Wow, can’t believe England declared. Talk about Billy Big Bollocks.
that is…
surprising!
England bat at 5 an over and close in on 400, not a bad score but then to declare, on day one with no weather in the offing? That must be a rare beast indeed!
Very, very bold. I suppose the thinking is that, another 20-30 runs is worth less than the possibility of some cheap wickets tonight.
Clearly England are backing themselves and, I’ve said it before, I’d rather see us be bold like this and risk a loss than meander to a draw. I wonder what the aussies will make of it.
Precisely. As it turned out, they only got 4 overs in, which Warner and Khawaja seemed to deal with fairly comfortably apart from almost creating a run out. 14/0 - let’s see what England can make of the pitch tomorrow. My guess is they will set more aggressive fields than Australia did, but if the ball doesn’t move…
yep, the gamble didn’t pay off immediately but there is a deal of scoreboard pressure there and Australia are unlikely to bat as quickly so they will be hoping to go long into day 3.
It is set up very nicely.
That was a brain fart. Two overs for change of innings is what I was thinking of.
And yes, a declaration as sign of intent and straight out of the “what would the opposition least like us to do” school of thought. Could still pay off as both batters essentially have to start again tomorrow which basically gives two bites at the early wicket cherry.
The worry is that Aus are going to bat sensibly all day and be 4 down at the end of the day and approaching our score, but that risk isn’t mitigated much by an extra 20 or so runs
Labuschagne first ball!
Two down in the first hour is exactly what England would want.
Overcast at the moment so perhaps the moment for movement is now.
England might have declared a bit too early. At the rate this is going, they’re going to be behind going into 3rd innings. Australia held serve (so to speak). It seems to me that this now most likely to end in a draw. This is assuming that Australia can make it to (or near) lunch tomorrow with a lead. England will have to come off Bazball and use up the rest of Day 3 and into Day 4 as far as they can go (ideally until at least tea). Then it will come down to how fast England can bowl them out, but based on this innings, it’ll be a push overall. England doesn’t seem to have the bowling for quick wickets.
A draw? It’s day 2!
England will not come off bazball. Stokes has shown again and again that he’s more interested in producing entertaining cricket than he is playing for a draw, and he will go for the win even if it risks a loss.
I still support the declaration - we might have got 20-30 runs on top, yes, but that twin spell with the new ball could have paid off, and if England had done the basics right - a missed stumping, easy catch and wicket off a no-ball - we’d be right on top.
Whatever the merits of the first innings declaration, (it could be argued that Anderson getting a scalp was far better value than Anderson getting bounced the shit out of) the second innings declaration (assuming ENG get the option) is going to be a far sterner test of Bazball.
I’m not sure AUS will get to parity. Hazlewood is a bunny replacing Starc who can produce handy runs. Cummins hasn’t scored runs outside the IPL since becoming captain. It’s a long tail. But let’s say they do +/-.
A Bazball 200 by ENG gives AUS 4 sessions to get the runs or save.
A Bazball 400 by ENG gives AUS 2 sessions to save.
Threading that needle to maximise ENG chance of the win will take some skill and fortune.
Fuck this guy is a selfish cry baby.
With 160 Tests and 500+ wickets and yet he expects freebies and a benefit show.
He wants a batting road prepared so his team can play shots with impunity and then for somebody to drop a bucket of water on a good length just to juice it up so his job is easy.
ENG batting on Day1 was a testament to their approach.
Calling the deck souless demeans his own team efforts and implies and Test standard batting unit could have done the same.
It didn’t make sense to me why England didn’t just have their tail end whack away until they were all out. I think Aus have a big advantage now, and the declaration decision can further weigh on the minds of England.
Yeah, I’ve always rated him as a player, but…
Khawaja has surprised me. I know he’s got a great average, but he’s never shown it in English conditions and I’ve never seen him bat like that. I’ve always considered him a bit of a ‘best we got’ option and, whilst I’d obviously have preferred if we’d actually got him out with that new ball, I was glad to see him ton up in a way I wouldn’t have been with any of the other Aus players.
@Jackknifed_Juggernaut The big advantage England still have, if they can make use of it, is bowling last on a pitch that’s not getting any better. There’s still 3 days of this Test left, so I can’t make @penultima_thule 's maths work in my head - I figure even getting 400 Aus would still have to bat more than a day, possibly a lot more. It’s all time to get the runs, though, if England don’t take their chances.
Australia finally all out on 386 - 7 runs behind. Usman finally went down on 141.
So we’re at the half-way point of the match with lunch on Day 3 and it’s still anybody’s match. Can Australia’s bowlers shut England down on a pitch that is fading fast? We’ll see in a bit.
My fears about Australian tail were fully realized. Cummins got his share, but oof! The 9, 10 and 11 are right out of the 1970s.
Usman Khawaja
When he made his debut in Sydney 2011 the collective AUS we of cricket thought we had our #3 to replace Ponting.
Totally different style batter of course and he didn’t quite fit the spec. There are those few gloriously graceful batters who make the process ridiculously simple (Gower, Martyn, M.Waughet al) to the chagrin of the rest of us and when they get out they look like they aren’t trying. Most of these absolute embellishments to the game bat down the order. We like our #3s to scrap e.g. I.Chappell, Ponting etc. With Usman the violence always seems constrained.
So he was dropped down the order, lost form and confidence. Copped a horrendous sequence of shitty decisions and was dropped. A couple of times. It looked like he’d go down as an enigma.
Was considered a bit of a grafter, until 2015/16 when his T20 season with Thunder showed he could swing the willow with pizzazz. Got back in the squad but couldn’t grasp the meagre chances he was given. Got dropped.
Then due to injury and illness he got a “last chance” recall in 2022 at Sydney. The ruling thought was he’d get the one game but match winning twin centuries changed the equation.
Since then he has had a purple run iof form. The ICC leading run scorer in the last WTC cycle.
Looks like he’s just out there leaning on his bat but he is making continual adjustments to his game, his stance, the shots he plays. It took longer than is should but he’s in a very good place now. On the downside, he’s not a particularly good fielder and he is now placed in slips because his outfielding is so so. His catching isn’t that much better.
Since he’s been promoted to Test opener he is averaging over 68 which on stats makes him the top ranked opener of all time.
Real big fan.
Since they had a rain date for the WTC, I wonder why they don’t for all tests. I understand that it would be barely used, so the costs with lower revenues would be a factor. But if they kept it “bare bones”, with no fans and frills, just to make up for weather-related lost overs, they could probably minimize the cost. I get that a draw is a perfectly valid result in cricket, but it does seem a shame when it’s due to weather.
England 162 ahead with 5 wickets in hand and the commentators are talking about the timing of the declaration. I thought Steve Waugh was an aggressive captain back in the day.