Day 2 Second Test, The Gabba + a 4-letter Aussie 11 to play the 4-letter England 11

By the time we get back to the hotel it's too late to file copy, So there are some belated comments on Day 1 in this post.

Firstly here is the score card of Joe Root's historic innings on day 1. An Aussie supporter (actually he was English - ed) near us was diligently scoring the game ( I used to know how to do this when I occasionally scored for Warwick Ramblers 40+ years ago)

Joe Root not out 138

Can't help feeling that we haven't got quite enough runs to play with (334), which is not surprising given we had three of our top batters out for nought.
If we don't get a result here it will be difficult to recover 

Moving on to Day 2

Arriving at the ground (with a snap courtesy of an Aussie fan) by the huge replica urn

As we entered the ground we saw Harry Brook in the nets while the rest of the team were playing their keepy-uppy on the outfield prior to the start of play. Clearly the England management had had words, and it was a naughy-boy net.


Harry Brook in the nets with batting coach Marcus Trescothick

Day 2 was a day of dropped catches, weird field settings and no third man (or third leg as Alison Mitchell sometimes refers to it as).
Stephen McNab pointed out to me over drinks back at the hotel, that under Bazball theory, third man is considered a wasted position because the idea is to force batters to drive of the front foot to create catching opportunities off mistimed drives (which England seem to put in to practice when they bat!
We didn't bowl full enough to force the Aussies to drive and they scored the majority of their runs behind square, and we were all puzzled why it took so long for Stokesy to figure this out.
Toward the end of the day there were three fielders fielding square of the wicket (a couple of mis-steps to the right and it's a no-ball!)

three square leg fielders (photo credit: Steve Bramley)

By the end of Day 3 I think we'll face a three figure deficit, which if Harry's net has rubbed off, and with his talent he could erase this with his contribution. No pressure then.

An Aussie 4-letter team (in no particular order)

Travis Head
Nathan Lyon (he gets picked in this side at least!)
Tim May
Brett Lee
David Boon
Ashton Agar
Bruce Reid
Matthew Wade
Shaun Tait
Rodney Hogg
Michael Beer

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ashes First Test Day 2 (aka the final day), November 22, 2025, Optus Arena, Perth

Image
  Well that was interesting. To win a Test match you've got to take 20 wickets. Taking 10 cheaply to secure a first innings lead isn't enough. Attendance over the two days was close to 100,000 (51,000 yesterday and 49,000 today), by far the biggest crowd Ive ever been to for a Test match. When you think that the capacity at Lord's is 26,000 and that is our biggest ground, you get the idea. I had an elevated view today which enabled me to look at the whole field of play at once see the pic below We lost this game because key wickets were thrown away with daft shots ( "How to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory" by B McCullum is a good reference) and our bowlers just didn't perform today they all looked knackered with no stamina. Okay there were  a couple of controversial umpiring decisions. Was Mitchell Starc's catch off his own bowling to dismiss Zak Crawley for his second first over duck of the match clean?. The law regarding a clean catch is not a...
Read more

Emotional intensity is hotting up

Image
  Okay, things are getting emotionally intense now, the night before the first day of the first Test. I met others in my tour party, and then on to a cricket Australia for a session with Ricky Ponting followed by Jonathan Agnew and Mark Taylor , and finally Phil Tufnell ,  MC'd by Alison Mitchell who is great and a fantastic sports journalist. In summary, Ricky Ponting concluded that both sides have their strengths and weaknesses (!), but he predicted 3-2 to Australia,  Agnew and Taylor discussed fishing and piloting light aircraft, and Tufnell was, well, he was Phil Tufnell. Its emotionally quite intense now and it dawned on me tonight that I am witnessing something MASSIVE, and I am so lucky to be here. The room was full of about 500 people half of whom were Brits, and I had a lovely chat with an Aussie guy who is taking his elderly father to his first Test Match. I dont mind admitting I cried a bit I'll give a Day 1 update tomorrow. I did take some pics of downtown ...
Read more

Arrived Safe and Sound

 Ive just arrived at my hotel  in Perth. I need food ( I didn't eat anything except a banana on the second leg from Dubai to Perth) so I'm off to the restaurant. I'm told by Graham (my driver who picked me up from the airport) that the weather forecast is not too good for the first Test. likely to be a bit damp and cloudy, so whoever wins the toss will probably bowl. I met someone on the first leg from LHR to Dubai, who like me has an Australian naturalized daughter (his here in Perth, mine in Sydney). and his granddaughter is one of the flag carriers to welcome the teams onto the pitch at start of proceedings, so that's nice
Read more