May I be the first to congratulate James Vince on what was a most marvellous innings.

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Originally Posted by Peter

I managed to make it through to lunch. I was enjoying Stoneman's dogged and rather unattractive innings. His timing was out and the runs were drying up but he stuck at it well.

Highlight of the first session was Hazlewood chucking the ball at Vince for no particular reason and Vince responding with two fours.

I dont like Cummings. That face, that ****ing stupid tash. ****er.

Not sure why they have been drivelling on about how quick they are. 88/89 with hardly any balls up at 90. Good, but nothing special.

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Yes, well all the hype about the bowling attack was really rather to convince themselves rather than scare our batsmen. The Brisbane paper's front cover was one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen (even without a massive mistake in it). As much as I would love Malan and Ali to play their natural game we really need to keep them out there as long as possible. All three quicks have been out injured recently - if we can wear them out in the first innings we can prosper in the second (although don't like how much spin their is, Lyon is a very good bowler). in other words it's all ****, eh, p ;)

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Originally Posted by Burney

Apologising on AWIMB? Straight :redcard: I'm afraid. Off you go.

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We're talking about cricket, b - surely we should be civil. We aren't Aussies after all

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Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda

Yes, well all the hype about the bowling attack was really rather to convince themselves rather than scare our batsmen. The Brisbane paper's front cover was one of the most pathetic things I have ever seen (even without a massive mistake in it). As much as I would love Malan and Ali to play their natural game we really need to keep them out there as long as possible. All three quicks have been out injured recently - if we can wear them out in the first innings we can prosper in the second (although don't like how much spin their is, Lyon is a very good bowler). in other words it's all ****, eh, p ;)

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To be fair, the wicket is a little soft and the ball isnt coming through too well. The short stuff will be more effective in the other tests. I heard a few pundits saying the spin might reduce massively as the moisture in the wicket gradually dries out.

Interesting that they have to circulate the quicks almost constantly because they dont have a fourth seamer. THat is going to get very tiring, surely.....

Overall, its a good first day for us. The first hour in the morning is going to be massive.

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Originally Posted by Burney

I liked Stoneman. It's a while since we've had our own, Gary Kirsten-style dogged and unattractive left-hander.

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It was great watching them start to twitch when the runs began to dry up. They were itching to get after a few balls but you could see them telling themselves not to. Stoneman looked quite organised and fairly comfortable from the start.

I didnt notice Vince playing away from his body, thought he looked quite tidy. I recall seeing that repeatedly with Westley in the summer and it winds me up.

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Originally Posted by Peter

To be fair, the wicket is a little soft and the ball isnt coming through too well. The short stuff will be more effective in the other tests. I heard a few pundits saying the spin might reduce massively as the moisture in the wicket gradually dries out.

Interesting that they have to circulate the quicks almost constantly because they dont have a fourth seamer. THat is going to get very tiring, surely.....

Overall, its a good first day for us. The first hour in the morning is going to be massive.

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Yeah. It's an OK day, but there aren't enough runs on the board to call it a good one. Two quick wickets in the morning and we're looking down the barrel of a sub-300 score.

Want to see England slow it down even more tomorrow.

Crawl their way to 375 to 400 by stumps.

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Originally Posted by Peter

It was great watching them start to twitch when the runs began to dry up. They were itching to get after a few balls but you could see them telling themselves not to. Stoneman looked quite organised and fairly comfortable from the start.

I didnt notice Vince playing away from his body, thought he looked quite tidy. I recall seeing that repeatedly with Westley in the summer and it winds me up.

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Maybe I'm being harsh. I saw him going at a couple of wide ones he should have left well alone. Westley was terrible for it, you're right. I don't really understand how you can learn your cricket in England and bat like that.

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Originally Posted by Burney

Yeah. It's an OK day, but there aren't enough runs on the board to call it a good one. Two quick wickets in the morning and we're looking down the barrel of a sub-300 score.

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Sir Geoffrey said it was going to be a low-scoring game. I do hope you are not suggesting that he might be wrong.....

Good in the sense that it could have been so much worse.

Anyway, you are using the 'two wickets' rule which applies at any stage in any innings.

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Originally Posted by Burney

Maybe I'm being harsh. I saw him going at a couple of wide ones he should have left well alone. Westley was terrible for it, you're right. I don't really understand how you can learn your cricket in England and bat like that.

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I dont really understand how you can play the shot. How do you control a drive with your hands that far away from your head and body?

Its disgusting, that's what it is....

I thought Cook's dismissal was a bit ****e. He seems to be playing that a long way ahead of himself.

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Originally Posted by Peter

Sir Geoffrey said it was going to be a low-scoring game. I do hope you are not suggesting that he might be wrong.....

Good in the sense that it could have been so much worse.

Anyway, you are using the 'two wickets' rule which applies at any stage in any innings.

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Not quite. Two wickets when you're four down (and dont have Stokes) is a bit different to two quick wickets when you're two down.

It may be a low-scoring game, in which case 300 would be a decent first innings knock. I'd prefer to see both sides bat on it before deciding on that.

My favourite bit was when the edge off Vince clanged out of Tim Paine's iron gloves. :hehe: It's a shame it wasn't more costly a drop for them, but still.