Cricket

[spud_gun]

Have it!

England should never have lost that.

55 partnership for the last wicket

[Irishnev]

Cummins is some man, tough as **** to get it over the line

[Deano]

Cracking game, fine, fine margins, but Can't see England winning from here

[Buzzo]

Cummins is some man, tough as **** to get it over the line

What an innings. Epic stuff from a skipper.

[Alex]

Early declaration not looking that inspired now

I think it guaranteed a result either way, which is better than a Draw. No one would be mentioning it if England had won, but thats how it goes I guess.

[Scratch]

With better fielding that match should have been Englands. The missed stumping of Kawaja (his second ball??) in the first innings, that should have been bread and butter for Jonny. But when the 8th wicket went down, like Spud, I couldn't see anyone but England winning that. On to the next test!

[BobTheCharmer]

Being off and sat around at home, I watched pretty much every ball. I never ever felt confident at any stage we would win. I think Root giving his wicket away at 46 was massive. I think the aussies got lucky when they got to bowl under the floodlights with heavy cloud cover for half hour and got our openers out. But throughout the match we had to work so hard to get anything out of the pitch. Their bowlers are better than ours. Lyon is an excellent wicket taking spinner. Their fast bowlers look dangerous. Yesterday we had a plan and did our best but there was no momentum where we took a few wickets in a row, it was get one, 50 partnership, get another and so on. It was a great test match and the margins are small. But if the wicket did more you'd expect their attack to rip through our batters fairly easily as we play so many risky shots.

[Buzzo]

Lords test begins next weds.

I actually think for the sake of the drama of the series an England win would have been best. If England really start to throw the bat around then I put the Aussie as strong favourites.

Englands approach is good for the game, but my sense is just being slightly more pragmatic would bring better results against the Aussies. They hunted that score down by going after the run rate not the ropes. England need to stay true to the new style, but just add a degree of pragmatism.

The toss and weather conditions will be fascinating. If England go in to bat first it will be high drama.

[Deano]

Being off and sat around at home, I watched pretty much every ball. I never ever felt confident at any stage we would win. I think Root giving his wicket away at 46 was massive. I think the aussies got lucky when they got to bowl under the floodlights with heavy cloud cover for half hour and got our openers out. But throughout the match we had to work so hard to get anything out of the pitch. Their bowlers are better than ours. Lyon is an excellent wicket taking spinner. Their fast bowlers look dangerous. Yesterday we had a plan and did our best but there was no momentum where we took a few wickets in a row, it was get one, 50 partnership, get another and so on. It was a great test match and the margins are small. But if the wicket did more you'd expect their attack to rip through our batters fairly easily as we play so many risky shots.

That's a decent write up TBF, so many ifs and buts, I reckon both sides will learn and Lords will be even cagey err if you get my drift. Australian defo got the luck IMO

[ChesterDave]

Middlesex have just chased 252 v Surrey in the Blast. They've lost 14 in a row before tonight!

[Scratch]

"Just Stop Oil" stopped play.

[spud_gun]

for about 3 minutes

[Buzzo]

Solid Rugby tackle from one of the stewards on a protestor.

[spud_gun]

Bairstow by name errr...... Bair by nature. He carried one of the protestors off like a child

[RichC]

Been a good morning for England so far