England v Australia, 3rd Test, Headingley, 22-26 August, 2019

beamer wrote:Aussies lost 8-43 in the last session there.

That is highly disappointing, particularly given the efforts of Warner and Labuschagne.

The latter has certainly grabbed his chance with both hands. He now puts huge pressure on either Khawaja or Wade to save their spots.

Archer ay? England have a champ there, but will Root break him?

Excellent bowling from Archer was too good on the day for Oz. Thought Oz was lucky to get that many.

Warner played and missed umpteen times but was not good enough to find the edge until late.

Oz was gifted runs by Woakes and Stokes and even the Tuffnels obliged by contributing overthrows.

Lasagna was the one bat who looked safe - until undone by a rank full toss. Not a surprise really considering his form in CC.

Having now seen the wickets, there wasn't much Aus could do with no real loose shots contributing to dismissals. Jofra hit an excellent line and length and bowled some jaffas.

Hopefully Aus can do a bit of the same tomoz. If they don't, the Ashes could be in serious jeopardy.

Shrapnel missing an inswinging full bunger off Stokes was disappointing, when he looked set for something bigger.

Was gonna chip you for being too harsh in a previous post. England exploited the conditions and bowled superbly. It's obvious Warner's vulnerable early, but the ball was.moving too much. After Archers first over I thought we were in trouble. He might have lost the pace from Lords ( yeah that was criminal) but he's a metronome.

With Sturat and Joffrey jagging the ball all over the shop I headed to bed at 2-39 and another rain break. I thought to myself I'd be happy with 6-140 at Stumps.

So all out 179 was not far away.

Probably just as important they didn't let the tail wag. Shows intent.

Christ I’m glad I saw none of that. What a shitty effort. 1981, 1985 all over again.

Langer was very happy to bat first. What a dick.

lardbucket wrote:Christ I’m glad I saw none of that. What a shitty effort. 1981, 1985 all over again.

The only resemblance to '81 is the series scoreline. We run through them tomorrow before they recover and put 250 odd for the last four wickets I'll start having flashbacks.

Dello wrote:The 11 inexplicably unchanged overs that started the final session from Woakes and Stokes, that yielded 70 runs, was perhaps the shittest phase of cricket I've ever seen from a fielding side who were, until then, in control.

Stokes can fall back on his batting, but Woakes' efforts and Root's absence of any kind of leadership was proper sackable stuff.

Root has no feel for the game whatsoever, and apparently has no qualms in bowling Archer into the ground, either.

Woakes is clearly not at his best. It hasn’t been noticed amongst all the Archer hysteria and seam-friendly conditions, but he’s back to bowling 80-81 mph again and can’t maintain his line or length. Whether it’s his terminal knee, or someone forgot to pat him on his angelic little head in the morning and tell him what a “good lad” he is, I’m not sure. But Root doesn’t seem to have confidence in him and he’s definitely the one who will make way if Jimmy is fit for Old Trafford.

Oh and I almost forgot- this is my sledge to Aussies about having no homegrown talent and therefore needing a Saffie to come into their side and save them blah blah blah.........

Henry wrote:Oh and I almost forgot- this is my sledge to Aussies about having no homegrown talent and therefore needing a Saffie to come into their side and save them blah blah blah.........

Oh dear. At least Oz do not go the bribe to subscribe route. You drew attention to Root absolutely flogging Archer. Any worse and the ghost of Wilberforce will rise to haunt the English skipper.

Henry wrote:

Dello wrote:The 11 inexplicably unchanged overs that started the final session from Woakes and Stokes, that yielded 70 runs, was perhaps the shittest phase of cricket I've ever seen from a fielding side who were, until then, in control.

Stokes can fall back on his batting, but Woakes' efforts and Root's absence of any kind of leadership was proper sackable stuff.

Root has no feel for the game whatsoever, and apparently has no qualms in bowling Archer into the ground, either.

Woakes is clearly not at his best. It hasn’t been noticed amongst all the Archer hysteria and seam-friendly conditions, but he’s back to bowling 80-81 mph again and can’t maintain his line or length.  Whether it’s his terminal knee, or someone forgot to pat him on his angelic little head in the morning and tell him what a “good lad” he is, I’m not sure. But Root doesn’t seem to have confidence in him and he’s definitely the one who will make way if Jimmy is fit for Old Trafford.

I’m not sure they will want to weaken the batting that much. I suppose Archer’s FC record suggests he should be a decent number 8, but it’s fair to say we haven’t really seen a lot of evidence of his batting ability on the international stage yet. With Broad at 9 it’s looking more like an old-fashioned tail.

Woakes was bowling at decent mid-80s pace at Lord’s but didn’t figure much in the second innings, and he’s clearly playing through some sort of issue.

As I’ve been saying for a while, Stokes’s bowling is becoming an afterthought, and if he becomes merely a batsman who bowls a bit as opposed to a genuine fourth seamer, then it has implications for the balance of the side.

And of course it is a perfect farking day for batting here in Leeds.

England to be 4/310 at stumps - Ashes virtually regained.

You must always have been in the beer tent when Roy, Root, Denly and Buttler have (briefly) been out in the middle. And Burns next.

It can happen. One pint (in the tent), and they're anybody's.

Yes K. Being overly pessimistic. But duck over to the betting tent and pop a monster on England.

JGK wrote:And of course it is a perfect farking day for batting here in Leeds.

PeterCS wrote:You must always have been in the beer tent when Roy, Root, Denly and Buttler have (briefly) been out in the middle. And Burns next.

It can happen. One pint (in the tent), and they're anybody's.

They’re due.

I stand by my call.

Perfect day for batting

Roy’s already outscored 8 of our batsmen.

And gone.

JGK wrote:

PeterCS wrote:You must always have been in the beer tent when Roy, Root, Denly and Buttler have (briefly) been out in the middle. And Burns next.

It can happen. One pint (in the tent), and they're anybody's.

They’re due.

I stand by my call.

Still confident?

Root has had the Curse of Incompetence passed on from Bairstow, who was all at sea against Ireland and at the start of this series.

But as for Roy, SEVEN TIMES OUT OF SEVEN now this summer, he's proved he hasn't got a king clue what "defence" is, what "leaving" means. Although he's not a Remainer, either. ...

And if he has no defence, neither has Ed Smith, for his stubborn idiocy.

"Cagney" looks like the ghost of Archie Jackson.

Does he use talc as makeup?

That overturned LBW is the turning point. Aussies have noticeably flagged since then.