2nd Test Wed 28 June-2 July 2023 - Lord's

[Northstandboy]

2nd test in the Capital!

 

[unification]

Hugely pessimistic now.

England ballsed up the first Test massively. Won the toss and foolishly declared, didn't bat well in the second innings and left a chaseable score for the Aussies to go after. Moeen Ali was patchy (we'd all expect him to be) and one item went under the radar in that Anderson went to for over 100 runs for just the one wicket at Edgbaston too.

The XI for this Test doesn't look right to me. The batting is weaker and taking the field for a possible Australian fourth innings with just the part-time spin of Joe Root seems mad. No Woakes either on his favourite ground and if I were an Australian fan I'd be licking my lips (pun intended) at the propsect of their batsmen going after Josh Tongue too.

Mess this up and, for once, Glenn McGrath will be right. The Ashes will be done and dusted. Still, England went 1-0 down in 2005 and came back to win. I sincerely hope they shove my doubts and criticisms firmly back down my throat.

 

[Foley]

Hugely pessimistic now.

England ballsed up the first Test massively. Won the toss and foolishly declared, didn't bat well in the second innings and left a chaseable score for the Aussies to go after. Moeen Ali was patchy (we'd all expect him to be) and one item went under the radar in that Anderson went to for over 100 runs for just the one wicket at Edgbaston too.

The XI for this Test doesn't look right to me. The batting is weaker and taking the field for a possible Australian fourth innings with just the part-time spin of Joe Root seems mad. No Woakes either on his favourite ground and if I were an Australian fan I'd be licking my lips (pun intended) at the propsect of their batsmen going after Josh Tongue too.

Mess this up and, for once, Glenn McGrath will be right. The Ashes will be done and dusted. Still, England went 1-0 down in 2005 and came back to win. I sincerely hope they shove my doubts and criticisms firmly back down my throat.

Agree with a lot of that.
Hope I am wrong, but the balance of the team looks totally wrong ( Robinson talked about Australian 3 number 11's)
You just never know, but I think the far more pragmatic Australia ( who want to win), will beat the entertainers.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

I'm not overly optimistic about this test either. I think the bowling attack is unbalanced and samey, and I thought Anderson was poor in the first test (stone the heretic!), Stokes could only bowl sparingly and while Root did his best, he isn't a top test class spinner by any means. Now we are one down, it's up to that attack to take 20 Aussie wickets, because no matter what the batsmen do, if we can't get them out twice it's game over - and given that we couldn't finish them off last time it's not looking good. The England camp have said they are going to be going at the Aussies 'even harder' - there gets a point where 'Bazball' = slogging!

If we can bowl first under overcast skies, that's probably our best chance despite that meaning we will bat last.

 

[unification]

I'm not overly optimistic about this test either. I think the bowling attack is unbalanced and samey, and I thought Anderson was poor in the first test (stone the heretic!), Stokes could only bowl sparingly and while Root did his best, he isn't a top test class spinner by any means. Now we are one down, it's up to that attack to take 20 Aussie wickets, because no matter what the batsmen do, if we can't get them out twice it's game over - and given that we couldn't finish them off last time it's not looking good. The England camp have said they are going to be going at the Aussies 'even harder' - there gets a point where 'Bazball' = slogging!

If we can bowl first under overcast skies, that's probably our best chance despite that meaning we will bat last.

And Nathan Lyon will absolutely love that.

Hugely underrated servant to Australia. He could well be the difference between the two sides this series.

 

[SteMerritt]

Also pessimistic, guess that's the way of the England cricket fan. I'll echo the comments about our bowling attack, really thought that one of Broad/Anderson would be given a rest from this one. The lack of a spinner is of great concern and shows a definite failing of the county game.

Batting, big questions remain about our openers, hopefully Duckett can get a score as I think it will kick-start his whole series.

 

[foghorn]

Watching this one with interest as my neighbour's brother is one of the umpires.

 

[unification]

England win toss and elect to field.

A toss they had to win …

 

[ZeroTheHero]

As I said above, I think that gives us our best chance.

 

[Big Ron]

Interesting that Starc is playing ahead of Boland. The latter was being touted as the new McGrath but was dealt with pretty severely at Edgbaston. While Starc is a potent wicket taking threat, he can also go for a few.

I work about a mile from Lords and it's pretty grey around here at the moment, although the cloud seems fairly light. As noted above, bowling in these conditions could conceivably be our best chance!

 

[unification]

And it’s been pretty flat so far.

Cloud cover, a bit of moisture in the air and it’s been easy for the Aussies so far.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

This is fairly feeble stuff from England. A couple of dropped catches and a few past the edge, but we really haven't made the most of what at least look like pretty helpful conditions. Perhaps we could try a bit of spin... oh.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Thanks heavens for that - well done Tongue (although it was really a mistake by the batsman who left it!)

 

[unification]

s**t session, really, even with the wicket.

Tongue being taken the cleaners by Warner, a dropped catch from Pope and sub-80mph speeds from Robinson.

Bound to be a slow over rate too with no spinner.

 

[Sarge]

seriously poor morning session, at this level you simply cannot afford to drop catches

bit of luck/ batsman error for the one (key at that) wicket to show for the first session

must do better England

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Looks like our fears about the bowling were well founded. We are going to be chasing a very large total unless we are careful.

 

[Sarge]

rubbish afternoon session too ... poor bowling IMO

 

[Foley]

Well that has been entirely predictable to date.
England will have to bat incredibly well when they get in

 

[Sarge]

at last a wicket- well done Ollie Robison

 

[andystroud]

What an ugly day of cricket for England. The bowling attack looks so lame, in what looked like ideal conditions for our bowlers. Australia have managed to cat us out of the game on day one.
I dread to think what the score would be if we had lost the toss.