England v Australia at Lord's, 2nd Investec Test

why don't England select alistar hales he a talented top order batsman

You have to hand it to Australia, I've heard of dangling the carrot but that declaration takes the carrot cake.  Huge gamble and it looks like paying off.

Warney would have been a champion at pass the pig

Marsh has got some zip off the pitch

Tex this declaration was defensive by Clarkes standards

huge gamble?????????????

when was the last time anyone scored 500 to win a test match

Jul 19, 2015 -- 2:52PM, Charkitz wrote:

Tex this declaration was defensive by Clarkes standards

I like it, giving a team almost two full days to chase 500 is a statement of confidence.

bollox

Jul 19, 2015 -- 2:53PM, sewter lives again wrote:

huge gamble?????????????when was the last time anyone scored 500 to win a test match

hahaha eh never!

When was the last time, and how many times were the given 160 overs to do it?

In those situations, in test cricket, its very tough for a team to bat last (4th innings) of a test match and overhaul a huge total. Over 2000 test matches so far, only four teams have went on to chase a total of over 400 to win the game. The record, of course, remains with West Indies who scored mammoth 418 for 7 wickets at St Johns in May 2003.

wasnt a gamble at all, england werent even going to try and win, draw suited them fine, they just areny good enough to block for a day and a half

A few months ago Clarke declared on day 3 to set the West Indies 392 off nearly 200 overs

Now that's confidence!

Actually I think he may have just wanted to make sure they had day 5 off

Lmao,maybe it wasn't a risk at all. But if the shoe was on the other foot Cook would only declare with a crazy total, 700+

Jul 19, 2015 -- 3:03PM, Charkitz wrote:

A few months ago Clarke declared on day 3 to set the West Indies 392 off nearly 200 overs Now that's confidence!

What was WI 2nd innings total please?

That is true tex

Lyon is going to be hard judging off that last over

WI made 114 in second dig. So maybe Clarke was defensive there too afterall

My frustration is with cricket coaches. What exactly do they do??

On the balcony we have the brains trust of Bayliss, Farbrace and Ramps. All 3 will have input on the batsmen. Gibson and Taylor may also make comment.

At what point do any of them er, coach, Ballance to play right forward or right back?

Ballance went deep into his crease then pushed his hands forward. It's seriously bad.

Bell doesn't get a stride in and again no sign of change.

Eng's price at last a little more realistic. Took a while!

Australia will fancy there chances of wrapping this up tonight England are a abysmal batting offense team

don't even expect stokes to make many 2nd dig

aussies should have made eng follow on then they would only have had to bat once. ps thanks to the 14/1 eng backers. your generosity is much appreciated.

Too many of the top order out of form for England. Root covered up their mess in Cardiff.

out

555555555555555

Stokes

Jul 19, 2015 -- 3:30PM, slip5 wrote:

don't even expect stokes to make many 2nd dig

Hey Grant where are you son?

that is a disgrace

the dressing room lockers had better watch out now

playing for your country and he does that

46 overs more possible today I don't think England will last for a day 5

Still 5min before tea. You never know

No Sh*T slippy been saying that since Clarke declared ffs

How can you collapse to 52-5 on this track. Utter disgrace.

I want to ram their cricket bats up their @rses.

absolute disgrace. reminds me of when i ran out of milk the other day.

eng acquitting themselves manfully here
if lyth and ballance walk out 4 the next test the selectors gotta go
one last chance for bell
would appear aussies must still have been jetlagged at cardiff

what do you have to do to get dropped?

I cant see how they can possibly pick Lyth Ballance and Bellend for the next test

need to go back to county cricket and score runs

that's just it tho' SEWTER
flat track bullies against 2nd rate county bowling
not up to it at test level

Same team destroyed the Aussies by 169 runs last week. Pathetic how quickly fans and some commentators lose faith.

who can come in for balance, lyth, bell, maybe samit patel, james taylor who else

james taylor keeps doing good in county cricket but selectors don't rate him for test cricket

haven't changed my mind from before first test frog

didnt think any of them were in form to play for England and have consistently said Ballance and Lyth aren't good enough

well it works both ways frog. there was an almighty and unjustified overreaction to england's winning the first test.

but I keep saying it, Botham's saying it, and now Hussain is saying it: dead wickets widens the gulf between the sides rather than bringing them closer together.

it's a huge mistake.

The toss is highlighting how crucial it will be this series.

OK SLIP

Moeen can open or bat 3

cannot see why Taylor hasnt at least had a chance

Hales hasn't had a go either

Ali promoted up the order seems logical. Will give another bowling option as well.

Shocking shot from Buttler

Ballance is out of form. But his 60 odd first up helped set up the win in Cardiff. The opening spot is a problem as Cook has had no one bat with since Strauss quit. But a few months ago everyone was saying Cook should go. Not many saying that now.

another terrible dismissal

why cant England drop bell I don't understand if he is not good enough he cant play

it doesn't matter if we win the toss and score 450, because if conditions are good Australia will make hay against our attack on good wickets, unless they are careless. You don't hope to win a test match against good sides through the opposition's carelessness, despite this being an pretty big axiom of Flower and Strauss' dogma.

if we lose the toss, this happens.

england's best chance of winning are wickets where 270 to 330 is about par for the 1st innings.

sporting bowling wickets where all our bowlers stand a chance of having a go at australia's batting in normal english conditions. they'll then have to bat well themselves a good attack.

our bowlers are fodder on wickets like this, with our leading wicket of all time so ready to give up when it's not doing anything for him. now that's atmospherics rather than the surface, but the other four have got to have something to work with. Starc and Johnson can't produce speed through the air, and it seems that Marsh can produce effort balls, which is really worrying for the series.

Starc and Johnson *can produce...

drop ffs

Oh dear

lol ali

this is embarrassing now

Problem now is that the Aussies have confidence. Going to be hard going forward in the series.

can England get 100 at least

frog have never said Cook should go from the Test team, just not suited to ODIs and T20s

he remains an average Captain but an outstanding opener/batsman

Lol

Broad is going to get peppered

i like ballance and bell. ballance has good technique and stance at the crease. bell keeps you awake.

but, what's the point of lyth?

Mitch Johnson will fancy getting his 300th wicket here

james taylor is a must selection for 3rd test match surely

Ali and Hales average less than 40 in first class cricket. Open for England? I don't think it will stop the 30 for 3 problem.

You don't change everything after 1 bad match.

pathetic capitulation(and i'm being generous)

geez they better make really slow pitches for the next 3.

taylor is the right selection for me by a country mile, but he's crapped in someone's sandwiches, so has england 2nd leading run scorer from the last series.

so we'll go with the big ginger lummox instead i imagine, who i don't fancy at all at this level.

YOYO not sure I agree about Ballance's technique but one thing is that Ballance looks scared stupid at the moment

he's good v the short ball. never falls over.

nobody drops their arse quite like a recently talked up England team.

Ballance and Bell are out of form. But that could change at any point and they can you hundreds.

The fact that the top order are so out of form and we are level in the series is a good sign if they can get their act together.

How many overs left in the match?

130

so, the big question, can we lose by less than 400 runs.

if England batted with any sense today some bad weather could have helped them Monday

that's a huge margin of victory
are eng gonna play the men's team in the next test?

hussain shouldn't slouch in chairs. it just makes him look even more like Monty Burns

and now he's clasping his hands together.

"SMITHERS"

Is it over..... lol

interesting that cook said that.

who exactly is requesting these wickets?

if it's the counties/MCC trying to maximise revenue then you suspect in part the ECB are charging the grounds far too much for the rights to host test matches.

What did he say??

As for that as trading exercise, I wonder if anyone like me had the most humongous red on England?

Few tests are trains like that and therefore it wasn't great for trading. I just kept laying and laying but had nothing left to lay at 14s when we were 12-0!

YOMMA

ballance has good technique and stance at the crease.


Cricket coach u arent. Balance will never play for england again once they drop him, this or test after. he's unique style has been found out and thats all there is to it

Cook requested them , they suit him

England score 415 runs.  Rogers and Smith score 495

atherton asked him what sort of wicket he wanted in birmingham: he replied a nice english one.

i.e. a green top.

i'm not convinced he's asked for these wickets.

lmao

went out for a few hours come back and its over

Thanks.

Not surprised.

Lord's especially wouldn't take instructions from Cook or the coach. Groundsmen know their squares and plan a long time in advance.

The guidelines from the ECB are no seam, no spin. This even applies to county league club cricket. Prepare a pitch at premier league level that seams and you get marked down.

There are marketing interests to factor in also.

My advice to Cook for Birmingham: hope that Pup calls wrong.

grant you shocked

lords prepared an absolute green top last year against india following on from all the criticism of the awful lifeless pitch at trentbridge. that wasn't by accident surely ?

cardiff was a typical cardiff wicket. low and slow. england just bowled really well, caught everything and australia put in a shocking performance

I think Lord's do what they want.

I thought they got v. v. lucky in that game against India. Could have been all over in 3 days. It was a poor pitch (by ECB standards).

If I prepared one like that I get a low mark and an email from the League...

that could still be consistent with the amount the the MCC paid for the respective tests mafe.

my guess is that mick hunt (i've always wondered why he doesn't call himself mike) takes his advice from the club, who may have been asked for certain things by the ECB, but are under no obligation to provide it.

reading between the lines, boycott's piece in the telegraph points the finger at strauss.

I assume the squad are having a day in the nets as they have a spare day.

was a tactic well thought through, they picked a pitch for a bore draw.
they lost the toss and werent up to it. toss won it woulodve been a draw almost certainly