The Ashes 2023

[Petcha]

Crawley's middling everything so far. Even his forward defensives.

But this pitch is ridiculous. Has draw written all over it.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Crawley's middling everything so far. Even his forward defensives.

But this pitch is ridiculous. Has draw written all over it.

That's quite a reach after 3 overs

 

[Mumbles274]

Oh dear

 

[two sheds]

Ha! People were saying Crawley would be first to get out.

 

[WhyLikeThis]

Crawley's middling everything so far. Even his forward defensives.

But this pitch is ridiculous. Has draw written all over it.

Depends how the wicket deteriorates. Think of the foot marks Mo could take advantage of in the 2nd Aussie innings.

 

[kabbes]

Crawley with a 50 in the Ashes? Truly, these are the end times

 

[Petcha]

Crawley with a 50 in the Ashes? Truly, these are the end times

Well a cracking cover drive off the very delivery from the Aussie captain too. I suppose he would never have tried that if he'd been assured he wouldn't be dropped even if he got a pair. So maybe Baz/Stokes got it right.

 

[Petcha]

 

[Idaho]

Feet off the ground...

Worked a treat - 4

 

[QueenOfGoths]

Oooh that sounded like a flukey one that got Brook out!

 

[Cerberus]

Lucky Lyon…

Brook missed the second bounce of the ball,

Was batting relatively comfortably too

 

[Petcha]

Stokes to start biffing it out about please

 

[Cerberus]

FFS - lucky to get 250 now. Don’t think Aussie has bowled brilliantly either

 

[steveo87]

Looking at the weather (I'm at that point already), this has draw written all over it.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

There's very little chance of it being a draw from what I can see. You'd need full days washed out for that to come into play and there's no sign of that.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Bazball is bazballing. In 2005, they managed 400+ all out on day 1 at Edgbaston. I'd take that again!

 

[littlebabyjesus]

There's very little chance of it being a draw from what I can see. You'd need full days washed out for that to come into play and there's no sign of that.

Yeah. They're going to lose overs again, though, for sure. Already eight short despite Lyon bowling 16 overs.

 

[Petcha]

They'll get to close to 400 today all going well. Bairstow's gotta go a bit berserk though.

 

[Petcha]

There's very little chance of it being a draw from what I can see. You'd need full days washed out for that to come into play and there's no sign of that.

Why? England will bat for the best part of 2 days. Australia will do the same (or more). With a small lead. It's gonna be a stalemate. Unless Stokes goes for a bonkers declaration on day 5.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Well if England are going to bat for two days I'm looking forward to seeing Jimmy Anderson's first test century tomorrow.

 

[Petcha]

Time for the Nighthawk to have a swing

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Bloody hell!

I didn't see a declaration coming.

 

[planetgeli]

That's got to be too early. Even another 10 minutes wouldn't have hurt.

 

[WhyLikeThis]

Not sure I’d declare, there could have been another few runs to be had.

 

[Ted Striker]

Me neither ...At least let root go shit-or-bust.

Trading the runs from the last 2 wickets for 4-5 overs? I guess we'll find out...

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I don't mind declaring to save Jimmy from facing, but I'd have kept swinging for a couple of more overs at least or the next wicket to fall. That's not a big score on this pitch.

 

[WhyLikeThis]

I suppose it’ll allow Anderson and co to test out the wicket to plot cunning plans this evening.

 

[Ted Striker]

I guess you could argue that we need the wickets more than the runs (esp on this pitch, now we are in this position). And saves Jimmy bothering his pads.

 

[Wilf]

Yep, that seems like a very odd decision. I mean, isn't the idea to, erm, make a lot of runs.... erm, against the best side in the world?

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I think Aus will be relatively happy with that day's play. We'll see how they bat tomorrow, but I make it roughly honours even.

Six overs lost from the game. But Bazball means that three sessions are effectively four. Only rain will make this game a draw.