I think Stokes won’t mind them getting lower than expected. He will at least avoid the backlash if he made a bold declaration and lost. If its under 250, not quite great but at least a target that’s possible to defend/get 9* wickets
*Like Australian Ashes don’t count for Broad, Warner for me doesn’t count as a wicket
Like your beloved Marnus?
Pietersen is a total dick.
Rubbish by England to be honest.
I actually think using up your reviews helps the umpire in your favour a bit. They almost feel obliged to give the appealers the benefit of the doubt.
What’s happened to Moin? Hurt his hand?
A nice graze on his bowling finger. To be expected given he hasn’t bowled any sort of long spell for the best part of two years.
Robinson looking pretty comfortable. Will be a great effort from England if they do somehow manage to win this from here.
Much like Man City playing training ground football during the pandemic doesn’t count as a proper PL win either. We won ours well before the lockdown came into being .
When I see that every English batsman bar Crawley has got a start and more often than not a fair bit more than that, it tells me under normal conditions Australian batsman should be ok with this total. The only other factor is the pressure. Warner is allergic to pressure so he’ll be out early. Will Marnus be cool-headed coming in early against a fired-up English bowling unit?
Moeen I don’t see how he can bowl much which will hurt England immensely, and a good lesson on why you don’t unretire a spin bowler and bring him cold into an Ashes (Some good commentary made about building up callusses to protect your hand)
The Burnley Lara isn’t hanging around
Australia will win with relative ease.
I was thinking 300 bare minimum.
It’s maybe 50 runs more than they were planning on once they got properly into the tail. It’s made it interesting at least.
The early declaration the other day might end up being the deciding factor, England are a good 50 or so short. A lot will obviously depend on how many overs are lost tomorrow.
Bairstow hasn’t done anything with the bat that Foakes couldn’t have done. And we’d have had a significant upgrade in wicketkeeping.
I dont think a partnership requiring Anderson to stay in is going to have got us those additional 50 runs. It didnt work out (directly), but the opportunity to have a few overs at the openers was far more valuable than pissing around with Jimmy until the close. As it is, we got 2 early wickets the next day and so you can argue making them go through that awkward settling in period twice did in fact have a benefit.
Yet.
But seriously, if your top five are good enough, you need the best wicketkeeper, not a bloke with gloves who can bat. That’s harsh on Bairstow but he’s not a “great” keeper. Just like if your bowlers can’t take 20 wickets, you need better bowlers.
That missed stumping cost us what…30-odd runs? Can be all the difference
Edge through keeper and first slip, looking at you Jonny.