The Second Investec Ashes Test, England v Australia, Lords

[Titanic]

Bell end.

271-5 (77 overs)

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Well be bowling by lunchtime tomorrow, then.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Arse.

 

[Titanic]

Matt Prior is due a BIG one!

 

[Lady Whistledown]

The first objective for England is to retain the Ashes. A win and a draw will do it. If Agar has a sub-standard match will the Aussies selectors persevere or drop him? I can conceive that he might go down in history as the kid who got 98 on dayboo and was never heard of again.

Dayboo. I love the Aussie pronunciation of that word. Especially Jim Maxwell on TMS, who says it more "daBoo".

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Matt Prior is due a BIG one!

Oh, for the LOVE of...

 

[Titanic]

Bairstow

Slapping a full bunger straight back at Smith.

274-6

 

[Tricky Dicky]

7 down

 

[vegster]

After all the hard work it looks like we have thrown it away again, sigh

 

[The Wizard]

Prior fails again, I have more faith in Broad than him right now

 

[Si Gull]

Matt Prior is due a BIG one!

The only BIG thing he's going to get is a smack on the head - appalling shot selection against a part-time bowler; shocking.

 

[spring hall convert]

Have I missed something? Have we seriously sent Anderson in as nightwatchman to protect Broad with an average of 25? Why?

 

[Titanic]

289-7 at the close.

Australia will be pretty happy - England will think it could have been worse, and hope for a bit of a WAG in the morning.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

On the SKY graphic of the Australia team, they already list him as an All Rounder, yet not Harris, which seems odd.

Its a daft and arbritary distinction anyway. Every player bats, and most bowl the occassional over, so they're all 'All Rounders' really, just not necessarily very good ones!

Steve Smith for example...

 

[Lifelong Supporter]

The Australian bowlers got sufficient movement with the ball to suggest that England's score can be competitive if we bowl well tomorrow. We have it all to do though.

 

[vegster]

We need to push on to score 330-350 to have reasonable hope of being in this game for the next 4 days. We should just have an edge if Swann gets his act together. However, one big Aussie batting partnership could take the game away from us.

 

[OzMike]

Been taking the flack a bit here!
The way the pitch is behaving, I think that if we can make it to around 350 it will be a competitive first innings score.
If the Aussie bowlers can get as much as they did out of that pitch then Broad, Anderson and Swanny must be itching to bowl on it.
It's a 5 day game after all and if I'm not mistaken it's a similar situation as the 1st test, although 14 runs was rather close!

 

[knocky1]

Been taking the flack a bit here!
The way the pitch is behaving, I think that if we can make it to around 350 it will be a competitive first innings score.
If the Aussie bowlers can get as much as they did out of that pitch then Broad, Anderson and Swanny must be itching to bowl on it.
It's a 5 day game after all and if I'm not mistaken it's a similar situation as the 1st test, although 14 runs was rather close!

WARNING Do not take flack from Australians in any circumstance.
We are 1-0 up in the series. We are evens to win 2nd Test. Australia are 2-1 to win.

 

[Simster]

I still think 400-450 is par, and even if we reach 350 that will have to be considered a failure.

 

[OzMike]

WARNING Do not take flack from Australians in any circumstance.
We are 1-0 up in the series. We are evens to win 2nd Test. Australia are 2-1 to win.

Water off a duck's back mate, I just ask if they can remember the last time they won the Ashes and taunt them about the rugby.
Later this year if we could pull off what seems to be impossible, an Ashes win at the WACA, that would be the icing on the cake.