1st Test, Edgbaston, Birmingham

[Burgey]

Fair enough on the four man attack thing. But how was it England's tactics that led to him upping the scoring rate? He wasn't taking singles and wasn't even getting that many twos from hitting it into the open spaces, he was literally smoking boundaries. If he's finding gaps on the fence you can bet your life he's finding gaps in the infield if they're there.

Not necessarily. I think it freed him up, because if you've got nine blokes out you can throw hands at it with impunity.

 

[Adders]

What was the consensus on the pitch

Is it really just a 300 run pitch?

Hard to tell until we see how England can **** up on it. But it took an ATG innings to get to 300 so I'm thinking that's probably a good score.

 

[Burgey]

What if, freed of the captaincy and the mental energy it absorbs, Smith takes his game to another level again?

 

[Starfighter]

What was the consensus on the pitch

Is it really just a 300 run pitch?

There was quite a bit of movement during the period I was watching, especially with the new ball and around the 40th over, and inconsistently too. It's slow though, and I suspect that the sideways movement will ease up and day 2 will be the best for batting. With how dry it is, there already being big footmarks, I wouldn't want to be chasing too much against spin, and I think the bounce may get a bit inconsistent. I do think that closer to 350 would have been a better score though.

With the lack of pace I can see Roy bashing the quicks for a few here, if they stray.

 

[stephen]

The sun came out around when Siddle came in to bat and the ball definitely did less after that. Was doing a bit in the morning and for all my cynicism about our batting, the batsmen didn't really throw their wickets away. They just weren't really good enough. Except for the incorrect lbw decisions I guess.

 

[Spikey]

i dont understand why they didnt simply target his leg stump

 

[Burgey]

Forecast is 23 and light clouds today. Hope the locals are ok in the oppressive conditions.

 

[the big bambino]

Sad news that England have lost Anderson and Spintolose on the first day of the series. Someone would have to pull a blinder to beat Broad for performance of the day. Smitty! Seems like Matty Wade spent the best part of two seasons proving a point only to prove everyone else's. Yeah Siddle made me taste it ... its a bit like banana.

I turned off the tele with Wade's dismissal. So it was interesting reading about the amount of movement which started around that time. I din't think the ball did too much leading up to wade's dismissal but Australia's batsmen seemed to adopt a move across tactic to counter swing that just wasn't there. Ok Smith does that but its fine for him. Thought Bancroft and Wade in particular played for conditions they expected but not actually present and always looked vulnerable to the straighter ones.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Let's give Wade more than 1 innings before we write him off completely

 

[Prince EWS]

Let's give Wade more than 1 innings before we write him off completely

Lets give him 39.

 

[Burgey]

Btw, did anyone on this thread try to get around how terrible Warner's decision was by saying it was his fault for not reviewing, instead of acknowledging it was plainly awful umpiring? There's too much excusing bad umpiring because the player doesn't use DRS to overturn. If the umpire doesn't make a **** decision to start with. there's no need to contemplate a review.

 

[Arachnodouche]

What if, freed of the captaincy and the mental energy it absorbs, Smith takes his game to another level again?

I'm slowly coming around to your over the top plumping for TPC. I saw large chunks of his innings yesterday and as ungainly as he looks at the crease, he always appears to have that bit of extra time which you usually associate with the more elegant batsmen. Add to that his obviously vast reserves of mental strength and you have someone very special indeed.

 

[Starfighter]

Btw, did anyone on this thread try to get around how terrible Warner's decision was by saying it was his fault for not reviewing, instead of acknowledging it was plainly awful umpiring? There's too much excusing bad umpiring because the player doesn't use DRS to overturn. If the umpire doesn't make a **** decision to start with. there's no need to contemplate a review.

I don't remember. He could easily have been out first ball so I thought things evened out anyway.

 

[TheJediBrah]

The umpiring really was bad. There were those wrong decisions early (Warners, Khawaja caught behind, probably others), then Dar giving Smith out lbw when it didn't even look close and was missing off by half a foot.

DRS is great but it really seems as though the umps are getting it wrong more often than not at time and that's not really ok. Maybe they were just having a bad day but it really raises questions

 

[harsh.ag]

Warner's looked out though. "Bad" umpiring mostly in hindsight.

 

[Tangles]

Saw some of Smith’s innings today and he’s back like he never left. The stat I saw on twitter saying his day 1 avg is 117 vs 49 for days 2-5 is insane.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Worst ones were the Smith lbw and the Khawaja wicket. Warner's decisions weren't terrible, just wrong

Saw some of Smith’s innings today and he’s back like he never left. The stat I saw on twitter saying his day 1 avg is 117 vs 49 for days 2-5 is insane.

That's a huge difference. I wonder if it's a sign that he fatigues drastically mentally during the course of a game.

 

[Burgey]

I don't remember. He could easily have been out first ball so I thought things evened out anyway.

You talking about the noise down leg? Didn't look like an edge spike, more like what you'd expect as his feet crossed over, which I thought they did as he played the attempted glance. But tbf I was in a pub at the time and with no sound it was hard to tell what the comms made of it.

 

[Burgey]

Warner's looked out though. "Bad" umpiring mostly in hindsight.

I think if you're umpiring, you're entitled to take into some account where the batsman is standing. Particularly when you've warned him about batting into the danger area of the deck.

Good to see Warner trying to get as far forward as possible. It at least puts some pace on the England bowling for a change, as it's normally about Tom Moody's pace*.





*2019 Tom Moody

 

[OverratedSanity]

Worst ones were the Smith lbw and the Khawaja wicket. Warner's decisions weren't terrible, just wrong



That's a huge difference. I wonder if it's a sign that he fatigues drastically mentally during the course of a game.

Probably a sign that he doesn't make runs when it's actually needed in the second innings like Warner does