The Ashes: Adelaide.

[yuppie]

Well batted Shaun.

Kinda feel like this is falling into place for Australia. 28 overs this evening in what should be some good bowling conditions. A short spell for the bowlers. Australia possibly getting away with only selecting the 4 bowlers?

Great toss to win for Australia.........

[Arthur Crabtree]

Doesn't seem to be anything in it (Lyono v Haze), looking at their records.

[mikesiva]

Did Joe root do a nasser Hussain by winning the toss and electing to bowl?

[yuppie]

Did Joe root do a nasser Hussain by winning the toss and electing to bowl?

yep. I for one think it was the right decision.

[Arthur Crabtree]

One in the eye for the armchair Aussie selector with Marsh's ton.

Two in the eye if you add Paine's contribution.

Great position for the Aussies as they take a shiny pink ball in the dark.

[meninblue]

Cummins goes, and England bowling Australia out might be the best thing for the hosts.

Is Lyon really a better bat than Hazelwood?

Keeping fresh to open bowling.

True and this is the last over for Australia with Marsh putting some misery onto England. I was hoping for a debate on the relative merits of Hazelwood vs Lyon batting though:)

Nice tonking for 4 and 6er by Marsh. Remains unbeaten on 126.

Haven't analysed Haze and Lyon with the bat. So not much to comment on that. But generally both can get into useful partnerships, don't they. Cummins is moving ahead in the batting lineup with two decent innings this series.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Gentle Ben out for 2, and bowling of 9-0-49-0 makes for a chastening debut for Canterbury.

[meninblue]

Mark is batting as if their is a tailender at other end or as if the team is 9 wickets down and he is in 90's and needs to get 100 before other batsman gets out. Too impatient here. Should see off the new ball then try to take it on like Warner and Sehwhack.

[meninblue]

And gets out LBW.

[mikesiva]

Stoneman out plumb to starc for 18.

One review lost.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Handy rain break for England.

[GarlicJam]

Doesn't seem to be anything in it (Lyono v Haze), looking at their records.

Not having looked at their records, I thought it a much of a muchness at the time. Lyon has done some great watchman duties for Aus in the past.


Can't help but feel that the rain saved one, maybe even two, England wickets tonight. Conjecture, of course.

[yuppie]

It feels like England has avoided some tough batting conditions thanks to the rain.

[GarlicJam]

Can't help but feel that the rain saved one, maybe even two, England wickets tonight. Conjecture, of course.

As it may well have happened 24 hours earlier for Aus.

[Durhamfootman]

Adelaide is good to bat day 2 and 3. The plan maybe to make the most of those conditions? Potentially though England could be facing the a new ball underlights tomorrow.

lets hope the Aussie bowlers make similar use of the favourable night time conditions. If we can get away with the loss of only one wicket it'll be a good result, I think. More likely perhaps that we commence our innings under lights, chasing 400, and subside to 80-5. Then the 5-0 will really be on

400+ is not a surprise to me. the 1 wicket down is fortunate because the rain closed things early. the 5-0 has an air of inexorable inevitability about.

Opting to bowl first is often a gamble at the best of times... a captain has to be pretty certain of his team's ability to take advantage of the conditions and knock off all 10 wickets on day 1. In a day/nighter, even if all 10 are taken, it's still hazardous because it then exposes you to a tricky period of batting under lights, so winning the toss and opting to bowl first just doesn't feel particularly smart. Root must have discussed this with his coach first, so it's all a bit of a puzzle, really, particularly given that the opposition were able to score nearly 450 runs over 2 truncated days and declare 8 down