Hank shoots Skyler

We were never going to make it easy were? Aus kept pegging us back when we seemed to get our noses ahead, once Bairstow went it looked pretty bleak, but always felt we were only one half decent partnership away from basically getting over the line - and fortunately that came with Brook and Woakes. Whew. Atmosphere a bit strange, very tense and quiet for the opening period and didn’t really get going until we started to get that target down to about 50/60. I think it was maybe nerves from the crowd knowing everything was on the line. Foakes in for Old Trafford please!

I’m at Headingley for today. Our prospects for a good watch were absolutely saved by the rain yesterday and the last 2 hours of the day, it’s now set up pretty much perfectly for plenty of cricket and an exciting finish!

Pretty stupid from Smith there…

I would agree with most of that but I think you've missed the gist of my post. Criticising the coaching and criticising the style of play are two separate things. I know there have been silly wickets, in the same way you sometimes see ridiculously stupid goals from teams that religiously play out from the back in football. Its frustrating as it feels like it should be much more easy to find that balance between reckless aggression and managing the situation, and we've struggled with it at times. Stokes has came in over the past couple of tests and clearly shown an understanding of this balance, and as captain surely that shows that there is a desire to manage the situation and style more than the rest of the team is? Hopefully some of the other players (Brook, Alli) can start to take note. But with an aggressive style I think in part there should be some acceptance that some silly wickets will fall. On the batting collapses I would argue that Aus at least as bad if not worse than us in that respect. 23-6 yesterday! Agreed you could argue a coaching / preparation error on the catching, and that's fair, but again that's not really a philosophy or style issue - which was what I was trying to get across. I don't think our catching hasn't been this bad so far under bazball has it? It feels like more of a one off for the series up to now for me. Same thing goes RE the non-selection of Foakes. That's not a question of our play style. And right on cue, another dropped catch for Bairstow (albeit a tough one this time)... at least we've somewhat made amends now.

The subversion of expectation in this analogy did tickle me.

To add to this as well - For a football comparison it feels a bit like a Farkeball game where we have done plenty in the match to see a competitive scoreline, yet through superb goalkeeping on the opposition / or poor finishing from our strikers, and some clangers from our keeper - we find ourselves 0-2 down. Would we blame the 'style of play' then? Surely rather than changing the entire philosophy of the team, we should look at tidying up on these individual errors before then seeing where that places us competitively? If we were to still find ourselves totally outmatched, then fair enough change it. But the fact is we've already seen how successful it has been in England's cricket performances for the last year or so - so why are people so quick to wave the white flag now after a couple of disappointing performances?

Yeah I understand. But on prior efforts him being visibly injured should put the fear in the opponents, the more you hit him the more he hits you!

There’s lots of negativity on here, and I get that we’re now going to be on the brink of losing the series for the next 2.5 tests, but I don’t really think the scoreline so far is totally reflective of the balance of play - nor do I particularly think that ‘bazball’ is to blame. Yes there have been faults but the majority of our issues for this series can be put down to individual errors or poor selection choices. First test yes the declaration was perhaps too brave, but we still were in position to comfortably win that game by the last day - and should’ve been in a much better place if Bairstow didn’t miss basic stumping opportunities! If we had Foakes in for Bairstow we would’ve won the first. The second test saw the most obvious time you could really blame a poor spell on bazball, losing 3 quick wickets stupidly, going from 188-1 to about 220-4. Some really poor shots then Stokes came out and dug in - suggests the players already should’ve been playing the situation better then they were. But we were well beaten in that game overall, with the main fault being the failure to take advantage of bowling on the first day; more so than bazball. Let’s also remember how much these games have ebbed and flowed too. Australia have been nearly as guilty as collapsing at times too. Even yesterday they went down 90-4, then back up to 240-4, then all out for 260. 6 wickets for 23 runs? There was a similar collapse on the first test when we knocked down about 5 wickets in a morning session. They totally flapped getting Stokes out at the end of the second test, and the first innings of the second test allowed us to get to 188-1. But ultimately it doesn’t matter because they’ve edged both results so far. Overall I think the ‘style’ has been plenty good enough to have succeeded in at least the first test, and put us in a great position for this one, it has just been down to controllable factors which we haven’t done well enough. The most simply fact is that if Australia had been catching like us, and us them, then we’d be at least be 1-1 in the series right now and also with a very strong first innings lead in this test (the Marsh dropping was fatal). Is failing to make simple catches a part of bazball? I know they’ve missed some chances too but nothing like what we’ve done. The new style has been superb since Stokes became captain, 3-0 in Pakistan, beating New Zealand, 11 wins in 13, and I’m thoroughly enjoying this series although it is disappointing to have individual errors costing us. We’re still a good team, and I’m hopeful we could still do something special…

He has barely bowled all series because of his knee injury… I don’t think he’s faking it

Starting from….. now!

The Bairstow decision on the surface a bad one for the team, but listen to the crowd and look at Stokes since, absolutely heroic stuff - whatever happens now.

Betting odds in cricket are absurdly poor. England 7/2 to win. 7/2 for a record breaking run chase when they’re already 4 down with a long tail? I know that’s not how the odds are calculated but I’d guess are actual chances are more like 50 to 1?

It is strange though as I felt Starc had the ball firmly in his grasp the whole time and before it touched the grass. Whereas the catch for Smith seemed to pop through his fingers and it looked like the turf helped support the catch? I know he had a finger under the ball, but the ball was in no way locked into his hand the same way it was for Starc at all IMO. Game over either way, expected they’ll rip through us by lunch tomorrow…

Nuts that they’ve sent Lyon out like this?

Some darkish looking clouds overhead… fingers crossed 🤣

Oh FFS sorry everyone

Runs seem very hard to come by at the moment, but at least we’re not trying to force the issue like we did yesterday evening, just got to keep chipping away to the target

Pretty much as good a day as could be expected after how yesterday finished. Well in the game now! A bit disappointing to lose the 3 in quick succession including Root for so few but I don’t think anyone wouldn’t have taken this position after yesterday? Good to see Stokes playing the situation a bit better too than he has done in recent innings. What’s the target for tomorrow? Anything over the 416 is a good psychological boost and we should even be looking to clear by at least 20/30 runs? But we’ve got a long tail without Ali and that target could easily become difficult with a couple of wickets lost. Looks like it’s shaping up to be another great game…

Gutted! Once Carey went I thought it was in the bag. The kind of game where no one really deserved to lose, should’ve stayed 4-4 without the 90+4 winner for Aus.

Bit baldist

Given the FA have came out and said this isn’t a case of match fixing / Toney didn’t or couldn’t have had any influence over the games he bet on, other than betting on himself to score which you can’t exactly ‘fix’ in a game, this OP is very misleading and you can immediately see the impact it has on responses for posters who didn’t realise the full context. The ban is fine, but I don’t understand the extent of which he’s banned from football ‘activities’. I get not being allowed to play competitively, but seems like he’s not even allowed to train? Really bizarre and OTT

Realistically does anyone think we can get £20 million for Omo? And sounded closer to mid £20s per Webber. Find it hard to think Webber would lie about it, as he’s going to look a fool if we now go and sell for £15 million and I can’t really see how we get much more. Certainly not anywhere near £25 million. So why lie? Trying to give prospective clubs a benchmark to pay, but seems more likely to steer clubs away rather than encouraging a bidding war? And then if he’s telling the truth, why on Earth would he reject that bid? Omo was our third choice CB at the time and his form had been patchy all season. Actually think I find it being the truth even harder to believe than a lie… I know posters love the classic ‘you’d have moaned if he’d sold him too, Webber is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t’, etc, but save for a very small handful I genuinely don’t think there’d have been anyone moaning a £25 million sale in Jan. Webber will do extremely well to now go and sell him for a fee close to that number, or in excess. Let’s hope he can 👍

That’s not my point though. If I generally didn’t think Webber’s comments should’ve been stated in the first place, like you say, then I wouldn’t have led by praising his honesty and saying he got it spot on. Maybe your opinion has changed from the first post, which is obviously fair enough.

So ‘good honest answer’ and ‘he was spot on’ but you’d prefer he didn’t say it? And I’m not ignoring your subsequent posts, just not sure how they exactly align with the tone of your first comment…

‘’Good honest answer from a Sporting Director who has been part of actually building the women's side of football for our club. Far more than any predecessor. He is completely correct about trying to target a different audience and accepting the poor quality standard at the moment. He said it was exciting but the quality poor. He was spot on.’’ Doesn’t really read like ‘adding balance’ to me.