[Cricket] Third Ashes Test - England v Australia - Edgbaston

[Uncle Buck]

In the absence of an obvious candidate I'd give Hales a chance. Lyth has been found out and the test bowlers know how to get him out, he just looks like a walking wicket at the moment.

I know he doesn't open in the CC but he opens in ODIs and is capable of getting a few runs. At least we'd be 50/1 after 5 overs rather than 10/1 once Lyth has faced a couple of overs and looked like they were throwing grenades at him.

I tend to agree with you, as Hales will offer something different at the top of the order.

 

[nwgull]

England 205 all out at lunch
Australia 306-1 at close of play

I'm going for England to build a lead in the region of 180 by tea. Then to have the Aussies 3 down and still trailing by 90 at the end of the day.

 

[Triggaaar]

If there is a collapse for 50 - 60 runs, I think the Aussies will comeback.

Yep, just that, it's happened plenty of times before.
We start to think that it will be a stroll in the park and then crash, it's all over.

Oh I'm well aware of our ability to **** it up, I was just surprised you required that much of a collapse for the Aussies to win. If we're skittled out for under 100 I think we'll be in trouble.

 

[Paul Reids Sock]

On the train up to Brum for the match today. General consensus is a lead of 150-200 then a couple of wickets for the day is out

 

[pasty]

All this talk of Aussie wickets later today, personally, I'd much rather still be batting at stumps tonight.

 

[Billy the Fish]

In many ways we're still dealing with the fallout from the Paul Downton and James Whitaker shambles of running English cricket.

Between them they started a chain of events after the 2013/14 Ashes tour that is still causing problems now. They should've stuck with Compton or Carberry until another opener was ready. They also caused the whole KP situation by publicly humiliating him because he fell out with the coach, that started the whole chain of events that caused him to write the book and make himself unpickable.

Thinking about it they humiliated Compton as well, with the way he was just disguarded.

 

[Triggaaar]

All this talk of Aussie wickets later today, personally, I'd much rather still be batting at stumps tonight.

I'm sure we'd all like that, but people are guessing what might happen, not saying what they'd like to happen.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Thinking about it they humiliated Compton as well, with the way he was just disguarded.

With Compton, he could not cope with ball swinging at pace. I know he got scores in New Zealand, on flat pitches, with their bowlers not at their best.

Come the 2 tests here, Boult and Southee caused him problems, he was moving around the crease too much and became an issue.

Now I suspect the selectors thought that Root would be the answer as an opener, hence him playing there in the 2013 Ashes. However other than one good score at Lords, he struggled there as well and took that form Down Under, where he was moved all over the order, before being dropped.

The fact that post the 5-0 Root has looked assured in the middle order, means he cannot go back to opener. Carberry frustrated in that he got OK starts and never kicked on.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Supposed to be easier to bat on today and tomorrow.

Joe Root is the key here. If Root stays in he will accumulate runs quickly and could potentially take the game away from the Aussies with a big score, the rest of the middle order are capable of staying in and playing around Root. If Root gets out then I think Bairstow, Stokes, Buttler and Ali will just play their shots and get runs on the board.

We'll have to see how it plays today but anything around the 200 mark is a massive lead. I think it could be more but don't want to be greedy!

 

[Triggaaar]

Supposed to be easier to bat on today and tomorrow.

Joe Root is the key here. If Root stays in he will accumulate runs quickly

I think the key is the fact that it could be easier to bat today and tomorrow, so we don't want the Aussies getting back in any time soon. We don't need runs quickly, we just need to make sure we don't give wickets away. There's a huge amount of time left in the game. If we get a lead of just 100 and then the Aussies bat for ages, we're going to look stupid.

 

[nwgull]

All this talk of Aussie wickets later today, personally, I'd much rather still be batting at stumps tonight.

There's still plenty in the pitch for the bowlers, and I can't see the Aussies bowling as badly today to give England the opportunity for that.

 

[jakarta]

Anyway, back to the game, the BBC weather forecast says cloudy until lunchtime then sunny for the rest of the day.

Would be happy to see them block all morning as long as we don't lose a wicket but don't think Bairstow and Root play that way!

 

[The Wizard]

Get at least 300 today, this isn't a 500+ wicket so get a lead over 150 or so and they will be under big pressure in the second innings

 

[Gwylan]

Now I suspect the selectors thought that Root would be the answer as an opener, hence him playing there in the 2013 Ashes. However other than one good score at Lords ... Carberry frustrated in that he got OK starts and never kicked on.

Root was also missed by Haddin early on at Lord's (how history repeats itself) so he was a bit lucky to get that.

I still think Carberry was really unlucky. Yes, he didn't push on but he was still second top scorer in that debacle down under ... and then got dropped. Imagine if we'd dropped the top scorer as wel..oh

And I'm with the consensus today. A lead of about 200 and a couple of Aussie wickets tonight.

A few more texts to my Aussie mate today, methinks

 

[Titanic]

None of this 'couple of wickets tonight' for me... I expect us to bat all day and lead by 250+, hopefully 300+

Scoreboard pressure is our best chance of winning this match and leading the series, and today looks set fair for a fine batting performance from Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Buttler and Ali - and an entertaining and amusing wag by the tail for good measure

 

[Titanic]

England 137-3 (30 overs) leading by 1 run

 

[Simster]

I do love the fact that the Edgbaston crowd are ALWAYS massively into the game. Lords might be the ground all cricketers want to play at, but if you're playing a meaningful game and appreciate proper home-team support, Edgbaston is the ground to play at.

 

[Simster]

Oh dear. 4/142

Baistow out, second over.

 

[pasty]

Effectively 6/4 then

 

[Titanic]

Johnson's 300th Test wicket is a cracker... snorting bouncer... fended off with the gloves by Bairstow

Brutal.

142-4