phew.. I need a rest my legs are killing me

Lol

Of course, he's the current England Managing Director, not just an ex player....

Indeed, I do find Ashley Giles very annoying. After having to sit through hours of watching his slow medium pace (mistakenly referred to as spin) for many years it is pretty unedifying hearing him pass judgement on other players. He also has a very irritating voice which makes it doubly worse

Straya already have enough for a first innings lead

EFA :p

This is going to go the full three days, isn't it?

Will play start early tonight due to the lost time yesterday?

Yes. 11pm I think

Pathetic rain delays. Almost makes you wonder if Australia have been ordered not to whitewash us

Or take this into a third day

Blame La Nina.

One thing this series has been sorely missing is Steve Smith

.

No i blame the umpires

180/3 and the milking has begun.

Oh just **** off Buttler. **** right off. Now. Useless ****.

Might as well put a deck chair behind the stumps.

And Stokes is off too. Kin ell.

It’s a concern for “Harmy” “going forward.”

Malan having a trundle now. Can't be any worse than Leach.

Just spotted a Palace shirt. Bloke down near third man at the Paddington end. Smith gone.

Can he bat?

I bet he can bowl better than Leach.

Why don’t Australia declare, we can’t score 350 in 4 innings let alone 2

Khawaja has batted brilliantly and was a delight to watch, shame he plays for the enemy

Anyone else spot the Benteke-style celebration by Khawaja when he got to 100? You know, the hands either side of the knees-up thing.

Uzi is a big Palace fan.

And here’s the Steve Finnbot:

This will prove to be a fascinating 20 minutes. There are nine overs but I don't think we'll see all of them. Pat Cummins was already out on the field warming up before England's players had come off it. It feels a significant time in the game coming up. Should be riveting.

Crawley gets a second chance at the promised ton.

Pleased for Ussie. Always thought he got the rough end of the stick a bit with his career. Maybe if Davey retires, he can get another year or two in the side.

Surely Parkinson is an upgrade on Leach....

Sir Mike?

Yes agree

Semantics, but he didn't promise a ton.

We managed to survive today and not loose any wickets and took the test to day 3, playing first innings with 10 wickets in hand and some score on board

Looking very positive going forward, woo hoo

:)

(Bit of a sarky post just in case y’all wondering)

I always liked Ussie (easy to spell) bats very well and took this opportunity with both hands literally

Perhaps, but a duck would not have looked good after what he said.

No 'perhaps' - he simply didn't 'promise a ton' which is what you said he did.

And a duck would not have looked good regardless of what he said...

Exactly what did he say?

Fine...you can keep your semantics, we'll keep the ashes!

Sounds about right. I just like people to be quoted correctly - it's only fair.

With the series gone and now this Test seemingly a lost cause, tomorrow should be the opportunity for Hameed and Crawley to come to the crease to try and regain some batting self respect, and hopefully send a message to the other Batsmen that follow.
Or am i being too optomistic? interesting day ahead.

So, normal service is resumed. The follow-on, should you decide to enforce it, is only 204 runs away. Our innings will self-destruct in 5, 4, 3, 2.......

True, there's too much made up shit as it is.

Lol

He did say he will back himself to score a hundred and I like that confidence and I hope he does

A Broad-side from Stuart.

'You can dissect loads on this trip, but first-innings runs is where you live in Test cricket. We've failed to deliver that. It doesn't matter what bowlers you play if you're getting bowled out for 140. That might be a bit brutal, but that's the truth in Test cricket'

Hard to disagree.

A couple of things..

I know there is the loneliness of the bubbles and rest and rotate, but surely for the summer tests (if we are over the worst of Omicron) then if fit, you play your best XI.

I'm not surprised Broad has got the arse, but I think a final home hurrah for him and Jimmy would be popular and a good send off.

Foakes fro WK this summer too

I'm assuming its too late to change the pro hit and giggle centric calendar for 2022, but a more red ball centered theme for 2023 is pivotal for next year, if we're going to be competitive next Ashes

Well, if the bowlers were good enough to bowl Australia out for 130, we'd be 3-0 up?

*er checks and no, if we could bowl them out for 130, we'd be 2-1 up :D

Truth is our batting has been dismal and our bowling has been pretty average. Alos our fielding has been poor.
All round we've been crap

Great batting from our openers. Both 2*, which is a huge improvement.

The sooner jos Buttler ****s off the better.

Dropped Khawaja on 20 odd.

Why don’t we just pack up and go home eh

I thought that was Root

We pretty much have. albeit not the go home bit

Nah. Buttler… and then Root.

A club keeper would take a feather off an off spinner to a left hander.

Ah, ok, cheers Wolfie.

Agreed we need a new specialist keeper, has to be Foakes. Whether Buttler continues playing as only a batter is open for question. I like him, but he's certainly not a good enough keeper, so probably time to move on in a new era.

I think your bowling has been fairly solid tbf. I think your fielding/catching has been club cricket at best and your batting outside of Joe has been atrocious really. Stuart Broad is correct. If you bat well in the first dig the chances are a worse case scenario of a draw.
Yes you need 20 wickets to win, but you'll never get 20 if there's no pressure on the oppo's batters.

What incentive is there for players to thrive in test cricket over white ball? Root is one of the best players in the world and probably earns a fraction of what Buttler does with massive IPL and other franchise contracts. Someone like Livingstone has a bit of Pietersen type aggression about him as well as looking a pretty decent spinner and could be an option, but if he wants to maximise his earnings he's going to do it in the same way as Buttler.

Spot on imo Bones

Spot on.

He can’t play as a batsman Aki.

The bloke has scored two hundreds in 56 test matches.

Presumably he is a great character (going forward)?

Can’t think of any other reason.

But do you think his batting may have been hindered due to his keeping ? His batting talent is without question in my opinion, his keeper less so.

Completely agree with him

He’s a magnificent one day player.

I wouldn’t let him anywhere near the test side as a batsman.

Yep, agree on both counts.

That Extras seemed to have started well for us so far at the crease.

Sweet mother of nectar you are spot on again

The fielding has let the bowlers seriously down and as you said the bowling has been good and Stuart Board who I think reads BBS especially Art’s comments said today we shouldn’t be thinking of going forward but winning tests. I think him like Bonesy was spot on

What I’ve said all along. If I was a bowler I’d be going bananas at the batters

The only thing hindering Buttler behind the stumps is the fact he’s not a very good keeper.

If Foakes doesn’t play in the next test series (if fit) I give up.

Well.

England play 3 Tests in the WI, with the last day of the 3rd Test scheduled to be 28th March. The IPL starts 2nd April.

I can absolutely see Buttler prioritising (& being allowed to prioritise) the IPL over the Tests. Or maybe playing the 1st/1st & 2nd Test & then being allowed to **** off to the IPL.

I can see Foakes being given the sympathy Test gig with YJB there as a batsman (if he's not also at IPL).

It's so messy.

In fact, I can see Buttler retiring from Test cricket after this series or at the end of the (English) summer & just playing ODI/being a T20 whore for the rest of his career. What can he be getting out of playing Test cricket?

Our third highest scorer in 2021, did benefit from being ever present of course

Cricket does not pay as much and If Butler and Foakes prioritise IPL as it is a big pay day, then I won’t hold that against them as I do not think anyone nowadays, who is a sportspersons play the sport for the love of their country or love of the game, they are there to make money and IPL has been good for cricket in the sense it has made some players millionaires.

As fans all we can ask is they make us proud when they don that whites and represent our country

I think both Buttler and Root make over a million a year from their central contracts alone before you factor in endorsements.

Buttler could make a few extra quid doing Teflon ads.

Well he can do the Butterfinger one too :)

As Wolfie says, most on Central Contracts get pretty well rewarded. OK, not as much as in the IPL, but if someone is serious about playing Test Cricket IMO, they should NOT prioritise the IPL over 5 day cricket (if there is any clash of dates). End of.

I don’t disagree but the precedent (for prioritising IPL over Tests) has already been made, many times over. Bairstow, Buttler, Woakes, Curran & Ali all missed the 1st Test vs NZ last summer due to the 2021 IPL. And let’s not forget that the 5th Test vs India last summer was cancelled simply because the Indian players didn’t want to jeopardise their 2021 IPL (part 2) places…

I know many love the IPL but the above makes my blood boil, TBH.

I would love the ECB to have the balls to say to the players 'Test cricket comes first and if you prefer the riches of the IPL, you're no longer selected for the Test team'.

But they won't.

Rain!

Prestige.

Representing your country in Test cricket is still seen as the pinnacle in Australia and white ball cricket is a pathway to that.

Alan Knott, now there was a keeper , only scored 5. Still one of the best England keepers ever.

I would go as far as to say simply one of the best 'keepers ever.

That should read 5/100s. Always play your best keeper.

All out for less than 200 again I reckon.

Both openers gone playing absolutely rank shots. I mean really pisshole airy drives at straight balls.

36/3

Rooty gone for a big fat blob.

Boland now has eight wickets for seven runs in the last two tests.

Lol.

36/4

And we haven’t scored a run for nine overs.

I think it might be time for bed.

We should just surrender and promise not to go back to Australia until we have learned how to play cricket.

It is utterly shameful. The ECB should refund the tickets of anyone who bought a ticket. Including Aussies.

You mean all out for less than 37!

Yep. Couldn’t sleep so turned it on half an hour ago. Quality.

Cooky says he’s impressed with the way Crawley went about his innings….

Under 100. Certainly.

Embarrassing

Totally embarrassing and I did hope we would be showing some grit. Crawley is still backing himself to get a 100…..

Get in..37 reached

Wow amazing the bails weren't removed there as the ball hit the wicket pretty hard

To all you cricketingers complaining about the current test shambles: What’s the problem? So the test side is shit... who gives a googly? Didnt you all get your big bashes and your 20/20s to make the game “more entertaining” ?

Give me baseball anytime over the short forms of cricket they keep trying to market. Just to think the old one day cricket Gillette Cup was 60 overs per innings.

I’m still one of those Brits that has no clue what the rules are in baseball, other than smacking it into the crowd for a ‘home run’. Although cricket would be more fun if they had those baseball brawls when the batter didn’t like a delivery.