Cricket 2013

[Troy]

Watched all of it, late night finishing at 3am but it was worth it. Poor batting from both teams, so many batsmen threw away their wickets yesterday chasing balls that they didn't need to go after. Anderson's ball to Clarke was incredible, the perfect delivery. Siddle did well to get five wickets but bowled a lot of rubbish as well to go with it.

The frustrating thing from an Australian perspective is that yet again our bowlers did their job and put us in a great position and then the batsmen failed as per usual. The batsmen need to step up and actually perform as a group for once and take some pressure off the bowlers.

Cowan needs a score in his second innings to keep his spot for the next test, if he doesn't deliver Khawaja will take his spot. Such a dumb shot from him and completely different to how he normally plays. Normally he is very defensive so swinging at a wide one first ball was baffling. Smith looked good, is a much different batsman to when he debuted a few years back, better technique now. Hughes looked okay last night and these two need to go on with it today. Haddin is in next but doesn't have the coolest head, more interested in keeping up a T20 strikerate. The good news for Australia is that we bat down to 11, Agar is actually a solid batsman for a bowler and averages over 30 in first class cricket.

 

[Troy]

Far out that was a good session to watch. Hughes and Smith looked solid early and then Smith chased a wide one after getting his fifty. Played well but needed to go on with it. Then Haddin showed why he is a twat, second ball he faces tries to smash Swann to the point boundary and gets bowled. Bowlers gave no resistance and Australia were 117/9 before Agar joined Hughes at the crease. Sensible batting from Hughes and some great touch from Agar have somehow given us the lead. 112 run partnership with Agar on 69* and Hughes 63*. Great batting from both and the rest of the top order should be worried about their spots. Agar could realistically bat at 7 to bring Lyon back into the team allowing Australia to drop Watson or Cowan. I said that Agar could bat and he has showed that today, what I loved seeing was how he actually watched a ball, he knows how to leave a ball and he can actually block.

Agar has the highest score ever for a number 11 on debut and the highest score ever for an Australian at number 11.

Ridiculous.

 

[Dale]

Sensational innings by Agar, deserved the 100 but just fell short.

Game on!

 

[Troy]

Damn! So close for Agar, finished on 98 and caught pulling in the deep. Brilliant innings from him on debut and great from Hughes as well to end on 81*. Highest ever score by a number 11 and the highest 11th wicket partnership ever. Fantastic partnership to get us back in the game, from 117/9 to 280.

65 run lead. Pitch looks better to bat on with the old ball and with the sun out. Australia need to strike with the new ball.

 

[AZUCAR!]

Ugh. So disappointed with England earlier. After looking like we were gaining the upper hand with those 5 early wickets, leaving Australia 117-9, we probably handed the game to Australia by not being able to get Abar or Hughes out quickly enough. I felt we were unlucky with the stumping of Agar when he was on 6. But they were able to put on a record partnership of 163 runs and gain a lead of 65 runs.

Then when you couldn't think it can get any worse, we lose Joe Root & Jonathan Trott in the space of 2 balls. The Trott dismissal was a bad decision too IMO. Especially when the Hot-Spot camera didn't record that moment because it was still replaying the Root dismissal. Still, we have a slight lead of 15 runs heading into tomorrow's morning session, and hopefully Pietersen & Cook can stay at the crease for a while and both score hundreds.

 

[Troy]

Cook and Pieterson were looking very good this morning, very happy to see the back of both of them within a few overs of each other. Nice to see Agar get his first wicket as well. With Trott's dismissal yesterday it was a bad mistake that they didn't have a side on hotspot but I don't think it would have saved him. Front on there was no white dot on the ball and no glow on the bat that we could see and there was nothing on Snicko. That deviation that appeared to happened was due to when the ball impacted on the pad, also could have used another frame or two to fill in the gap with the slowmo.

Test very evenly poised right now with England effectively 97/4. Australia really need to get another couple of wickets to get into the tail, new ball coming up in half a dozen overs and it could make the difference.

 

[Dale]

Stop crying Aussies, Broad never nicked it :

 

[Troy]

Stop crying Aussies, Broad never nicked it :

Which team was it that rang the head of the ICC and complained about a poor decision? I seem to recall Giles Clarke calling the head of the ICC after the Trott dismissal even though all the evidence pointed to him being out. Hopefully he made a call again last night to complain about the Broad decision

With Broad I have no issue with him not walking, it is up to the umpire to make the correct call and that was a shocker. No batsmen walk these days, the only one that used to do it all the time was Gilchrist. Horrendous decision and not sure how he missed it since it went to first slip. Clarke should also learn to not waste reviews on LBW decisions, they rarely get over turned because of the umpires call.

No surprise that it was Aleem Dar, terrible umpire that has always had an issue with edges that go to first slip.

[YOUTUBE]1o79ePus7jY[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Troy]

Great innings from Bell, just got out for 109. Sensible innings and it was pretty much a chanceless innings. For whatever reason he is a much maligned player but I think that he has been fantastic for England the past few years since returning as a regular. Trust Broad to have found form with the bat for the Ashes when he had been in poor form for the past couple of years with the bat.

England 307 ahead with two wickets left. For Australia's sake I hope we get these last two wickets quickly and are chasing less than 325. Batting is much easier with the sun out so hopefully the clouds stay away otherwise Anderson is going to run riot.

 

[Troy]

Well that happened quicker than expected. Siddle gets Swann and Anderson in the same over and the lead ends up at 310. 311 is a tough chase especially with the mentally fragile batting line up that we have. Need Watson and Rogers to deliver a decent opening partnership, don't put too much pressure on the middle order. Plenty of time left in the game so no need to rush scoring the runs.

 

[AZUCAR!]

Australia currently are 70-0. Not liking our chances at the moment. We need wickets quickly if we're going to win the 1st test.

 

[Troy]

Still so long to go and this batting line up is so fragile. More confident in Rogers than Watson, has a much calmer head on his shoulders.

 

[AZUCAR!]

Drinks break finishes, next ball Broad bowls to Watson and gets him lbw for 46. He decided to review it too, but he never hit it so it was a clear lbw. And now Australia have 1 review left, should've just left when he was given out :

 

[Troy]

What did I say about Rogers have a calmer head. Watson is an idiot for reviewing it, line ball LBW calls aren't what the system is there for. Rogers decision is what it is there for, given out but he knew he didn't hit it so he reviewed it and it was reversed. So annoying seeing top order batsmen waste reviews. Yet another mid range score for Watson, still hasn't figured out how to push on to three figures.

 

[AZUCAR!]

Joe Root

111-2 at Tea.