We’re going to follow on here, aren’t we? 49/7.
Some good bowling, but bloody hell, bad shots in amongst this lot. Given the rate at which the wickets have been falling, leaving stuff that’s not going to hit the stumps would be a good idea.
The thing is, with any total, what if you add a couple of wickets to it - how does it look then? Yep, still shit.
Tuned into Talksport 2 in the in-car Dab to have a listen on the way back from Truro and… kinda wish I hadn’t. What an utter shambles. What was Moeen thinking?
That Roach guy is bowling well though.
The Moeen shot is Exhibit A in “Given the rate at which the wickets have been falling, leaving stuff that’s not going to hit the stumps would be a good idea” from my earlier post. It’s going down leg - step inside it, wear it if you have to, but for fuck’s sake, stop the clatter of wickets for a bit.
Who has reignited the Babylonian fires?
Bowled out for 77. I doubt we’ll be asked to follow on - that can only go wrong for the Windies being asked to maybe chase 150 batting last.
I hope we make a better go of it second dig, but damn are we going to be chasing a big score final innings.
77 all out. And tea will be taken.
Don’t know whether I’d bother enforcing the follow on. England have lost this Test match whatever happens.
ETA: Nasser on comms saying that England will be made to follow on. Then the studio guys immediately contradict him. Who knows…
Windies didn’t enforce the follow on and serenely making progress. 40-0. This is going to be over by lunch on Day 4 at latest, barring some sort of rearguard action from England’s batsmen. They’ll lose by 200 runs or so, I’d say.
61/3 now. Even if we bowled them out for 150, we’d still be chasing over 350.
Well, England decided to come to play in the field and it’s now 61-5.
Still 270 odd in arrears though. Pertinent reading here http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/25742181/why-do-think-test-match-chases-300-all-tough
Slightly more predictable in Brisbane.
Had the feel of one of those backyard games where, after been badly smacked around by Big Brother, Middle Brother takes revenge on Little Brother but Mum is watching so it’s not too brutal.
SL won the toss and batted, or something that approximated batting.
Sri Lanka 144 all out (Dickwella 64, Cummins 4-39, Richardson 3-26)
Stumps: Australia 72 for 2 (Harris 40*, Lyon 0*)
SL were poor apart from their keeper batting like he was in a T20 (including a ramp for 6 off Starc). His batting wagon wheel looked classical, if turned 180 degrees. They lost 3-58 in the first session and 5-64 in the second.
They were fortunate enough that their inning concluded in time to give the locals almost all the time under lights where the SL bowlers had the ball darting about nicely.
Harris batted through a period where he looked like he’d totally lost the plot, playing and missing, hitting ones he was trying to leave, but survived which will serve him well in the future.
Is the color of the ball more orange than red in the Aus-WI test, or is it just the Willow broadcast in the US? Almost looks like a toy ball.
As to my previous question about the Pandya-Rahul suspensions, I only read the comments that the former made. The latter appears to be a victim of guilt by association.
Okay, the announcer just mentioned something about a “pink” ball, which tells me that it’s not just my tv. Surprised, since I thought test cricket is especially rigid with its regulations due to tradition,
It’s Aust vs Sri Lanka, the Windies are taking on the Poms.
It’s a pink ball used for day-night Tests.
It is, which is why it’s taken so long to develop.
- A standard red ball is very difficult to see under lights.
- A white ball works well at night (i.e. T20 cricket is played at night with a white ball) but the players are all wearing white in a Test.
- Use a white ball for 90 overs it’s scuffed up, discoloured and hard to see under lights (or during the day). For night T20 cricket they use white 2 balls.
- You can’t use a red ball for the day sessions and then change the ball to a white for the night session, then back to a red one the next morning.
So it must be as visible in the middle of the day as at night, it must wear and behave in a similar manner to a red ball and you can’t get that result by just painting/dying a red ball pink, yellow or orange.
It’s Dinner in Brisbane, which is the second break in the day/night game. Australia quietly getting on with building a decent total, thinking they may well only have to bat once if they can get another hundred or so runs. Sri Lanka is nearly as much under the cosh as England.
Amusing that Labuschagne scored after I tucked into him earlier in the thread - though I don’t know whether a) he should have scored a ton and/or b) this has anything to do with the relative weakness of the current SL side, also playing in unfamiliar conditions.
304-9 now
He’s got the highest Test score by an Australian this summer. :shrug:
Been two in the BBL.
That Harris, Lambruschagne, Head and Pattinson went back to the sheds with starts against some workmanlike but barely Test standard bowling just maintains the worry.
You only need the ball to do a bit in the air and they have the self-assurance of an ocean going tadpole. I thought every county side has a couple of them.
SL got within one ball of negotiating an awkward six over session to stumps.
We do - someone like Jamie Porter at Essex can make the ball sing in English conditions - and not yet capped (and may well not be until Anderson retires, since he replicates his role almost totally). The only issue is that Australia’s bowling attack is good enough to do it as well, I reckon. Can see The Ashes in the summer being played on as many seaming tracks as we can make and being low scoring shoot outs. From a batting perspective, it’s likely to be two one legged men in an arse kicking contest.
3rd ODI between Pakistan and SA just started. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat. Some conversation about the incident with Sarfraz at the outset - apparently he’s apologised to Phehlukwayo personally and Faf Du Plessis has made all the right sort of gracious noises about forgiveness and what have you, and referred everyone back to the ICC.
The sides seem a little stronger than for the second ODI - Steyn, De Kock, Mo Amir and Imad Wasim are all back after missing that (Steyn and De Kock didn’t play the first ODI either, as it goes).
Pak got 316, but it now looks like they may lose overs for SA’s reply as they come off for rain.
The less said about the England test match the better, other than perhaps, “Well played, Jason Holder”