I would encourage you, if you haven’t already, to read the preview piece by the Leg Glance and the new Ashes Panel (below). They shouldn’t be lost below a thread on the first day’s play at Lord’s.
For my own reminder, I know I am four centuries behind on Century Watch, but will have a bit of breathing space after this match to catch up a little,
But this game now takes precedence and the series will pivot on this. We look to have good weather set for the game, so a result is probably on the cards. A win for England and the series takes on a surprising complexion, a win for Australia and it is game on. The latter, in my view, looks unlikely. This squad is showing all the distress signals we were seeing from England in 2013/14. Injuries, rifts, personal issues (I know this is more coincidental than causal) and things just not going to plan. This is a huge match.
Comments below…..
Being Outside Cricket 
The teams haven’t been announced yet, but I will be genuinely shocked if Watson is dropped. Obviously Haddin is an enforced change and I don’t think they would have made it if circumstances hadn’t prevailed, but your team for the first test is generally the team you want to play the series barring form and injury. If they do drop Watson it suggests that the ‘blip’ is being perceived internally as something more than that.
It’s like an English tour to Australia, first team selection doesn’t work, ring the changes (or see India away when Panesar was picked for the 2nd test)
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Not sure whether you saw it, but Clarke was clearly thrilled at the toss about Watson not playing. It was extremely obvious.
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No I missed that. No love lost there and barring injury that’s the end of Watto’s test career.
He looked the part of an all Australian hero, but he never quite did it in test matches.
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Australia won toss and bat. Cook said he’d have batted. Warne back on Sky duty reckons pitch is dry and will be slow initially but getting quicker – he also reckoned (before the toss) it wouldn’t be a bad toss to lose.
Teams as expected.
Weather overcast and humid with cloud forecast to burn off in afternoon so important first session coming up.
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Rogers is trying to hit everything, this will either be a brilliant innings or he’ll be out soon.
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Brilliant innings then. To be fair he calmed down after he reached 30 odd, but it worked as the bowling with the new ball was the worst bowling all day.
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Cloud cover burnt off quicker than expected and precious little swing so far. Just a bit of seam movement. Bounce looks pretty consistent.
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From the little I have seen, the pitch look like a batting paradise. And this start is just what Australia needed. I have my doubts with regards to England’s batting, especially when they have to deal with scoreboard pressure themselves.
Will be interesting to see if either team manages 20 wickets.
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I have a bad feeling about this…we’ll need a kp to hold things together 🙂
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And alas, I can’t see our openers doing quite as well. Hopefully I’m talking a load of cods.
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Warner out.
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Warner suicides in the thirties again. Against Moeen Ali, in his first over.
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poor batting by Warner again. Which bit of ‘Moen takes wickets’ do they not get? He has hit one lovely shot (to an full toss loosener), and then smeared two more, and then he is out. Anderson v Smith should be interesting at Lords.
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Warner is a proper dimwit. The message is obviously “attack Moeen”, so he thinks that means “slog every ball as far as possible”.
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Rather like Alastair Cook in the first test….Bayliss had to publically remind his skipper that being aggressive didn’t mean changing your natural game.
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In other news, Tredwell has finally picked up his first 3 wickets of the season in Division 2. Mind you, his average is still 50+ for the season (3 games played). Surrey duly romped to a six-wicket win. Again, he bowls mainly at second Division batsmen, so whatever made Whittaker, Moores and Cook think “Test class spinner”?
Meanwhile we still don’t know if Rashid actually has what it takes to succeed in Tests …
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Didn’t feel like a romp to a Surrey fan especially when he had Sangakkara stumped !
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Maybe not a romp, but considering the state of the game at Stumps Day 2 (after which I had to contend with a 24-hour power outage), a very good result. I was certainly not expecting this – if victory was to happen for either side, I’d expect it in the last session of the game.
Certainly not complaining, since Surrey seem to be nurturing a fair number of good prospects.
It may have spun substantially (Tredwell getting the new ball suggests that). But even so, you’d expect a good team to chase down a target of 125. And Surrey did not disappoint in that respect.
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And this already looks like a pitch where a leg-spinner might have been a good pick…
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On cricinfo and the guardian they said he ruled himself out with an injury to his spinning finger (Rashid). However no mention of it on TMS, the times or the BBC
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165/1 after 47 overs. Australia have batted themselves into a useful position. Smith just two shy of a 50, Rogers on 69*. England could be in the field for a while …
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Anybody else a bit sickened at the site of a hospitality box with Andrew Strauss, James Whittaker, John Major, Tim Rice and Jeffrey Archer amongst the party? All enjoying the champagne hospitality, looking like they were enjoying themselves.
Athers made a nice little comment that he can’t recall Strauss having been spotted at a test match in the north (not that there is one in this series).
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Makes you want to use the C-word!!
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Jeffrey Archer? Was it not some kind of running joke that he actually spent time in jail? I may be missing something here, but … is he the mentor of Mr. Giles Clarke?
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Bell dropped Smith. Fairly straightforward too.
Cues the endless stream of derision he will be getting today.
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First mention of the pitch being really, really flat, and with no spin it’s going to be a very long five days.
I know this is a very radical concept,but maybe wait until both sides have completed their first innings? Australia could still be 350 all out, England could be 200 all out. Calling out the pitch as “killing cricket” at this stage is beyond stupid – and pretty disappointing that people as astute as Ponting and Hussain are the ones doing it.
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Seems nothing wrong in the pitch thus far. If it still plays like this on Day 5 though … But we have to wait and see for that. The pitch could become more and more conducive to spin, uneven bounce may become a feature too.
Australia have had a few close shaves too, that with a bit of luck could have resulted in a wicket or two (Bell dropping Smith, Rogers surviving a few scares). It is equally true that England have not bowled as well, as they would have liked.
189/1 (after 54 overs) and Australia are ahead. But if it had been 189/3, it would have been about par, maybe England slightly in front, considering how Lord’s tends to be batting friendly in the first few days.
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Hasn’t it been a pattern over the last couple years where on the first day or so of a Lord’s test there’s all this moaning about how flat the pitch is but the game ends with someone getting bowled out for about 220 at tea on the fifth day?
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Shock, horror! Cook’s revolutionary tactic of throwing a ball to the spinner before tea fails to produce a wicket. Will this be commented on? Has Cook’s captaincy entered a period of decline form which there will be no return? Has he lost his funk?
I always had him down as more Peter Skellern than George Clinton, I must say.
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The Richard Stilgoe of funky captaincy.
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I’ve not been following this as well as I should be to make this comment, but it seems that, barring Davey W, Aus have worked out how to make the Beard not very fearsome. Day 1 of course, but my pre-series prediction is looking better than it did at Cardiff.
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It is a slow pitch, England didn’t bowl well for the first 12 overs (they made a few half-chances but weren’t really getting it in the consistent areas that they did in the 2nd innings in Cardiff), however post lunch they have bowled well but there is nothing in the pitch really. It may be a ‘make the new ball count’ pitch by the looks of it.
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That’s helpful, thank you.
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I haven’t been able to follow much of today so far and I am TMS only, but anyone have any comments on how Captain Fantastic is marshalling his troops?
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Not too bad. No meltdown, not outstanding, just fair to middling really.
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Not too bad, he tried the spinner before tea tactic (using Lyth as a leftfield choice). After lunch England bowled as dry as they could, and given that the pitch is much flatter than Cardiff, there isn’t much they he can do apart from hope a batsman gives his wicket away.
The pundits reckon it will quicken up over the next few days, we should be able to score lots on this pitch, but scoreboard pressure does unusual things to batsmen.
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242-1 so far.
England likely going to lose this by an innings.
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The Century Watch backlog might well get bigger after this match!
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You’re a very brave man saying that 🙂
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Posted this on this very site on July 12:
“I’m definitely suspicious of the idea that this England bowling attack has all the bases covered. As soon as it dries up and swing goes away they are going to look as toothless as usual.”
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Let’s wait and see if Australia are equally toothless on this pitch.
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I blame FICJAM on TMS (Ed Smith). He wasn’t present for Cardiff, he is now and every time I turn the radio on his smug voice echo’s out. Although Geoffrey constantly referring to him as the ‘Wordsmith’ in an ironic tone all the time makes up for it a little. The lack of respect Geoffrey has for him is clear.
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I’ve just said elsewhere something along the lines of ‘shooting yourself in the foot’.
Eng request a slower pitch, then don’t have the bowlers to take wickets on the pitch they get.
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Pringle needs 8 from 11 including this one.
There’s probably slightly more chance that Selvey will start calling for the inclusion of Adil Rashid.
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Even if the Pakistan series does not go ahead, at best that can be reduced to 5 from 8. (And that was on the assumption that England would whitewash Pakistan in the UAE. Who’d be willing to bet on that?)
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Totally missed the first test due to being on the road. Apologies for missing the panel, btw. Now arrived at my parents’ place in England to find exactly what I feared would happen taking place. It’s like the “first test” never happened. Is everyone absolutely sure that it did, really?
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Been out all afternoon, just got in. Aus 327 for 1. O.M.G….
Tell you what England could do with on this pitch – the sort of batsman who scores, oo, I dunno, 355*?
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After today that could be well below the follow-on figure.
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Very hard to see where the wickets will come from.
To revive an old saying – Is it cowardly to pray for rain?
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“Aus 327 for 1. O.M.G….”.
Twitter may have to find more band-width to accommodate all the “just add two wickets to the score” Tweets being posted ironically.
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Taking the positives from today at least we were only 3 overs short of the required 90 by 6pm
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337/1 at stumps. Brilliant captaincy by Cook but I am sure that Bell will be lambasted.
Cook probably did not do too terribly in the field, but if he can be praised for getting the basics right, because the Australians got themselves out in Cardiff, then he can be critiicised for the lack of results too.
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I think we have to come back to selection and the (lack of) balance in the bowling attack. We have no meaningful options when there is no swing.
Now I’ll cheerfully admit that much of that is because when you get down to county level, there aren’t many options there. Still, it’s a huge weakness that Broad and Anderson get so toothless so quickly on pitches like this. Stokes is also markedly less threatening. Perhaps Rashid’s injury will turn out to be crucial, as Ali surely can’t bowl too many overs for fear of aggravating his injury.
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Any ideas as to who should be picked on a wicket such as this?
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Broad bowled really well today, good length and made the batsmen work for their runs. Anderson didn’t threaten, Woods line and length was off in the morning 6 balls in 6 different areas. Moen bowled okay, but the pitch is too slow for the turn to be threatening. Didn’t see much of Stokes as l was also trying to work today!
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Bell might get lambasted, but it’s become increasingly clear that he just isn’t a very good second slip. It’s not like there has been a decline in his catching there, as he has never done it until the last year or so, to my recollection. Sticking him in there and worrying about him dropping a few, is like opening the batting with Broad, then moaning that he doesn’t knuckle down and score a ton every game.
If only we had an experienced pro in the side, preferably a batsman, who has fielded second slip for his County, very successfully over the past few years…
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I had the impression that Bell had fielded quite well in the slips back in the day, but perhaps I was mixing him up with someone else.
If it was him, he obviously lost the knack in the intervening years.
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Then why put him there if he is not a specialist? Try to get fielders to field in positions they are specialised in. It may help. What are the usual fielding positions for these cricketers, when they do play a county game?
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sorry D’Arthez; that was sort of my point. Lyth apparently fields 2nd slip for Yorkshire, very well.
I think Bell has almost always been at cover, or otherwise he’s an excellent short leg. Gully at a push, if the cordon requires more bodies. But regular second slip? not that I noticed. We’ve been reasonably fortunate to have some pretty good slips in recent years, from Trescothick and Flintoff, Strauss, Swann, Cook, Jordan…I think Bell being in there is a new development, and I’m not sure how long they’ll stick with it, the only reason I can think is that they aren’t sure Lyth will be in the side for very long, so want someone more settled into the inner circle…
On that note, if I was Ballance I’d spend serious time working on slipping. He’s not got the figure to be an outstanding grounds fielder, and there is definitely a vacany there. Strings to bows, etc.
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I thought the same about Lyth as well. If he slips for Yorkshire, that means he’d probably be better off in the slips for England as well. It would also help build Lyth’s confidence (he is still fighting to establish himself in the side), and help to not destroy Bell’s.
Or are fielding positions in England awarded on the basis of seniority, and / or (future) England captaincy material considerations? There is no particular good reason why the captain has to be in the slips.
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It’s all Ian Bell’s fault.
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This is well timed:
Let’s see how that positivity goes when chasing six hundred after two days in the field. Blast 800 with Cooky making the fastest ever quadruple century and put Australia under pressure on the last day?
I particularly love, “In her book Love Game, the cultural critic Elizabeth Wilson used a Marxist intellectual framework to….. “. That must be the most Ed Smith line ever. He’s writing about tennis of course.
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I’m assuming he means cultural theorist and a Marxist theoretical framework……is Ed a cultural materialist after all?
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I honestly thought that line was you parodying his style!
I think it beats my favourite from his recent cricinfo article:
“So my thesis is that there is a far deeper kind of momentum and a much more complex dimension of positivity.”
Someone should run a “FICJAM or FAKEJAM” test.
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Just reading last week’s Sunday Times. I imagine Ed Smith typing that last full stop, leaning back, turning to the mirror and admiring the view.
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This was a particularly magnificent piece from him recently:
http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2015/06/high-mountains-search-empty-mind-i-realise-scotland-should-emulate-tyrol
To cut a long story short, he goes on holiday to spend more time with his brain. Padded out with some 10p guide book observations on South Tyrol.
That the NS pays him to write stuff like this is sadly beyond parody…..
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And some more press nonsense:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/cricket/ashes-englands-alastair-cook-finding-6073906
See it was Pietersen who made Cook set those Day Four at Headingley* fields. I knew it was him all along.
* Take your pick which Day Four at Headingley.
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The print version is better. See my tweet.
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Not to mention Cook being not exactly a genius before the sacking of Pietersen either.
Or was Cook running scared for a ghost that he supposedly restored to the team? Yeah, that makes sense. Alternatively, was Cook so afraid of the headmaster that he did not dare to veto Mr. Flower over KP’s restoration to the team? That is not exactly inspiring confidence in Cook’s leadership abilities either …
Questions, questions, questions …
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The allegation that Cook would quit (if Pietersen was selected) has been repeated again after Cook denied doing so. Who tells the truth i wonder???
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How many more times? Cook is not the Messiah, and Pietersen is not a very naughty boy.
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Pup’s captaincy was great today……he led from the front in the dressing room….
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