Australia [284 & 487/7d] beat England [374 & 146] by 251 runs in the 1st Ashes Test, lead series 1-0

Would bowl Lyon at Stokes some point today. Need to get him early. As I said Moen Ali and Bairstow have been out of form in tests. Real chance for Australia to put England under pressure.
 
196/4.

England are still ahead but Aussies are fighting back. 88 more runs to go before scores are level.
 
Burns has shown good character. Isn’t the most talented but knows how to hang in there. Expect him to have a solid career.
 
They have to reduce the lead to less than 20 to 30 runs if not take the lead. Then the game is on. Any total over 250 will be hard to chase as Lyon will also come into the picture on a worn out pitch.
 
Burns has shown good character. Isn’t the most talented but knows how to hang in there. Expect him to have a solid career.

Burns has a very weird batting technique. He looks like he will fall after playing any shot.
 
I am interested to see who Australia select as the fast bowlers for the next game.
 
Smith and Warner would have battered India. No way they would have won the series in Aus if those two were there.

the same Smith had averaged a paltry 23 in the bouncier pitches in SAF series. It can be argued that he was affected by that scandal in the last 2 inns in that series, but he was only moderate in the previous first 4 inns too.

To add to that India had Bumrah in that AUS series who avg:ed mere 17.5. Not saying that he would end up as a great fast bowler ,because only time will tell. But he has some serious skills and ability to bowl yorkers at will and he is one bowler who can adjust his length at the last minute based on the early moments of the batsman.So to believe that AUS would have won 100% with both of them in the team is a bit OTT.
 
Excellent knock by Burns. You have to give credit for England for sticking with him despite him struggling.
 
Have England finally replaced Strauss?

Now they just need The New Cook and The New Trott and they will have a strong batting line again.
 
Stokes is showing great maturity these days. He should bat at 5 and Buttler at 6.
 
Have England finally replaced Strauss?

Now they just need The New Cook and The New Trott and they will have a strong batting line again.

I dont think they have, has been extremely lucky today. Very ordinary against spin.

I think a lead of 100 and eng will be happy..
 
burns might be england's dean elgar. elgar is a quality opener against seam and swing bowlers
 
I concur. Stokes is a batsman first and a decent fourth seamer second.

Most of the time in tests he bowls to rest the other seamers. May as well bat him up the order since Bairstow doesn't want to move up and not many other options.
 
People overrate Australia so much. They look so ordinary and flat. Take Smith out and even Pakistan might beat them in a series.

A comfortable win by 8-9 wickets is on the cards here. Hopefully Stokes can get a hundred tomorrow and Bairstow and Moeen add some quick runs to complete Australia’s misery.

A double-hundred by Burns would be amazing though.
 
Buttler at 5 is fine. You have to trust players of his capability. They need to convince Bairstow to give up the gloves and bat at 3 with Foakes coming in for Denly.
 
Magic day for England. More of the same tomorrow would be lovely. Then bowl at them again in the evening session.
 
People overrate Australia so much. They look so ordinary and flat. Take Smith out and even Pakistan might beat them in a series.

A comfortable win by 8-9 wickets is on the cards here. Hopefully Stokes can get a hundred tomorrow and Bairstow and Moeen add some quick runs to complete Australia’s misery.

A double-hundred by Burns would be amazing though.

Your favourite team lost to West Indies. Dismissed for 85 against Ireland. Drew with Pakistan last year the team you tell us is average. Draw with Bangladesh the last time they played them. Beaten in NZ and destroyed in Australia.

England are nothing special.
 
This should be England XI

Burns
Roy
Bairstow
Root
Buttler
Stokes
Foakes(wkt)
 
England haven't batted with this much grit in Test cricket in years. Burns grinding out a hundred is encouraging, last thing England need is more changes at the top of the order.
 
Eng in excellent position to score 500.

Game took away from aus. Have to say eng were lucky in some parts.
 
Has it become easier to bat or did Aus just bat extremely poorly/England really well?
 
Your favourite team lost to West Indies. Dismissed for 85 against Ireland. Drew with Pakistan last year the team you tell us is average. Draw with Bangladesh the last time they played them. Beaten in NZ and destroyed in Australia.

England are nothing special.

England are far from a perfect Test team. Things are developing nicely for them but they have a long way to go before they can consider themselves an elite Test side again.

Australia on the other hand get overrated because of the perception of what the Australian team is supposed to be like. People didn’t learn their lesson after the World Cup semifinal and looks like they are still refusing to learn.
 
Has it become easier to bat or did Aus just bat extremely poorly/England really well?

It was overcast conditions when aus batted also some aus players played poor shots.

Was a flat wicket today, Burns was very very lucky.
 
there are many fans calling for starc+ hazlewood. pattinson extracted alot of swing but was a bit inaccurate.

however, the reason starc and hazlewood were dropped is because they were pretty bad all of last year.
starc is obviously a gun in limited overs, but can seem a bit flat in tests. dont expect starc and hazlewwod to make more of an impact than siddle

it is fair to give siddle and pattinson a bit more chances, starc and hazlewood have gotten alot of chances from the selectors despite their bad performance in tests, they should not be automatic picks for every game, this is a good move by the aussie selectors

australia has a truck load of bowlers, like chris tremain, jackson bird and chadd sayers (who are pretty good) that deserve to play test cricket, but are not getting any opportunities
 
England should continue to bat patiently and go for 500. They would love to bat just once ideally.
 
there are many fans calling for starc+ hazlewood. pattinson extracted alot of swing but was a bit inaccurate.

however, the reason starc and hazlewood were dropped is because they were pretty bad all of last year.
starc is obviously a gun in limited overs, but can seem a bit flat in tests. dont expect starc and hazlewwod to make more of an impact than siddle

it is fair to give siddle and pattinson a bit more chances, starc and hazlewood have gotten alot of chances from the selectors despite their bad performance in tests, they should not be automatic picks for every game, this is a good move by the aussie selectors

australia has a truck load of bowlers, like chris tremain, jackson bird and chadd sayers (who are pretty good) that deserve to play test cricket, but are not getting any opportunities

I live in Australia and no guys like Chris tremain, bird and chadd are all cannon fodders. They are only good at home and even there they aren't anything special to be brutally honest.

hazelwood should start over siddle. siddle is washed up and shouldn't be in the test squad.

Pattinson is overrated away from home but I agree he is better than starc.

only young guns that have talent are jhye richardson and Peter George to a lesser extent. behrendorff is probably only suited for odis on seaming tracks.

hazelwood Pattinson cummins and Lyon should be their test attack.

cummins is by far their best bowler.
 
England are far from a perfect Test team. Things are developing nicely for them but they have a long way to go before they can consider themselves an elite Test side again.

Australia on the other hand get overrated because of the perception of what the Australian team is supposed to be like. People didn’t learn their lesson after the World Cup semifinal and looks like they are still refusing to learn.

even when australia had a great side in 2000 era they struggled vs india and England. They deserved to lose to india in 08 as they blatantly cheated in that series.

They haven't won in England since 2002.

Aussies have always been a very overrated test team even at their best. They are a great odi side.
 
Rory Burns getting a bit of stick here for supposedly being lucky. He batted all day. That’s not easy.
 
Rory Burns getting a bit of stick here for supposedly being lucky. He batted all day. That’s not easy.

Ignorance of test cricket plus hatred of England. Smith played and missed a shedload of times too.

It’s not luck. Test class bowlers are going to get past the bat. The trick is to forget about the previous ball that beat you and focus on the next and play it on merit.
 
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Has it become easier to bat or did Aus just bat extremely poorly/England really well?

Tough attritional test cricket. The pitch flattened out a little. Burns was magnificent against very good bowling. Root got a watchful fifty and Stokes was obdurate.
 
even when australia had a great side in 2000 era they struggled vs india and England. They deserved to lose to india in 08 as they blatantly cheated in that series.

They haven't won in England since 2002.

Aussies have always been a very overrated test team even at their best. They are a great odi side.

I disagree. The Aussie side won sixteen tests on the bounce, twice. They won 1-3 in England in 2001, and only a once in a lifetime innings by But her prevented 0-4.

By 2005 they were a bit complacent with Gillespie and Lee no longer up to scratch and ran into the best England side of the last forty years. But they soon rebuilt their side and carried on as before.
 
I live in Australia and no guys like Chris tremain, bird and chadd are all cannon fodders. They are only good at home and even there they aren't anything special to be brutally honest.

hazelwood should start over siddle. siddle is washed up and shouldn't be in the test squad.

Pattinson is overrated away from home but I agree he is better than starc.

only young guns that have talent are jhye richardson and Peter George to a lesser extent. behrendorff is probably only suited for odis on seaming tracks.

hazelwood Pattinson cummins and Lyon should be their test attack.

cummins is by far their best bowler.

But i was under the impression that aus had flat roads for pitches and bowling which were tough for bowlers. (excluding the 2018 india series, where pitches had alot of seam movement). those bowlers have a really good first class record, they could do no worse than siddle.

bird is statistically australia's best bowler in first class cricket. one would think he deserves to play more games than he did

and i have heard chadd bowls on flat south australia pitches. but yeah, he does look like a trundler.


jhye is a brilliant bowler in all formats. it is very tragic that he missed the world cup and ashes. he might replace hazlewood in the future
 
aus desperately need an all rounder, there is too much work load for the bowlers. a james faulkner would be handy, no idea why he retired from cricket

i dont understand why on earth teams would have only 4 bowling options in a gruelling test match
 
aus desperately need an all rounder, there is too much work load for the bowlers. a james faulkner would be handy, no idea why he retired from cricket

i dont understand why on earth teams would have only 4 bowling options in a gruelling test match

This . All good Test sides must have a 5th bowling option .
 
Burns needs to speed up a bit too much interest in personal milestones, will rain in afternoon, so they hav to be careful of draw.
 
Beard is a walking wicket these days. Maybe people are right and he should be dropped for Leach.
 
Lead is growing. 52 already very useful in these rather attritional conditions. 80 would be excellent.
 
Football style atmosphere. Warner copping all sorts on the boundary.
 
if moeen gets a few wkts in 2nd inns and Eng win can't see him being dropped
 
These are very useful lower order runs. Chasing anything above 200 in the 4th innings will be tricky on this surface which is actually slowing down and offering some turn, so England will want to bat for as long as possible.
 
This is why Starc is a must in the team

He is the best in the world when it comes to removing tailenders
 
Steve Smith on to bowl....England fans singing to the tune of “he’s got the whole world in his hands” -

“He’s got sannnndpaper, in his hands”

LOL 🤣
 
Outstanding by Woakes and Broad. Australia is on the ropes here, I don’t think they can dig in and score 300+ in the second innings.
 
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