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Cricket 37: Boycott's Grandma Probably Should Bat


Jeor

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Well, I don't know whether Marsh's excellent bowling is just a good thing for him or an ominous sign for Australia. Before now he'd hardly be considered a frontline bowler, but if he can get the ball hooping around who knows what sort of damage a proper swing merchant like Curran could do.

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England have definitely wasted their chance.

It looks like Broad has been fully demoted to number 11 then. That’s a bit of a fall from grace for a player who looked on the verge of being a genuine all rounder at one stage.

ETA: Buttler realises he’s running out of partners so he decides to go into one day mode and effortlessly sticks consecutive balls off Hazlewood’s bowling into the stands. It’d be nice if he could find a middle ground between scratching around before inevitably getting out like he’s done so far this series and just smashing everything.

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23 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

England have definitely wasted their chance.

It looks like Broad has been fully demoted to number 11 then. That’s a bit of a fall from grace for a player who looked on the verge of being a genuine all rounder at one stage.

ETA: Buttler realises he’s running out of partners so he decides to go into one day mode and effortlessly sticks consecutive balls off Hazlewood’s bowling into the stands. It’d be nice if he could find a middle ground between scratching around before inevitably getting out like he’s done so far this series and just smashing everything.

Australia are falling into the trap again of focusing just on the tailender. First of all, Leach is no bunny and we know he can hang around. Secondly, I think the chances of getting Jos Buttler out are actually quite high if you set intelligent fields. He's clearly trigger happy and you might be hit for a few boundaries, but he could also miss one or sky one up in the air.

England have really squandered this day, even if they do get a 300+ total it could have been so much more. Root dropped three times, 103/1 at one stage, and they've fallen to Mitchell Marsh's medium seamers. Buttler looks to be on course for his first half century of the series. Broad getting demoted to Number 11...well, he has to be one of the most qualified batsmen to bat there with a Test century to his name.

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8 times out of 9 in this series, Warner has gotten out in single figures - pathetic. It's reportedly the first time in history that an opener has gotten out for single figure scores 8 times in a single series (I guess most of them would have been dropped before they could get that far).

I hope this Ashes is the end of his career (as per the original Ashes thread title) but the selectors will no doubt have him back for the home summer where he can revert to his usual flat-track bullying ways.

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11 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Australia might as well have selected a water bottle in place of Warner for all he's contributed to this series. 

For both openers, it seems. Harris has also gone early and not passed 20 in five innings.

From the openers all series, we have got one half century (Warner's 60-odd) out of 18 innings. Absolutely disastrous and much worse than England's record, who at least have had Burns to be productive.

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Wade probably a bit unlucky with that LBW, looked like it might have been going down leg but umpire's call gets him with it flicking the stumps. Australia looking pretty shaky now with still 176 runs behind and only 6 wickets left. 

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58 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

It’s not looking that shaky with Smith still in. 10 consecutive 50s against England for him now.

Amazing run of scores. Still, it doesn't look like he's getting much help from the others this innings.

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The addition of the left arm option of Curran does seem to have improved things on the bowling front for England. I wouldn't go as far as to say Smith's struggled against him but at least he hasn't looked completely untroubled the way he's done against every other seamer other than Archer.

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5 minutes ago, ljkeane said:

The addition of the left arm option of Curran does seem to have improved things on the bowling front for England. I wouldn't go as far as to say Smith's struggled against him but at least he hasn't looked completely untroubled the way he's done against every other seamer other than Archer.

Yes, Curran has constantly threatened LBWs, which are the main way Australian batsmen have been getting out this series. Makes you wonder what might have been if they'd had him in the side earlier in the series.

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Smith fails, getting out for his lowest score this series. Only scored 80, what a loser...

England batting first and with a big lead shows that the call at the toss really was a bad mistake.

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That's a shocking decision from Kumar Dharmasena to give Burns out lbw and it was almost dismissively reviewed. Umpiring is a tough job so I've got a lot of sympathy for umpires getting decisions wrong now and then but Dharmasena does make some odd calls.

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Burns was the recipient of a shocker from Erasmus in the first innings as well. What the DRS was for, really. The umpiring has generally been a lot better since that shocking first match but there have been a few missed calls in this one.

England are firmly in control here, and there's plenty of time left in the match for them to turn the screw. Australia's only hope is that the pitch holds up and they are only chasing something less than 250, both of which look unlikely at this stage.

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Root falls again after making a start.

But England still in the driver's seat here. Leading by 158 with 8 wickets in hand, even if there's a massive collapse they should still set at least 300, and I don't think Australia are capable of chasing that with their tin pot openers and terrible middle to lower order.

I fully expect England to set more, though. Stokes is still there, Buttler has regained some form and is just the sort of batsman needed to push up a stern target. And Curran is the aggressive sort to get some quick runs. With so much time left in the game there will be plenty of opportunity to bowl Australia out.

Edit: And I sense a Denly ton, just for @Paxter!

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