The Ashes Winter 2017/18 Thread

earwighoney

Heartfeltdawn said:

I liked the commentary. It made a refreshing change. That said, TMS came on after 30 minutes as usual  

Excellent day of Test cricket. 

Some of the BT pundits included Swann, Vaughn and Boycott.  That's pretty much TMS! 

Lyon's an exceptional bowler. 

scrumhalf

Just a wee bit hacked off that there are no highlights on terrestrial telly.

RandallFlagg

scrumhalf said:

Just a wee bit hacked off that there are no highlights on terrestrial telly.

I have Sky but only have Sports on in the summer for the cricket, I didn't realise that Sky didn't get the rights to the winter Ashes and only BT Sports have it.

I don't like watching highlights when I know the scores, so will stick to TMS for the occasional live play I will be awake for and follow BBC Sports news reports for the rest

Jonathangus

scrumhalf said:

Just a wee bit hacked off that there are no highlights on terrestrial telly.

There are free highlights on BTSport.com after 7pm each evening.  If you can call a massive 8 minutes with a constant music soundtrack 'highlights'.

FFS!  And they wonder why people aren't going to test matches any more.

RandallFlagg

Just woke up, England all out for 302, could have been 350-400 with a bit more care. Aus 84-4 so a good start to the bowling but Aus will soon rally in the middle order if we let them in.

We need one of Broad's magic sessions where the wickets tumble. C'mon England!

RandallFlagg

Steven Smith hits 50 and could make that 200 if we don't get creative with the bowling, a golden opportunity could slip away

RandallFlagg

Quote from TMS:

It's just kicked off right in front of the written press box. Fists, stewards and police in there, proper ugly. Some spectators carted out. "There's always problems there," says one steward. "They are drinking in the sun all day."

I assume that wasn't the players!

VimFuego

could just as easily be stokes and warner. 

Legionreturns

50 odd for the last five wickets is shocking after the start we had

VimFuego

well, end of day 2 and you can't really get a fag paper between the teams right now, tis a proper test match. In my heart I knew we'd put out a good showing, but I think mebbe the aussies were expecting us to fold. 

RandallFlagg

VimFuego said:

well, end of day 2 and you can't really get a fag paper between the teams right now, tis a proper test match. In my heart I knew we'd put out a good showing, but I think mebbe the aussies were expecting us to fold. 

Yes they are pretty even, it's hard to call which way this will go. Aus not really seeming to have a significant home advantage this time round at the Gabba, but, Aus have a much higher average for runs after the 5th wicket than England so I expect them to get a fair lead after the first innings and put the pressure on the England openers.

We need some magic with the ball in the first session tomorrow (tonight)

rocktron

Aussie batsman attacks England fielder with his bat (LOL) :-

Can you spot the ball - centre extreme left?

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n219/rocktron1948/Cricket 2017_zpsoo5u5niq.jpg

Heartfeltdawn

Legionreturns said:

50 odd for the last five wickets is shocking after the start we had

The wickets were always going to come. It's not a wicket where anyone has really got in and dominated. You're always trying to survive, not so much against threatening bowling, but through playing the wrong shot. Warner's dismissal shows what type of wicket you've got perfectly. 

Another night spent awake... Moeen was disappointing. It's the type of wicket that you need to be a little bit quicker with the ball, to get it into the pitch as a spinner. Ball didn't bowl well and it's unclear why he got the nod given that he'd only bowled 15 overs on tour, got injured, and Overton had looked the part in the warm-up games. 

Honours even. It feels like the sort of Test where one good session might win it. 

axisus

Disappointed that we couldn't remove Smith after a promising start. Oh well, it's all to play for still. 

crunchman

The Aussie tail isn't great.  Paine is at 7 and hasn't scored a first class century for something like 11 years.  If we can get through this partnership early tonight, then a decent first innings lead is possible.

RandallFlagg

Betfair are still showing the Aussies as odds on favourites to win the match at 1.79 with England at 3.95

about the same odds for the series

RandallFlagg

Just woke up, 03:58am Saturday. What a match, as one of you mentioned above, a proper Test match. Aus only on 257-7. 3 wickets to go Aus are 45 short. It sounds so evenly matched and a hard pitch to score on. Fascinating stuff! Steve Smith has been batting foir best part of 7 hours and is still a couple of runs short of a century, the balls on him!

everything to play for; for both teams, you can't call it either way yet.

RandallFlagg

8 down, Aus 27 runs short! 1/2 a fag paper between the teams.

RandallFlagg

07:00am Saturday - England lost 2 wickets cheaply already, they had this game level pegging but are now under pressure. Just leave the ball FFS, see the session out and then wear the bowlers down tomorrow morning then attack in the afternoon. How many times does Boycott have to tell them to leave the ball unless you have to play!

Pull shots from bouncers with the new ball, what are you doing?

iseverynamegone

Disappointing from Cook. There is still hope but first 2 sessions tomorrow need to be very good.