Second Ashes Test, Lord's, 14-18 August.

[bigfluffylemon]

Rain forecast for today. Should get a full morning session, but if the forecast is to be believed, it'll roll in somewhere between lunch and tea. And more rain on Sunday afternoon.

It's going to make it very hard for England to force a win, as they have to bowl Australia out twice and bat again with enough on the board. Australia can still theoretically bat once and trust in the regular England collapse.

That said, with the rain, if Australia are going to get a substantial lead of 100+, they'll need to be batting into tomorrow afternoon, which will make it tight to get a result. Australia's best bet is probably actually to have a small-ish lead and trust in the inevitable England collapse. England should only have to get around 300 second innings to make the game safe with the time lost, regardless of what Australia scores.

Chances of them doing that? Hmmm.

[Durhamfootman]

It's going to make it very hard for England to force a win, as they have to bowl Australia out twice and bat again with enough on the board. Australia can still theoretically bat once and trust in the regular England collapse.

of course......... that is precisely why Australia opted to field first

[bigfluffylemon]

I said this was the worst England batting line-up I can remember. There were some pretty dismal ones in the 80s, but that was before I was old enough to follow cricket.

England's batting currently has the lowest collective average in any calendar year since 1950.
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... ;view=year

The horror years of the late 80s and late 90s feature heavily on the list of worst years. It really hasn't been this bad since '98 and '99, which is just before I really got into the game. Names on those scorecards - Atherton, Butcher, Hussein, Thorpe, Ramprakash, Hick, Stewart, Crawley. To be fair, some of those were decent players, and they were batting against the likes of Donald & Pollock, McGrath & Warne, Ambrose and Walsh. Not Tim Murtagh and Roston Chase...

We have failed to make 150 four times in 11 innings so far this year, and have only passed 350 twice (and once only just). It's getting beyond pathetic.

[sussexpob]

1999 I think was the year Darren Maddy and Aftab Habib got capped. The former was a very bizarre pick, the latter looked so bad his last innings he missed a ball by a yard and the umpire gave him out to vettori.....you could say it's unlucky, but judging on his brief career, it was a show of.merxy

[Arthur Crabtree]

Batting in 1999. Nas had a good year. Tudor had a good average.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... pe=batting

The batting now looks worse. My top seven is...

Atherton/Butcher/Vaughan/Root/Thorpe/Stewart/Stokes

[bigfluffylemon]

1999 I think was the year Darren Maddy and Aftab Habib got capped. The former was a very bizarre pick, the latter looked so bad his last innings he missed a ball by a yard and the umpire gave him out to vettori.....you could say it's unlucky, but judging on his brief career, it was a show of.merxy

That's a good memory you've got there sussex!

[backfootpunch]

Pretty awful start from the bowlers so far

Not looked like getting a wicket and going for too many runs

[Durhamfootman]

Bancroft toughing it out

[Durhamfootman]

Bancroft looks like he's been given the job of 'wearing Archer down'

[captaincolly]

Bancroft looks like he's been given the job of 'wearing Archer down'

Gone now lbw. He reviewed it and I thought it looked high - unfortunately though it was umpires call. It was also close to a no ball so he was unlucky.
Khawaja out to Woakes in the next over 60/3 in the drizzle- might be a chance to get Smith out if they stay out there.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Archer not going for many runs.

I'm thinking his last first team cricket was the WC superover.

[backfootpunch]

Pretty awful start from the bowlers so far

Not looked like getting a wicket and going for too many runs

My comment had the desired effect

[captaincolly]

Pretty awful start from the bowlers so far

Not looked like getting a wicket and going for too many runs

My comment had the desired effect

[Durhamfootman]

looking better for England, but as long as Smith stays there, it will still feel like Australia's game to lose

[Arthur Crabtree]

Forecast for the weekend is pretty good.