Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Pretty horrendous day for England.

Smith or Lyono for POTM?

Durhamfootman wrote:Up to capt Root tomorrow. England need to bat all day. If they don't, Aus will win this test

not even close to batting all day

how terribly predictable

Cameron has made a decent debut. Looked quite compact in both the innings, although he did not score much in the first innings. Both Aussie openers now have a 50 each which will be a confidence booster for remainder of the series. There was lot of reaction when Matt was dropped, however Cameron has ensured that his selection is justified thus far.

Hugely disappointing day for England. In truth they started the day on the back foot after losing two wickets the previous evening ; but they had a couple of opportunities to get back into the game with partnerships developing - but they kept losing vital wickets at crucial moments.
They will be pretty shattered after competing so well for the first three days : indeed they twice reached positions from which they might easily have taken a firm grip on the game...from 240/4 on day two after seeing off the second new ball a sore of 400 beckoned ; and a day or so later they had Australia seven down and still nearly a hundred behind. Miss two chances like those and you can't expect to get a third...
Not to underplay the strength of the opposition , of course : Smith was a genius of concentration , and Cummins supported him well . And Lyon in particular bowled well (in both innings) ; but England lost more wickets to careless shots than their opponents , despite doing a fine job of grinding their bowlers down on day one. That needs to change or it will be a grim tour from here on.

The thing that looks hardest to fix is the makeup of the attack. Broad and Anderson - even in conditions not ideal for them - remain a handful for their opponents ; but Moeen is no Swann and isn't going to be a serious factor unless they can give him a lot of runs to bowl at. Woakes and Ball bowled to instructions in the first innings with some effect ; but neither really looked like breaking through. And they're going round the park second time around...
Think the loss of Wood , TRJ , Stokes and Finn from the list of available pace men might have left them with nowhere to go : I'd probably play Overton at Adelaide (think I'd have played him here !) and just hope that Woakes gets his mojo back quickly.

Not abandoning all hope yet : have seen enough to feel the Australian batting is vulnerable , at least. And their bowlers , while all pretty handy , are not exactly Johnson and Harris. But the main batsmen will need to stand up in match two...

imo England need Cook and Joe to get back in form. Only those two can play the long innings to take the scores past 400 and even 500. The remaining ones are 50 odd scorers or just somewhere around a ton.Without both of those batters in form, Aussies will be knocking out the runs and taking leads.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Smith or Lyono for POTM?

Has to be Smith. His innings was the essential difference between Australia having this easy target and probably looking at a three hundred chase. Lyon indeed bowled well in both innings - outdoing the much-hyped pace trio - but surely the skipper was the star ? Took a bunch of catches too ...

alfie wrote:

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Smith or Lyono for POTM?

Has to be Smith. His innings was the essential difference between Australia having this easy target and probably looking at a three hundred chase. Lyon indeed bowled well in both innings - outdoing the much-hyped pace trio - but surely the skipper was the star ? Took a bunch of catches too ...

Agreed

A horror day for Eng - yhe tail may need some net practice against the short ball before the next test

Not even close to who the MOTM will be. Smith's knock was the massive difference.

alfie wrote:

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Smith or Lyono for POTM?

Has to be Smith. His innings was the essential difference between Australia having this easy target and probably looking at a three hundred chase. Lyon indeed bowled well in both innings - outdoing the much-hyped pace trio - but surely the skipper was the star ? Took a bunch of catches too ...

Yep, without a doubt - imo...

I think his four catches in the one innings equalled the record for a non-keeper at the Gabba.

Adi wrote:50 for Cameron and Warner. Both look well settled.

Great for both Bancroft, and Aus, that he has had a decent knock this innings.

The three controversial choices (well, the only changes) by the Aus selectors have all paid off. Of course, they will get very little credit for it in the media...

Gingerfinch wrote:Not even close to who the MOTM will be. Smith's knock was the massive difference.

Very possibly, England would have won without it.

GarlicJam wrote:

Adi wrote:50 for Cameron and Warner. Both look well settled.

Great for both Bancroft, and Aus, that he has had a decent knock this innings.

The three controversial choices (well, the only changes) by the Aus selectors have all paid off. Of course, they will get very little credit for it in the media...

Yes, all replacements have done well enough. Cameron with a 50, Tim Paine with nice glove work (i like the way he stumped out Moeen and his glove work was clinical) and a 50 for Shaun Marsh.

Given the likely result is almost a certainty at this point. It does bare worth mentioning that before Smith's knock in the first innings, England were very much in the driving seat. Goes to show that despite what will end up being a very one sided looking result, there isn't much between the two sides. England badly need Cook and Root to turn up though.

Looks like bairstow is in trouble for headbutting an Aussie player outside a club 2 weeks ago.
Under investigation now by the ecb.