SECOND TEST: LORDS

Bit late to the party. Hors de combat (which, in case you were unaware, is French for hors de combat). Missed the washed out first day, which, given the nature of Test cricket, could have racked up myriad comments. Then missed the weird second day where we won the toss, sent England in, and rolled the Poms for 250-odd despite almost every English batsman notching double figues. That feels like more of a comment on the English batsmen rather than the Australian bowling, so we may have dodged one courtesy of English generosity. However, since I went to sleep during the Luncheon Adjornment, I haven't seen many of the dismissals and could be wildly off the mark.

Comments

[Patard]

I'm still not impressed with our "potent" attack even though Pattinson has been rested. Starc has to be there if we're fair dinkum and I suspect some sort of new-age homeopathic Langerism shenanigans in the selection policy.

Luckily for us the poms have been pretty shouse so far and didn't really test our much MSM vaunted "potent" attack.

Wouldn't it be grand if Langer could see fit to bowl an entirely NSW attack?

Two understrength Oz teams play old foes Poms and Kiwis in back to back Tests yet Oz prevails.

As Bowie sang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08tCskqM5Y4

Imagine if we simply bowled the best attack.

Geeze Tones just put up a "comments closed".

Kill it. Kill it with fire.

[Tony Tea]

I'm not sure what the "comments closed" refers to.

[I am Not Trampis]

I repeat I cannot see the Poms winning a test/ without Anderson they cannot take 20 wickets and their batsmen are lamentable.
Please notice the TV commentators are as bad as nine used to be. A ball that swings is not seaming!

[I am Not Trampis]

for the poms,
Braveheart appears thus far not a test player,
Root has declined as a batsman, Denley always decieves a a player of class ,Stokes,Butler et al stil have hangovers from world Cup.

Why oh why do we go in to a test without a fast bowler. Two fast mediums and a medium pacer is not good enough

[Tony Tea]

Cummins is not a fast bowler?

[I am Not Trampis]

no only fast medium

you need to get to 150 to be a fast bowler.
Power station is faster than Cummins

[Carrot]

That’s another one of your trolling, self-made definitions, Trampis.... Cummins is a fast bowler all day long. The generally-held definition is someone who can bowl fairly consistently around the 90mph/145kmh mark. Capable of 150, sure - but not even Johnson was bowling every ball at 150 in his pomp, neither Shoaib or Lee.

[I am Not Trampis]

Cummins isn't as fast as Hazelwood!
The pommies are faster than him.
He aint fast.

You need to bowl above 150k on a consistent basis to be called fast otherwise the meaning a of fat bowling becomes meaningless

[I am Not Trampis]

make that fast bowler we haven't had a fat bowler since Merv Hughes

[I am Not Trampis]

Let me make a qualification. you do not have to be a fast bowler to be a dangerous bowler. Both Ambrose and the Big Bird or even Nugget Miller showed that.

[Carrot]

Bullshit.

[Carrot]

Moving house atm, spent three quarters of the first session moving boxes. Started watching with about half an hour to go before lunch. Everything in the commentary was about Smith. EVERYTHING. If the commentary and media have been so obsessed with him since Edgbaston, you can only imagine what he’s doing to the English team. A mate of mine on Facebook made the remark that this must be somewhere approaching what it was like when Bradman played, when every conversation and article was all about him, every time.

One of the funny things I’ve noticed is that Smith doesn’t seem to have an “aura”. He doesn’t bat with his dick the way that Ponting did or Kohli does, he doesn’t think he’s God the way Tendulkar did, he doesn’t want to destroy you and your family like Lara and he’s not in a cage fight like Steve Waugh. He just..... bats. Apparently without ego, and like he’s in an unending net session. It must be like bowling to a robot. The odds should be shorter for which English bowler will have a nervous breakdown than for when they’ll get him out cheaply.

[Carrot]

One thing’s for sure, that bowler won’t be Jofra Archer. I knew that any talk about the series already being won after Edgbaston was the height of stupidity. Archer is the Real Deal, and what he just did to Smith is the sort of thing to cause shockwaves in any dressing room. How we deal with that moving forward will be really interesting to see.

Give or take the weather, this has been the series we’ve been waiting for from these two sides so far. Let’s hope we get more of this moving forward.

[I am Not Trampis]

That is because Archer is quick not fast medium.
Smith was seeing the ball well but could not handle him.
Also will the Aussies bowl as short knowing Archer can come back in spades

[I am Not Trampis]

Smith was obviously totally done by Archer. He was all out of sorts. This could be interesting going forward

[I am Not Trampis]

What was the point of Smith batting.
This match is going to be a draw. It just gave Smith more psychological scars.

[Carrot]

I doubt that. You could see after he got hit how unhappy he was to have to go off. Not the behaviour of someone running away from anything. If Smith was the type to get psychologically compromised, he wouldn’t be here in the first place.

I also don’t think this will be a draw. It could very well be and perhaps should be, but I think both these sides are bad enough to give it away. Two quick wickets and England are done; a 200-run chase in a session and a half and we could well be.

[Carrot]

..... But all bets are off if it’s raining, of course. Bollocks.

[Smivvys back]

Smiths head blow was down to his sore arm. He was clearly uncomfortable after he took the first blow, and that buggered up his judgement when hit the second time. And going the tonk upon his return and how he got out just showed he was still bothered by the arm not his neck. In my opinion.
Also a win either way today is most likely. A draw only if the poms bat 2 sessions as Root will never declare unless they get 100 in the first session, and on this wicket I doubt that.
Warner has to take a catch at some stage also. Lets hope its a screamer so that it fires his very ordinary batting performance to date

[Carrot]

If we manage to get out of this with a draw, I think we’ll still look pretty good for the series. We would only need to win once more then to retain the Urn, and I think this English side are more than capable of losing one of the next three matches. If we lose and Smith is out for Headingley though, I really worry. We’d have to bat VERY badly today to do that of course - but we all know we’re more than capable of doing that.

[I am Not Trampis]

mate, Smith feet were jelly when facing Archer. It is all different now. He was like a punch drunk boxer when he came out and it was for nothing.

[Carrot]

We’ll see. This has been a game of small margins. England’s 8-run lead could prove significant, Smith’s 12-run contribution after he came back in could too, but more likely the 10 overs lost at the start of the day. Let’s see what happens.

[I am Not Trampis]

easiest prediction was that Archer ball after he took Warner's wicket would be over 90 mph. Before thaqt Broad was quickewr than him.
Khawaja looked very all at sea facing Archer.

[Carrot]

If Khawaja doesn’t have a reputation for being suspect against the short ball, he should. I can’t remember which WC game it was, but he was all over the place against someone quick at one point.

We’ve done well since the two wickets have fallen. Labuschagne in particular has looked quite composed, and Bancroft seems to have avoided Archer completely for the most part. In previous tours we’d be six down and the game would be over though, and it’s not the first time this series that we’ve soaked up a bit of pressure. I don’t think we’re necessarily a better side than the tours of ‘09, ‘13 and ‘15, but it seems that we’ve found a way to address falling in a heap all the time the way those sides did, which is great.

[Carrot]

Well, that got a little more interesting than it should have, but...... sorta not really, too. Saving a Test by four wickets isn’t THAT big an escape, and the last few overs, particularly when they had to take off Archer because of the light, were negotiated with a minimum of fuss. What a knock by Labuschagne, though! Smashed in the face second ball, bits-and-pieces player, walking wicket, what’s he even doing there in the first place, and he looked as good as anyone. At one point he was taking all the strike too (particularly when Head lost his mind against Leach and tried to get out off just about every ball he faced in his first over against him), he didn’t get rattled and played a seriously good, mature innings. He was oh so unlucky to get out, too - a deflection of short leg and then a catch that might have been turned down on another day - but that’s cricket.

There was some very good cricket on display from both sides today, too. It bodes well for the rest of the series. Hope they pick Siddle for Headingley though, and resist the temptation to go Full Lehmann with the quicks - it just doesn’t work in England.

[Carrot]

Oh - one more thing; I think it WAS the rain that probably made the difference in the end. Let’s hope this match becomes their Fvcken Cardiff.

[Smivvys back]

Now we have the greatest batsman in the world who has a headache. Lets hope it clears so he can continue his headline grabbing performances. Though now I reckon Archer will be taking all the pommie back page headlines. As he should. that was some serious fast bowling.

[I am Not Trampis]

clearly our batsman have trouble picking up his short ball. The Big L had trouble even snicking Archer. It was embarrassing. funny how 'people' missed that.

[Carrot]

Yes, Trampis. Clearly you’re the only one here that knows anything about the game. What were we thinking; Labuschagne’s match-saving innings was in fact a pile of excrement from start to finish.

[I am Not Trampis]

well clearly you did not watch Big L when he came into bat.
He got hit going onto the front foot! WHY? It was a bouncer he clearly should have known that from watching the bowler's hand.
Next he could have been out let us be conservative 1210 times but just was not good enough to nick. He was going back not back and across.

He had a lot of luck and used up most of it here.

[Carrot]

*Sigh*. I watched just about every ball of our innings. I stick to my original remark that he looked as assured as anyone that batted in the match. Smith played and missed a million times in the first dig in Edgbaston, and no one’s called that innings “embarrassing”.

[I am Not Trampis]

mate if you go forward to a bouncer that is embarrassing.

[I am Not Trampis]

let me add he simply went back not back and across ( he was not on his pat malone here) when facing Archer

[I am Not Trampis]

My thoughts and some bonus links.

https://nottrampis.blogspot.com/2019/08/what-innings-what-test.html