1st Test, Edgbaston, Birmingham

[TheJediBrah]

I only saw the first session but I think the Aussies did ok only losing 3 wickets given how it was nipping around. Big part of that was Jimmy's injury and stokes bowling trash though

 

[Starfighter]

Shock there was a bit of movement early on day 1 in a pitch in England which vanished as the day went on. Today and Saturday will be good for batting before it starts to deteriorate. Typical English pitch and not the minefield everyone is making it out to be.

It's dryer than the typical English pitch. I wouldn't be surprised if the movement disappears but the ball did quite a bit for over 50 overs, not just 'a little bit in the morning'. Stop making stuff up.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

I only saw the first session but I think the Aussies did ok only losing 3 wickets given how it was nipping around. Big part of that was Jimmy's injury and stokes bowling trash though

Didn't do as much after lunch but Woakes and Broad bowled well and Aussies weren't up to it bar Smith then flattened out and Siddle looked comfortable. He is a genuine number 10 who looked like he could have got 70 easily. It isn't that difficult a pitch it is just the inadequate batting in both sides will make it look like it is.

Aussies struggle most with swing, there wasn't any and they were still 122-8. If it had been swinging god knows what they would have been bowled out for.

Not saying our lot will score 500 as we won't but I genuinely think it is a bog standard 350 first innings pitch.

 

[hazsa19]

Yeah but you factor in the state of your bowlers before you do it. The tactic in this instance led to him upping the scoring rate by a factor of four. If they were prepared to keep the field up, he's taking risks and they're winning because he'll grab a single on the fourth ball of an over and Lyon will get nailed sooner rather than later. And Aus is likely all out 240-250 odd, with Smith stranded in the 80s.

It should also be said, without wanting to sound niggardly, that for all the talk of England's bowlers being exhausted, they've ended up bowling basically the same amount of overs as any four-bowler attack in world cricket. it wasn't like they were at the fag end of two month tour of India, had galloping dysentery and were playing in Chennai with the open sewer around the ground. They were in Birmingham (I know, but still) with sweaters on and it was day one of the series, with Broad cherry ripe having not played a WC. I'm sorry, but if they're cooked day one with four front line bowlers at their disposal (Anderson's injury nws) then they're doing something awfully wrong in their prep.

I think it’s more the Stokes being forced to bowl however many overs he did more than anything else, and obviously the fact that our best bowler only bowled 4. But yeh, tactics to Smith before and after tea we’re abysmal.

 

[Burgey]

The best legacy Langer can leave Australian cricket is to get some TPC DNA and have him cloned.

 

[Starfighter]

Didn't do as much after lunch but Woakes and Broad bowled well and Aussies weren't up to it bar Smith then flattened out and Siddle looked comfortable. He is a genuine number 10 who looked like he could have got 70 easily. It isn't that difficult a pitch it is just the inadequate batting in both sides will make it look like it is.

It moved more around the 40th over when the wickets were falling than earlier during Woakes' first spell, and more importantly it was less consistent. Siddle probably has a better defence than half the batsmen on either side so whatever.

Aussies struggle most with swing, there wasn't any and they were still 122-8. If it had been swinging god knows what they would have been bowled out for.

Nope, it's seam movement that we struggle against the most. It's hard handed technique that's the bigger issue than following the ball, like against Broad four years back.

I genuinely think it is a bog standard 350 first innings pitch.

Funnily enough, what I said earlier, except that I think the character of the pitch is not entirely 'standard'. I don't think anyone's arguing that it's a good batting performance, but it's not like we collapsed on a Melbourne flattie, there was plenty enough going on deep in the innings, and much more than than would be expected, say, in Australia. The score is below average but not shocking, one batsman scoring all the runs aside.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Nope, it's seam movement that we struggle against the most.

yeah I was going to say this. I don't think there's anyone that plays nibbling unpredictable seam movement like that better than conventional swing, not by a long shot. Swing you can predict and generally see where it's going for most of it's journey from the bowlers hand. Nibble off the seam you pretty much just have to hope you don't knick it.

 

[GIMH]

Might just leave this here for the moment...

An amazing score to wake up to given we were 130/8 when I went to bed. Smith is incredible. If he was still banned, we'd be looking at all out 150.

Leave it there all you like, what’s wrong with what he said? That is 100% what happened in 2015 but he’s not said he was going to be a ****ing walking wicket has he

 

[NUFAN]

Found this pretty interesting about Smith.

Its no longer really a small sample size now, sorry if the formatting is confusing

1st team innings 2010-2019 65 64 7 4508 239 79.08 8217 54.86 21 11 2 504 28
2nd team innings 2010-2018 57 54 9 1835 138 40.77 3173 57.83 3 13 2 196 10

 

[TheJediBrah]

Leave it there all you like, what’s wrong with what he said? That is 100% what happened in 2015 but he’s not said he was going to be a ****ing walking wicket has he

Honestly the real difference between Smith on difficult wickets in 2015 and yesterday was plain luck. In 2015 he edged a few more, maybe was a bit unlucky in that regard (I don't remember) whereas yesterday he played and missed a few before he was 20 that he could have easily snicked with worse luck.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Honestly the real difference between Smith on difficult wickets in 2015 and yesterday was plain luck. In 2015 he edged a few more, maybe was a bit unlucky in that regard (I don't remember) whereas yesterday he played and missed a few before he was 20 that he could have easily snicked with worse luck.

Not edging deliveries has much more to do with skill than people admit. Maybe he's just gotten much better since then.

 

[stephen]

Found this pretty interesting about Smith.

Its no longer really a small sample size now, sorry if the formatting is confusing

1st team innings 2010-2019 65 64 7 4508 239 79.08 8217 54.86 21 11 2 504 28
2nd team innings 2010-2018 57 54 9 1835 138 40.77 3173 57.83 3 13 2 196 10

It's almost like batting with an average of 80 in the first innings wears him out physically and mentally and with the deteriorating pitch his ability to score runs is less than it is in the first innings.

 

[NUFAN]

On my phone, hopefully works. Look at that 90.09

 

[King Pietersen]

How the **** did that happen? I left work with us in a great position with Siddle just coming out to bat, got home and the ****s were still out there. Proper let them off the hook after getting them 8 down. Fair play to Smith though, the cheating little **** can bat. Just resigned to the fact we're not getting him out all series.

 

[Starfighter]

Found this pretty interesting about Smith.

Its no longer really a small sample size now, sorry if the formatting is confusing

1st team innings 2010-2019 65 64 7 4508 239 79.08 8217 54.86 21 11 2 504 28
2nd team innings 2010-2018 57 54 9 1835 138 40.77 3173 57.83 3 13 2 196 10

For comparison Tendulkar averaged 60 in the first innings and 42 in the second. Smith's difference is probably exaggerated by the propensity of teams facing decent totals these days to roll over, meaning his second innings have probably come in more difficult conditions and situations than may have been the case in say, the early 00's. Especially if he was the one who was scoring all the first innings runs too.

 

[Starfighter]

How the **** did that happen? I left work with us in a great position with Siddle just coming out to bat, got home and the ****s were still out there. Proper let them off the hook after getting them 8 down. Fair play to Smith though, the cheating little **** can bat. Just resigned to the fact we're not getting him out all series.

Broad got him out yesterday. Beat a wild slog yes, but it's something.

 

[NUFAN]

It's almost like batting with an average of 80 in the first innings wears him out physically and mentally and with the deteriorating pitch his ability to score runs is less than it is in the first innings.

Just to clarify, the 40.77 is when Australia bats second in a match, so he begins the game in the field.

 

[Starfighter]

Just to clarify, the 40.77 is when Australia bats second in a match, so he begins the game in the field.

No it's not, you need to be looking under match innings for that. Heck, you even mentioned the first match innings average of 90.09. When Aus bat second it's 63.95.

 

[NUFAN]

Oh yeah im tired as **** sorry

 

[TheJediBrah]

Not edging deliveries has much more to do with skill than people admit. Maybe he's just gotten much better since then.

I disagree. There's definitely some skill to it but it's still almost entirely luck