Comment deleted by Site Moderator

comment by The Night King Returns Again (U20644)
posted 2 minutes ago
Well said neutral.
Totally agree

Test cricket is still living in the past and needs modernising.
Its a joke that more overs weren't played and play still starts at 11am
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I’m pretty sure when England tour other countries play always seems to start at 10am. The 11am thing is not something I’ve ever understood.

I like the idea of a spare day if needed.
Why play for onky 3 of the 5 days and have a no result?
There should be a maximum of 450overs of cricket.
This game only produced just under 300 overs. Absolute disgrace.

comment by The Night King Returns Again (U20644)
posted 6 minutes ago
Well said neutral.
Totally agree

Test cricket is still living in the past and needs modernising.
Its a joke that more overs weren't played and play still starts at 11am
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Thank you. Thought I was going mad. First day totally rained out you can't do much about. But it was the 2nd or 3rd day when the weather was fine up until 1pm and the rest of the day was a washout. Having already lost 90 overs in the game, GET THE FOOK ON WITH IT. Sitting around watching Sky commentators talk endlessly KNOWING bad weather is coming soon is madness. Get out there. Bloody play. Start at 8am with one 20 min interval, that gives nearly a day's full play and the requisite number of overs before the predicted rain at 1pm. Maximise the available playing time.

In countries that play at 10am.it usually gets dark around 530 6 o clock

In England in the summer it can be light at 9 pm or even later in June
If you started at 10 and wanted to get the overs in.
The day would be 9 hours long if you get weather interruptions
And the sessions could be 3.4 hours long. when do you take a break to get the sessions during the rain/?.
So 11/6 sounds about right. and extra half hour to get the overs in. and + another half an hour for bad weather.
I honestly think we should play the next day or day after so all 450 overs get played.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

yeah the tv companies wont have it for starters

Just produce result wickets and the games will be finished in 4 days.. if you lose more time to the weather then it cant be helped.

Sorry for the rant but this could have been a great closely contested game had it played out to its duration.]
Whilst I'm at it, why does play stop at 7pm. Does the world end at 7pm? I can't think of any other mainsteam sport where this would happen.
Australia are over here on tour so here every day.. The TV coverage have a dedicated channel so no problems there. You have to adapt the schedule around the weather.
Wed to Sun is the original schedule.
Wed is a washout.
So the game is moved to Thu to Mon.
Football games are rearranged.
Tennis matches continue. They don't end the match after two sets because of bad weather. They resume the match the next day.

comment by Dave Better (U11711)
posted 6 minutes ago
Extra days are just impractical and unrealistic, gents.
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Why though? Please explain. It's not ideal I will admit for logistical reasons but it gives a fair match played out over full time.

comment by Dave Better (U11711)
posted 35 minutes ago
Didn't think you were a big cricket fan.
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I’m not, though the World Cup was good. Test cricket is far far too long.

Any changes for wednesday?

comment by Phe'ndombele (U20037)
posted 10 minutes ago
Any changes for wednesday?
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Doubt it. They did pretty well in this Test. I'm sure the likes of Roy will get another go.

No changes for Wednesday. the game stars on Thursday.. so far looking a much better prospect weather wise. so hopefully get a full game

Any chance of Jimmy being fit?

England have not fielded their best eleven in this series, if they sort it out should win 3rd test

comment by neutralfootballfan (U21589)
posted 14 hours, 41 minutes ago
comment by Dave Better (U11711)
posted 6 minutes ago
Extra days are just impractical and unrealistic, gents.
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Why though? Please explain. It's not ideal I will admit for logistical reasons but it gives a fair match played out over full time.
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I doubt you'll convince the grounds to pay all their hospitality agency staff an extra day's wages when they'll already have been paid at least in part for the days that were rained off.

The England 12 is the same for the next Test. Anderson will play for Lancs seconds.

https://www.ecb.co.uk/england/men/news/1317773/england-name-squad-for-third-ashes-test

Surprising to see it unchanged. I would have thought they'd have considered an opening batsman instead of Roy.

I take it Roy will be given the whole series to prove if he's good enough.

I didn't expect England to be the ones pushing for victory with 4 down and only a hundred run lead. Fair play to Stokes for giving England a chance and it's great to see a genuine fast bowler in the side along with a quality spinner.

Shame we lost so much time to the weather over the course of the game but it is what it is. Yes test cricket doesn't help itself at times but it still provides incredible spells that you can't really get in other forms of the game. People were absolutely absorbed by the Archer vs Smith battle that was going on. Archer was pumped and Smith was courageous in response.

For the next test, I'd make changes to the batting but I think Denly and Roy will be persisted with and I can't see them tinkering with the line up. Despite our issues at the top of the order, 2 of the top 4 have managed to get some runs in all 4 innings to not bring in our 5th and 6th batsmen after 8-10 overs.

The middle order collapses have been worse than the top order collapses this series.

comment by Blue Heaven (U20912)
posted 23 minutes ago
The England 12 is the same for the next Test. Anderson will play for Lancs seconds.

https://www.ecb.co.uk/england/men/news/1317773/england-name-squad-for-third-ashes-test
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Missed this but I'm not surprised. England should be proactive with the batting line up but obviously preferring to give guys a chance. Hope they take it.

Problem for the selectors is there's been virtually no 4 day cricket for the past 4/5 weeks which means it's hard to know who's in good form. The favourite pick to come in is obviously Sibley but he got a duck yesterday which didn't help things.

I'd either move Denly to open with Roy at 4, or at least move Denly back to 3 with Root at 4. Denly is handy enough to bat out 10-20 overs and that should help Root which could be key to winning games.

Yeah, difficult to get batsmen in form when they're all playing T20. At least first class cricket is back now but with all the chat about openers, it was bound to happen that the 2 players who have been tipped for call ups would fail; Sibley and Crawley.

Agree on Denly, he should be batting in the top 3 but with Root choosing to bat at 3, then he should be opening. I'd then push Stokes up to 4 and Roy down to 5.

Bairstow, burns, roy, root, stokes, denly, woakes, butler, leach, broad, archer is the order i would bat them.

I think Bairstow opening would be as bad as Roy opening in test cricket. Butler batting at 8 is far too low as he's in as a specialist batsman unless you're suggesting he keeps wicket with Bairstow as a specialist bat instead?

It probably doesn't really matter what order we put them in to be fair, the same issues will evident as they're all pretty similar in mindset. I think Ramprakash came out and said players will come out and play their shots regardless of the situation. At least it told us what we already knew, Ramprakash did nothing to help the situation. Why not try and coach them into playing a different way?

**Confirmed**

Smith out of 3rd Test