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With play getting underway tomorrow morning, now seemed like a good time to start up a thread. Here's the place for your cricketing discussion, predictions and inevitable (probably for the English) commiseration!

So which way do we think this'll go?

Must admit I haven't seen much of the Australian team since the last Ashes, but just looking at England I'm apprehensive at best. There are a few players I think we can rely on (Cook, Root, Anderson) but the middle order is still a bit shaky and the bowling attack is still missing a real front-line spinner. Obviously the teams aren't announced yet, but I hope a few of the One Day side make it into the Test team; there's some real momentum and impetus from them in the NZ series that the Test side seems to lack.


Over to you!

Its going to come down to who bowls the best and who can take 20 wickets in a match.

Unlike 2013's dry pitches to suit Graeme Swann I think ground staff will be instructed to produce green pitches to suit or attack of Anderson. Broad and Wood. This will also help the Aussies with their pace attack. Rashid could go well - if selected and i would like to see him given the series to bowl as Moeen just doesn't bowl enough overs to justify being the spinning option - keep him as a batsman, change bowler.

I don't expect Nathan Lyon to feature too heavily but he could prove to be Austrailas 2005 Ashley Giles.

Englands main problem is bowling to the tail or from 5/6 onwards. The team just seem to forgo bowling basics and try too hard to be different, offering the opposition valuable runs.

Batting wise England and Australia are pretty evenly matched - Both sides have fragility in the top 6 - Steve Smith aside.

I wouldn't pluck too many from the one day side to fit into the 5 day arena. There are too many chiefs in that squad and Cook is still conservative as a captain. Rather the successful one day team stick together and best the aussies during the pyjama series.

Anyone know of any sites an American can stream? I actually quite enjoy watching cricket in the background while I'm working, but ESPN decided they'd charge people $100 bucks to stream from them.

 cincydooley wrote:
Anyone know of any sites an American can stream? I actually quite enjoy watching cricket in the background while I'm working, but ESPN decided they'd charge people $100 bucks to stream from them.

I don't know if you can pick up BBC radio 5 coverage on the interweb? Decent commentary, humor - including the obligatory 'Boycott baiting', and cake.

I'm keen to watch as well.

Here's BBC Radio 5's site, looks like there may be some streaming:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02yj0p3

England win the toss and chose to bat first.

So it begins...

We picked Watson, so you've got game 1. Useless sod.

I....maybe I spoke too soon? You guys need to right this innings soon.

 motyak wrote:
We picked Watson, so you've got game 1. Useless sod.

I....maybe I spoke too soon? You guys need to right this innings soon.

3-55 as I type this.

Pitch is slow and low. Clarke rotating his bowlers nicely. Hoping Root can shore the innings up.

No place for Rashid in the England side so Ali is our front line spinner.

 Mr. Burning wrote:

 motyak wrote:
We picked Watson, so you've got game 1. Useless sod.

I....maybe I spoke too soon? You guys need to right this innings soon.

3-55 as I type this.

Pitch is slow and low. Clarke rotating his bowlers nicely. Hoping Root can shore the innings up.

No place for Rashid in the England side so Ali is our front line spinner.

Once again it's down to Root. We might as well just play him at #3 and/or start 2 wickets down, for all the good Ballance and Bell have done recently. I expected more from Cook and Lythe, though. Eoin Morgan definitely deserves a spot in the top 4, I think.

Ali vs Rashid is a tough call, but the truth is that it would take both of them to get the same kind of consistently dangerous spin Swan offered. Not sure this pitch is going to provide much for any spinner, though.

For those overseas who want to follow the game, if you can't get TMS radio then this should keep you abreast of happenings (and if in doubt, assume it's going the Aussies' way )
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/cricket/32809230


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And that's lunch, 88-3. Definitely better than it looked to be an hour ago, largely thanks to Root. Thank God they dropped him on 0!

RRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTT!

Not a bad afternoon for England. Root made a nice century. Ballance a 50. Stokes the same and Buttler and Ali are at the crease.

You can never count out the Aussie bowling attack though. taking wickets before the new ball is due has swung this evenings session back towards Australia.

Lets see how it plays to stumps tonight.

Moeen and Buttler have raced to double figures! Good cricket all round.

See, the middle order can play that kind of aggressive, fast-scoring cricket, it's just the plodders at the top that need to work on their pacing and reliability. I'm really not sure why they don't move Root up to 3, though; if he's this good when trying to dig the side out of a hole and fix an innings, how well could he do if he could come in with less pressure and in a more positive position?

The hints that he's suffering back problems isn't good, though, hopefully it's nothing major.

Still, the fightback has been rather successful, if we can hit 400 early tomorrow I think we'll be in a very good place considering the state we were in at 12.00 this morning!

Paradigm. I hate to be pessimistic but Broad is now there facing the new ball.

Hah, true, we could've done with Butler hanging on a bit longer. Still, any runs they can get tomorrow morning are a bonus really. I couldn't have called us ending close to 350 this morning, so all in all I think this might have been England's day (just).

Whether or not our bowlers can keep that up on what looks to be a pretty dull surface remains to be seen...

I'm still pretty angry they went with Watson over Marsh. Next test will be Watson's 60th, and I genuinely don't believe that any other Australian has reached 60 tests contributing so little. And Marsh is a serious talent, he looks as good right now as Watson promised to be.

Root batted really well. I'd heard he'd made a lot of technical changes, but technically he looked identical to previous Ashes series (strong footwork in attack, in defence his just props and hangs the bat). The changes look to be in attitude, he looks really positive now. He gave a good interview after the game as well, seems to have a good head on his shoulders, even if he looks like a foetus.

People here were critical of the Australian bowlers for being quite loose. But it seems weird to pick Johnson and Starc and then complain when they spray it around a bit. That's what those two guys do. You just hope they produce enough chances along the way, and to be honest I think they produced their fair share. The English batted well, but there were still chances produced by some very good balls, they just didn't go to hand - that's cricket and it's why we judge matches over 5 days and series of multiple tests.

A lot of talk about the pitch, its weird to see a pitch so low (afraid of Johnson, I guess) but other than that it's looks pretty standard for Cardiff - it's a pretty solid batting pitch. But you never judge these things until you've seen both sides bat, and it'll be interesting to see how movement England get.

Another fine cricketing day ahead. Up and down weather wise by the looks of it.

An extra 40 or 50 runs by England would be the minimum I would like to see but that depends on what nightmares Broad is still having about short fast stuff and what nightmares the aussies want to put into him!

Hopefully Anderson on Broad can exploit overcast conditions and get some movement, they will be one dimensional if they don't get swing or movement off the seam.
Moeen Ali will play a big role in this test, he will need to bowl many controlled overs in order to tie up an end and give the quicks some rest. I really wish he was bowling more overs for his county.

I would like to see Wood do well, he'll have an examination here.

All out for 430 after a great knock from Moeen. Happy with that, over to the bowlers!

Really solid recovery by Root and co. Stabilised the innings and saved the queen from a heart attack.

End of Day 2.

England 430 all out.
Australia 264 for 5. Trailing by 166 runs.

England have the honors tonight I think. Moeen Ali bowled well. and maybe should have had more overs. Stokes wicket of Voges definitely swung the day away from Australia.

Quick wickets with the new ball tomorrow should she us with a bit of a lead, with uncertain weather set for Saturday/Sunday.

I've not paid much attention to cricket recently. I've drifted away slightly more each year since it moved to Sky. I have a good gut feeling that we'll make a fight of it this time, but I think the convicts will edge it.

The Australian batsmen would be disappointed, lots of starts and only one decent score. We're actually in a similar position to when England lost their 5th wicket, but the advantage is definitely with the poms, as there's no guarantee our tail will do as well as their's, and even if it did I wouldn't want to be batting last on this wicket.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out from here.

God help us but we're relying on Watson.

Well that's Watson gone in the second over. Now to wrap up the tail for less than 165 runs; should be doable, but this is England, who seem to have more trouble dismissing batsmen 7-11 than the top order half the time!


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Ah, seems my doubts were misplaced, Australia out for 308!

With a lead of over 100 already, hopefully the batsmen can now come out and play positively.

That was a beautiful day of cricket.

England lead by 400+ runs.

Ian Bell showed off some of his beautiful batting.

England all out so no wasted time on Cookies conservative declaration roundabout.

Mitchell Starc has a poorly foot.

Now Anderson, Broad, Wood and Moeen can finish the Aussies off before bad weather becomes an issue.

Oh I wonder if Brads Haddin-uff? and we'll see another wicket keeper soon.

Agreed, you couldn't really ask for more as an England supporter today. Good, consistent bowling this morning to finish the Aussie tail off, and some great and positive batting to secure a lead that is pretty unassailable if we're set to lose overs on Sunday. Bell getting some runs on the board, good quick innings throughout the day, arms a cracking last blast from Wood (I think he definitely has potential to move up the order ahead of Broad).

Looks like we're in for some good stuff tomorrow, and this pitch that we thought looked a little dull has actually turned out to offer some very interesting stuff!

Yes! 1-0 England, winning comfortably by 169 runs with a day left!

Credit to Johnson, though, quite a few runs from him near the end there!

 Paradigm wrote:
Yes! 1-0 England, winning comfortably by 169 runs with a day left!

Credit to Johnson, though, quite a few runs from him near the end there!

Johnson is a nice batsman who can bowl a bit eh.

Watson has to go though for the Aussies. He has done okay for his country but injuries and his current record mean he's a liability.

Haddin has lost form and is leaden behind the stumps so thats another problem.

Moeen Ali is a nice conundrum for England though. Chipping in with wickets he's cemented his position down the order. I would prefer a dedicated spin bowler in Rashid but it looks like he might only be an option if ground staff produce a spinning wicket and England play two spinners (as if). Or if we have to promote Ali up the order if Ballance or Lyth struggle.

Still. Its a nice problem to have when you are 1-0 up.

On to round 2, then. Australia in first, having replaced Watson and Haddin with Marsh and Nevill. I've not seen much of either of those chaps, but it shouldn't be hard to do more than Watson!

Conspiracy theory for the day: Haddin:'s injury is fake, he's actually being punished for dropping Root on 0 last week...

Haddin has got some personal issues and not an injury.

Australia have started brightly. Openers share a 50 stand in 13 overs or so. Pitch looks flatish. England bowling too short though there have been some half chances.

Warner gone, but our number one looking good, and first drop...well Smith is a solid player

Just over 100 at lunch for one wicket, definitely an Australian morning. The pitch looks a tad dull, but then we were saying that this time last game, so hopefully it picks up a bit.

1/332 on day one. Now that's an opening score!