*Official* Fourth Test (Old Trafford, Manchester) 19-23 July

[91Jmay]

Unless the weather picks up asap todays play is ****ed, it's biblical here in Northern Manchester.

You are aware it's like 9:20 right?

 

[91Jmay]

You are aware it's like 9:20 right?

BBC reporter also says it isn't raining at the ground atm so that should help the outfield even though I reckon it showers on & off until midday

 

[SteveNZ]

He's taken the drop well unlike everyone else England has tried. Really taken Ben and Brendon advice to play for England again.

First to 1000 runs in the CC striking at 75s. 4 tons in his last 5 innings. So I'd not lump him with the others now.

Durham have been playing their own version of bazball scoring 5-6s most of the season. Batting points galore. As they moved it to 450 instead of 400 for max cos of bazball.

Lees and bedingham put on a 310 in partnership yesterday. They were 292 from 300 balls. Not sure what they ended on balls wise, as got a little bit harder as they both departed. Lees 176 after 195 last week.

RE Crawley he's all made us look stupid. They really couldn't care less if he averages 30 if he plays this sort of knock once in a blue moon. Obviously they'd hope he plays more than 3 or 4 in 30 odd tests or whatever he's played now.

Wow....they changed a whole CC scoring system because of Bazball Hell of a feather in his cap that it's rubbed off on the County Championship too.

That's cool info on Lees, didn't know that. He may well replace Duckett eventually then, because he is woeful outside off stump

 

[SteveNZ]

Crawley WAG. I went to bed when Crawley and Moeen were at the crease and thought, aside from advancing England's cause, it would be particularly frustrating for Australia if those two kept edging and missing, while middling the balls in between to the boundary. At that strike rate it doesn't take long to take the game away.

I don't know if I'd go this far - he's just a guy with great ballstriking ability (lowest golf handicap in the England team they said) but still great big technical holes that bowlers have managed to exploit most of the time. Bowl a foot outside off and he'll edge behind, as other posters have said. If cricket was a game of hitting legstump half volleys to the fence then yes, Crawley is glorious, but I don't think previous criticism of his place in the England team has all been unfair.

I don't think criticism of his place has been unfair at all. But I've read articles about him with puerile mentions of his old man and the money he came from, insinuating he continued to get picked because Daddy has billions. He's the best opening bat England has.

 

[Gob]

Probably the only thing Zak has in common with Bruce Wayne

 

[Victor Ian]

Batman VS batsman

 

[91Jmay]

I don't think criticism of his place has been unfair at all. But I've read articles about him with puerile mentions of his old man and the money he came from, insinuating he continued to get picked because Daddy has billions. He's the best opening bat England has.

My critique has always been that Burger Bob has kept him in the side because of his relationship with him but yeah cupboard well and truly dry with openers. There are others who'd make runs slightly more consistently but yeah if he keeps getting brisk starts with occasional match winner then you can ride it out.

 

[honestbharani]

crapinfo copied what I posted here back in 2020 - That he is likely another KP in the making. I also said Pope looks more like another Bell.

 

[artvandalay]

This is the most ‘un-Australian’ Test team I have ever seen

These Australians are citizens of the world, instead of fighting, swearing and spitting as though the world was against them.

www.smh.com.au

This is the most ‘un-Australian’ Test team I have ever seen
ByScyld Berry
July 20, 2023 — 11.30am


From the moment Pat Cummins accepted his fourth consecutive lost toss with good grace, adding that he would not bother going to the casino, to the final hour when they blocked, these Australians appeared again to be the least Australian cricket team to visit England’s shores and shires.

No snarling, no sledging, no gum-chewing, no throwing the ball at the batsman, no pressurising the umpires, no overt signs of aggression – and even Alex Carey underarmed the ball at Jonny Bairstow’s stumps rather apologetically, as well he might. These Australians are citizens of the world, instead of fighting, swearing and spitting as though the world was against them.

England’s Mark Wood appeals for the lbw wicket of Australia’s Steve Smith before a successful review.CREDIT:REUTERS

In any Test series (limited-overs series are too hectic) there is no better gauge of the relationship between two teams than when a ball drops into the batsman’s crease, perhaps after striking a pad. A generation ago in the Ashes any England batsman who shaped to pick up that ball and chuck it to a fielder was told to not – expletives deleted – touch it.

What happens now? As the opening day drifted to its close, James Anderson was bowling the second new ball rather stiffly from his end, and on the way back to him, it dribbled towards Mitchell Starc the non-striker.

It was for Anderson himself to pick it up, or else Stuart Broad at mid-off or Ben Stokes at extra-cover. Sympathetic to the plight of fellow pace bowlers, however, Starc bent down and tossed the ball back to Anderson, a fleeting moment, but one as mellow as the evening sun.

Even David Warner has been afflicted with this bonhomie: at the start of day one he too picked up a dead ball in his crease and tossed it to an England fielder, an action which dates back to the golden days of chivalry.


Warner, once Australia’s pitbull, has opened the batting innumerable times with England’s nearest to an equivalent, Bairstow, for Hyderabad Sunrisers. Axes have long been buried, far from each other’s necks.

Teams take after their captains, and Cummins is an urbane citizen of the world. The Australian head coach Andrew McDonald is a student of the game, not a layer down of the law like his predecessors: you could not deduce from his outward demeanour whether he was coaching Leicestershire, as he once did, or Australia.

What was most un-Australian about the opening day of the fourth Test – as in this series in general – was how Australia’s senior batsmen kept getting out when set.

It was a far cry from Ricky Ponting batting all day here in 2005, or Steve Waugh defying a damp pitch in 1997 with twin centuries, or Rod Marsh throwing the bat defiantly as Australia went down in 1972.

Warner went for 30, Smith for 40, and Labuschagne, having gone into his shell, for 50 if we round up the numbers. Lateral movement, even when the ball ages, is an innate characteristic of cricket in England, which Australian batsmen never see when growing up on flat pitches against Kookaburra balls, but still: these Australian cricketers are not so pugnacious as they used to be, except for Mitchell Marsh of the booming drives and hooks off the front foot.

Mildly and calmly Australia’s low order, marshalled by Carey, calculated their best strategy was to play for time and a draw, to retain the Ashes.

The forecast for Saturday suggests this will effectively be a four-day game, so they played accordingly.

Where his left-handed predecessor Rod Marsh (no relation of Mitch) would have bristled his moustache and thumped tiring England bowlers, Carey pushed the ball around and was dismissed in the most passive – or least old-fashioned Australian – way: caught behind playing no shot.

Australia’s fast bowling on day two might not be so quiet and reticent. They have put all their eggs in the pace basket, and on the evidence of day one they would have an attack more suited to these conditions if they had picked a spinner instead of a second pace-bowling all-rounder.

And while everything changes, one thing in Australian cricket stays the same: their standard of fielding. When this sport was first played in Sydney, back in the 1820s and ’30s, this is what observers noticed above all – their fielding – and, ultimately, it may prove the difference between these teams.

 

[mackembhoy]

Wow....they changed a whole CC scoring system because of Bazball Hell of a feather in his cap that it's rubbed off on the County Championship too.

That's cool info on Lees, didn't know that. He may well replace Duckett eventually then, because he is woeful outside off stump

Aye it's pretty wild to be honest.

Middlesex and Northants I believe have 1 batting point between them or something because of the change. As need 250 to get the first 1.

Lees is a year and half older than Duckett is the only thing against him on that front.

 

[chris.hinton]

There have been 2 showers this morning & A bigger one looks like avoiding Manchester. It's going to be hit and mess today

 

[91Jmay]

If they wanted to try something truly #funky they could try opening Bairstow and playing Foakes as keeper/bat.

How good is Rew as a keeper for anyone whose seen him? You'd think another good season of stats and he'd have to be up there even with the Taunton Tax.

 

[chris.hinton]

Still Australia fans are praying for rain....it's rather fun

 

[chris.hinton]

If you want to check where the rain is and where its going to hit

go here https://www.netweather.tv/live-weather/radar in the Postcode put in M160PX

 

[Woodster]

Much brighter in and around Manchester now! Hopefully the overnight and morning rain hasn’t done too much damage.

 

[honestbharani]

This is the most ‘un-Australian’ Test team I have ever seen

These Australians are citizens of the world, instead of fighting, swearing and spitting as though the world was against them.

www.smh.com.au

Thanks for hiding that load of crap in the Quote section. I am sorry I hit the expand link.

 

[Qlder]

Cricinfo is saying the covers are off and sun trying to peek through. Starc is okay to bowl after being strapped up

 

[91Jmay]

Even if we get more showers before start the fact they've been able to do a full prep of outfield is pretty huge. That is what causes big delays to start a day, I reckon we could get north of 60 overs today touch Mark which hopefully means 40 at Aus. Stop start and cloud cover also is a big + for us, but realistically the pitch is still very good so one big partnership can sort game for them.

 

[chris.hinton]

Passing shower over Old Trafford now

 

[91Jmay]

Phil Tufnell
Former England spinner on 5 Live Breakfast
I’m drawing breath after another sensational day of cricket. What's not to like? Zak Crawley with one of the most exciting innings I've seen in an Ashes series. For me it was just spectacular.
There is some rain expected tomorrow and a little bit on Sunday as well, so they’ve got to get a bit of a move on if they want level the series. But at the moment they're in a fantastic position.
They are 60-odd ahead at the moment. They are going to probably look to come out this morning, play positively, get up to perhaps a lead of 150, 200 and then get bowling. It’s so difficult with weather around you, you can't expect it to rain, but it does sort of play on the back of your mind. And it's always there. So, they're just going to go out there, play positively and try and turn them over and get it done as soon as possible.

What is this from Tufnell, why wouldn't you use the obvious and almost guaranteed rain to influence your decision?