The worrying thing for England is the regularity batsman get out. They just about get going before getting out, not many push on to big scores and they never seem to be able to build partnerships.
Shame for Burns, as his 50 came at 109-3. That's 1+0+9-3=7. Aussies' catching was looking a bit like Arrizabalaga's penalties: almost getting there but not quite. Pundits going mad for Bancroft's catch but he needed two grabs at it. The Aussies were whinging about the shape of the ball before 40 overs. You'd think they were bowling on cobbles. Soft southern hemisphere ****es.
201-6 at tea only good news is Woakes & Bairstow have an unbeaten stand of 63. I expected the convicts to win the series due to our fragile Test batting but this could end up in a whitewash.
Hapless ****ers. Anyway, it's pissing down this afternoon, so very quick wickets and accurate bowling required.
Without Smith's scores, the crims got an average of 25 in the first Edgbaston innings and 35 in the second, which doesn't include the last two bowlers to bring down the average but does include the partnerships around Smith. And the second innings was during the period of the flattest area of the earth since time began. England had a first innings average of 27 and the collapse on the final day was after the pitch had been roughed up like a ball in an Aussie sandpaper factory. Any team is capable of a collapse, as they proved on the first day at 122-8. The lesson there is and has always been never judge a match by a first innings. We may be overly reliant on middle order all-rounders but it's hardly a classic Aussie side and is beatable, particularly if we can find a way to nullify Smith and the determination to "prove the bastards wrong" embodied in Bairstow but running through the England team persists. If not then yes, we are probably facing a short term future of rain dances and prayer. Meanwhile, nostalgia: As the Guardian noted, "Ian Botham’s outlandish match-saving performance in the third Test brought victory and fresh hope after the gloom of the preceding defeat, disharmony and widespread rioting." And then came Edbaston. Said Botham: “I had bowled well – fast and straight – but on that wicket it should not have been enough to make the Aussies crumble that way. The only explanation I could find was that they had bottled out. The psychological edge that we – and I – had got over them at Headingley was proving an insuperable barrier for them.” The Guardian again: "From the brink of defeat England had once more snatched victory and Botham and Brearley had conjured a sequel up there with The Godfather: Part II." I may be an eternal optimist but that's growing up in Scotland for you.
We may lament our openers but interesting stat: Australia's top three batsmen have made 130 runs from nine innings, while England's top three have 334 from their nine.
I hate him for his cheating . I hate Cricket Australia for giving THEM such a lenient sentence . He is though , an utterly brilliant batsman .
The hyperbole about Smith is reaching outlandish proportions. He's being called a Colossus and compared to Bradman for his Beethovian symphonic batting but steady on a mo. He is unarguably an excellent test batsman, achieving a 63 average, putting him in the +55 league of the finest based on average but still a long way behind Bradman on 99, who is the true Colossus all are measured by. Look at Smith's ODI and T20 and his batting is not fine, it's Salierian, trailing Bairstow and Root. In a field of short poppies...