Australia v England - 2nd Test (D/N)

But not the sixth...

Or the ninth

2 Down already and the sitting wicket is still in, Crawley won't last long.

98/2 at lunch. Never fully comfortable but decent from England, some tidy shots down the ground.

Australia 1.89
England 2.48
Draw 14.0 (having touched 65.0)

98/2 at lunch. Never fully comfortable but decent from England, some tidy shots down the ground.

Australia 1.89
England 2.48
Draw 14.0 (having touched 65.0)

the usual mix of good boundary shots and awful swishes. Stokes has so far looked vulnerable. Only Crawley and Root have seemed set.

98/2 & 98/2. 196/4 at tea.

Since the early edge, Root has looked solid. Provides a great foil for the other ten - making him crucial to our approach.

Australia 1.86
England 2.54
Draw 14.0

Market thinks we're marginally better placed now, than at the first delivery. Seems about right.

Final session today could make this series.

Interesting that Australia don't seem to have any new young fast bowlers coming through. Green the only one under 30 and he is more of an all rounder. Boland 36, Starc 35. Hazlewood 34. Cummins 32, Dogget 31 and Inglis 30. How many of those will play in the next ashes?

will they manage to bowl 80 overs today? Not yet up to 50.

Anti baz ball tactics, but if they
expect ball to move more under the lights
then saving some energy to let it rip in
final session to seek the movement might be
a good tactic.

As a counter they are not happy with the ball.

Maybe it's a bit soft?

Expensive run out, next man out for nought, and 6 down.

Aussies firmly on top, who's next!

Rooooot.. box ticked, finally a hundred in Oz.

Well played Joe.

Didn't see the last hour so surprised to see the score at close. Well done Root and Archer. Slog another 20 and then get bowling tomorrow.

oz lost the plot towards the end. more interesting in ludicrous time wasting to avoid batting than just getting archer out

What a good days cricket, England will feel the better after the last hour, hope they can add another 20 or 30 tomorrow or even better occupy the crease for the first session.

Oh, and well done Joe Root.

Alreet alreet alreet
Alreet alreet alreet
Alreet alreet alreet

He’s conquered all of Aussie
He’s never going to stop
From lords to headingley
He’s won the fooking lot
Ally cook and stokesey
To the fields of scg
The barmy army will be there
They’ve come from Yorkshire


Alreet alreet alreet
Alreet alreet alreet

Something in the region of 62% of pink ball tests  have been won by the team batting first.
So could have been a vital toss for England to win, at least they are good at something

The Aussie know ,I heard them singing,you’re just a bunch of ****s

Toss.  Ers

It's quite remarkable how good a one Stokes is cuth

Field placing and catching both terrible. At least 6 easy slip catches gone through for 4 because there are not enough slips! They should be all out by now but still scoring freely.

And another although that was a hard catch.

Hope the lead can be kept under a 100. England will then need 350 in third innings to give themselves a chance.

Agree about the catching, woeful. One of Duckett's a bit of a dolly too.

The home team will get a lead of 100+ .. i expect England to capitulate and may not get 150 .. Ashes gone by tomorrow as they have no hope of coming back from 2 down. Other than Starc the bowlers for the most part on both teams have been poor and our batters excepting Root are not test match standard. Harry Brook needs a brain but he won't change and will always fail when it counts.
I had hopes before the series started but that is what kills you

Batting conditions have not been too bad, Starc can only bowl from one end and unless Boland bounces back then there is no reason why England cannot make a decent fist of it second time around.  Just cut out the idiotic shots and remember it's a test match not a 20/20.

Spot on so far geordie1956

128/6 49 needed to avoid an innings defeat.

Opening pair always bat like that but once they had gone England should have pulled down the shutters for the night and gone again tomorrow. Pope is just not suited to that but even so he and others could have shown a bit more grit and determination.

Another poor day for us.

An object lesson in how to play test cricket from the Aussies, a right pig's ear from England.

Note the way Starc played with the bat, with good support from Boland (who is not exactly renowned for his batting exploits). They added 75 crucial runs at a rate of less than 3  an over but this enabled them to really push home the advantage, tire our bowlers out  and leave us with a mountain to climb. The bazball approach would have likely been to try to hit every ball out of the ground and probably end up less than 100 in front.

The late collapse was oh so predictable. Yes there was some good Aussie bowling, Boland much better second innings just like in Perth, but the shot selection was poor again even from the usually excellent Root. Remember, this is an Aussie attack without 3 of their big 4 bowlers, one shudders to think of the even bigger mess we would be in if they had all played.

Unless Stokes plays one of his crazy innings we will be 2-0 down in the series quite early tomorrow. With so much having been in their favour 1-1 was the least we expected after the first two tests. Both the management and the team really need to sort their heads out going forward whatever happens tomorrow.

Random irritations - how bad were the umpires in the last hour ? Missing two clear edges given out on review and giving the one out that Brook was nowhere near
England are generally 40/1 or 50/1 with the bookies to now pull off an amazing comeback win, so a big cow pat thrown at VC Bet's cricket odds compiler who is only going 14/1

An absolute disgrace,England are pathetic, Stokes is a liability, Mcullum must go.
I remember saying earlier that Brearley was one of the best captains that we ever had and people especially WD laughed .However this team and management are a joke.Respect the past and you might have a chance. Brearley,Botham and Vaughan must be laughing at this shower of 20/20 jokers.3 days to go and they still flash at anything outside the off stump.2 caught and bowls and a run out in a 5 day game !!! Give me strength

stokes is so overated, agree with last poster well said , theyre hopeless , west indies this morning saved the test v nzealand even though 4 down overnight , this shambolic eng team cant survive 2 sessions ,

I wouldn't say Stokes is overrated elis but his exploits are certainly overblown by the media. His averages are slightly below Ian Botham's for both bowling and batting for instance and Beefy is a great of the game so Stokes is very talented. I'm not his greatest fan either but i can't argue with his stats.

The West Indies did indeed  put up a stoic show to draw that test v NZ. They have been even more flaky than England's batsmen under pressure in recent years.
Playing devils advocate, couldn't the seventh wicket pairing this morning been a bit more adventurous ? They put on an unbroken 180 in 68 overs but the NZ attack was weakened by injuries.. It would have been a monumental, historic sporting achievement had they chased down 531 and they were only 70 odd short. a fine effort to secure the draw but just imagine what a victory would have done for them

Good point Dixie, but, being that bit more adventurous could of cost them a wicket or two and then lost them the game.I think they will be happy to have saved the match

Showed this morning they can hang around if they want.

The ego's are the problem.

Might take a whitewash for some of them to realise it though.

Probably time for McCullum, and probably even Stokes (captaincy) to move on unless they turn the tour around..red ball stuff has been exciting but ultimately not that successful despite some great moments along the way on their watch and benefited from an artificially low takeover point...

Feels likely that if Key were to go - he probably should on England rankings across formats by the end of the tour bar a massive turnaroud,  then the white ball gets a re-think as well...

Too much of a closed shop, too little responsibility taken..
shabby prep which needn't involve tour games but was questioned by all and two pretty damning defeats against a relatively weak Australian team...usually ends one way from here..

Will England make any changes to the team for Adelaide?

Would you?

We need a proper number three batsman.

Promote either Stokes or Root and bat Pope at six. Jeep Jacks in the side as bat/spinner. Tongue for Woods.

Not much scope without a call up.

Keep Jacks.

Need Sleeper at his best too.

Same team for third test by the sound of it.