Not sure I understand your ratings system - most of them are out of 10, but then England are out of 328. Indeed, sounded like they did quite well, certainly deserve a better rating than 0.2/10.
But england are still batting at the moment. They will get over 400.
Most people wait until a match or even a series is over until providing ratings such as this. The first innings isn’t even over yet, talk about premature evaluation!
England have been bowled out for 374. Those 74 runs for the final two wickets by Woakes, Broad and Anderson could be crucial.
This is the best comment but unfortunately it will he lost on poor @Super_SC
Steve Smith is incredible
@Super_SC should just ignore these smart aleck comments. They don’t add anything to the conversation and they’re not funny.
What a score to wake up to! Went to bed with Steve Smith just scoring his second innings ton and then Matty Wade got in on the action too! Aussies declared at 7/487 with England set 398 to win and being 0/13 at Stumps.
There’s some rain forecast for day 5 though, hopefully that stays away long enough because this would be a huge win for the Aussies.
Nothing wrong with a bit of banter mate. That is what makes this forum so good. Its also good to learn about these sorts of humour as you encounter it in every day life.
Exactly, @turdall
Unfortunately it’s Birmingham, elevated and susceptible to rain from every direction. Every raindrop has UK citizenship unfortunately (though perhaps they’ll scurry off to the Continent once Brexit arrives)?
Piggy Smith was simply infallible this test; he never looked like getting out until he tried to force the pace. Most (all?) of us have never seen Bradman live; I can imagine that this air of infallibility pervaded most of his innings. If Smith continues in this vain, we’ll have a decent chance in the series for sure. The bowlers will do their part; hopefully a few other batsmen rise to the challenge. There will be juicier, seam-friendly pitches to come and this is where the real test will be (pardon the pun).
Yes, all three of the suspended players really needed to put in a massive effort to win back the crowd, I think Smith has got most of them back on his side and really has a remarkable talent. Both of Warner’s innings were disappointing and he’s the one that has the most to do to win the crowd back.
I’m definitely happy for Wade though with his second innings, they’ve called for him to be back in the team for so long and after his first innings I was a bit worried but glad to see him really let fly this second innings and push that score beyond reach for the Poms.
The real issue with Wade is his aggressive demeanour, which was why he was given a Wade berth in the immediate aftermath of Sandpapergate. They simply could not ignore the weight of runs- drowning rather than Wading in them. Not sure how chirpy he’s been in this match, though of course he’s not behind the stumps.
Looks like the Aussies will win this comfortably unless there’s a helluva dead cat bounce from England’s tail. The weather is fine- actually the brightest it’s been all match. It can change quickly in the UK of course.


Great final two days for the team, loving the Lyon/Cummins attack. Poms dropping like flies tonight. First blood virtually drawn
Onto Lord’s.
What a win by Australia! They bowled England out for 146 today in less than four hours of play to win the test by 251 runs with Nathan Lyon taking six wickets. A huge turnaround for the tourists when they were 8/122 in the first innings on day 1.
Found this interesting statistic by an Indian cricket fan:
In: Starc, Hazlewood
Out: Pattinson
Showers are forecast for the opening day tomorrow.
My guess is Siddle will be 12th Man.
Cricket’s return to Commonwealth Games confirmed but in a different form.
Hazlewood comes into Australian XI while Starc is 12th man.
For England, Jack Leach replaces Moeen Ali while Jofra Archer makes his test debut replacing the injured Jimmy Anderson.
Australia have won the toss and will bowl first. The follow-on threshold has been reduced from 199 runs to 150.