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#PrayForDD
#FairWeatherFan
Stickball is a cruel mistress, indeed.
What a let off for England.
One of the most bonkers Tests I’ve listened to.
Madness
Now that’s over I can go back to watching Le Tour. Looks like a particularly challenging stage already. #WFHrocks
Ooooooooof.
Chastening day at HQ for the lads. Seeing the conditions, it never really looked good for a second innings of nearly 200. England’s bowlers were on form today too so...ah well. It was fun for a couple of days. I can go back to ignoring stickball now. 😀
Bonkers test. Murtagh will always have his first day and coming in with a decent enough chance to win was as much as Ireland could have hoped for.
Spacemonkey...
Bloody eck, I forgot my headphones so couldn’t listen to it at work
Fwiw,Junior J (nearly 7!)has attended a cricket “camp” this week. He loved it .
I’m delighted , least of all becauseI can now give my bloody knees a rest from the football!
Operation Cricket has begun; hosts in Birmingham now prepared for 15 guests for two days and three nights.
Magnums of red and white packed in car for the hosts.
Tickets at the ready for Thursday and Friday.
Edgbaston here we come.
WooooHoooo!
I can feel myself weakening - best part of August off work..... I could just get the Now TV Sky sports subscription for a month........not seen live test match cricket for 14 years......but then again I could just listen to TMS on headphones and actually get stuff done.
England XI: Rory Burns, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Joe Denly, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad, James Anderson
Moeen Ali ????? I know the Aussie don't like off spinners but really ?
if they get through the top order it's bit crash bang wallop from 5 down... so it's smash 300 as fast as possible and hope James Andersion is bending it round corners.
Broad, Woakes and Anderson will bowl the Aussies out on their own and England will only need one batsman to tee off successfully to complete the job.
I'm definitely worried about Englands chances in this series they look very fragile and unlike other Ashes series Australia have had an XI squad in the UK since before the World Cup getting used to 'English conditions' which is very often Englands advantage. The openers issue has not been solved. Root is having to change his favoured position to compensate for this and our bowling threat is old. I think Pattinson and Starc will be salivating over the new ball and for some reason Nathan Lyon always seems to cause the England side problems, much more of a wicket taking threat than Moeen Ali.
Really looking forward to it and desperate for England to do well.
Wicket described as being '....like a cat's skull' - apparently an Aussie expression meaning it's hard.
Combine that with forecast of cloud and the ball is likely to move in the air and bounce.
Neither side have a strong top order so - win toss and bowl first; that applies to both teams.
I'm tipping Woakes for a fifer.
Into New Street by 9.30am, bus or walk to ground, soul limbo and acapella Jerusalem; then we're off and Sir Geoffrey is back on TMS so all is right with the world.
....and did these feet in ancient times......
Bat first but then what do i know. Christ i'm nervous. Too close to call, Best bowling attack wins, therefore I'm backing England but I imagine it will be close. Goosebump madness watching sky.
Supplies got, settled in for the day. Hope England Men can make amends for the poor performance by the Women’s team
he bloody nicked it! so much for new fair play aussies
What do you expect? The cheat didn’t walk...
" we would be sitting in the wreckage of Edgbaston if that had been given" haha TMS
I would’ve heard the cheer here 10 miles West of Brum
I’m prepared to sacrifice Edgbaston, and Birmingham in general really
“Same old Aussies, always cheating” love it
BooooooooooooooooooooooooooM!
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Even better, it was missing 😂😂😂
Couldn’t happen to a nicer chap
See you Bancroft
He wasn’t a happy chappy
Just spotted what the supporters in the Hollies stand are waving: sandpaper 😂
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another non walking aussie! (and poor umpiring decision)
well this is going rather well
Wayward Stokes
Reluctantly it’s good to hear Boycs back
switched off after 10 mins of Boycott. Amazed I lasted that long .Sleazy moaning old man. Change the record. Not missed at all,
30 seconds here. miserable nasty ol' git.
Jimmy is going for a scan on his calf after feeling some tightness. Come on Woakes and Broad.
but Boycott said it was poor captaincy and we were letting off them hook? #whotobelieve
big blow
Yeah finding it increasingly hard to separate his cricket talk and pee taking of Aggers to the rest of his bigoted and misogynistic guff
Jimmy is going for a scan on his calf after feeling some tightness. Come on Woakes and Broad.
This is not good news.
Boycs - could do without him tbh. He only has about a dozen points and 'jokes' he rotates through and I've heard them for over 20 years now. Too many intelligent past cricketers of a more recent generation and of a more palatable disposition to need his input.
cobblers, lucky!!
I love that the crowd were chanting ‘you’re gonna cry in a minute’ at Smith during the DRS review 😂😂😂
another and another bad umpiring decision! thats 5 wrong calls already it's going to be a painful series at this rate.
Wonder whether Warner's slightly regretting his bullish chat about how unintimidating Edgbaston is yet...
Cheeky edit: Paine, not Warner. Doh!
112-6
112-7
7 down
Not a bad start
Hollis Stand are singing "Sacked in the morning"
Now it's 8!
Hah! Got that one in nice and early LOL (the wicket hadn't fallen when I posted)
good toss to lose 😀 9 times out of 10 you bat, the tenth time you think about it then bat.
Bowling, Shane-o!
another wrong decision.... that was a big edge!?
lucky the rest are not upto much!
It's just not cricket, I tell you !!
Squad numbers on the backs of their whites .... How long has that been a thing ?
Horrid
So, what do we think the Aussie first innings lead will be?
This is a minimum of 50 runs to many.
And now I don’t now we’re in a position where they post close to 300 or we have a very tricky 30 minutes to bat. Neither are great options.
He’s a bit of alright isn’t he.
Aussies, one man team discuss!
All they need is one other player to make 50 odd each innings to go with whatever Smith scores and they’ll win every match. #pessimist
Warm and sunny day here in Birmingham and not a breath of wind. Good day to bat I think.
Well that's kyboshed it then!!
Dig in!
Roy demonstrating exactly how naive he is at test level. Get in before smashing it! Lucky boy.
Lunch time treat today, Ask the Umpire 😀
Athers was, for a while, talking about his hard hands as a virtue. He’s supposed to be an opener for pity’s sake, not some lower order pinch hitter
Australia are only playing 4 bowlers. Stay in, get them into 2nd/3rd spells then cash in.
Ask the umpire - maybe these 2 could pop along for some training.
Jason Roy - no surprises really.
Arse
Staying in is not something Roy does
Great day at Edgbaston yesterday other than the half- wits bellowing 'cheat' at warner, bancroft and smith.
They were punished for what they did and that's the end if it.
Bowling was good until they ran out of steam and root ran out of ideas.
Smith's innings was a master class in concentration and was well appreciated by most.
Bit delayed this morning but should at the ground by 12.15.
Roy's dismissal is disappointing but not surprising.
They were punished for what they did and that’s the end if it.
Nah. For a team so good at dishing it out, they can have it back at them. Warner the bogan knuckledragger in particular. I do have some sympathy for Smith, but at the game time, it’s his captaincy that fostered the atmosphere in the first place
No sympathy at all for them and I was one of the half-wits booing and bellowing at them during the World Cup semi. They knew exactly what they were doing and should’ve been banned for life, they were only upset that they were caught. Put it in cycling terms they’re as bad as Armstrong
WARNING Boycott WARNING
Put it in cycling terms they’re as bad as Armstrong
To be fair, I’m not entirely sure he was that upset about being caught
ALL CLEAR