England v Australia, 1st Test, Cardiff, 8-12 July, 2015

Pretty careless by England, although they remain comfortable favourites. I suppose it depends on how the pitch plays last innings, sometimes they flatten out and provide better batting conditions than in the previous three innings. You can't really cry too much, though, they've got into a position of strength by trying to be positive, when they've been criticised in the past for plodding along hoping that they can grind victories out rather than force them.

Being bowled out might not be the worst thing for England.

Why is Clarke bowling Lyon to the sloggy tailender?

Just about into WR chase territory.

Ha ha. You've got to love this. Every time England have looked under pressure, somebody has gone out there and smashed the ball around for a few overs, and it's made all the difference. Batting doesn't look too difficult, but each day of the Test so far has seen more wickets fall than the previous day.

Ali should be smashing right now.

Has Jimmy taken Waqar's crown as the worst batsman with 1000 test runs?

JGK wrote:Just about into WR chase territory.

Not quite. 412 to win. That non appeal against Stokes could be costly.

Wasn't Watson being played for his bowling?

412 to win.

Achievable. Esp if England fall back into their old ways again. And let off the hook, Aus certainly have the firepower to do pull off another morale-crushing turnaround.

Remind me. How many times has 400 been chased in a test?

Meh, it's only a little thing, but I think we saw something of the ingrained arrogance and bloated sense of self in Broad and Jimmy these days with the way they batted there. They had proper batsmen playing well at the other end, yet they chose to have a heave-ho rather than look for the single to get the more accomplished partner on strike. Wood could have got to a debut 50 with a bit more help from Jimmy.

England favourites, but who knows. The new ball tomorrow morning will be vital.

England fans are always negative. Set a team 400+ to win, and it should have been 500. Yet, no doubt had we batted far enough to set them 500, and had them 300/9 at Stumps on Day 5, there'd be cries of conservatism and calls for the captain's head for being too cautious. You can't have it both ways. Your team can't be positive, yet not lose their wickets through their positivity. England have done as much as could be expected of them, if they lose this sometime in the next two days, it will be down to bad bowling and fielding.

You have some nerve, Caesar Augustus!


Clearly, England are favourites. But it's by no means "a wrap".

380 was chased comfortably just last week. England are obviously favourites.

With regards to the batting, it doesn't need to be one of the extremes. Stokes and Buttler especially. It's not like they were going at 2.5/over.

Henry wrote:Meh, it's only a little thing, but I think we saw something of the ingrained arrogance and bloated sense of self in Broad and Jimmy these days with the way they batted there. They had proper batsmen playing well at the other end, yet they chose to have a heave-ho rather than look for the single to get the more accomplished partner on strike. Wood could have got to a debut 50 with a bit more help from Jimmy.

England favourites, but who knows. The new ball tomorrow morning will be vital.

What is a debut 50 worth?

tricycle wrote:380 was chased comfortably just last week. England are obviously favourites.

With regards to the batting, it doesn't need to be one of the extremes. Stokes and Buttler especially. It's not like they were going at 2.5/over.

380 was chased comfortably last week. Against an attack containing new ball bowlers with Test averages of 43 and 50 respectively. Against an attack that has amassed 163 Test wickets between them, over 107 collective matches. Against an attack who probably think of 85mph as a speed they might one day attain in a car, if they can ever afford a decent one between them, rather than something to aspire to in terms of their bowling. Perspective. England's attack shares over 700 Test wickets, and there's a few of them who can touch 90mph. If they're unable to force a win in this match, other than because of weather constraints, they want shooting.

All true, but they have not completely shut Australia out, which they were in a position to do very comfortably with a bit of sensibility, and utilising not too much more time. So yes, they will get some justified criticism.

Sri Lanka's fastest bowler bowls at upto 95mph in a test match though....

I worked out today that in the 120 Ashes test matches since I have been aware of cricket, England have won 9 tests whilst the Ashes have still been at stake.

So forgive me if I never seem particularly optimistic.

Batted like lemons, bodged their way to a pretty good target.

Australia aren't out of the running, but that might be for the best regarding England's hopes of winning. Playing some shots on this uneven pitch is a bit dicey.

Can't complain at the position England have put themselves in, but some of those dismissals were pathetic as f*ck.

tricycle wrote:All true, but they have not completely shut Australia out, which they were in a position to do very comfortably with a bit of sensibility, and utilising not too much more time. So yes, they will get some justified criticism.

Sri Lanka's fastest bowler bowls at upto 95mph in a test match though....

vilkrang wrote:I worked out today that in the 120 Ashes test matches since I have been aware of cricket, England have won 9 tests whilst the Ashes have still been at stake.

So forgive me if I never seem particularly optimistic.

England haven't played perfectly, by any means, but they've left Australia with needing the third-highest chase ever to win a Test Match. Which suggest that, as far as Test Matches go, this is very close to being as good of an advantage as a team is capable of having. The crux of people's issue on here seems to be that England lost wickets. Yet England lost wickets in both innings because they scored at a good rate - 4.17 runs per over, in fact. Had England scored at Australia's run-rate, that is to say, had they been more conservative, they would have needed another session of cricket to set even this score, so presuming again that in their conservatism, they had needed another session-and-a-half to set a score sufficiently good as to be good enough in the eyes of the people who are presently worried that England do not have enough runs on the board, they would have left themselves with a maximum of four-and-a-half sessions to bowl Australia out, with Australia having absolutely no chance of chasing down the target they were set. Given there will be weather about on Sunday, that would have been futile.

England have done the best they could, they've played positively, they've been entertaining. If they don't win from here it will owe more to bowling ineptitude than batting ineptitude.

That wasn't directed at you Chiv, I completely agree with all you've said.

Even so, I can never seem to relax due to that awful stat I just posted. Even when Aus are chasing 500 my mind just can't comprehend that we might win a test match against them.

vilkrang wrote:That wasn't directed at you Chiv, I completely agree with all you've said.

Even so, I can never seem to relax due to that awful stat I just posted. Even when Aus are chasing 500 my mind just can't comprehend that we might win a test match against them.

I think we all doubt England's capabilities in even the most promising of positions, it's just that some are more overt about it than others. England shouldn't lose, that doesn't mean that they won't!

Yeah you know what f*ck it. 3rd highest score ever to chase down, highest ever in England, highest in an Ashes series.

We will win this. We will win this....

vilkrang wrote:Yeah you know what f*ck it. 3rd highest score ever to chase down, highest ever in England, highest in an Ashes series.

We will win this. We will win this....

Steady the buffs!