4th. Ashes Test. Manchester.

K · Joined: 09 Sep 2011

Play has been abandoned for the day.

So the tea score on the previous page is now the stumps score.

Not a bad start for Oz, but a pity Marnus got out.

K · Joined: 09 Sep 2011

Odds:

Oz 43%
Draw 37%
England 20%.

So the punters reckon it was Oz's day.

K · Joined: 09 Sep 2011

Pies4shaw · pies4shaw Joined: 08 Oct 2007

So, there we have it. Smith reaches 60, again. At the moment, his series batting average is 146. The plan to intimidate him and exploit his “weakness” against the short ball is working, though - he hasn’t reached 100 (yet) since they started trying to hit him in the head. It’s probably just a little galling for them that his average since they started aiming at his brain is 152. Still, if one looks more closely, one can see the merit in England’s strategy: when they concussed him, they confined him to just the bare 92, whereas when they haven’t managed to concuss him, his series average is 173.

K · Joined: 09 Sep 2011

It's hard to have a plan to bounce someone when the tracks are all flat. (I doubt that is the plan.) If they're going to produce tracks that turn from day 1, the Leach plan may be better. I wonder what Lyon thinks. If it were Warne, they would not dare do this. (If it were Warne, the disaster of the last Test wouldn't have happened, of course.)

But for Smith's changed plan against the bouncer in this Test, have a look at the comments of Athers & Ponting quoted in this thread.

K · Joined: 09 Sep 2011

J. Liew, The Independent, 26 Jul 2019:

"Perspective, curiosity, a refusal to conform to expectations, and a simple faith in his own methods: these are the ingredients that have brought a little-known all-rounder from Brisbane to the brink of a debut Ashes series, despite a modest first-class record. Labuschagne was a surprise call-up for last year’s Test tour of the UAE, Australia’s first since the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal, and there were more than a few eyebrows raised when he returned to the side for the final Test against India in January. Former Australia opener Ed Cowan said he was “dumbfounded” by his selection at No3 at the SCG.
...

For many of his detractors back home, Labuschagne is exactly the sort of cricketer Australia need to be moving on from – a tidy, competent performer who lacks the X-factor. He remembers the stinging rebukes he got when he returned to Shield cricket at the start of last winter, from opposition players who believed he had no business wearing the Baggy Green."

First-class record: 4202 runs in 64 matches at ave. 38.55.