Ashes Cricket

[BlueinPLtwenty]

Australia win by two wickets

[New Forester]

I wonder what lessons we learned. Team selection for the next test will be interesting.

[blue architect]

Love the positivity from England. Brave declaration that would have worked had some dropped catches (Bairstow), unfortunate outs (Brook) and no balls (Broad) been different. In the end the England total was 50 runs short - but as you say "What a Match" Bring it on for a rollercoaster Summer

[BlueinPLtwenty]

Not much between the Teams, going to be an interesting series

[New Forester]

Morning after the night before. What a brilliant game it was. For the first time in years I watched just about every ball instead of hiding behind the sofa. So many memorable passages of play, special incidents and some great individual performances. In the end caution defeated risk taking but it could so easily have gone the other way. Cummins innings was simply brilliant. His two sixes close to the end probably won the game for his side. He was aggressive at just the right time.
I have just finished a Bradman biography. Oh that we had someone like him around now - playing for England. His record was unbelievable. He not only got his centuries, doubles and trebles but often scored them at a rate the top 20/20 players could not hope to match.

[New Forester]

Having watched so much of the match so far I think Australia will win the series by 3-1. They have a stronger all round side. Perhaps the critical difference is the spinner. I hope I’m wrong!

[Selsey Bill]

I suspect today was pretty much the day when we lost the series. Can't see us coming back from 2-0

[PeteM]

I suspect today was pretty much the day when we lost the series. Can't see us coming back from 2-0

Yeah, although the pivotal session was probably the final one yesterday - if we'd ended the day something like 300-2 things might have been very different today. So frustrating, since we've been ahead in both matches so far but we might well end up losing both.

[BlueinPLtwenty]

Thrown it away it would seem, but is it not difficult to acknowledge that they are better than Us!

[BlueinPLtwenty]

At Stumps England are 114 for four after being 45 for 4 over 250 to get to win this Test Match

[Rjk66]

0-2 tomorrow and no way back, 1-4 if we are lucky

[New Forester]

I doubt any batsman could have avoided dismissal by the balls that removed Pope and Brook.

[BlueinPLtwenty]

Amazing last day Stokes top scored with 155, Bairstow given out when the cheating Wicketkeeper threw the stumps down after Bairstow assumed it was a dead ball! left a bad taste in the mouth, but we knew the Aussies would sell their Grannies to win

[Pompey55]

Amazing last day Stokes top scored with 155, Bairstow given out when the cheating Wicketkeeper threw the stumps down after Bairstow assumed it was a dead ball! left a bad taste in the mouth, but we knew the Aussies would sell their Grannies to win

It was not cheating otherwise the umpire would have given it not out
Yes it leaves a bad taste, it’s gamesmanship it’s playing to win but not cheating, it’s the same as running someone out for backing up without warning them but that’s happened a few times as well
It’s the equivalent in my views of playing to the whistle in football or diving to win a penalty.Bairstow was at fault not understanding the actual rules of the game

[PeteM]

No, cheating is using sandpaper on the ball like Smith and Warner did previously

While it was technically within the rules and correctly given out under the laws of the game, it was very poor sportsmanship and I personally wouldn't have wanted England to win like that. Having said that, all bets are off for the next game now! Good luck to any Aussies fielding in front of the Western Terrace at Headingley on Thursday. . .