This should be the last day; it would be an incredible (or rainy) day if it wasn’t. Here is the portal for comments as England go 2-1 up. If that isn’t the case, well…..
Of course I’ll be in meetings again when the action is on. Been a great test for action by all reports. Not bitter.
Have a good day.
Being Outside Cricket 
I have a mild case of ‘The Fear’. The way Broad and Finn bowled yesterday, wish fresh legs I am hoping that the Australian innings will last 3 more overs, but the fear remains they will keep going until lunch, leaving us a tricky 120 runs.
LikeLike
Fairytale ending: that happens, they leave us a tricky 120, of which Lyth 10*, Cook 10, Bell 101*.
LikeLike
My fairytale would actually be a tied Test; would love to see one before popping off. I was actually gutted when Haddin got out at Trent Bridge in 2013, for that reason!
LikeLike
Fairytale ending, Finn takes 3 wickets to go to 100 wickets at an average of below 30. Not bad for a guy that can’t play attritional cricket.
LikeLike
Michael Clarke cannot possibly have had a worse Test than this, surely.
LikeLike
That was spot on!
LikeLike
Anyone heard more? Specifically, is it a muscle strain or a muscle tear?
LikeLike
Confirmed: Jimmy’s out of the Trent Bridge Test and will be evaluated for The Oval. Big blow that, could it be a Glenn McGrath moment?
LikeLike
Certainly could be.
Broad and Finn will likely open the bowling.
Who can step in? Wood might return to fitness? Or is this Footit’s big chance?
Or will the weather and the groundsman mean a chance for Rashid (assuming his finger has recovered)?
Whoever it is, you have to feel we’re weaker for it, if the ball is moving…
LikeLike
We are weaker for it, but it gives us a chance to see how Wood, Finn and Broad work together.
LikeLike
Wood, surely?
LikeLike
24 runs in 3 overs. Pitch looks flat, but a small total does weird things to cricket teams
LikeLike
Ffs 5 slips in Finn’s first over. 2nd over 3 slips and a gully, anyone want to guess a) where an edge just went and b) what the field is now?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nevil caught behind off the glove, but umpire doesn’t give it and no reviews left
LikeLike
Nevill ‘caught’ down the leg-side. Umpire didn’t give it. Only Buttler really appealed. England didn’t review it. Replays show white mark on glove and noise on Snicko.
LikeLike
Got a horrible feeling there’s going to be a sting in the tail of this match. That Aussie lower order has got them out of some scrapes over the past few yrs. Hope I’m wrong but I’m finding it hard to listen at the moment.
LikeLike
England couldn’t review it.
LikeLike
Oops – I’d forgotten that.
LikeLike
Quick reminder that, in my 34 years of Ashes cricket, Australia have never won a Test by a margin closer than 55 runs.
LikeLike
Nevil out, reviewed a caught behind, think it may have hit his hip as well as his bat
2 left, come on England let’s end this quickly please
LikeLike
It worked! I’ve had to switch off because I’m too tense!!
LikeLike
I deliberately had a wander round the ground just before tea yesterday, heard the wicket and decided to wait until Clark was out before I would return to my seat.
Magic thinking of the hugest order but it worked!!
LikeLike
Michael Holding has just commented that ‘Finn has been a bit expensive!’ – nice wry commentary
LikeLike
that’s it, the 100 lead is up. England will have to genuinely bat again now, rather than just scratch around a bit. They’re still overwhelming favourites but Johnson will already be starting to snort and paw the ground.
LikeLike
Feeling sick with tension at the moment. Knowing how crap we are at bowling at tail-enders and these ones are half-decent.
LikeLike
At 30/3 70 more runs may look a bit daunting
LikeLike
Hazelwood gone, Stokes bowler great catch from Root. Starc had just plundered 10 of an Ali over. Lead is 100, Stokes almost had 2 in 2 , lbw shout a bit high. Oh and another probably down leg
LikeLike
Brearleyesque that: winding up Stokes by putting Root on before him.
LikeLike
Ben Stokes is a contender for the Monty Panesar Award for Dramatic Appealing.
LikeLike
Stokes 2nd lbw shout was good, not even umpires call
LikeLike
Lyon will bowl well on this pitch in the 2nd innings.
LikeLike
From cricinfo:
“SatzV: “England are treating Starc like a batsman instead of all-rounder.. by spreading the field for him and attacking Lyon alone!! ” ”
Is this true?
LikeLike
Yes, Cook spread the field very early for Starc, and in a day 4 at headingley were giving him singles to bowl at Hazelwood.
The pitch is good though. If England bat properly on this (see off the new ball) they should knock off the runs easily
LikeLike
All out, England need 121 to win, not sure whether they will face a tricky one over spell before lunch
LikeLike
Starc off Ali, Australian tail made 150 runs
LikeLike
And a tricky 121 it is.
LikeLike
Naah, 6 wicket margin minimum.
LikeLike
Pitch looks like it has flattened out a bit. See off the new ball and it should be OK.
LikeLike
Let’s hope your prediction comes true 😀
LikeLike
103 after 37 overs will not be enough this time. Will Lyth last till lunch?
LikeLike
No team has defended 121 in the last decade of Test cricket.
Chance for some red ink for the captain (as Selvey will no doubt soon be Tweeting).
LikeLike
Thanks for your comforting words/stats
LikeLike
Not a fifth day pitch either this – should be at its best for batting now.
LikeLike
Bet we’ll have a bit of funk if there’s an over or two before lunch.
LikeLike
No. Surprisingly prosaic choice of bowlers.
LikeLike
Wait for the ‘there’s no-one you’d rather see coming in to bat in such circumstances’ nonsense.
LikeLike
Heard it already – Nasser saying the team will ‘feel comfortable’ as long as Cook’s at the crease.
LikeLike
That’s probably true, though. If Cook’s still in then either England haven’t lost many or, if they have, then they’ll still have a real chance and Cook will be doing ok. England to win here by 8. (ruining my pre-series prediction. Bastards).
LikeLike
This SHOULD be straightforward, but I bet it isn’t. Maybe it’s just me!
LikeLike
Lyon on, turn and bounce!
LikeLike
Oops. Looks like the team is not going to feel comfortable after all.
I follow your logic Grenville but it wasn’t meant that way, it was just another declaration of (misplaced) confidence in Cook. It would have been more realistic to use Root in that sentence, he’s the outstanding batsman in the team.
LikeLike
You are, of course, right, Fred. I did think it was a bit like getting the right time from a stopped clock.
LikeLike
stop with the clever-clever, put Mitch on.
LikeLike
what do I know. Poor doe-eyed dear.
LikeLike
Jaffa that nailed him, maybe stuck on the crease a bit?
LikeLike
It counts when you are clean bowled.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bell gets away with another brain-fart. Trying to run it through the slips (why?) and Clarke drops a sitter.
LikeLike
Looks as though Bells got something booked for later, 12 runs off Starc and a bonus drop by Clark. The rate he is scoring Zeph’s prediction will come true
LikeLike
Looks like Bell reads the blog!
LikeLike
Required reading at lunchtime.
LikeLike
Only thing I can guess why Bell is playing like a prat is to get Johnson on and get his spell out of the way. He has his wish.
LikeLike
Lyth gone LBW, at least he didn’t nick off!! Where is Swann on TMS, has he quit half way through an Ashes series again?
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s been a grim test for Australia but they will be happy at least they’ve kept Cook and Lyth quiet in both innings.
LikeLike
10/10 Sir!
LikeLike
Anyone who’s watched Root knows his release shot to a spinner is the slog sweep to deep mid-wicket. Lyon comes on, Root slog sweeps and skies it, no fielder at deep mid-wicket.
Perhaps Mickey Arthur had a point about Australia need to do their homework?
LikeLike
Another 50 for Bell, 33 needed, Surely even England can’t cock this one up. So that’s Bell safe. What to do with Lyth? Should really give him the summer, but then we will have to blood another opener in UAE. He doesn’t seem to know where his off-stump is, and that is a recipe for a short test career (Ask Morgan, Robson, Key, Crawley etc.).
LikeLike
Blood Hales now, not fair on Lyth but it would be the right move
LikeLike
How many in the press box had Bell to make the crucial fifty as opposed to, well you know……?
How many articles will credit Bell himself as opposed to Strauss’s genius in promoting him up the order while saying “Bell thrives on responsibility” without mentioning the impact being stripped of the vice-captaincy had on him or all the times he should have been at No.3 and wasn’t?
LikeLiked by 1 person
How many will note the 18 wasted months. Like KP says, Bell should have been at 3 since Trott left the tour.
LikeLike
I don’t suppose the press box will mention too much that Cook hasn’t actually done that well with the bat this series so far too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s all over, straightforward after all, shows how much I know!
LikeLike
Aye but I’ll bet he sweated blood. Not that he sweats, mind.
LikeLike
Hooray for Bell!!
I really thought he’d had enough, a little while ago, I thought he wanted out of the England side. But it looks as if he’s picked up again.
Over the years I’ve got fond of Bell. I like his little Clint Eastwood sneer as he faces the bowler, and his endless variations on the gingery stubblebeard. And not to go too poetseye on y’all, but he really has been messed about at times.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I don’t know how much to read into Bell being top match scorer. My heart wants to proclaim him as ‘BACK’, my head wants to say he’s a solitary poor Test away from being under pressure again. Both knocks were very useful, either way – 118 runs for one wicket, in a Test of only 800 odd in total, is not insignificant.
Of course the real story here is Finn and Anderson, 6 wicket hauls and limiting Australia to just 401 runs across the whole Test. Anderson’s absence is a little scary, to be frank, whilst we’re all hoping Finn is ‘BACK’…
LikeLike
Cook good in his post-match interview, quite normal. No erms, no upspeak.
LikeLike
Has Arron got his updated stats for us?
LikeLike
Still safely below Brearley:
http://goo.gl/FzKRDj
LikeLike
Check out my twitter feed for a classic trifecta from the journos.
LikeLike
Semi-serious question: have you maintained your Cricketer sub solely for the sake of this blog? There’s no way I could put up with shite like that if I was paying to be entertained or enlightened.
LikeLike
They were sneaky this year. I am sure my annual renewal comes up in September, but the cheeky scamps decided this year to do it in June. So no chance to cancel in advance…
But, I do keep it going because it gives great material for laughs. Today’s is special.
Michael Henderson’s piece is a massive diatribe about TMS. How Jim Maxwell is great, so is Jeremy Coney, but Adam Mountford is a clown for sacking Selvey “because he refused to pretend, in the fatuous phrase used by a former head of BBC radio sport, that every ball should be an event.
He uses the article to berate Michael Vaughan for not speaking proper, and more reasonably, slaughtering FICJAM for being in love with himself.
But Selfey’s love letter to Pringle is about as low as I’ve ever seen in this magazine. It’s hilarious. “He was a terrific correspondent, incredibly well informed, with a wealth of technical knowledge”.
I’m sorry, but this still sums Muppet up for me. Well informed…. https://dmitrihdwlia.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/a-muppet-writes-this-week/
LikeLike
And on a related theme, anyone else think Selvey enjoyed his paragraph about Clarke a little too much?
LikeLike
Is there a prize for the first to spot a ‘Kevin Who?’ article?
LikeLike
I’m looking forward to Scyld Berry’s ratings….
one presumes he’s going to have to employ some sort of spinal tap adjustment to keep everything calibrated with the marks he gave England after Lord’s.
LikeLike
I have made it clear to anybody who is interested, ie nil, that I am supporting the Aussies this year and will do so as long as Captain Cook is there. However, I am simply delighted that Finn is back and has done so well. After all the crap he has had to put up with it must be a great feeling and so happy for him
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d been wondering about this –
Few other stats:
1) Anderson/Finn only 4th time two England bowlers took six-fours in Ashes. Two were in the C19 and I won’t spoil your fun trying to get the other if you haven’t already heard this one.
2) That same game is also the last time England won the 3rd Test of an Ashes series.
3) I only half-heard this one and haven’t time to check it – but this might be the first Ashes Test without a century since Sydney 2007.
LikeLike
P.S. That Australia sequence in 1979-80 was caused by the unique schedule that winter when they played alternate Tests against England and West Indies. They beat England 3-0, lost 2-0 to the West indies after drawing the First Test and then lost the First Test on tour to Pakistan.
LikeLike
Broad and Swann at The Oval?
LikeLike
Nope – neither took a six-for (Broad took five and Swann two four-fors – although in his retelling it’s probably become a six-for!).
LikeLike
1981? Beefy first innings, Willis second innings.
LikeLike
“It’s no longer them (the players) or us (the media)” ………from Dmitris Twitter feed…….
Is Simon Hughes American? Because it is always said Americans don’t do irony. The really, really shocking thing is I expect he wrote this with a straight face. He thinks this team has been under siege from the media. Bollocks!
This team, and Cook in particular has been criticised by a minority (who mostly have been proved right) but NOT from the English cricket media. This captain has been the most over protected and fawned upon in history. The very idea the media and the captain have been at loggerheads is not only untrue but a breath taking lie.
The medias rouge gallery of Hughes, Selvey, Newman and almost all the rest have had their nose rammed up Cooks arse and Englands for 2 years. They couldn’t wait to spin every lie and half truth, and every bit of ECB spin. For the media to now claim they have been in opposition is preposterous and dishonest. Unfortunately it’s what we have now come to expect from so many of them.
If Hughes believes this he must be insane. What about all those cozy dinner dates with your chum Simon? We’re those them and us?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Just got home. That turned out a much longer day than I was expecting.
LikeLike
One batsman scored 34 & 7 while another scored 53 & 65*.
Have a guess at their respective Scyld Berry player ratings……
LikeLiked by 1 person
They’ve shoved a caveat in there since Lord’s:
“The player’s rating reflects his value at the end of the third Test.”
So I think it’s supposed to be some kind of cumulative assessment of worth. Not sure how you get the same mark for Rogers (385 runs at 77; passed 50 in every first innings) and Cook (180 runs at 30; one fifty) out of that, but hey, that’s Berryworld.
LikeLike