The Ashes: 4th Test; Boxing Day Test, Melbourne

First topic message reminder :

4th Test; Venue: Melbourne Cricket Ground; Dates: 26-30 December (23:30 GMT, 25 December)

Expected XIs:

Australia:
Bancroft, Warner, Khawaja, Smith *, S Marsh, M Marsh, Paine †, Bird, Cummins, Lyon, Hazelwood

England:
Cook, Stoneman, Vince, Root *, Malan, Bairstow †, Ali, Woakes, Curran, Broad, Anderson

I know England aren’t good at the moment but at least we can take solace in knowing Craig is nowhere near selection meetings

Australia off to a solid start on 33 for 0 after 12 overs. Bancroft looking less comfortable than Wsrner.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:I know England aren’t good at the moment but at least we can take solace in knowing Craig is nowhere near selection meetings

Australia 3-0 at present so I couldn't have done any worse.

CaledonianCraig wrote:

JDizzle wrote:Dropping Ali and batting Curran at 7 would be total lunacy.

Why?Ali is a walking wicket at present.

Because Curran averages 17 in F.C. cricket. ‘Walking wicket’ Moeen averages 19 in this series!

After bowling decently to Warner all series, England have decided to change tactic and have opted for a series of short, wide-ish deliveries in which they hope the batsman eventually plays one shot too many.

33 off 48 so far.

Right time for Ali to prove me wrong.

JDizzle wrote:

CaledonianCraig wrote:

JDizzle wrote:Dropping Ali and batting Curran at 7 would be total lunacy.

Why?Ali is a walking wicket at present.

Because Curran averages 17 in F.C. cricket. ‘Walking wicket’ Moeen averages 19 in this series!

Don’t bring logic and stats to this JDizzle...

Australia 50 for 0 after 17 overs.

Pretty much going to script so far. This is going to be a long day for England - Warner looking ominous.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

JDizzle wrote:

CaledonianCraig wrote:

JDizzle wrote:Dropping Ali and batting Curran at 7 would be total lunacy.

Why?Ali is a walking wicket at present.

Because Curran averages 17 in F.C. cricket. ‘Walking wicket’ Moeen averages 19 in this series!

Don’t bring logic and stats to this JDizzle...

Irrelevant though. Pretty sure no England supporter would have backed Malan to be top run scorer for England on this tour or for him, Stoneman AND Vince to outscore Cook.

Painful to watch this bowling to Warner. Wankes is really helping him out

Yeah, this is totally rancid stuff from Woakes. Broad and Jimmy actually had started okay, all things considered.

He’s gonna take wickets in England but I am not a huge fan.

Needs to be pressure put on him; need someone with more express pace. But he has experience and you’d worry that both Broad and Anderson are running out of time and that’s an incredible amount of experience that will disappear

He has added some pace since he made his debut, but it still just comes on nice from him - a nice pace and not a particularly heavy ball. And when it does move, it tends to be from the hand (not late like Anderson).

Lovely put down earlier by Boycott to the juvenile Swann.

Swann: ''I reckon Shane Warne's the best there's ever been in Test cricket, the best bowler ever.''
Boycs: ''Have you seen 'em all?''

Providing he proves his fitness with the Lions, I’d imagine we see Roland Jones back in for the NZ tour ahead of Woakes (as much as I rate him he’s been rubbish this series)

guildfordbat wrote:Lovely put down earlier by Boycott to the juvenile Swann.

Swann: ''I reckon Shane Warne's the best there's ever been in Test cricket, the best bowler ever.''
Boycs: ''Have you seen 'em all?''

Loved it!

this is going to be painful

Woakes' issue is his bowling action is almost to correct, hence why he's presently so ineffective away from England. His bowling arm comes over basically bolt upright, whereas if you look at Anderson - his bowling arm is fractionally lower. Woakes is worth persisting with. considering we should have Roland-Jones and Stokes back soon.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Providing he proves his fitness with the Lions, I’d imagine we see Roland Jones back in for the NZ tour ahead of Woakes (as much as I rate him he’s been rubbish this series)

You might be right there , Olly. I still have hopes for Woakes but this tour has been a real disappointment for him...
Meanwhile Curran has started pretty well , I think. On a morning that hasn't been easy for the bowlers. Good sign.

Actually there have been two games going on out there : one in which Warner is enjoying batting on a road ; and the other where Bancroft has been struggling to survive against hostile bowling...net result though is Australia closing on the first hundred without loss : looks a bit ominous for the visitors !

If Australia weren't particularly bothered about winning the game, I reckon they could be in with a decent shout of being the first test side to make 1,000 runs in an innings.

That would be the ultimate humiliation on their old foe; more so than another 5-0.

102/0. Warner breezy. Only Broad's bowled decently.

Long day in store for England's already beleaguered cricketers.

Pretty tame stuff from England. Attitude has been poor too.
This is why i would have made at least 2 changes. Youngsters Curran, Crane and Ball could have giving the side a bit of energy.

Comfortable and convincing start by Australia. 102/0 at lunch.

Warner characteristically forceful and in charge on 83. Bancroft not nearly so assured and struggled earlier with short balls into the body. However, he's battled hard and achieved the important aim of batting through session one. He's only on 19 but that doesn't really matter. There's no need to rush on day one of a Test and it's the partnership that is so important.

Curran bowled ok on debut but it looked mighty hard work on what is clearly a very good batting track in fine batting conditions. Broad the most accurate of the bowlers and I expect him to be back immediately upon the restart. However, it's already looking hard to see us taking 20 wickets in this match.

Bed now. Back in the (UK) morning.

Great first session for Australia. Good toss to win - they were due ! And Warner has made sure they've cashed in early.
Not that the bowling has been bad : Broad and Anderson were really good in their early spell with a string of maidens and a lot of pressure on Bancroft - un rewarded , as so often happens to the trailing team. And Curran has looked handy on debut ; though Woakes and Moeen continue to be fodder. You could question the field placing : I'd rather see more offside catchers for Warner instead of a deep point early on ; and the short leg for Bancroft should have been installed as soon as we saw that first short one from Anderson have him guessing.

Going to need a lucky break or two after lunch or this could get very ugly later . At least the over rate was pretty good

Warner is batting fairly aggressively while Bancroft is batting conservatively:
Warner: 96 runs 112 balls
Bancroft: 26 runs 92 balls

Seems like Bancroft just wasn't feeling comfortable out there.  He is out lbw.  England have their first wicket.

Bancroft and Warner were like chalk and cheese. Warner having no trouble at all.

Finally a wicket for England. Woakes gets Bancroft trapped lbw. Australia 122 for 1.

Gosh. Woakes traps Bancroft LBW. An actual wicket.

jimbohammers wrote:Pretty tame stuff from England. Attitude has been poor too.
This is why i would have made at least 2 changes. Youngsters Curran, Crane and Ball could have giving the side a bit of energy.

Not sure why you infer "poor attitude " , jimbo ? They haven't got the results they'd like , true. But I'm not sure we've seen any lack of endeavor from bowlers or fieldsmen. The conditions are set up for batting ; and the batsmen are taking full advantage of them.
It is going to test the tourists' mental strength - especially given where they are in the series. But I don't think we should equate lack of success with some presumed flaws of character without some actual evidence...

And out of nowhere Woakes traps Bancroft plumb in front

Two ways of looking at that innings : it was as scratchy as an old hen and he's finally been put out of his misery ; and it was also a great job for his team hanging in with the dominant Warner and setting them up for the day on a fine batting pitch

I think the jury is still out on Bancroft at this level. But he deserves time and in a winning team he will get it.

That wicket might hopefully give Woakes a bit of a lift...

According to Michael Vaughan England bowling short (70%) and not at the stumps (90%).  Only 10% hitting stumps and few full length balls.

Board now dangling the ball wide at Warner as he needs four for his ton...

Suppose it's worth a try but I'm not optimistic of getting a result with that tactic. Got to go hard at Khawaja anyway ...although if they do get him it lets Smith in

England making it difficult for Warner to get his 100. Warner taking a few risks. At least here England seem to have the right tactics.

No name Bertie wrote:England making it difficult for Warner to get his 100.  Warner taking a few risks.  At least here England seem to have the right tactics.

I sometimes think they've had too many funky tactics in this series ...rather ignored the basics at times.

But it's got Warner this time on 99 ...no it hasn't ! Curran has overstepped

Sums up the tour...

England almost had the perfect tactic but technique failed them - Warner out on 99 on a no ball. So Warner reprieved.

Drama! Warner out on 99, Curran with his first wicket.

But a no-ball! Boycs has made a fool of hisself in the comms. Vaughan being bowled at Old Trafford in reverse.

Duty281 wrote:Warner is due a big score

Due one. Gets one.

A typical Warner knock. And 6000 Test runs, too.

What a reprieve for Warner. He deserved that ton.

Well I guess Warner had earned that huge slice of luck : the innings deserved a hundred.

But how Curran - and Root - must feel after that monstrous let down. After building pressure ; getting the vital wicket...only to have it dashed : going to test their resolve coming back after this drink break...

Warner gets his century on the next ball

Warner definitely showed nerves and impatience when in the mid-90's on good tactics by England.  But England let down by technique - but very close.

So like Wood and Stokes before him , Curran has his first Test wicket deferred due to a retrospective no ball call. Just what England needed
Always a little anxious when checking the Stokes landing position after a wicket but hadn't been expecting that one : is Curran prone to overstepping ? The Surrey mob would know...

Run rate has slowed down. Maybe England's bowling has improved?

Still two different games going on out there : one with Warner having a party and another where his partners are working their socks off and going nowhere...

Says to me they've actually been bowling pretty well in general ; but Warner is just playing a blinder ...and having some (well deserved) good fortune.

Whatever : unless there is a clatter of wickets at some point you'd think Australia will be able to turn this excellent start into a Very Big Score on this flat wicket. In which case any of the good bowling in this session will end up forgotten and the England batsmen will be facing a huge amount of scoreboard pressure when they get their turn at
batting on it...

Deserved wicket for Anderson in a tight spell as he induces a thin edge from Warner...end of a magnificent innings from the Australian opener

If Joe Root could have one late Christmas present it would be an early dismissal for Smith...

Warner doesn't last long in terms of runs scored after getting his century. Warner out on 103 and Australia are finding the going difficult at the moment.

Warner 103 from 151 balls.

Bancroft/Khawaja combined : 35 from ...151 balls...

Warner: 96 runs 112 balls
Warner: 103 runs 151 balls

Warner's last 7 runs took 39 balls so his strike rate went from 0.86 to 0.18.

England's session. Throttled the scoring and picked up two wickets but they need more of the same in the final session of play.

It looks like England started bowling smart towards Warner when he was in his mid-90s and continued even after he got his century, because Warner found it just as difficult to score after reaching his century than he did in his mid-90s.

At the moment Australia are trying to tough it out. The ball is quite old at 54 overs and there are 26 overs to the new ball.

CaledonianCraig wrote:England's session. Throttled the scoring and picked up two wickets but they need more of the same in the final session of play.

Was indeed an excellent session for England. A cynic might suggest that was because Moeen didn't bowl

But jokes aside Root mixed his seamers well and they both throttled the run rate and removed both well set openers. Trouble is they've all done a fair bit of work already on a warm day ; and now they need to replicate that effort after tea...suspect Moeen will have to play a part if they're to finish the day in a neutral to good spot...is he up to it ? Recent evidence not encouraging.

If he doesn't hit the spot immediately when he comes on I'd give serious thought to using Malan for a few overs.