We can only be beaten by the weather now… Tomorrow could be wiped out!
Five to get as I type this, as opposed to 300 runs for the Aussies. Bloody marvellous.
Sod the football… Barmy Army!
England win - top stuff - am really looking forward to the rest of the summer now
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Brilliant all round performance.
Not many things better than watching England outplaying the Aussies on a beautiful English - sorry, Welsh - summer’s day!
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Phew!
Leading up to this game I thought we stood more of a chance than some were saying, but that our weak point was Alistair Cook’s conservative instincts as captain. Now I think he’s been great in this game and the young players who’ve come in have definitely brought a new mindset.
Generally I think the influence of fast-scoring ODIs and T20 is coming into tests. Gone are the days of attritional test matches drifting along at 2.5 runs per over. Mike Brearley, writing about this in the Times a few weeks ago quite rightly credited the Kiwis with bringing this new approach to tests. Being an intellectual, he started the piece with a quote from Kuhn’s ‘Structures of Scientific Revolutions’! Can’t see many football writers doing that
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Great performance - surprised me, i was fearing us being 100-8 on the first afternoon.
I’d now like to see us repeat the trick in the second test…
Let’s not get carried away.
The abject failure in the World Cup showed the failings oif an environment where every action or reaction was microanalysed, where a robotic mindset was required. In fact we can probably trace that much further back, Robotic Mindset, follow the instructions probably led to KP’s demise and failure to fit in.
Then the Kiwis arrive and the new coaching team come in. We’ve heard how the new staff have taken away the Nanny State and encouraged the players to do their own thing. Which has seen creative inventive cricket.
But then we look at the way England bowled. That was incredible, in fact the attention to detail and accuracy was so far in advance of anything we have seen before. How did they do that? That isn’t the play your own game mindset the coaches talk about. That was collective discipline as if Otis Gibson & the analysts were telling them where to put each and every ball.
Something doesn’t gel. Extreme Discipline yet be free to play your own game.
I think there is much more to this New England than they are letting on. Yes they have changed a mindset, yes they are playing much more positively but there is a hell of a lot of Psychology been at work, For example Christ on a Bike have we EVER seen an England Captain set fields like Cook did? To believe that was a result of someone telling him to enjoy the game means EITHER they had been coached to destruction for the past 20+ years OR there is some new thinking at work.
The Aussies were made to look old, slow and dull.
Their Bowling selection was wrong, or Clarke should have used Watson more. They simply failed to build consistent pressure on England. Add in Haddin’s drop of Root and they could have easily beaten us. Now the psychology is back on them now they will be asking questions. They will drop Watson, Marsh bats better. They will probably lose Starc (their most effective bowler) and bring in Siddle.
We have them on the back foot, yes we played well, but the top order failings are still there. Aus can improve their weaknesses. Lords is ALWAYS theground to bat first and ALWAYS the ground where the first session on Day 1 is a nightmare to bat.
We could be 40-4 AGAIN.
All of which is saying. Great result, great Team Effort and Motivation we COULD push on and with the extra confidence destroy them
But it came on the back of a couple of Aussie Mistakes. They could still batter us at Lords.
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WatchESPN, south of the border. Every ball live
Possible bad news for England.
Brad Haddin may pull out of the Lords Test for personal reasons…
The newbie may be able to catch
Well, well, well who would have thunk it after Lords?
To be honest why do Lords always provide a pitch suitable for the opposition bowlers and not ours. Is it something to do with it not being cricket to give us a pitch that suits our players abilities?
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A long way to go yet - let’s just see how many we can get in this first innings. Wonderful start though. I was out at a customer site all morning, got back to the office about 3pm and had a look at Cricinfo. Bloody hell I thought, or words to that effect.
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Great comeback after the Lords debacle but we need to bat well now. Go for it!
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Do we give Lyth time or do we drop him after this test?
Not at all sure about Lyth. He really should have been given a chance in the West Indies earlier this year, but they went with Trott, which was pretty daft all round. Lyth’s now playing his second ever series and it’s the Ashes. I’d be inclined to give him more time, just not sure how much of it.
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Lyth needs a very big score in second innings 
Will we need a second innings?
Knowing England 
Come on Cooky 
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Poor old Carbs only got one test match against Bangladese prior to being thrown in to open against the Aussies down under.
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I am hoping for a Bell ton. He normally comes good once the pressure is on! He has done it many times before. I really like Bell.
This is brilliant cricket. Not sure what you are going to get one test to the next!
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Unlucky Cook…now up to Bell and Root to mount up big score.