus at the home of cricket. We will start our innings batting for a draw… but at least KP isn’t there to smash a cameo 35 off 20. Interesting if not entertaining. But Broad continues to impress.

  3. Aus will want a good evening bowl today and can’t let their strike bowlers even walk out to the middle. Guess they’re will be a flurry soon. 550 dec?

  5. Aren’t pitches done to suit the quicks in Australia ? I’d prefer bouncier pitches with a good carry as well, fancy the England bowlers would too. Still, top sides have to do it in all conditions.
    This evening’s going to be interesting, a few quick wickets for Australia and we’ll be struggling tomorrow but it’ll be a good test for their new found positivity.

    On the plus side for England, rain is due for most of the day on Sunday so could be Old Trafford 2013 all over again.

  10. Maybe Cardiff was like one of those times just before its dawn when you see a little bit of light and it makes you think it is actually dawn but then you realise it’s not actually dawn yet and it was just a little bit of light and dawn isn’t until a bit later.

  11. Dunno if this is a record but can England (or any other test team for that matter) been in such a bad situation as 536 runs behind with 4 wickets down?

  13. Just woke and the awakening is far less rude than when we got towelled in Cardiff.
    At lunch Tubby Taylor and Brett Lee were discussing the slow pitch and the view was irrespective of the pitch ,even India, if you bowl really full the quicks can still achieve pace Unless the home team can thicken the air as well which may apply in high altitude place,but I digress.
    So Mitch Mach 1 ,written off by an Afterworders,as I recall has done that.
    Re preparation of pitches and @jed-clampett reasonable question about don’t Australian green keepers do similR? Well not as much as we would like. Certainly all the pitches are harder – it is an Aussie summer after all but even Perth the famous speedsters track has for more many years been a lot slower than it was when Thommo and Lillee terrorised oppositions. DK is I think on the committee there and been lobbying for quicker wickets but I don’t think the preparation is anything like the skewing of performance elsewhere.

  15. The point I read elsewhere (Derek Pringle) was that the pitch was showing the difference between the medium fasts at 80-85mph, and the real quickies at 93mph.

    I had it playing on the ESPNapp at work in the States, and that was a thoroughly good day of cricket.

  16. As usual Sir Geoffrey put it best – (to be read in thick Yorkshire accent) “I could’ve gone out there wi’ me stick o’ rhubarb and made ‘undred”.

  17. A rude but not unexpected wakening this morning. I went to bed at lunch (so to speak), and I would have been surprised if it had been any different.

    I am just so in awe of Steve Smith, though. He looks like a schoolboy, but what power, what economy, what precision! Prone to go fishing occasionally (played and missed at Broad several times during the morning), but otherwise he seems the complete batsman. OOAA maybe…

    • He’s pretty amazing isn’t he. Somehow he’s found his feet, so to speak, and that’s where he’s staying. Couple of not so good innings in England and then a big hundred, yet again, and when it matters.

      In 2013 I went to Day 1 of the Lords Test. I remember it was bloody hot, Australia got a couple of early wickets, then England made some runs, and then young Steve took some wickets with his leggies late in the day. At the time it seemed a case of “let’s try this bloke, not quite sure what he does but he’s got something”. Who’d have thought 2 years later he’d be in the position he is now – No 3 for years to come, and captain in waiting.

  18. I tend to read most AW threads, but with my knowledge of and interest in cricket, you might just as well have said “Bally Jerry, pranged his kite right in the how’s-your-father; hairy blighter, dicky-birded, feathered back on his sammy, took a waspy, flipped over on his Betty Harpers and caught his can in the Bertie.”

  19. First session this morning is the defining one of the match.
    England must save the follow on, which is still a long way off, to have any hope of saving a draw.
    Is there rain around Sunday though?

  21. Quite simply, the England top order batting has to start contributing. The usual casual, sloppy rubbish from Bell, Gary Ballance desperately needs to work on his technique, Adam Lyth must tighten up outside off stump – he gets away with some of those loose wafts in county games, not at Test level. Can’t rely on Joe Root and Ben Stokes every time.

    As I’ve said before – time for the country’s form batsman to replace Bell. Come in Jonny Bairstow.

  26. Humiliation. Treating Eng’s bowlers with contempt. Quite a clever trick really by Pup. Broad had no answers, Anderson looked ordinary and Mohen is ordinary.

  27. I’d like to stay up for the final scenes but I don’t think I can take any more of the puerile ads repeated ad nauseam on Australia TV. The one for Nab Business Bank is especially execrable. They ask a question in English – he answers in Italian. How’s that work? Shit concept shit acting.

    • The thing that’s so shitful about that ad is the old bloke is asked a direct question and he doesn’t answer it. They ask him about his business and he answers it with some aphorism about ships and harbours. He may as well have said “We are the Knights who say Ni!” for all the sense it makes to anyone that has not heard the preceding conversation.

      He answers the subtext of the question which he actually was not privy to. When you see an advertisement 4000 times you begin to see the flaws in logic within

      • Absolutely. It’s so ripe for a parody.
        The smug middle class couple planning a business opportunity which will rip off thousands ponder the question. Will they or won’t they.
        The portly maitre d approaches. They ask a question – in English which apparently he doesn’t speak. He replies in florid Italian as a young waitress waits nearby in order to translate.
        She nods at his undoubted wisdom even though she’s on the minimum wage and he’s goosed her in the kitchen more than once.
        She speaks-
        ‘Uh, he says your tits are rubbish and your husband looks like an uglier Prince William…’

  31. Well that was a rude awakening!

    Thoughts for the next match – any changes to the England team? Not that many obvious candidates around although Bairstow is the obvious one, maybe drop Bell , move Root to 4.

    At least there’s a ten day gap for England to recover their senses.

    And what sort of pitch – obviously not one like Lords!

    • At the risk of repeating myself: Jonny Bairstow in the Championship this season – 102, 59, 50, 66, 125*, 0, 15, 219*, 108, 23, 139. Or, to put it another way, 906 runs at 100.66. And they keep picking Bell…

      • Presume you would stick with Lythe for now – looks vulnerable but it would be harsh to dump him do soon, a la Robson, Compton, etc.

        Should have played him in the West indies to get some games under his belt.

  32. Serious question: I am a foreigner and cricket doesn’t really make it to the news here. But can somebody tell me what this means:

    ” Australia 566-8 dec & 254-2 dec; England 312 & 103 ”

    Australia scored 556 and declared after 8 innings or something. What was exactly happening? I just don’t get the scoring subtleties.

  33. @campo
    Australia scored a huge 566 runs in their first innings for the loss of 8 men -they could have batted on until England took 10 wickets, declared.
    England scored 312 all out.
    Australia scored a further 254 runs with England only managing to get two of their batsmen out. They declared, figuring they were so far ahead that they could get all the England players out before they caught up.
    They were right. England managed a mere 103 runs in their second, and final, innings.

    • Thanks a lot. But what does it mean when you declare after 8 innings? That the other team can also only have 8 innings? As a football fan I would compare this to Andorra who scores against England and declares after one minute. Is this right?
      Also: what did the 254-2 dec mean? There is not one newspaper who expains this shit. I don’t think people who don’t know are supposed to know.

      • It’s been said that watching cricket is like living in an igloo, you’re either born to it or you’ll never cope.

        Both teams bat twice and after those four innings are complete the game is over and the team with the most runs win.

        A declaration is a team saying, “We have enough runs to beat you already we don’t need to keep batting” They just call a halt but they can’t change their mind if it doesn’t work out.

        It’s not as cocky as it sounds. Time is also a factor in the game, so the quicker the other team bats the more chance you have of winning.

  35. Rubs eye reaches for phone to check scores

    Ash all is tight with the world again. And that has been Johnson in amongst them.

    Rude awakening TMFTL

    But not for me !

    Apparently Heppers had tickets for Monday. Seems like these cricketers like an extra day off.

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