Cricket fred

[WaspInWales]

YJB apparently head butted the aussie opener in Perth a couple of weeks ago. If so....wtf, having been warned before. Perhaps Root needs to lay the law down.

The incident is being played down, with more details to come at the end of the test.

If it was that serious, surely he would've been withdrawn?

[WaspInWales]

Tuffers:

The Aussies may be talking up a big 10-wicket win and how the Poms collapsed but inwardly I don't think they'll be thinking like that. England gave them a real challenge here.

Really?

A 10 wicket win is substantial.

Two England collapses is also substantial.

There were a couple of sessions when England looked ok, on top at times and I'm sure the Aussies (team, not media) will have noticed them, but they also know how to score against us and how to bowl us out.

[WaspInWales]

Just needed a few wickets today. We're gonna get beaten but at least get their openers out and force some mistakes.

Well beaten at the moment.

[WaspInWales]

Love how the Beeb are using a close up image of Bairstow and Bancroft side by side on their header image of today's coverage. Bairstow head bowed and Bancroft could be saying something...or not, as we can't see his face.

Scroll further down the page and you can see the original image that it was cropped from. They're not side by side. The photo was probably taken when Bairstow was changing ends and walking past Bancroft.



Not sure why this annoys me.

[WaspInWales]

Aussie press will be lapping this up.

[WaspInWales]

SMH not disappointing with its coverage.

Sport page dominated by live score and news, plus Bairstow incident.

Not much mention of rugby, not sure why ...although RL is covered as England cheated their way to the final.

[WaspInWales]

Hammering.

Well played Oz, better team with the bat and ball.

[canta_brian]

Apparently Bairstow headbutts people as a greeting. Fair enough. When I see friends I like to say hello by kicking them square in the nuts.

Seriously, is he a complete freak?

[Digby]

The tail is longer without Stokes, but the top 5 are consistently posting scores of 150 or less which isn't close enough when we've a solid medium paced bowling lineup with a limited finger spinner. Difficult to see where we suddenly get a fast bowler or genuine spinner from so it's all going to come down to the top 5 knuckling down and scoring runs or we'll lose.

We were 5 down for less than 120 in the 2nd innings and whilst the tail has saved England a number of times in recent years, indeed it might be the best part of this England team when Stokes is there, it can't be relied on so much.

[Mellsblue]

Ashes: Jonny Bairstow says 'headbutt' on Cameron Bancroft blown out of proportion

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/42133452

[WaspInWales]

If anything's blown out of proportion, it's Roots reaction to the Aussie press conference on the Bairstow incident.

Bancroft, Smith and the press pack enjoyed a few laughs at Bancroft's choice of words to explain what happened and Root says the laughter will motivate England.

Am I missing something here?

Bancroft did Bairstow a massive favour by sweeping the incident under the rug in a light hearted way, but then Root bites back and says England will use the laughter as motivation.

Just seems daft. Australia seemed happy to accept what has happened and England are using it as 'fighting talk'.

I can't help but think Root should've accepted what seemed like a 'peace offering' between the players and teams and used it to move on and concentrate on performances.

If they bowl us out cheaply again, that talk of motivation just seems like bollocks.

[Mellsblue]

Need to be taking catches like that.

[Digby]

Only if you want to bat

[WaspInWales]

Proper fecked already.

3 days of rain please. I fear the Aussies will only need an hour or so of dry to bowl us out.

Losing Stokes was a massive blow, but I was cautiously optimistic before the series started. Thought the best we could hope for was a sneaking one or two tests and perhaps holding out for a draw in one. There's me thinking that we had enough players capable of scoring, even with the collapses in mind. We seem toothless with the ball too.

Meh.

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[Mellsblue]

Double century by Cooky over today and tomorrow. Don’t you worry.

[Digby]

Stokes scored 2 on his return to cricket, so he's got enough form to come into this side

[Banquo]

brought a swiss army knife to a gunfight

[Mellsblue]

brought a swiss army knife to a gunfight

Haha. This made made me lol

[Mellsblue]

On waking up this morning I checked BBC to see whether it was worth getting out of my warm bed. The first update I saw was of Vince knocking the ball out of Cook’s hand in the act of taking a catch at slip. On the plus side, I had a lovely lie in.

[WaspInWales]

Double century by Cooky over today and tomorrow. Don’t you worry.

Thanks...got a bit hysterical for a moment then.

Feel better now.

4-1 England.

[Mellsblue]

Double century by Cooky over today and tomorrow. Don’t you worry.

Thanks...got a bit hysterical for a moment then.

Feel better now.

4-1 England.

Told you.

[WaspInWales]

Double century by Cooky over today and tomorrow. Don’t you worry.

Thanks...got a bit hysterical for a moment then.

Feel better now.

4-1 England.

Told you.

Yep, just need 24 more runs...

...to avoid the follow on and a very probable innings defeat.

Dunno why I was so worried.

Lets just hope we can get some rain that has more staying power than our batting lineup.

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[WaspInWales]

Can we get 16 from the final wicket?

Come on England!

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[WaspInWales]

Great effort lads.

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[Digby]

Are their bowlers really that tired they don't want to bowl now?