Today is a special day on the English sporting calendar. It’s all about tradition, with some of the world’s finest players toughing it out at the spiritual home of one of our national sports. The occasion is steeped in history, emotions will run high, and the world will be watching. But enough about The Open at St Andrews. There’s an Ashes test match on.
Today is a crucial day in the series. They’re all pretty crucial, but this one is more crucial than others. If England get off to a good start, and finish day one in a strong position, we’ll be big favourites to win the Ashes.
It’s absolutely vital that we back up the extraordinary win at Cardiff with a good performance at Lord’s. We all know what happened the last two times England won a test match. It’s time for the team to step up and show some consistency.
Australia are undoubtedly the team under pressure. All reports indicate they’ll go into the game with two rookies – Mitchell Marsh (apparently every third child in Australia is christened Mitchell these days) who will be making his fifth test appearance, and Peter Nevill, who will be making his debut.
Richie Benaud always used to say that captains should expect very little from test debutants, and that they’ll need time to adapt. Lord’s isn’t the easiest place to make one’s debut, especially as a keeper, so we’ll have to wait and see how Nevill performs. His first class batting average is healthy, but his keeping is something of an unknown quantity to England supporters.
Assuming that Moeen Ali is fit to play, England will go into the match unchanged. It’s a nice feeling. I sense our top order will be the key. We can’t afford to put the middle order under pressure again. Joe Root is pretty bloody good, but he’s not superman. Let’s hope that Cook, Lyth and Ballance can build a platform.
I’m feeling a lot more confident about our bowling. Anderson, Broad, Wood, Stokes and Ali cover most bases. If we’re in the field first, I don’t think these guys will let us down.
What do you think? As always, feel free to add your thoughts on today’s play below. And no flicking over to the golf please.
James Morgan
@DoctorCopy
I see England have resorted to “borrowing” Mitch McLenaghan (NZ have a couple of Mitchells too) as a net bowler, pretending to be a couple of other left-arm seam bowling Mitchells. They’ve also had another left-arm seamer in Sachin Tendulkar’s 16 year-old son trundling in, clearly the left-arm-seam cupboard is a touch bare …
It’s going to be massive.
I still think England are a bowler short – Australia let them off the hook by gifting wickets to Moeen. They tried to hit him out of the attack, which is unnecessary. They should just be trying to milk him.
I think you’re right about England’s top order needing to do something. In Cardiff, England were 3/43 (should have been 4/43) in the first innings and then 3/73 in the second innings. The fact that Australia still lost heavily points to how well England’s middle order player and how poorly Australia batted (admittedly against some fine bowling from Anderson and Broad).
I think Australia were right to pick Marsh over Watson, who has been out of form for four-and-a-half years.
Looking like a nice batting deck.
The last 11 Ashes tests have either been drawn, or won by the team who won the toss. Can England buck the trend?
Big toss to win I feel. A couple of balls past the edge but really other than Warner’s brain explosion gift wicket the batsmen haven’t really looked terribly troubled.
England’s bowling hasn’t been terrible but certainly lacked the control of Cardiff. Another session like that and the confidence will be flowing pretty strong in the Aus dressing room.
It looks pretty flat doesn’t it. Perhaps a day for the tactics of old. Bowl dry and wait for mistakes. Whether batsmen of the class of Smith and Clarke etc make any mistakes is another matter!
At what point is it fair to criticise the flat pitches?
Is it conducive to good cricket?
Conducive to 5 day matches.
England used to reliably have some green tops but not any more it appears. Still all going swimmingly for Aus at the moment they will be looking to declare 5/600 late tomorrow at this rate.
What a tedious day. If you keep preparing slower wickets that give the bowlers little or no help, then you need to keep winning the toss. Australia will probably get at least 600 for something declared at this rate. England don’t always respond well to scoreboard pressure, so the pitch will suddenly appear to be full of demons as Cook and Lyth go out to bat late tomorrow or early Saturday. One of those two will need to get a big hundred, with further massive contributions from Bell, the in form Root, Stokes, Buttler and Moeen. Even Glen McGrath is saying it’s too slow a wicket with nothing in it for the bowlers. I wouldn’t have enjoyed being at Lord’s today, too one-sided.
England clearly don’t trust their batsmen to cope with the pace of Johnson, Starc and co on quicker pitches. But a quicker wicket would give our bowlers more of a chance too. What a joyless task it must have been today for Anderson, Broad, Wood and Stokes.
The best we can hope for in this match now is a dull, high-scoring batting draw…Australia 600 for 5 declared, England 500 all out, something of that nature. However, if our frail batting order struggles, then it will be a humiliating defeat by a huge margin. As I said before, we don’t cope well with scoreboard pressure.
“If think even David Bellamy would have struggled to find a bit of life on that pitch”, the verdict of Tuffers on TMS just now.
I gave up half way through the day and watched the golf instead (I know, I know).
The cricket was as dull as dishwater. Whoever won the toss was always going to get 500+. Mick Hunt has prepared an absolute stinker.
It’s one thing to prepare a slow pitch; it’s quite another to prepare a featherbed that isn’t a fair contest between bat and ball. Cardiff was slow, but there was some movement for the bowlers. It gave them a chance. This Lord’s pitch is the kind of surface that damages test cricket.
Personally I’d rather watch Chris Tavare score 50 runs at 1.2 an over than watch the golf, but each to their own.
:-)
It would almost serve England right were Australia to make 600 for 4 and then bowl us out cheaply, twice…
Not so much hoist by our own petard, as smothered by our own featherbed.
I’ll be really disappointed if England get bowled out cheaply twice on this surface. Lord’s isn’t known to deteriorate much. A few years ago it used to get flatter as the game went on. But I suppose this is England we’re talking about!
A few years ago it had some bounce and seam on the first morning. Who know where it goes from here? In fact I think it had some bounce just a month or two ago.
Long term it’s good for Australia to get more experience playing on slow pitches though, we might be able to win a game in India with enough practice.
The draw has to be favourite, I admit.
Though it’s just possible that scoreboard pressure might get to England.
And Anderson has set a precedent for running on the pitch in the first innings, which might give Australia a few ideas….
Anderson was getting cautioned for running on the pitch this test and seemed to go round the wicket to avoid doing it (could ahve been a coincidence).
He received an official warning last test. Is this a regular problem with him, or has he changed his bowling line.
I don’t remember this in any of the 5-6 series I have watched him bowl in before.
It seems to be a new problem that’s crept into his game this summer. certainly can’t recall it happening for a long time. It’s a bit odd that such an experienced bowler is having these difficulties.
England’s new mantra is about playing aggressive cricket.
That doesn’t really fly if they’re asking for pitches to protect their batsmen from Australia’s pacemen. That’s not ‘aggressive cricket’.
It’s a load of cobblers anyway.
“Aggressive” cricket is what did for Warner, for instance… and to underline the point, even his greatest admirers (including me) would struggle to describe Root in full flow as “aggressive”.
In any event, given that both teams get to play on the same pitch, the only people with any real right to complain about it are the spectators.
Well, I don’t know. I thinnk there’s something to be said for backing your players to take on the opponent in conditions that give both a fair shot at it.
England have talked the talked before preparing wickets designed to nullify Australia’s quicks. If that’s the way they want to do it, so be it. I don’t think it’s good for the game. But even more than that, you can’t do that and then turn around and say how “aggressive” the ‘new England’ is. It’s just hot air if you then prepare these flat pitches to protect the batsmen.
It’s like going to the zoo and being aggressive to the 800-pound gorilla – provided he’s still in his cage.
If England want to show how positive and aggressive they are, why not prove it on a pitch that actually gives the quicks a chance?
In the modern game, surely the batsmen have enough advantages. You can’t add a docile pitch into the bargain and keep banging on how the new “aggressive” approach. It’s rubbish.
Pre-series, there was a lot of familiar chat about “unsportsmanlike Australians”.
Not sure that holds up if England keep preparing flat wickets to protect their batsmen.
Plenty of Poms were pining for a series played in the same spirits as the series against NZ. Well, maybe they should start by preparing similar pitches.
Alternatively, one might suggest that England are trying to give Australia a sporting chance of a draw ?
:-)
One might be dismissed.
Lots of comments about the pitch based on one day’s play.
Can we wait to see how the pitch looks as the match pans out? It will almost certainly get quicker as the sun gets to work on it. Pitches at Lord’s have received considerable flak recently yet twelve of the last fourteen Tests there have been results (and one of the draws was “six inches of carry” from another result).
There might be a result but that doesn’t mean it was acceptable for a first day wicket.
Batting first shouldn’t be such a disproportionate advantage.
This seems so long ago now