England v Aussies Cricket Tests

1st innings declaration! Amazing.

 

I'll say, doesn't happen enough but this team is just a little different Test wise.
Get Into 'Em!!

 

That’s “bazball” all over.

 

TBH, I think we're going to need all the runs we can get. I really think our attack will struggle to bowl them out on this pitch.
Root had just scored ten runs off an over. Robinson looked comfortable. I'd rather we'd pressed on and got another 50 runs.

 

I hope that declaration doesn't come back to haunt Stokes. Personally, I would have kept going and hope for another 30-40 runs.

Batters paradise, shame Bairstow and Ali gave their wickets away to stampings, that shouldn't happen in test matches.

Good innings from Crawley and Root, and Bairstow, despite the stumping.

Cannot see us bowling out the Aussies twice on this wicket, we will need some overcast weather for their inningd

 

Steve Smith’s technique annoys me greatly.

How can you score so many runs when you are constantly squaring your stance up and fidgeting all the time.

 

And today it was his downfall.

 

Excellent knock by Khawaja .

 

272-5 now. Only 121 behind. They could get a first innings lead at this rate.

 

Unfortunately, we're seeing the trade off between playing Jonny Bairstow or Ben Foulkes as wicketkeeper. Jonny will get you more runs but he's missed an easy stumping and put down two sharp chances, standing up to the spinners. Foulkes would have had the stumping for breakfast and caught at least one of the two drops. Those missed chances have been very costly in terms of Aussie runs.

 

311 for 5 at the close, with Khawaja and Carey looking comfortable. The declaration won't look so clever if they get 500.

 

Quite possibly, but Bairstow has a better catch percentage than either Butler or Foakes.

 

The wicket keeper dilemma is a tricky one.

You can’t play both Foakes and Bairstow.
Bairstow is clearly a much better batter but Foakes is a slightly better keeper
If you are going with “bazball”(which has 12 wins from 14 tests) then I think Bairstows ability to score more runs will tip the decision in his favour going through the whole series.

 

Maybe so. I'm not saying it's the wrong decision, simply that it is a dilemma. I think it would be less of an issue on a seaming wicket at Trent Bridge or Headingley where we would be bowling seamers most of the time, because Bairstow is a very good keeper to the quicks. But on a flat slow road where the spinners are bowling a lot I think it's more problematic. Foakes is by far the better keeper standing up to the stumps.

 

England did well to keep the Aussies below our total.

Looks like they got lucky in getting a four over spell in between the rain showers and picked up two wickets in horrible conditions. Crawley clearly aggrieved to be given out because he thought the light wasn't playable