English cricket thread

"The groundstaff are dragging out the tarpaulin, although word from TV is that the hover cover has broken down! The pitch is under wraps, which is the main thing. Rain looks pretty steady, though it is forecast to blow through. Will it hasten the declaration? Stick around to find out"

They're really trying every trick in the book to retain the ashes.
 
Lovely. Anderson ready to come out too :lol: How have we gone from declaring on day one of the Ashes to this?
 
The English team don't believe it's going to rain as much as people in this thread have suggested - I think that's the only conclusion from this? Because Anderson's just walked out..
 
zing said:
The English team don't believe it's going to rain as much as people in this thread have suggested - I think that's the only conclusion from this? Because Anderson's just walked out..
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I sympathise with England not just playing the weather. But tomorrow is a guaranteed wash out. Sunday could be anything.
 
zing said:
The English team don't believe it's going to rain as much as people in this thread have suggested - I think that's the only conclusion from this? Because Anderson's just walked out..
Click to expand...

if it’s stop start for the last two days, it’s a lot harder to bat than bowl. makes perfect sense to get the runs now and then let the aussies worry about surviving two days.
 
rimaldo said:
if it’s stop start for the last two days, it’s a lot harder to bat than bowl. makes perfect sense to get the runs now and then let the aussies worry about surviving two days.
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This is what I think as well. If its rainy/cloudy/overcast England should be able to get swing when they can bowl.

Set the target and bowl them out. If they don't bowl them out it won't matter either way
 
rimaldo said:
if it’s stop start for the last two days, it’s a lot harder to bat than bowl. makes perfect sense to get the runs now and then let the aussies worry about surviving two days.
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Holding onto that 1%?

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rimaldo said:
if it’s stop start for the last two days, it’s a lot harder to bat than bowl. makes perfect sense to get the runs now and then let the aussies worry about surviving two days.
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Stop start tomorrow would be a miracle!
 
England now getting runs off Aussie bumpers. Without hitting the ball. Nightmare to captain against. Love it.
 
there’s still ages left today. aussies are either 60 behind and we’ll struggle or we’ve made real inroads and we can afford to lose a day.
 
also some getting some confidence back in to bairstow.
 
Sassy Colin said:
If it pisses down with rain for the next 2 days, it doesn't matter when we declare.
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If we had declared at lunch we could have bowled them out by end of day in a perfect scenario. That's the debate.

But no major complaints, I see England's logic.
 
England’s openers and middle order have finally delivered.

Crawley and Duckett put on 190 between them. The middle order have all contributed significantly. Bairstow now playing a fantastic innings.
 
England must have better insight than the publicly available weather report..

Great position, but they'll need at least 3 sessions..
 
rimaldo said:
if it’s stop start for the last two days, it’s a lot harder to bat than bowl. makes perfect sense to get the runs now and then let the aussies worry about surviving two days.
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If today is the likely the last day, makes no sense at all.
 
slyadams said:
The format and possibility of a draw is fine. The slightly frustrating thing is that if it rains early in the test you play extra time to make up the overs, but there's no mechanism to do that if you know you'll lose time at the end.

In a normal game you're 100% right, score all your runs when you're in, settled and the wicket is good. But this is not a normal game because there's every chance today will be the last day of play with the weather forecast. So to win it is 100% about taking 10 wickets, probably today, that means getting as much time as you can at them today. So yes, I would say the real terms difference between 200 and 250 lead right now is 0.
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Thanks! I appreciate your answer and, as I say, very much not an expert.

With that in mind, what is Stokes’ thinking, do you reckon?
 
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