*Official* Second Test at Lord's

[Top_Cat]

Yeah it is hard yakka, and it doesn't get much harder than a day 1 Lords wicket and the **** has got 3/18.

Remember posting a while back how eerily similar Benaud and Smith's FC and Test careers had started so it's not too late for Smith to turn the tide with the ball.

 

[Uppercut]

The ball to Prior was just amazing. People criticise Prior's shot but what's he supposed to do? Tap wide half-trackers from a part-timer back to the bowler just in case they're actually an inch-perfect flipper?

Bowlers don't get enough credit for deliveries that exploit aggressive techniques. People are too quick to just write the dismissal off as a rash shot.

 

[Cooky Monster]

Smith taking wickets against England shouldn't really come as a suprise nowadays.

England have been making turd spinners look like a Murali/Warne love child for far to long, its turned into a major flaw in this team now.

Were just so ****ing thick and negative against spinners, we let the likes of Bruce Martin and Kane Williamson dictate to us, ****ing joke defensive negative mindset, i hate it.

We don't adapt to the situations, its all to rigid, it was fine in India to grind but against NZ and Aus spinners who lets be honest are ****e, lets have some agression, put them away ffs, one of the main reasons i love KP as a batsman is that hes the only England batter along with Prior that will take it to spinners, especially ****e ones, though unfortunatly we haven't seen to much of it lately.

 

[Cooky Monster]

In a perverse way i almost want England to lose the series so this whole team wide defensive/negative mindset is dropped.

Don't really want us to lose but its frustrates so much, we have some great batsman, go out there, be positive and smash the ****ty bowlers around.

 

[Cooky Monster]

Bob Willis being very mean about Bairstow on the verdict. The Yorkshire Mafia in the press will be after him.

Lets face it, hes ****, whats Willis saying? hes most likely right, he shouldn't be anywhere near the England team and the majority knew it before this series, hate hearing Vaughan go on about Bairstow, tedious biased rubbish.

Out of interest can anyone get Bairstows test average minus his Lords test matches? thanks in advance if anyone can be arsed.

 

[howardj]

So pleased for Smith

His good deliveries are definitely Test class

He doesn't get enough FC bowling though to make a real fist of it, going forward

 

[Handsome Harry]

What a stupid comparison, when Finn is not bowling garbage he is a very good test bowler as his sub 30 average indicates. Steve Smith takes his test wickets at over 70 and even his FC bowling ave is nearly 60.

You can handle him taking 1, nice little experiment by Clarke, mix it up and all that.....but ****ed if he should ever be taking 3 top order wickets. Should never happen and Bell (we'll cut a little slack with as he was first and made an innings saving ton), Bairstow and Prior need a slap for embarrassing themselves at the home of cricket.

Almost as embarrassing as Cowman getting out to Root in the 1st Test.

Another good days play though. More twists and turns to come!

 

[social]

These are 2 very evenly matched teams and we potentially have a great series on our hands

 

[sphynx]

Good bowling by Smith, will come in handy come the Oval test.

I'm not sure how people are still running with "If Smith is turning it, that doesn't bode well for Australia with Swann"line. Swann got a slow rank turner last match and was pretty ineffective for most of the match apart from a couple of decent balls and a few terrible shots, I don't think Australia fear him at all tbh.

This pitch doesn't look anywhere near as dry as Trent Bridge, and the weather is pretty similar.

If Australia can dismiss them for under 350, they'd be fairly happy with that, and it's pretty level pegging. Australia are going to have to bat out of their skin to win it, with probably 2 centurions in the first innings. The pitch has a bit in it when the seam is still hard, but once it softens up, it's a bit of a road, and with short boundaries and a quick outfield, you can't get much better batting conditions than these first 3 days of this pitch imo.

I can see this test ending in a draw.

 

[burr]

Gosh, comments on here can be a bit dire. Can people not appreciate a great day's play and only harp on about how terrible Smith is, England is etc. Anyway, I'm terribly pleased for Smith. He's just got something - a fighting desire to win and compete that I don't see in some of the other Australians. I really badly want him to perform this Ashes series, preferably with the bat. Bell is in superb form, and all up I loved that day's play. Although some of the bowling between the wickets was pretty poor. Impossible to tell how this test will go though because Australian batting is so fragile. Would love to see Clarke, Smith and Hughes all perform.

 

[outbreak]

didn't see smith bowl last night, was he actually landing some or was it more of a case of bring on the part timer and he grabs some wickets due to bad shots and broken concentration? From the few replays i saw this morning he had a few full tosses and one good ball I saw? How were his other balls?

I don't mind smith if our top order is performing, he has issues with his batting and bowling but I guess comming in down the order it isn't really his fault if the top 4 fail.

 

[hendrix]

These are 2 very evenly matched teams and we potentially have a great series on our hands

I'd like to agree, but I can't help feeling like this will turn out like the NZ series - the bowlers think they're doing well to get England out for sub-par scores, but realistically any innings over 250 is enough, and 300+ is bonus territory.

 

[Spark]

The ball to Prior was just amazing. People criticise Prior's shot but what's he supposed to do? Tap wide half-trackers from a part-timer back to the bowler just in case they're actually an inch-perfect flipper?

Bowlers don't get enough credit for deliveries that exploit aggressive techniques. People are too quick to just write the dismissal off as a rash shot.

Yeah could watch that ball again and again, quality piece of bowling.

 

[Top_Cat]

Evening session highlights.

 

[Manee]

These are 2 very evenly matched teams and we potentially have a great series on our hands

I still think England will take the upper hand and dominate the series but I hope you're right because I always enjoy competitive Test cricket.

 

[Cabinet96]

A couple of interesting stats regarding Trott

Before 2012 he had a conversion rate of 46%
Since then his conversion rate is just 23%

Before 2012 four of his six centuries where 150+ scores, with two of them being double centuries
Since then all of his three centuries have been sub 150 scores

 

[Expressway76]

didn't see smith bowl last night, was he actually landing some

He was landing some quality deliveries. Any leggie would be proud of the one he got Bell with.

 

[outbreak]

He was landing some quality deliveries. Any leggie would be proud of the one he got Bell with.

yeah that was a nice ball, the replay I caught this morning only had about 6 balls of his with most being full tosses apart from that so I wasn't too sure how he actually bowled. As I said earlier if we had a top 5 making runs and he was coming in at 6 and not our front line spinner he isn't too bad as a quick scorer in that position if the media hadn't hyped him up to be the next great bowler/all rounder too maybe he wouldn't be hated on so much. He's miles better than maxwell at least.

 

[Coronis]

Was not in the mood for sport last night. Harris taking wickets, unsurprisingly. Nice performance from Smith too.

 

[Viscount Tom]

Bob Willis being very mean about Bairstow on the verdict. The Yorkshire Mafia in the press will be after him.

Tbf its Yorkshire the press might raise heir hackles but you'd feel that Boycs of all people would give him a word in his shell like especially as he's a family friend.