England v Australia, 3rd Test, Edgbaston, 29 July - 3 August, 2015

Dreadful from Lyth. No excuses if he never plays another test. Hasn't looked up to it.

Cool. Had enough of Lyth.... Waaaaaayyyy too loose outside off. The most dreadful shot of the day, hands down. See you later...

Dello wrote:Lyth doesn't exactly fill one with confidence. He does, however, make me hungry for a boiled egg.

Haaaaaaa!

Lyth chucks it.

Anyone else enjoying Riggy Ponning and Shoine's commentary? Must admit I am

Is that because the Oz batting bombed?

I don't think it's any surprise that Chris Rogers was the most successful batsman against the moving ball today.

He knows English conditions like the back of his hand. But Australian bastmen in general over the past 7 or 8 years have a history of struggling when the ball is seaming.

So have the England bats ... (or most of them).

HALES.

Shoulda picked Hales.

FFS - Get Hales into the team and squirt off that godforsaken Tyke fisherman with extended rod
(and that's not just his bat) Lyth.

Awful awful awful shot.

Monkeh - yep, good commentary from Punter and TGM ... who woulda thought us English would have
accepted one, let alone both of them, in the comm box!
Good pairing and beats the sh*t out of the inane Bumble.

Ridiculous catch. Didn't see it at all

Brass Monkey wrote:Anyone else enjoying Riggy Ponning and Shoine's commentary? Must admit I am

Bit odd. Sort of like Beef and Bumble commentating for Nein

Merlin wrote:HALES.

Shoulda picked Hales.

FFS - Get Hales into the team and squirt off that godforsaken Tyke fisherman with extended rod
(and that's not just his bat) Lyth.

Awful awful awful shot.

Monkeh - yep, good commentary from Punter and TGM ... who woulda thought us English would have
accepted one, let alone both of them, in the comm box!
Good pairing and beats the sh*t out of the inane Bumble.

Bumble is good foil for the both of them

Merlin wrote:HALES.

Shoulda picked Hales.

FFS - Get Hales into the team and squirt off that godforsaken Tyke fisherman with extended rod
(and that's not just his bat) Lyth.

Awful awful awful shot.

Monkeh - yep, good commentary from Punter and TGM ... who woulda thought us English would have
accepted one, let alone both of them, in the comm box!
Good pairing and beats the sh*t out of the inane Bumble.

Hales has hardly scored a first class run since May.

Best thing so far is Bell taking the hook shot on. He'll probably get out to it but rather that than a timid prod outside off or a bat/pad off Lyon.

Ian has looked almighty thus far. He's a mango-balled stoat.

Come on Belly!

Looks like the Duke rather than the Shermanator has shown up today then...

England's test to lose from here.

Henry wrote:

Merlin wrote:HALES.

Shoulda picked Hales.

FFS - Get Hales into the team and squirt off that godforsaken Tyke fisherman with extended rod
(and that's not just his bat) Lyth.

Awful awful awful shot.

Monkeh - yep, good commentary from Punter and TGM ... who woulda thought us English would have
accepted one, let alone both of them, in the comm box!
Good pairing and beats the sh*t out of the inane Bumble.

Hales has hardly scored a first class run since May.

No other choice, I'm afraid. No openers are performing. Stoneman, Carberry, Robson, Compton and Northeast are the best performers and they're all producing mediocre results. Not Lyth basically, so either promote someone - for which we have no viable option - or bring in the one that's most likely to succeed. In this case it's unfortunately the gate merchant...

Bell is a cock. He's a malteser-balled rat.

Oh my f*cking God. Just as I was about to say how well Bell has played, he goes and does THAT.

FFS.

Seriously Bell - too many times do you charge the spinner and go through with a lofted shot when you're nowhere near the pitch.

Should be able to adjust and get away from that.

Did all the bloody hard work and got out to Lyon.

If they all get brisk 30s, 40s and 50s then get out, we'll still have a very handy lead here.

Rain. Got to be thankful that there hasn't been more... Reckon that'll be close of play.

Bairstow will be relieved if so... I think only the prospect of another hour's possible play will have stopped them from wheeling out the Burnley Lara instead there.