The Ashes 2013: Chester-le-Street
And then the English “summer” kicked in.
Old Trafford ended up a draw thanks to the rain, which denied Australia a deserved win that would have kept the series alive. Alas, it was not to be, and the Poms have retained the Ashes. But there’s still two tests to go, and the series can be tied up. This doesn’t mean much in the context of this series, but it would be a huge confidence boost to the Aussies in the return series beginning in November.
Jarv’s away on holiday for the duration I think, so this may be a very one-sided conversation.
Teams
England – 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Joe Root, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Ian Bell, 6 Jonny Bairstow, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Graeme Swann, 11 James Anderson.
Australia – 1 David Warner, 2 Chris Rogers, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Shane Watson, 6 Steve Smith, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Peter Siddle, 9 Ryan Harris, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Jackson Bird.
The only change is Jackson Bird coming in for the wayward Mitchell Starc. Bit of a loss in the batting column, but a bowler’s selected to bowl, not bat. Should be interesting to see how Bird goes.
Toss
Alastair Cook won the toss. England will bat first.
It’s early August in the UK. So it’s 16 degrees and cloudy. The ball should swing. It’s not such a bad toss to lose this one. The only question is, how soon will we have our first DRS controversy?
Werewolves On The Moon 
I’ll be all alone on this one I think. Let’s see how many comments I can rack up.
Harris bowls a no ball first up.
Good first over apart from the no ball.
6 overs for 7 runs. Christ these two are boring.
17 runs off the first 10 overs. Cook has a strike rate of 11.
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Cook you COCK!
Root’s gone. Another on-field umpire error. This time corrected by DRS.
I’m not convinced of Root. Apart from his 180, which is a good innings, he’s made fuck all. And he makes fuck all at the slowest possible run rate. Plus, he should have been out for about 10 at Lords, when he went on to score 180.
1/57 for the morning session. Cook’s basically leaving everything. It’s as dull as dogshit so far.
Done Lyon. Trott looked alright there. Better than he has in the last couple of tests anyway.
Lyon again. Good bowling.
Well bowled Bird! Cook gone after a shit, slow innings. He made 50 but he really should have been well on his way to 100 in this time.
4/155 at tea. Even session in the end. Poms picked up the pace, but Aussies picked up a couple of late wickets.
Huzzah! Piss off Ronald. Lyon on fire!
Done Sids. Prior gone. 250 all out on the cards.
4 for Lyon. On yer bike, Bairstow.
Ridiculous fucking shot Broad.
Should be bowling Sids here instead of BIrd.
Done Harris. 1 more to go.
Bird has no idea how to bowl to tailenders. Really a mistake to bowl him and not Sids.
Well clubbed there at the end by Anderson, but christ that was shit bowling for the last 6 overs. Still 9 down for the day is a good job. Need to finish them off first thing tomorrow.
And well bowled Lyon. Great effort.
Bowled Bird. 238 all out is a top effort. Looks to be swinging though, so Aussies are going to have to work for it.
Warner opening with Rogers.
Andersons first ball moved a long way. Wouldn’t surprise me if we get skittled here.
Warner out. These lefties are going to have to learn not to leave these.
Khawaja out for a duck. Nick off the toe of the bat trying to leave.
Turns out it was a good toss to win, because it’s moving all over the place today. Didn’t do anything yesterday. If Clarke doesn’t get runs we’ll be all out for 100.
Waste of a review.
Not out. Shit on-field call. Should be overturned.
Was given out caught behind, which was wrong. But they checked for LBW and it was umpires call. So it’s not out.
Broad bowling well here.
Shit shot from Clarke. Wild swipe.
Made it to lunch with no further loss. 3-75. Englands session. The ball isn’t moving as much now was it’s a bit older. Smith and Rogers have to go on with this.
Smith out. Soft dismissal. Well, it’s up to Watto.
What the fuck are the Poms appealing for? Watto blocked it. The ball was nowhere near the pad.
4-148 at tea. Aussies session. 1-73 from it. Watto’s done well. Rogers has been excellent.
This is where we see how poor a captain Cook is. Both batsmen look fairly comfortable at the moment, and Cook doesn’t have any idea how to get them out. He’s just bowling Broad, hoping he’ll have another great spell like this morning. But the ball isn’t moving anywhere near as much any more.
50 for Watto. Well batted. Go on with it, mate.
Jesus. Bresnan is bowling every single ball at Watto’s legs. Really should be setting him up with a bunch outside off and then go for the legs.
Not out.
Yep. Clearly in.
Jesus Rogers. Don’t get out now.
Watto out. Shit ball down the leg side and he nicked it. Well batted for 68, but gave away his wicket.
Rogers still on 96.
Well done Rogers. Absolutely superb innings. Fully deserved century.
Going off early for bad light.
5- 222. 17 runs behind. Australia’s day in the end. Poms owned the first session. Broad in particular. Superb bowling on a pitch that seamed at right angles. Rogers made it through that assault and made his way to a well deserved century. Watto batted well. If we can get a lead of 100 or so we’ll be in good shape. Can see two low scores in the 3rd and 4th innings.
Right. Need to bat through this session at least. New ball in 5 overs.
Looked pretty out to me.
Yep. Plum.
Shit. Faintest touch of glove there. Still, great innings from Rogers.
New ball against Sids and Harris. Can see this getting wrapped up in a couple of overs.
Shot. In the lead.
Horrible umpiring decision.
Atta boy, Harris.
Lead of 32. Not as much as we would have liked, but at least it’s a lead.
Absolute beauty from Harris. Root remains unconvincing.
1-24 at lunch. Not sure who’s session it was really. Probably pipped by the Poms seeing as we lost 5 wickets but our tail is pretty crap so once Rogers and Haddin went it was only a matter of time. And getting Root for 2 kind of evened it up a bit.
Cook gone. Not the best ball, but a pretty bad shot. Anyway, 2-42.
Trott gone. Caught down the leg side. Good catch from Haddin. Poms in a bit of shit here. 3-49.
3-123 at tea. Lead of 91. KP and Bell are looking settled.
Watto gone off injured. Groin injury apparently. Huge loss, not only to the bowling, but if he can’t bat.
3-152. Bell and KP going along fairly comfortably. Need a wicket or two here.
Huzzah! KP out. Bowled Lyon.
Bairstow out. 5-221. Lead by 189. If the poms get any more than a lead of 250 I can’t see us chasing it down.
5-234 at stumps. Poms lead by 202. Well batted from Bell. So close to getting caught on 97, but otherwise batted pretty comfortably. Need to knock them over for 50 odd tomorrow to stand a chance in this test.
Harris on a hat-trick.
Boo. No hat-trick.
Broad gone. Poms just having a bash now.
Bresnan out after bashing 45. Harris has 7 now.
Smith dropped Swann. Swann’s now hit 2 fours. If these runs end up making the difference then Smith will be kicking himself.
330 all out. 299 to win. Think it’ll be a bit too much for us to chase down. Terrific from Harris. Well bowled Lyon too. Bird was a bit of a non-starter.
0-11 at lunch. Poms have used a review.
it’s yeoman work you’re doing here talking to yourself.
hehe
Yep, it’s lonely old work.
yes well tally ho and pip pip old man you are carrying on like the Queen’s own
Tony Hill has got to be the worst umpire in this series. And that’s saying something. He gets nearly every decision wrong. He just gave Rogers out caught behind and it was overturned on review.
Rogers just dropped by Swann.
0-80 off 20 overs. These two going along very nicely. I better not have jinxed it!
50 up for Warner. Rogers out on 49.
1-120 at tea. Very good start for us. Warner has batted surprisingly well.
Khawaja out. He may be in line to get dropped.
Warner out. Good ball from Bresnan. 3-168.
Poms have really gone to shit with their reviews.
Clarke out. Got a good ball from Broad. 4-174. Think we’ll struggle from here.
Yep. Going to struggle. Smith just managed to drag a hook shot onto his stumps.
Huge collapse, helped by some shit umpiring decisions. Well bowled to Broad. Won it for the Poms.
Tony Hill needs to be fired.
And about an hour ago the light was worse than it was when they went off for bad light on day one.