ljkeane

There’s a bit more in it for the bowlers this morning but I’d say conditions are stil pretty benign. England are trying to apply more pressure with their fields than Australia did though. ETA: Harry Brook in to bowl with the relatively new ball against Steve Smith. What is happening?

Southgate's picked Alexander-Arnold in midfield. I do think moving from defence into midfield is a little different than starting there but he does have more experience in there than last time Southgate tried it. I still think Southgate's being a little conservative though. England are very well set up to play the defender stepping into midfield to create a box midfield system that's been so popular in the Premier League this year with both Stones and Alexander-Arnold available to him. That'd free Bellingham and, say, Foden up to play the more attacking roles.

They weren't that far away from the new ball. Maybe Stokes didn't back Robinson and Anderson to last long so rather than scratching around trying to get 20 or 30 mores runs better to end on a positive note and, perhaps, pick up a bonus wicket. I'm with Pax though, I don't think I'd have done it. It's clearly going to be a high scoring match, at least give Root a chance to get you up to 450. Having said that I wouldn't have made a lot of the decisions which have ultimately worked out for England under Stokes.

Heh, England, don’t back down. Root’s nearly got England to 400 hundred but I still think that’s a below par first innings score but Stokes has declared. He isn’t going to die wondering.

It’s got to be a par score of about 400. You’re not going to see much better batting conditions than this in England. It was a very good partnership between Root and Bairstow but that’s a good bit of bowling from Lyon. I suspect England won’t be making that par score of 400 now. ETA: That’s a poor shot from Moeen. I know it’s Bazball and everything but ball spinning away from you that’s very low percentage.

Fuck’s sake. ETA: Fuck’s sake. Also why’s Stokes reviewing that?

I don’t really get what’s going on with Chelsea. I thought they needed to sell to balance the books having splurged £600 million on basically fuck all and failed to make the Champions League? On top of that you’d think Brighton will want more than the £70 million Arsenal offered them for Caicedo in January. Taken in isolation Caicedo’s certainly a good addition but Fernandez was pretty much the one Boehly signing that clearly worked out so it’s not like that’s the real problem area for Chelsea.

That wicket on the stroke of lunch turns it from an ok session to a bad one for England given the conditions. I really don't think Australia have played well but a couple of avoidable dismissals from Duckett and Pope have saved them from what could easily have been a really bad start to the Ashes. Bah.

A bit of a poor dismissal from Duckett after a good start for England. Ok that’s his area but he’d just got away with basically playing the same shot the ball before. ETA: Interesting start. Australia have very quickly reverted to a more one day style field with a lot of boundary riders. They’ve done it so quickly you’d think it’s been something they’ve been planning.

A little bit of a surprise from Australia going with Hazlewood and Boland. I would have thought the variety of Starc would be useful against England trying to Bazball the leather off the ball.

He signed a contract extension in November. Apparently he plans to leave when that runs out in two years but who knows how accurate that is or whether he'll change his mind over the next two seasons.

I’m the same with Natasha Lyonne but that character she always plays works quite well in Poker Face so she’s ok in it. I’m enjoying the show so far anyway.

Inter weren't that defensive. I mean City had more of the ball, 'cause it's City, but Inter played with two up front throughout and were trying to get numbers forward at every opportunity. The xg was about 2-1 in Inter's favour.

So, honestly, I pretty much ignore everything Spocky posts about Keir Starmer but if Labour can’t take advantage of this to pick up a load of Scottish seats then Labour supporters should be up in arms.

Argh, ffs, Lukaku has to score there.

Fuck. ETA: Fuck. Get out the way Lukaku!

Decent half for Inter. They’re unsurprisingly on the back foot a fair bit but when they do get the ball they’re getting numbers forward with the two up front. They just need to find a bit more of a killer pass. Also De Bruyne going off doesn’t hurt.

I don’t like the way people are putting Stones in midfield in their graphics recently. He starts in defence then moves into midfield, Pep’s being moving one of the fullbacks into midfield in attack for years but nobody was putting them in midfield for the team lineup graphics. Bah.

Walker on the bench (presumably not fit enough to start) is a little bit of a boost for Inter.

444 to win does look a bit unlikely but we have seen some big chases to win in recent times. Sharma and Gill are giving it a good go anyway. As I was typing this Gill is out to a brilliant catch from Green. I’m not really sure why it took so much time to give it.

I don't know about complacent, that's a little harsh. They obviously were aware that midfield was where they needed to strengthen and they did try to buy Tchouameni last summer and planned to get Bellingham this summer. They overestimated how much their current midfielders had left to give though and with the benefit of hindsight having missed out on their main target last summer they should have gone to someone else. If they're interested in, say, Gravenberch now last summer would have been a better time to sign him.

I thought he actually did quite well in the first innings to be fair. He definitely had the toughest period of the match so far to bat in and pretty much got Australia through it, the dismissal was fairly unlucky too. Labuschagne is looking very uncomfortable here. ETA: Come on. This is a bit ridiculous the spectator has paid for his seat (presumably), he’s allowed to sit there wearing a red shirt if he wants ffs. Smith should just be told to suck it up and get on with it.

Yesterday’s man, you can’t be going at a strike rate of 45 in the Bazball era. On the other hand Scott Boland currently going at zero runs for one wicket in England is a little concerning. ETA: India are in big trouble here. They’re staring down the barrel of an embarrassing defeat if they don’t put a solid partnership together soon.

True I suppose, that just felt a bit more in line with a normal sponsorship rather than being clearly ridiculously overpaid to sign up to an obvious sportswashing project for MBS.

At least Messi didn't take the Saudi blood money. Although that's offset a bit by him taking the Qatari blood money.