UKH

and the only change to the England side is the loss of Overton, the only player who has shown any fire in his belly, and replacing him with Tom Curran.

We're spending the day watching the match on tele, recovering from yesterday's excesses, and I know my Mrs is going to have a field day...

In reply to Big Ger:

I fear for England today.

Going to be a long, hot day which could be grim.

In reply to Big Ger:

Aus 102 for no loss at lunch, bloody dreadful start for the bowlers.,

In reply to Big Ger:

177-3 on a batsmen's paradise represents something of of a triumph!

In reply to Big Ger:

244 - 3 with Smith still at the crease.

Let's hope he gets bored of scoring easy runs tomorrow...

In reply to Big Ger:

At least we haven't lost on day one

In reply to Big Ger:

Bloody hell, England turned up to the match.

Aus all out for 327.

In reply to Big Ger:

Bloody hell, woke up to an Aussie collapse and a Cook ton. Have I slipped into a parallel universe?

In reply to john arran:

Yup, you have, but following England's cricket team means you could easily slip back to the previous one in the blink of an eye!

On a more serious note, what are people's thoughts on this being an example of not enough serious cricket for England prior to the series starting vs Aussie injuries/taking foot of the pedal?
I feel it's a bit of both, though we definitely need more competitive games beforehand. The ECB appear to worry about over-working the players and ignore this fact in the ensuing Ashes debacle review that is deemed essential.

In reply to john arran:

Went to bed with Aus 315-5, fully expecting them to score 500+ and then have England 2 down by the close.

Well I was right about the last bit.

In reply to john arran:

A bit bloody late now. Bah, humbug

In reply to Ardo:
Aussie injuries, maybe.
Foot off the pedal, no chance, they'll want to pummel us 5-0.

Still another 3 days to lose this one.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Its almost as if massive swings in daily fortune in test matches are a new thing !?

In reply to john arran:


Still a long way to go before parity on 1st innings, unfortunately. But glad for Cook - struck me he was being made a bit of a scapegoat. Hope Root scores well as well.

In reply to GrahamD:

Yes, a great day for England, but we still need to win day 3 to be in the driving seat.

In reply to john arran:


He has made 31 test hundreds. All in this universe as well.

In reply to Pero:

You're right, of course, but I was rather getting used to this universe being the one in which he could be relied upon for playing a few nice shots and then getting out reliably for just 10-15 runs. Glad to see the universe isn't entirely predictable.

Good luck to the verbs tomorrow.

In reply to john arran:


I was watching it John, I thought the wife had slipped some LSD into my lunch.

In reply to stevieb:
Slow and steady start to Day 3....


Dammit - cursed it.

In reply to Big Ger:


Have you found the replacement yet?



B

In reply to john arran:

I rather like this parallel universe.

In reply to john arran:

Another good day for England and well played Cook and Broad.

In reply to Christheclimber:

Cook’s fallow periods occur, but sheer willpower sees him through in the end. cricinfo records his "control %" - i.e. the number of shots off the meat of the bat (or left) as 91%. Out of 409 balls.

Extraordinary effort by a man widely written off. Amazing stamina and concentration. What a legend. And a good team man too, by all accounts.

The old adage of form being temporary but class permanent is well applied here. He's passed Jayawardene, Chanderpaul and Lara in the all time test run scorers during this innings, has passed his previous top score against Australia (and away, too), and as usual looked pretty unflappable - except when he runs when he still looks like Woody out of Toy Story.

I think he's got his name pencilled in for a series or two yet.

b

In reply to ben b:

Should drop him ASAP, he never scores 300+

/sarcasm

Top class innings from a top class batsman.

In reply to Rampikino:

I stayed up till root got out. After that I imagined the England innings semi collapsing around Cook. Looks like it was going hat way until Woakes and broad.
But what the heck was malan thinking? looked clear to me that he edged it on to his pad

In reply to stevieb:

Agreed - how would you not know?

In reply to ben b:



Young lad called Alastair is ready to step up to the crease....

In reply to stevieb:


That was bizarre, not helped by Cook who seems very shy of using the appeal.

In reply to Big Ger:

Trouble is, it isn't always clear which way the decision will go if the ball is squeezed between bat and pad: I can usually tell if I am hit pad first (out) more than the umpire can, so not referring probably suggest that Malan thought it was pad first >> bat. However, it didn't bounce in line either....

Cook has a pretty simple game which allows him to concentrate on playing straight or leaving, with occasional square shots when safe to do so. He can do this for days on end (still). It seems the level of concentration probably drops on other people's LBW shouts.

b

In reply to ben b:

Fair comment.

In reply to Big Ger:

So Cooke has got to carry his bat in addition to all the other records he's accrued in a great innings. Pity it didn't come in an earlier test, but there you go...

In reply to Welsh Kate:

Looks like the weather will save Australia..... or England, depending on your level of pessimism

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Following England has led me to a glass half full and half empty mentality. Arse, it's raining: we'll struggle to get a win now..... though even we'd struggle to lose from this position.

In reply to Chris the Tall:

May get a day's play there, with any luck...

http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/melbourne.shtml?ref=hdr

In reply to Big Ger:

A draw, better than expected before the match, not as good as expected during the match.

In reply to Big Ger:

I reckon they should drop Cook for slow scoring. They would have won if he has scored faster. Time to go!