My dear old things, it's STW TMS!

Stop. It….

Well $1650 to get to Adelaide tomorrow…

11mins to hold on tonight will it be Jimmy?

I knew I shouldn’t have opened this thread in hope of posting something optimistic. 4 down.

This makes for a very interesting 10 mins. Dig in boys.

noooooo

Well, time to calm down a little.
At the start of the innings I’d have taken a flood light failure but the Aussies just didn’t look as dangerous with the ball in the dark, not being new perhaps or just not doing enough with it.
Malan going is a loss as he could probably have got going again tomorrow but Woakes could push the score on with a quick swing while Root gets back in, at this point getting through the 25’s is key, 225 without a loss and it starts to get the aussies twitching.

Such a good 4 sessions of cricket from England there, just that stumble with the tail being the downer.

Please god let this happen.

The worry is the only partnership we had got going is now broken. Plus the new ball in what 20 overs?

Great to see how much Root is revelling in it. He loved the challenge.

Someone will be smiling awkwardly tonight in front of the cameras

Remember no more reviews for the Aussies

It’s not impossible, I think that’s about as much as I’m prepared to admit.

My ideal scenario would be Broad knocking off the winning runs, just after he was clearly out caught behind but not given by the umpire, with Smith gesturing desperately for a review he no longer has 😆

Reviews no longer topped up after 80 overs now

Tomorrow is now very interesting indeed. Sending Woakes in was a great move IMO, he’s a good batsman and can knock a few runs tomorrow with any luck, means you’ve not got a walking wicket in first thing tomorrow to build momentum for the Aussies.

Lolz @aracer

From the first innings
Moeen Ali c&b: Lyon 25 5743.8620 Video Replay
Jonny Bairstow c&b: Starc 21 5042.0020 Video Replay
Chris Woakes c&b: Starc 36 6258.0640 Video Replay
Craig Overton not out 41 7951.9050
Stuart Broad c: Paine b: Lyon 3 1717.6500 Video Replay
James Anderson lbw: Lyon
30.0000 Video Replay
Extras – true B 0, LB 15, W 1, NB 0 16

126 from those left to score?

Well $1650 to get to Adelaide tomorrow…

But free entry once you’re here!

126 from those left to score?

Root still being there is key, if he bats on til lunch then we start to become favourites. TMS mentioned the idea of bringing Bairstow in next, since he’s another right hander which makes the spin of Lyon less threatening and he is going to be the main tormentor during that first session tomorrow.

Can’t wait, I’m definitely getting up at 3am to watch!

Morning All!
1st ball in 30 mins from now, guys are getting ready on the pitch and some interviews to be done with first.

And now for the motto of the series
This Session is REALLY important

It’s almost funny

Not gone well has it.

Lyon so much easier for the right handers. Jonny looks settled. New ball imminent

Well, phone went flat at the first ball, few pints and that was that. Time to take that fight to Perth, after that I wonder if somebody needs a go opening with Stoneman.

It was infuriating. I couldn’t even go back to bed due to the annoyance factor

I opened my phone with a glimmer of hope…..

Bo@@@@ks!!!

Well, as crap as the end result was, I had a pretty good time there. Second half of d3 and d4 were proper edge of seat stuff.

Today I got to take my nearly 4yo to see a couple of hours, which she loved the first 90 minutes of. She was so excited to be going too. That’s a good enough highlight for me.

Glad you enjoyed Zokes, there was some proper test match cricket in there. Plenty of positives. But outweighed by the negatives.

Mainly I’m concerned by out ability to score, their attack just seems too good in every department. Can’t get my head around how awkward the left handers look against Lyon. Pace with late reverse swing and bounce is understandably difficult at 90mph. Lyon is looking in Swanny’s class at the moment which just gives us no let up. Have to try and attack him to knock him off his length.

Jonny B is wasted at 7, he’s not had an opportunity to play a proper innings yet this series, because Mo is a walking wicket then he’s with the tail. Suggestion: drop Vince (his heads gone), Malan up to 3 (he’s a scrapper and 3 might suit him), Jonny at 5 (he’ll get a chance to play with Root then and build an innings). Could even throw in the young wicketkeeper at 7, nothing to lose. As for Cook…… time might be up.

As for Cook…… time might be up.

I dunno, there were definitely glimmers of hope in his second innings. His confidence against them early was what knocked Stark off his line. He’s lacking consistency which is a big problem, but he clearly still has the talent.

Thoroughly agree about bairstow up the order. Moeen is a worry with bat and ball, and, as well as Overton and Woakes played, they’re simply too slow for down here. There’s a reason why Jimmy only has one Michelle down here: no matter how supremely competent a bowler he is, that speed rarely works here. And Woakes and Overton aren’t at jimmy’s level. They all worked well enough when the Aussies were playing their shots (and Broad couldn’t buy a wicket this game), but when the Aussies batted time and got themselves in they just didn’t have the penetration.

Blowers reading from his book this morning fabulous 🙂

we’ve got a freaker 😆

They’re not for learning…

http://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/42291541

Sounds like Duckett chucked a drink over Jimmy Anderson. It would have been better coming from Joe Root whilst screaming “why did you bowl everything halfway down the wicket when I put those buggers in?”

Duckett deserves a suspension, he’s obviously a beer dodger.

Short and wide. 🙄 For as long as I’ve been following the sport, circa early 70’s, its been the default England bowling approach. Surely it’s time to move on from the Bodyline series? That was over half a century ago!

Come to think of it, batting collapses have also been consistent.

I see that Keaton Jennings achieved 80 runs in the WACA warm up game; which has got me wondering how many other South Africans have played for England over the year’s? I’ll start:

Basil D’Olivera
Tony Greig
KP
Andrew Strauss(?)
Was Dennis Amiss also from SA?
There’s loads more I’m sure, but without consulting the internet, I thought I’d throw it out here for a little fun 😀

Allan Lamb, Robin Smith to name but two more. Hick was Zimbabwean. Robin Jackman was from SA thinking about it.

Jason Roy, Matt Prior, Jonathan Trott. Three more.

IIRC Robin Jackman was born in India but top marks for Robin Smith, I could see him but not remember his name! I think he had a brother who also played for England?

Chris Smith?

Robin Smith nearly killed me with a square cut at the oval once. Off one of the Windies quicks, it bounced twice on the way to the fence, once about 40 yards from the bat and again another 20 yards on, but never got more than 3 feet above the ground before hitting the advertising boards in front of me, like a red leather scud.

Indeed it was!

Blowers reading from his life story on BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09hxcnr

Listen to the gunshot sound of the ball off of the bat – something that is less pronounced in the age of the balsa bat.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-13/ashes-same-xi-for-england-but-tweak-for-waca/9257376
Same team but Bairstow moves up to 6

Good move. Last chance for Vince. I like the thought of Malan up to 3 but do we have another guy to come in lower down, Ballance is that really all else we have? Maybe we need to bring Crane in at some point as Mo isn’t going well, not for WACCA though.

Any one else struggling to be optimistic for this next test?

Yeah, it’s the WACA it’s a place where the fast bowlers stroke their moustaches and decide if your going to duck again. Lets just hope it doesn’t crack early and we can get the toss right

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/dec/13/joe-root-denies-rift-jimmy-anderson-england-coaches-ashes

Er, Jimmy – how many test wickets have you got? Why would you need the coaches to tell you to pitch the damn thing up when it was blindingly obvious to all watching that you were bowling too short?

Sounds like there is more going on here than meets the eye if Anderson is trying to get a dig in now (and particularly a daft one like this).

I wouldn’t mind betting there will be a few fruit chapters in autobiographies about this tour, when the protagonists retire, that is.

It’s all a bit ‘England in South Africa 95/96’ for me……

I’m pretty sure the WACA doesn’t crack up too much these days(?)

I’m reminded of Orwell’s vision of the future in ‘1984’.

To paraphrase:

“Want to know what the future holds? Load up youtube and search ‘Brett Lee Alex Tudor’ and imagine that on a continuous loop for all time”