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

JGK wrote:1-1 feels like the right score for the series so far.

As Greg Baum said in an article today, the series deserves to still be alive.    And even if Aust one at OT it will still be alive for the final Test.

How would it be alive if by some miracle Aus won at OT? , just need to win at OT to retain the Urn.

Agree with 1-1 being a fair reflection of the teams at this stage.

If you broke it down session by session for the series, the two sides have probably 'won' about the same number.

On the umpiring issue, I'd actually like to see the number of player reviews reduced to 1 per side, but allow the third umpire to call reviews not just on catches but on lbw decisions as well. The original intention of the technology and review system was to avoid 'howlers' and umpire brain fades (eg given out lbw when the batsman has hit the ball first, given not out caught behind when the batsman has actually hit the ball, given out caught of a trouser leg or backside, given not out lbw when the ball is smashing two stumps) and although we've had examples of all of these recently I'm still not sure that the system is working as well as it could. Stumpings and run outs have all gone to technology already and I think that's OK. I don't think we will ever get the 'low catch' decisions right because of foreshortening problems, and I'm not sure what can be done about those, but we should at least be able to do better with lbw and caught behind decisions.

Paine and Lyon will cop plenty of criticism - much of it justified. Wilson will never ump another Test.

horace wrote:Paine and Lyon will cop plenty of criticism - much of it justified. Wilson will never ump another Test.

Lyon for the missed run out chance yes , but what about Harris for the dropped chance?
All this would've been forgiven if Wilson was a competent umpire.

Thank fark I have a wing down. Would have been tempted to follow mrsq and go just to erase the memories of '81. Not sure this staying away shit is working. Didn't even have the comfort of betting on the game.

What are the chances Aus will drop their captain for the next test in order to accomodate a 5th bowler?

Well they're going to need an excuse in six months anyway. Who would captain?

Henry wrote:What are the chances Aus will drop their captain for the next test in order to accomodate a 5th bowler?

nil

Wade, Harris, Khawaja are all in line for the axe before TP - who was encouraged/supported to go for that wasteful review by Cummins, don't forget

Warner still not performing, really.

I think Starc will come in for one of the T3 bowlers.

Plus for all the bitching about his fielding settings, I've yet to come up with a way to set a field for something that sails over the fence.

I watched until the bitter end. I hate Headingley.

Cummins and Hazlewood bowled rubbish as we pushed for victory. That allowed Stokes and Bairstow to mount a challenge. Then we started panicking.

But we regrouped after Bairstow was dismissed and when Sturat was dismissed the Poms still needed 73. Stokes just outplayed us after that with no. 11 Leach resolute at the other end.

There's no doubt Paine lost his head in the final hour. You can blame Joel Wilson but Paine needlessly burnt a review with a ridiculous roll of the dice against Jack Leach that was not even hitting the stumps, let alone not pitching in line.

Then Elmer missed an easy run out that would've won the game. Sigh.

Bradman wrote:Plus for all the bitching about his fielding settings, I've yet to come up with a way to set a field for something that sails over the fence.

Aye - when someone can top edge sixes down the ground, repeatedly, you're in a world of trouble.

lardbucket wrote:We just can't win close games.

We can lose by 1 wicket, 1 run, 2 runs, 3 runs, 5 runs ... we've got almost the whole set of close ones, and always on the wrong side of the ledger.

I said as much to MrK last night after Stokes hit the winning runs.

Ooze out for Smith and Cummins to be rested, is my bet.

Lyon rarely convinces in the 4th innings.

Still despite the harrowing nature of the last hour, there is much to take from the game. We had the worst of the conditions and headed the game for much of it. A win and Lasagna is motm., instead it goes to totm.

Two shyte teams still produced a great match

my thoughts also

Yup. Good reason for three day test matches

England's 67 1st innings didn't take the record for the lowest winning 1st innings score.

There are 2 less. Eng's 45 in Test 25 and Aus's 63 in Test 9.

Headingley 81 will always be no. 1 devastation for me. I went to bed with the score at 1-55 with Dyson and Trevor Chappell seemingly going OK towards the meagre 130 target.

I could not believe the news when I woke up to the 18 run loss.

I got my membership suspended. This one always had the feel of a horror story. 500-1 might have been a sick promotional joke by the bookies but still too soon.

Blackadder wrote:

JGK wrote:1-1 feels like the right score for the series so far.

As Greg Baum said in an article today, the series deserves to still be alive.    And even if Aust one at OT it will still be alive for the final Test.

How would it be alive if by some miracle Aus won at OT? , just need to win at OT to retain the Urn.

Sorry, if Aust lost.

My tipping comp results: ...and yes, i did tip England.

So reflecting on an impossibly great day out yesterday, despite everyone around us 'knowing' all day long that we'd lose gallantly.
We had the rub of the green with the Lyon lbw that looked out from 80 metres away never mind a chain. WTF was Australia doing reviewing previously a delivery that was never ever out?
But we saw England's best ever 1 not out. Their highest run chase to win a test match. The best test match of all time. The greatest test innings of all time.
My 11 year old lad and i got in for a combined £102. You can pay that for a night in Euston Travelodge and no breakfast.
Now will England's top order start doing their freaking jobs and stop leaving it to Stokes and Archer to give us hope.
Someone mentioned 2 shyte teams. No way. Were that correct it doesn't say too much about the standard of test cricket these days. I can only think of 1 test team better than these right now. India. They are not great teams and England has issues at the top of the order but players such as Warner, Smith, Labuschagne, Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins, Pattinson, Lyon, Root, Stokes, Bairstow, Archer, Broad, Anderson, Woakes to name a few are certainly not shyte by any means.

The best game ever as some are calling it? Not even close, some of what went before was bog ordinary. But certainly, the greatest ever climax to a test.

Stokes' innings was better than Botham' s effort in 1981 which essentially was a slog in what appeared to be lost cause and he has admitted as much. 

A word for Root, Denly and to lesser extent Bairstow: their contributions made Stokes' knock possible.

Oh the Paine, but Stokes was immense.

There is certainly something about tests at Leeds.

Basil wrote:A word for Root, Denly and to lesser extent Bairstow: their contributions made Stokes' knock possible.

I thought Bairstow got Stokes going.

The latter had laboured for 80 balls for barely 5 runs before Jonny B came out and played with freedom.