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Cricket 37: Boycott's Grandma Probably Should Bat


Jeor

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England have dropped Roy and Overton from their side for the last test and are bringing in Curran and Woakes. I was going to say 2 all rounders seems a little excessive but apparently Stokes is struggling with a shoulder injury and is unlikely to bowl much so Curran's effectively replacing him as the all rounder.

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Guess I was wrong about that England squad, maybe the news was premature. Woakes should have been playing instead of Overton anyway. I guess this means effectively Curran replaces Stokes and Stokes replaces Roy. It's a lineup that bats deep but is thin on specialist batsmen.

On the Australian side apparently Travis Head has been dropped in favour of Mitch Marsh, and Siddle might come in for one of Cummins/Hazlewood who could be rested. However I would think if Marsh is playing, there's no need to rest either of our best bowlers as presumably Marsh would bowl about 10-15 overs a day to lessen their workload. And with Labuschagne as well there are a few options to keep our frontline bowlers fresh.

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4 hours ago, ljkeane said:

England have dropped Roy and Overton from their side for the last test and are bringing in Curran and Woakes. I was going to say 2 all rounders seems a little excessive but apparently Stokes is struggling with a shoulder injury and is unlikely to bowl much so Curran's effectively replacing him as the all rounder.

Replacing Roy with Curran does seem like it would strengthen the batting line up a bit given how much Roy has struggled. It'll be interesting to see whether he has some success with the ball as well since he is a different style of seamer to the other England bowlers.

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I'm expecting England to put in a good show tonight. Despite all the talk about the series winner and the Test championship, a large amount of the pressure has dissipated. When the pressure was on, Australia (and Smith) were the ones who generally thrived but now that the pressure has lifted, I think England may be rid of their performance anxiety.

Especially if David Warner still plays, he's just a walking wicket and will always help England's bowlers to get off to a good start...

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Uh oh, I think Tim Paine just made a "Nasser Hussain at the Gabba" decision to bowl first. 

If England can get through the new ball they might relish batting first, and that's what Root said he would have done.

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Putting down the chances off Root doesn't help make the decision look any better! Definitely looks like a blown call at the toss.

Someone in cricinfo feedback pointed out that Burns has scored more runs than all the other openers put together. That's actually very impressive. If nothing else, England have at least found one half of a promising opening partnership this series. We already knew Stokes and Broad were good (England's two other standout performers this series), but Burns is a great find.

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We can second-guess all we like (and goodness knows lots of my calls have been proven wrong despite being good on paper!) but apart from the toss I think Australia made a mistake with picking both Marsh and Siddle.

That gives us four right-arm seamers - Cummins, Hazlewood, Siddle and Marsh.  Two opening fast bowlers and two fast-mediums, all right-handers, a bit samey. Surely it would have been better to have Starc instead of Siddle for a bit of variety, and Marsh could fulfil the holding role if needed? 

Starc also slightly strengthens the batting over Siddle, and his left-armers create footmarks for Nathan Lyon (although I suppose Curran will inadvertently do that anyway).

It doesn't help that Siddle has also served up some tripe this innings so far. Instead of being the stock bowler he has gone for 0/50 off 12 overs. Easy to say in hindsight, I guess.

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Root falls for a small half century again, despite Australia trying to get him to a century with three dropped catches. Siddle, Paine and Smith will all be feeling much better now with him back in the sheds.

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I think Paine’s definitely made the wrong decision to bowl today, conditions are fine to bat in, but England are in the process of letting him off the hook again.

Root got a good delivery again but he shouldn’t really be getting bowled though.

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Just now, ljkeane said:

I think Paine’s definitely made the wrong decision to bowl today, conditions are fine to bat in, but England are in the process of letting him off the hook again.

 Root got a good delivery again but he shouldn’t really be getting bowled though.

Yeah, still the wrong decision to bowl. And although they're running out of specialist bats, England still bat deep so there's a chance they could get a total around 350 yet. When choosing to bowl first you kind of need to skittle the opposing side for 250 or less for the decision to be vindicated, and I'm pretty sure England will still make it past that.

Root played as if the ball kept low (doubling over afterward) but I think his footwork was just a bit all over the shop. The amount of bowleds in this whole series (Roy, Root, Bairstow etc) is a bit shocking.

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Definitely the wrong decision to bowl. No doubt. England looked well placed to capitalise early on, but Aussies have tightened things up quite nicely. England is still on top when you think they've only lost 4 wickets. But a series of fragile batting performances hangs over their head.

Root's bowled are at least somewhat justifiable as all of those were almost perfect deliveries. Lot more than some of Bairstows (Starc's one aside), Roys and Warner's, where it was just dreadful technique.

More awful review from Paine. FFS. As the keeper he is in the best spot to see that and really should do better.

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1 minute ago, Jeor said:

Root played as if the ball kept low (doubling over afterward) but I think his footwork was just a bit all over the shop. The amount of bowleds in this whole series (Roy, Root, Bairstow etc) is a bit shocking.

He should be covering his stumps, especially 100 and whatever balls into his innings. It was a good ball and if it takes the edge and he’s out caught in the slips you’d say fair enough but it should have to take a bit more than that to hit his stumps at that stage.

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3 minutes ago, The Winged Shadow said:

More awful review from Paine. FFS. As the keeper he is in the best spot to see that and really should do better.

Yeah this review business is a sorry state of affairs for Australia. I really think they need to do it on instant gut feel. Every time they debate it and review it in the last few seconds, it's always wrong.

I think they also have to somewhat trust Erasmus. He's made few errors this series (apart from the awful Burns LBW this morning) so if you're going to challenge him, you need to be absolutely sure. Whereas if it's Joel Wilson, challenge away...

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There goes Bairstow. I'm no fanboy of Mitchell Marsh but he has bowled well - and in fact outbowled Siddle and matched him for pace. They really should have picked Starc instead of Siddle.

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Australia have really controlled the run rate since tea and that's resulted in a couple of wickets. England just have to knuckle down and tough this period out; with Buttler, Curran and Woakes they can still make a decent total. Archer hasn't contributed with the bat yet but is probably due for a cameo.

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