4th Ashes Test Durham

First topic message reminder :

They're all at it again on Friday. Just as England are likely to chuck in a bad performance when everyone expects them to win (Leeds 09, Perth 2010/11, Manchester 2013) they usually bounce back next Test (Lord's and Oval 09, Melbourne 2010/11).
I'm taking England to win one of the last two Tests to ensure a series victory. Onions, it seems, will come in and that could be a good move. Still think this is not a very strong Australia team. It's just that they were an average team playing poorly in the first two Test while at Manchester they were an average team playing well.
Before Manchester, we were asking if Australia could improve/get back into the series. Well they certainly achieved the former if not the latter. Now we could ask - Can England start firing on all cylinders ?

50 up for Watson and Rogers closing in on his ton. Both looking so comfortable they could break out the pipe and slippers.

Rogers hits a boundary to bring up the 200.

At this rate they will probably declare on 450-4.

Cricinfo indicates that umpire Dar is checking the shape of the ball again. Is it the case that Rogers and Watson have smashed it out of shape? or will Big Bob be coming up with some rather colourful stuff pretty soon?

I've been out most of the day. I left having seen England get the fourth wicket to leave Australia at 76/4. Now I come back and....what's happened?!

I can't leave England alone for a minute!

England not making their superior ability count for much.

Duty281 wrote:I've been out most of the day. I left having seen England get the fourth wicket to leave Australia at 76/4. Now I come back and....what's happened?!

I can't leave England alone for a minute!

England not making their superior ability count for much.

they are missing Onions and Finn

Rogers feeling a bit of tention, and a good over from Swanny giving no free hits.

KP_fan wrote:

Duty281 wrote:I've been out most of the day. I left having seen England get the fourth wicket to leave Australia at 76/4. Now I come back and....what's happened?!

I can't leave England alone for a minute!

England not making their superior ability count for much.

they are missing Onions and Finn

Onions maybe, but not Finn. If Finn was picked, Australia would already be ahead.

Watson's strangled down the legside!. He goes for 68, and there is that moment of good fortune for England, and Stuart Broad the man for England again.

crazy decision not have onions over bres, I still cant get over it

Aus are still behind...one more half batsman in Haddin...then the bowlers and they do not have the same depth minus, starc, pattinson and agar.

Rogers choking down at one end.

and new ball due shortly.

game in balance again

Rogers stuck on 96 for the last 16 balls, as he lived rather dangerously through another Swann maiden.

KP_fan wrote:

trebellbobaggins wrote:Well played Aussie.

You applied yourselves and underlined how woeful England are.

it's a sad time for an England fan. even when we're supposed to be good we end up a shambles.  aussie have never been bad for long and soon come back to stuffing us.  we haven't got it and we never will.

there is a lot of cricket left my friend....and because Aus are batting fourth.......to me Eng still have an even chance for a win.

 they've been completely outplayed again.  In truth anything less than an Aussie draw in this series would be an unfair reflection. 

The batting problems have been there for all to see and now Aussie are on top they are tearing this weak line to pieces.   Eng are done in this one. Lucky if they make 200 with that side.

and what did Flower and the boys do?  refuse to pick the one bowler who could have produced here and refuse to drop batsmen who are so out of form my gran would have clean bowled them.

it's very annoying to see people picked on name not form like the old days.

Shane Watson... I remember there was a time South Africans were almost in tears regarding how badly Herschelle Gibbs had underachieved, but at least he got 18 test tons, Shane may just be crickets greatest ever underachiever.

At !!!!. The 35 year Australian opener has scored his first test hundred!!. Well done Chris Rogers!.

well played rogers.

for much of it he was stupidly lucky but he then dug in and applied himself.

England could learn a hell of a lot from players like him.

  well played Rogers.....personifies the Aussie fight back in this series.

and superiority with the bat.

Well played Chris Rogers, a moment that he probably never thought he'd achieve after his sole Test cap in 2008.

He becomes the first Australian, other than Michael Clarke, to score a 100 since Matthew Wade's 102* in the New Year's Test match.

Haddin hitting it clean. 
400 looks well on.

Haddin has looked positive here. Think that's the correct approach to go about on this track and under these circumstances.

Ton up for Rogers...can't recall a more battling century (not that I can remember that many). Had a LOT of luck early on but hung on for dear life and deserves his moment of glory.

Look up "grit" in the dictionary and you'll see a picture of Rogers.

Look up "lucky so-and-so" and you'll probably see his pic there too.

Great support from Watson who looks set to reach 3 figures as well.

Australia cruising and heading towards a BIG 1st innings lead.

Dyre - thats Haddin batting, Not Watson

luck similing on Eng again.....bad light calls play.
they might get some rain also in their favour

kingraf wrote:Dyre - thats Haddin batting, Not Watson

Oops!

I did go away for a bit and evidently missed the wicket.

Anyway, good fifty for Watson and with no real need to hurry, Rogers can take a breather and let Haddin have a bash.

Still a good chance of Australia racking up a lead of 200+.

Close of play for today due to bad light.

England's 1st innings score exposed as being rather deficient...worrying.

can we all admit englands batting is far far short of good enough now?

they were 200 short here. they've failed again.

Not sure Trebbs.

We are what we are and have already won the ashesYes its worrying we haven't put a 400 on for some time..

We will know a lot more when the lads are in Oz..

Actually scrub that,. The lads will clearly be under pressure in there 2nd innings.. Lets judge them after that

Hopefully we'll skittle them all out for around 300 tomorrow

And I take my source of optimism today from the Trent Bridge test of 2011, between England and India.

England were 221 all out in the first innings, and India were 266/4 at one stage in their first innings.

The end result? India all out for 288, and England go on to batter India by 319 runs, before winning the series 4 nil.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/474473.html

I think I would buy the Gospel According to Duty281... Sure it would be Nationalistic, but with so much optimism, I would probably be a happier man for reading it

Good to see Broad get the rewards today, felt he bowled well at OT without the wickets to show for it

My biggest worry is that whilst Broad was getting it to seam a lot with occasional swing, Anderson was getting it to nothing, and looked pretty harmless all day.

Duty281 wrote:And I take my source of optimism today from the Trent Bridge test of 2011, between England and India.

England were 221 all out in the first innings, and India were 266/4 at one stage in their first innings.

The end result? India all out for 288, and England go on to batter India by 319 runs, before winning the series 4 nil.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/474473.html

But our batting has really gone downhill since then, I would love to see it but cannot see where it is coming from now.

guildfordbat wrote:

I agree that conditions should suit Anderson although I'm worried that we have no 'fat' to play with. One big score together with a good partnership from Australia will see us struggling ....

Sadly my worry proved correct but, in line with Olly's post a bit above, I'm puzzled that Anderson didn't come to the party.

A very well done to Rogers. I didn't think he batted that well but in a bizarre sort of way that made his innings even better!

Just catching up with play on Sky as I've been playing (not very well) myself today, and first of all well bowled Stu Bro. He's bowled well without reward all series and he bowled well again today and was again a bit unlucky! Looked very dangerous.

As for Rogers, well, he had his luck (especially against Broad) but he made it count and you can't knock him for that so well batted to him! You are always going to need some luck early on in Eng as an opener and it is making it count that matters. I was playing at a ground a few weeks ago that had his name on the honours board as the batting trophy winner about 10 years ago and it seems he's come a long ways since then!

On a side note, the Rogers LBW/DRS was a weird one. I understand why he was given not out as it was umpires call but it the weirdness comes from the fact that no-one knows (especially with Hill as the umpire) whether he would have benn given out LBW if the Ump hadn't thought he'd hit it! Another thing that needs thinking about when the system is slightly altered.

In the end , England will have been glad to go off for bad light...Had Australia in trouble early , and if either of those two chances had stuck early in the Rogers/Watson stand they may have cleaned them up...as it is they have work to do.
First need to restrict the Australian lead ,then bat properly in the second innings. Sounds simple enough  

Some overly negative posts on here : I do suspect a touch of reverse cursing from certain people ! After all , most people said they wanted a contest in the series , so we should not moan too much now we have one...

Not sure what to make of Anderson's lack of impact. Seen it said he may be a bit tired , but he doesn't seem to be down on pace , so I doubt that...in fact I thought he was fine today with the new ball , although Broad took the wickets. Just didn't look too dangerous when he came back , and seemed to adopt more of a stock bowler mode , bowling a dry line to the right handers. When he tried for swing against Rogers he strayed leg side a few times , and I sensed he may be getting a little frustrated with a bit of a wicket drought. Will see what happens with the second new ball tomorrow.
Those who wanted to bowl first may feel vindicated by the scores , but I think England's troubles are more down to some loose batting after lunch on day one...at the moment I think the pitch is pretty good for batting , and likely to stay so for a day or so more ; so provided the deficit can be held to reasonable proportions (under 80 ?) there is no reason why England should not get back into the game and set Australia a tricky fourth innings target. When it might start to help Swann a little...

Australia certainly ahead in the game , but we could see a very interesting contest over the next three days.

Usman Khwaja is unbelievably incompetent.

Aus would be an imposing side if Katich and Hussey were playing still.

Best case but a realistic scenario for Eng this morning....
take new ball and rollover Aus within 50 to 75 runs...in first session
Lead is between 20 to 70 runs.

Bat...positively....4 sessions..score 400...declare...set a chase between 320-375....in 120 overs for Aus.

bowl them out for 200-250

win by 100 +

Boycott writing about Root in telegraph....2 parts to his observatons:

1) about Root's techncial flaw and feet movement...exactly what I pointed out when I saw him in T1
2) the parst in bold is a blatant backtracking from boycott...I saw him on channel 5 pronounce loudly and boldy during the NZ seris that Root should go up to open the batting..

there is another problem...and that-s defensive frame of mind...even with his flaws if Root was more positive  and willing to play his strokes...he would be scoring 30s and 40s atleast...instead of these horrible looking 1 off 44 ball type  of scores.

But some of the others leave me shaking my head in disbelief. Root is a young kid with enormous talent learning his trade. He likes to stay back to the seam bowlers. There is nothing wrong with that as an opener.

The bowlers are quicker and you do not want to commit yourself forward in case they bowl you a short ball. But when they pitch it up you need to be able to transfer your weight and make a big stride forward to get near the pitch of the ball.

He is getting caught on the crease. He is neither forward nor back. He is in no-man’s-land, which means from when the ball pitches to when he plays it, it has much further to travel. If it moves off the pitch he is a candidate for nicking it to slip or the keeper. The idea is to get as near to the pitch of the ball as you can to reduce the distance it travels and can move.

This was always my concern about him moving from the middle order to opening. When people say, “Hang on, he opens the batting for Yorkshire,” I would argue that he does, but the bowling in international cricket is much better and usually a bit quicker. Therefore it exposes any weaknesses.

For the moment he has lost the immaculate footwork he showed against New Zealand. It is footwork that makes batting. He has regressed. It is liable to happen with young kids. I do not know any 22-year-old who is the finished article.

wasted review here- deffo out!

Out of 16 batsmen only rodgers has been able to stay in and he has been the luckiest batsman i can remember.

This is a killer pitch..

Does Swann have Haddin?

Umpire raises his finger. Australia review...

Hawkeye confirms he is lbw for 12 and Australia are 224-6.

Important early breakthrough. Now England are into the tail and need to get the remaining wickets as quickly as possible. New ball due in a while, which should help.

Not sure if we will need the new ball tbh. Maybe Jimmy can get something out of this

The opening they needed for the new ball

Can't imagine England are looking forward to batting again on this pitch. They're going to have to be a lot more patient and disciplined than they were first time around.

a lot of seam from bres. Pitch cracking up..

We can not let them get past 250 here..

dyrewolfe wrote:Can't imagine England are looking forward to batting again on this pitch. They're going to have to be a lot more patient and disciplined than they were first time around.

TBH i am in two minds whether playing more shots or patience will yield more runs..

Good start to the day.  For England , I mean.

Like to get another one quickly now and the new ball might do for the tail...

Siddle hasn't made runs yet in these games , but he can bat a bit , so there is still work to do.

Good start for Eng...even after a day that seemed like belonging to Aus....eng are much closer in the game then many thouhgt

mystiroakey wrote:a lot of seam from bres. Pitch cracking up..

We can not let them get past 250 here..

Good luck with that ! They are at 232 already...keep them under 300 will be a decent mornings work...

Sweet. Rogers out.