4th Ashes Test - Melbourne

The Boxing Day test match is upon us people!

There are rumoured to be a few changes to the England side, one of course enforced with the retirement on Graeme Swann. There hasn't been too much about who will replace him, Panesar would be the obvious choice. The other all but confirmed move will be Jonny Bairstow taking Prior's place.


Australia:
CJL Rogers, DA Warner, SR Watson, MJ Clarke*, SPD Smith, GJ Bailey, BJ Haddin†, MG Johnson, PM Siddle, RJ Harris, NM Lyon

England:
AN Cook*, MA Carberry, JE Root, KP Pietersen, IR Bell, BA Stokes, JM Bairstow†, SCJ Broad, TT Bresnan, JM Anderson, MS Panesar


With the series already over, lets hope we just get to see some good cricket. From an English point of view, lets not lose 5-0!!

Now back to the Christmas pudding for me...

Cricinfo hinted that Boyd Rankin looked good in training. But it'll be a massive call for this England management to replace Tim Bresnan!. Bairstow is looking ever so close to taking over the wicketkeeping duties from Matt Prior. So Panesar and Bairstow in for Swann and Prior, and perhaps Rankin for Bresnan? If Broad is not fully fit, I don't think England should really risk him at all. But he has had some time off, so he should be ready and reports are that he'll play.

Flower loves trundlers who can give notional comfort of being better batsmen.....whihc one of Bresnan, Boyd and Finn fullfills the criteria   

Monty has received his 50th cap. He shall play

Looks like prior is dropped, rightly so IMO. Also looks like the same pace attack as Perth as Broad is warming up with Bresnan and Anderson.

Australia has won the toss and will bowl.

Will Cook ever win the toss?

Useless naughty naughty boy

Australia:

CJL Rogers, DA Warner, SR Watson, MJ Clarke*, SPD Smith, GJ Bailey, BJ Haddin†, MG Johnson, PM Siddle, RJ Harris, NM Lyon


England:

AN Cook*, MA Carberry, JE Root, KP Pietersen, IR Bell, BA Stokes, JM Bairstow†, SCJ Broad, TT Bresnan, JM Anderson, MS Panesar


Olly, if you want me to insert the teams in the OP let me know.

Yeah please do LB!

On me tablet would require far too much effort for someone as bloated as I am at this moment

Panesar in for Swan and Bairstow in for Prior. Australia win the toss and put England in to bat.

Oh joy, I have an horrifically bad feeling about this Test.

Still you can't be annoyed when you have a day involving 2 Test Matches and 10 PL games. Not to mention all the family, friends, alcohol etc.

It may be 4-0 in a few days, but at least I'll be cheerful.

170 all out today I reckon - we're on our way to an innings defeat! It will take something massive from England to get something from this test match and I just don't see it. All the fight has been punched out of them, while Australia are on a high.

On the team selection, disappointed Ballance didn't get a go. Cook already looks all over the place - how has he lost four tosses in a row?!

God Save the Queen!

Clearly the reason Australia are 3-0 up is because their team link there arms over shoulders during the anthems #thelittlethings #spirit #jokes

Yes Duty it is worrying. I don't see Bairstow being up to filling Prior's boots - I hope I am wrong.

Bill Lawry!   

We've missed his contributions. Can't wait for Richie in Sydney too.

Although it may seem trivial, Cook's inability to win the toss is a little bit of a worry, not winning it can be crucial at times

A steady enough start for England who are 28 for 0.

Some luck is actually going England's way in the first hour.

All different today...

Clarke choosing to bowl first - Aussies dropping a catch , and wasting a review - and Duty has turned into Trebell   

Lot of swing for Watson...

Not a very good leave from Carberry   

England just cannot turn these forty-fifty stands into big partnerships. All the pressure now back on England. And again Carberry has failed to convert a start , which is why I do not expect him to have a long Test career.

First hour after lunch definitely Australia's : after a burst of scoring just after the interval , the runs were dried up again and Carberry removed.

KP and Root battling away against the former's nemesis Siddle and Johnson...

And immediately after drinks Harris comes back and removes Root.

The regular pattern of the series unfolding again   

It really is a case of same old, same old for England. Cook gets a start but can't convert and Carberry gets a good start looking comfortable then out of the blue in his 30s or 40s loses his wicket and Root scratches around for a while before getting out.

Australia again have throttled England for runs and at tea England are 135 for 3. Pietersen and Bell at the crease not looking too fluent but one of these needs to post a big score for England to post something like a respectable first innings score in excess of 300.

Have to give the bowlers some credit , of course. After the early overs they settled into some very tight stuff , denying easy runs. But even so I think there could have been a bit more enterprise shown by the batsmen. Singles , perhaps , more than boundaries.

Bit disappointed by some of the running between wickets from England today actually. Few twos could have been threes...all helps.

Days honours still to be determined though. This partnership important. Still looks like heavy going...

Pietersen reaches 50 and now with Stokes for company, England are 190 for 4 with the new ball about to become available. If this pair can survive until close of play I would say it had been an even day but another wicket before close then it has been Australia's day.

Kevin Pietersen has been clearly struggling, of late seemingly with his fitness as well. But he has battled his way to a half-century, dropped on the way by George Bailey.
England just an over away from the 2nd new ball, they've lost 4 wickets, and have only 190 on the board. Australia have certainly bowled well, but as Ian Chappell observed on commentary, any decent attack will bowl well if you let them to. The Australian attack is a lot more than decent and they've been bowling well on their own, but today England have let them bowl even better with their batting.

Some intent from Ben Stokes in the final over before the new ball. Launches Lyon for a 6 does the youngster. England 201-4.

Stokes falls victim to Johnson off the new ball for 18 and England are 202 for 5. Australia's day.

Well, Johnson has paced out Stokes.

Gone now , though , the young man. Good ball from Johnson.

England in danger of unravelling again.

CC it already was Australia's day, the only chance for England to even the day was that if KP and Stokes could close out the day. All that we need to know is how far will the day belong to Australia. It could get very ugly for England in the next halfhour here.

The trouble with all the slow batting...they have occupied the crease a long time today , but have only 200 on the board.
Few wickets with the new ball and you'd have to call it a huge waste of a lot of concentration and effort. Unless their aspirations have been reduced to batting out a day and getting over 200 in the first innings...

I'd better stop. Starting to sound like KP_fan   

Bairstow goes for 10 and the tail is exposed as England slip to 216 for 6. No doubting the slow scoring has done a lot of damage. A quicker scoring rate could have made a big difference.

After top-edging a 6 of Johnson, Jonny Bairstow is bowled for 10 to compound the problems for England.
England 216-6. The end should be near.......

Kevin Pietersen, batting more in the Boycott mode rather than the Pietersen one, has gone pass Geoffrey in terms of test run tally for England.

England close on 226 for 6 with Pietersen 67 not out. Another tough day in the series for England.

England go into stumps at 226-6. Pietersen on 67, Bresnan on 1. Has to be England's best first innings effort so far in the series though still a substandard one really, but with only 4 wickets remaining, things won't be easy tomorrow morning. At least England have batted out a day, there hasn't been a 6 for 7 or some such routine horrendous collapse either. But at the end of it, its Australia's day.

Yeah neither fish nor fowl...

Batted the day out , but in the end lost two wickets too many to justify the cautious approach.

Not out of it yet - KP and the tail could yet muster a half decent total , and there may be enough in the pitch tomorrow for England's bowlers to hit back.

Australian bowling was very good again. Johnson not so hot early in the day , but that late new ball spell was excellent . Harris the bowler of the day for me though. Two wickets prised out when there didn't seem to be much happening through the middle of the day. And he could easily have had more.

Rather glad England didn't heed the ravings of the lunatic fringe and drop KP   

Of course Australia might storm through the rest of the batting quickly and go on to pulverize England's bowlers...

Hope not. Will be there tomorrow and I don't want to be tempted to jump off the grandstand   

No, left that to the Aussie fieldsmen, alfie.   
Well done to KP. He's lucky to be there still but at least he has shown some fight despite having to play well within himself.

Hey , lb ...how did you pull up after Christmas celebrations ?

I was feeling a bit furry myself at start of play this morning   

Not like the Australians to be so generous to KP - Coulter-Nile even threw in an extra six runs...

alfie wrote:Hey , lb ...how did you pull up after Christmas celebrations ?

I was feeling a bit furry myself at start of play this morning   

Not like the Australians to be so generous to KP - Coulter-Nile even threw in an extra six runs...

Sort of felt it this morning too - mild turkey overdose and still plenty of it... and some 'sweets' left. Paced myself today. Might tuck into some more a bit later.  

Enjoy the day tomorrow, mate. Don't forget the AeroGuard!
(never seen so many flies - they must be visiting relatives in Melbourne for the holiday season?)   

KP has been a very lucky boy. But hes rode his luck, and is now well set. I'm one of the people who have been very critical of KP, but fair play to the guy, he's playing a hand.

Australia's day one, but anytime youre sent in to bat, you'd think being five or six down isnt too bad, problem has been the run rate. 270/7 looks a lot better than 220/6, but I understand England's logic for taking it slow. It's a record crowd at the G, and I think they paid for a fair days cricket. With the state of England's tail, I'd say They'll be 265-ish all out within fifteen overs.

new game...same old script...and Einstien's definition etc applies.

same trundler  in the side


same old story......getting starts but no one makes it big.....and the only guy who is getting 40s and 50s and 60s is the one maligned and threatened to be dropped.

same old slow, defensive attritional cricket....with the bat......batting all day to manage only 220 instead of a par 300.

extrapolated like on most of their good days...this is looking like another 270 to 300 total max

extrapolated.....Eng will have Aus in a tight corner...but will lack the fire-power in their bowling to nail them.

a long series looking much much longer.

Let's see what happens at Jo'burg today

What's happening in Jo'burg today, mate?

Thought it was at Durban? ......

Linebreaker wrote:What's happening in Jo'burg today, mate?

Thought it was at Durban? ......

yes thanks..it is durban

The excitement is getting to you... ha ha.

Are we meant to infer from KP_fan's meandering post that the main factor in England's pedestrian progress with the bat today was the continued selection of Bresnan ?

Not sure what else Flower & co could have done to turn the batting around. Short of Gooch making a comeback...

So Bairstow still gets bowled by straight deliveries. And we're still yet to see his p!ss poor keeping. Kids never gonna be good enough

India to bat...wonder if Steyn will be bouncing back to his best after a rare poor Test ?

Decent finish to that first over...

Yep England's young batsmen given a chance to prove themselves undone by knowing they won't have a medium fast Irishman bowling.

I suspect England could've picked chuck Norris and still have ballsed this test up. To be honest they are lucky to be where they are, for all the talk of guts from kp he nearly gave his wicket away twice with rash shots, once with dodgy running and again flapping.
Pretty limp all round. Shuffling the deck chairs isn't solving the problem.

Olly wrote:So Bairstow still gets bowled by straight deliveries. And we're still yet to see his p!ss poor keeping. Kids never gonna be good enough

Give the man a chance , Olly ! At least let him put the bloody gloves on before you start dissing his keeping...