Sport The Ashes - 4th Test- 4/1/2022 - Sydney

[Scotchegg]

Stokes gone, but alongside Bairstow they have shown more fight that the rest of the tour combined. A glimmer of positivity which normally means a collapse is on the cards!!

 

[OUFC91]

Did anyone else spot the Sydney yellows flag?

 

[Northstandboy]

"At 36-4, with no runs for 70 balls, that felt a long way away."

 

[Foley]

Bairstow closing in on a century. Hope he gets it.

 

[OUFC91]

What an over from Wood. Gets one in the ribs then cracks Cummins for back to back 6's

 

[Leysboy]

Close of play

258/7

Great bit of resilience shown today, why wasn’t it there in the first three matches…

Pleased for Bairstow, and hope he can get 150.

Stokes did really well too, and Mark Wood’s cameo was terrific.

 

[chuckbert]

Should be nicely warmed up by the 5th test. As they would have been if they’d played some warm ups against sheff shield teams before the series.

 

[unification]

It’s still a 150+ run deficit. I can see England being all out with the Aussies taking a 100 run or so lead into the second innings. With two days to go and rain plus probable thunder and lightning impacting the next two days, a draw is looking increasingly likely which at least would prevent the whitewash.

Good to see Wood hit some runs. It’s something the Aussies have done well this series in having the lower order deliver useful 20-40 runs each especially Starc and Cummins but also Lyon too. Dismissing the bowlers has been another issue of England’s for some time (remember Shami and Bumrah’s partnership at Lord’s last summer?) and those irritating 50-partnerships that emerge from batters. England used to have players who do that back with the great Flower side – Bresnan, Broad, Swann all ably assisting Prior or another top order player who had hung around. It would be good to see a plan to stop those partnerships occurring and make some ourselves.

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Is there perchance a whole load of unvaccinated players in the England party who have flimsy medical justification & dodgy visas, that the Australian authorities can now cancel....followed by deporting the whole party, thus voiding the Ashes this year

Can we do a Novak please??

 

[SteMerritt]

Did anyone else spot the Sydney yellows flag?

 

[tonyw]

Good to see Wood hit some runs. It’s something the Aussies have done well this series in having the lower order deliver useful 20-40 runs each especially Starc and Cummins but also Lyon too. Dismissing the bowlers has been another issue of England’s for some time (remember Shami and Bumrah’s partnership at Lord’s last summer?) and those irritating 50-partnerships that emerge from batters. England used to have players who do that back with the great Flower side – Bresnan, Broad, Swann all ably assisting Prior or another top order player who had hung around. It would be good to see a plan to stop those partnerships occurring and make some ourselves.

Always thought that there were two effective ways to stop tail-enders hanging around.
The first is raw pace, and a diet of bumpers and yorkers. Push them onto the back foot and then spear one in at the stumps.
The second is spin bowling with variety.....tail-enders usually can't read the spin very well.

Unfortunately, what the England attack is good at at the moment is nagging accuracy and subtle movement. Which is why we've seen so many tailenders hang around the last few years.

 

[Wallop]

I’m watching my first bit of Ashes cricket this evening - why is there practically no crowd?

 

[Leysboy]

The Aussies have a lead of 330+ now

Khawaja nears another ton, being supported well by Cameron Green.

Wood and Leach with 2 wickets a piece today.

 

[unification]

They ended up with more than play than I would have expected today.

Weather has to be England’s friend tomorrow. I can’t see them batting 98 overs if the thunderstorms pass over.

 

[Leysboy]

30/0 is a good start, forget playing defensively tomorrow, just play there natural game, and see what happens.

Cloud cover will make the ball swing about potentially tomorrow, so need to be watchful.

Rain rain rain could help us get a draw.

 

[Foley]

I would imagine that rain will be our only chance although it has been a decent start to the second innings.
Lyon will be difficult to play as well as their seamers.

 

[nige01ox]

A shame Parkinson of Lancs isn’t getting a game with the series lost . A player who can turn the ball both ways and will only get better from playing in the test team.

Sadly with the importance England insist on the bowlers being able to carry the bat a bit, we are going to be stuck with Leech for a while yet.

Personally from this game onwards, I would have Parkinson as my spinner. But we need to stick with him, and give him a good 18 months to bed in and find his way in test cricket. He has a fantastic raw talent, but unfortunately the England hierarchy seems to have a reluctance around leg spin in test cricket. By its very nature it's a difficult art to master - releasing the ball out the back of the hand means when it goes wrong, its absolutely dreadful. And the problem is we don't look beyond those few half trackers. Do we think Warne didn't have games where in the first innings he went 15 overs taking 1-80? I'm sure KP took him to town on a couple of occasions in the 2005 series. The English way of thinking would ridicule those figures and pencil him in for being dropped. But that's not what your spinner is there for. He's there for days 4 and 5. And a leg spinner that has a decent googly can absolutely bamboozle even the best batsmen in these circumstances, let alone the tailenders.

I was very impressed with Parkinson when he got his chance with the white ball over the summer, he looked to have the confidence and composure to make it at the top level. He would get hit for a couple of 6's - a lot of young bowlers would suddenly start bowling flatter and stop giving the ball so much air. But he was more than happy to keep flighting it up there, and would spin one past the edge and get a stumping, or get the batsman to sky a top edge/mistime a shot and offer a simple catch. I would absolutely love us to give him a chance and back him for a good run of games, he will only develop his skills and get better.

Unfortunately though, I don't think we will. It's too un-English. Leach and Bess are both 'okay' cricketers, but neither is or ever will be a leading frontline spinner.

 

[chuckbert]

The most excitement I can hope for this series is to see if the tail can survive 10 overs for a draw.

 

[mooro]

Next series can we go out there at the same time but have boxing Day test in Melbourne as the first test and four more in the new year once our batters have properly acclimatised?

 

[unification]

England just about avoid the whitewash. It’s a thrilling way to draw a test but jeez - they were barely in this test either for most of it. If every session had started on time, they would have lost this. Amazing that the weather didn’t impact the final day as much as i thought it would.