A look at goings on in the test match at Edgbaston, and a photo gallery in two parts – A St Nicholas special and a general gallery.
It is now tea on day three of the third and final test match of a series between the England and Pakistan men’s teams. This post looks at what has happened so far.
DAY ONE
England, 2-0 up in the series, were unchanged, while Pakistan had a number of changes. England won the toss and opted to bowl first. The only Pakistan batter to fare well in the first innings was Saud Shakeel, who got in to the 40s before he was dismissed. Pakistan managed a mere 133 all out. England were going well in response by the close.
DAY TWO
I did not get to witness any of this day’s play due to work commitments. England took a first innings lead of 320 and Pakistan two wickets down in their second innings by the close.
TODAY
I had another commitment which caused me to miss the first session of today’s play, which was Pakistan’s best batting session of the series. They continued to bat well in the afternoon session, but a superb catch by Lawrence off Atkinson sent Shan Masood back for 95. Babar Azam was also dismissed this session, caught by Jordan Cox, keeping wicket in place of the injured Jamie Smith for 76. These two dismissals mean that as yet there has not been an individual century in this series. Saud Shakeel and new wicket keeper Ghazi Ghori batted through to tea at 297-5, 23 short of making England batting again. At the moment it looks very likely that England are still going to win, but bigger turnarounds have happened – Headingley 1981, when England were 92 short of making Australia bat with just three second innings wickets standing and ended up winning by 18 runs being one such.
THE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP
Warwickshire, Somerset and Nottinghamshire all won their games. With two rounds of matches to play Somerset are four points clear of Nottinghamshire, with Warwickshire a point further back, and everyone else well behind this trio.
PHOTOGRAPHS
On Wednesday morning St Nicholas Chapel was open as I walked past, and I went in. Before my main gallery I have a…
ST NICHOLAS SPECIAL
I start with a composite picture juxtaposing the organ with an information board about that instrument:
On the left of this picture is a front on shot of the organ at St Nicholas Chapel, on the right an information board about said organ.
The rest of the gallery…
GENERAL PHOTOS
Now for my usual sign off…
This butterfly is a new one for me. The tail segment sticking out beyond the wings is an unusual feature, and the white wings with black borders are new to me as well (four pics).
A look at what is happening in the test match at Lord’s when the rain relents enough for anything to be happening, and a photo gallery.
The second test match of a three match series between the England and Pakistan men’s teams is in progress at Lord’s. Today is the third day, and even with some quite significant disruption by the weather it is against the odds that this game will reach day five. This post looks at what has happened so far.
DAY ONE
I had expected to miss pretty much the whole of day one due to work, but weather interruptions meant that I got to hear some of it once I was home from work. England reached 248-9 in difficult conditions, which looked pretty respectable especially given the known frailty of the Pakistan batting.
DAY TWO
Yesterday began with the last England pair, Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue, batting entertainingly. They advanced the score by 42 at pretty much a run a minute before Atkinson was last out for 45. Imam-ul-Haq had picked up a calf strain, and somewhat surprisingly did not bat at all. With the exception of Azan Awais, who fought hard, and got into the 40s, no one batted at all well for Pakistan in the face of some excellent England bowling. Ollie Robinson was almost unhittably accurate, recording figures of 13-6-11-4, while Jofra Archer bowled with lightning speed to record 11.2.-1-26-3. Josh Tongue picked up a couple of wickets, while Atkinson was wicketless. Pakistan had managed a beggarly 110 all out giving England a first innings lead of 180. By the close England were 81-3, 261 ahead, and the match already looked beyond Pakistan’s reach.
TODAY
Rain against disrupted things, and it was not until 2:20PM that play that could underway. Emilio Gay, unbeaten on 30 overnight, got an unplayable ball from Mohammad Abbas – it shot straight along the ground to pin him LBW. Abbas has since then added the wickets of Brook for 34, and Jamie Smith for 7, but Lawrence is batting well on 37, and Atkinson has just started his innings, on 7 not out, with a nice four off Abbas. England are 162-6, a lead of 342 overall, and certainly more than they are likely to need. England will be hoping there aren’t too many more interruptions, while Pakistan need something Noachian to save them. As I type rain has just intervened again.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
I saw this dead fish in the pond nearest to my house.A ruddy darterA ‘hornet hoverfly’.A painted ladyA close up of a ruddy darter
An account of the test (mis)match between England and Pakistan at Headingley that ended in a crushing victory for the home side before tea on day three, and a photo gallery.
Just after 3:30PM today Mohammad Abbas, a true bunny with the bat, miscued a drive against Jofra Archer and Dan Lawrence took the catch. That meant that England had won the first match of Joe Root’s second term as test captain by an innings and 103 runs. This post looks back at a match that was propelled as far as day three only by the weather.
THE FIRST INNINGS
Joe Root won the toss and put Pakistan in to bat. Salman Agha, standing in as captain due the absence of the injured Babar Azam, perpetrated the classic and pathetic toss loser’s ploy of saying he would have batted first anyway (particularly unimpressive since his rival skipper probably knows as much about conditions at Headingley as anyone currently playing the game). Pakistan lost two wickets almost before the match had started, but Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique had a good partnership for the third wicket, the first and only time of the match when Pakistan looked decent. Imam-ul-Haq was out with the score at 97, which brought Saud Shakeel, who has a fine test record but has never yet batted convincingly outside Asia. He never really got going, and his dismissal for a tortured 5, followed closely by that of Shafique for 61 heralded a horrendous collapse, which saw a high water mark of 117-3 turn into 171 all out. Josh Tongue had 5-46 from 9.1 overs, and Ollie Robinson 5-51 from 18 overs.
THE ENGLAND INNINGS
Neither England opener particularly distinguished themselves, though Emilio Gay played nicely for his 33 until his dismissal which was a shocker. Jordan Cox and Joe Root batted well and took England to the close of day one still only two down, and not very far short of a first innings lead. Their efforts were followed on day two by fine innings from Harry Brook, who, while still scoring fast (almost a run a ball), was not at any stage guilty of the kind of craziness that has too often marred his efforts of late, and Dan Lawrence, who showed that, given the opportunity to bat in the middle of the order as he does at county level, he is capable of producing the goods at a higher level. Pakistan had plenty to worry about, with their seam attack looking toothless and their fielding being frankly slipshod. I did not keep count of the number of times that a Pakistan fielder effectively escorted the ball to the boundary rather than actually chasing it but it was substantial. The only bright spot for them was left arm spinner Ali Usman who took 5-95, but even he bowled rather too many bad balls alongside the good ones – only one of the 24 overs he bowled in the innings was a maiden. Yorkshire at one time had a production line of left arm spinners, with the county producing over the years Edmund Peate, Bobby Peel, Wilfred Rhodes, Alonzo Drake, Roy Kilner, Hedley Verity and Johnny Wardle (of the seven players listed only Drake, baulked by a combination of the outbreak of WWI and poor health – he took 85 first class wickets in the last two months of the 1914 season and was dead from a weak heart by the time cricket resumed in 1919 – did not play for England). England ended up with a score of 409, a first innings lead of 238.
THE PAKISTAN SECOND INNINGS
By lunch on day three (today) Pakistan were 59-3, needing 179 more to avoid an innings defeat. That soon became 76-6, with Tongue adding the scalps of Shan Masood, Saud Shakeel (14 this time round) and Salman Agha to his five first innings victims. The rest of the innings boiled down to tail enders attempting to stay with Mohammad Rizwan while the Pakistan keeper did most of the scoring. Rizwan had scored 41 and batted reasonably impressively when Gus Atkinson bowled him, which made the score 131-9. Mohammad Abbas, whose position at number 10 is devastatingly revealing of the batting (in)capacities of his team mate Mohammad Ali, the number 11, hit one four before suffering the dismissal referred to in the introduction. Pakistan in their second innings had survived only 37.3 overs, and had batted only 85.4 overs in the match. England’s sole innings occupied 89.5 overs. These details mean that but for the rain that interrupted both the first two days there would not even have been a day three.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I start my usual sign off with a composite picture…
On the left of this image is a black and white Edwardian era postcard showing the west door of Fakenham Church, which I imaged at work, and on the right is a photograph of the same door taken by me after work yesterday. The door itself has been changed at some point in the last 120-odd years, but there is not much change otherwise.
Now for the image gallery…
This is the earliest confirmed date I yet have for a postcard – the postmark reveals it as being sent on June 20th 1899.Another one with a late Victoria stamp.An impressively large snail, drawn into the open by rainfall.As the epic rain of Thursday afternoon gave way to sunshine in the early evening this appeared over North Lynn (five pics, the last a close-up of one section).
An account of how the first women’s test match to be staged at Lord’s panned out and a photo gallery.
Just after 12:30 UK time Sneh Rana bowled Sophie Ecclestone who had fought hard to complete her maiden international half century and England were all out for 186 in their second innings, giving India victory by 270 runs in a match they had dominated pretty much from start to finish. This post looks back at the developments in the later stages of the match.
THE INDIAN SECOND INNINGS
India led by 115 on first innings, and by the end of day two had extended that by a further 154 runs for the loss of Shafali Verma. Although Sophie Ecclestone toiled hard for England and was ultimately rewarded by becoming the first English woman to gain a place on the test match honours board at Lord’s India were always in control, and Yastika Bhatia became the first woman to get on the batting honours board at the ground when she reached her maiden international hundred. Later, when the only question was exactly when India would opt to declare Richa Ghosh racked up a rapid half-century. It was her getting to that landmark that heralded the declaration at 341-7, 456 ahead. This was over 200 more than any side had made in the fourth innings to win a women’s test match, and 38 more than the men’s all time record of 418. Ecclestone’s final figures deserve a mention: 33.3-4-118-5. Lauren Bell was highly economical, but Lauren Filer leaked runs at over five an over while going wicketless, and Issy Wong, also wicketless, was nearly as expensive.
TWO BADLY TIMED ANNOUNCEMENTS
This day saw two announcements that for my money should not have been made at such a time. I have some sympathy with Heather Knight’s snap decision to join Tammy Beaumont in international retirement, but the announcement of this decision was definitely mistimed. The other big announcement was inexcusably timed on the part of the ECB: they chose the penultimate day of this historic women’s test match to reveal that they had axed Brendon McCullum as coach of the men’s test side. This was an announcement that should definitely have been held back until after this match had been completed. We should have been hearing about this on Wednesday, no matter that it happened on Sunday.
THE REST OF DAY THREE
The England innings had a shocking start when Tammy Beaumont in her last international innings suffered the only golden duck of her great career, bowled by an absolute beauty from Kranti Gaud. The Indians gave Beaumont a guard of honour as she left the field for the last time in international cricket. That brought the other retiree, Knight, to the crease. It was the other opener, Maia Bouchier, who was next to go, pinned LBW by the other Indian new ball bowler Sayali Satghare for 2. Off spinner Sneh Rana clean bowled England skipper Sciver-Brunt for 11 to make it 23-3. Fourth out was Knight, caught by Ghosh off Gaud for 13. Alice Capsey and Amy Jones showed signs of fighting spirit until Satghare found a way through Capsey’s defences, bowling her for 21. That brought in Mady Villiers, whose off spin had certainly been less effective than Charlie Dean’s would have been. Villiers did bat decently, but just before the close a freak catch by Ghosh did for her. Villiers hit a ball from Rana fiercely, Ghosh, close in at mid off, grabbed at the ball as it was passing her and it stuck. That was 126-6, and by the end of day three Jones and Ecclestone had added another four runs to the score.
THE LAST RITES
The powers that be had got one thing right yesterday: they had announced that admission would be free today, which meant that decent numbers showed up for what could end up being very little cricket. That eventuality gained in probability when Amy Jones was caught by Verma off Rana for 54 to make it 135-7 very early on. Jones had scored two fifties in the match, the first keeper to do so in a women’s test match, and at the time she was out they were the only two fifties for England in the match. Wong, who had had a poor time with the ball in this match, showed some heart by holding out for 33 balls in support of Ecclestone until Deepti Sharma bowled her for 1. That was 157-8, and not very long later it was 159-9, with Lauren Bell bowled by Sharma for a ten ball duck. Lauren Filer was in serious jeopardy of losing her wicket three times in her first five balls, but settled in to support Ecclestone who was batting well. Ecclestone’s innings included that rarity, an all-run four. This meant that when she reached 50 off her 61st ball care was needed – although there were seven fours in her 50 runs only six of them were actually boundaries (veteran commentator Alison Mitchell, from whom mistakes are usually rarer than hens teeth, was caught out by this detail). Then came Sneh Rana’s match ending delivery, and it remained only to settle Player of the Match. There were three candidates: Gaud for her five cheap wickets that tore apart the first England innings plus the scalps of Beaumont and Knight early in the final innings to put England right on the back foot; Bhatia for that century and her wicket keeping, and Mandhana who had scored twin fifties opening the batting for India. It was Kranti Gaud, who, rightly in my opinion, got the verdict.
A look at developments in the first women’s test match ever to be played at Lord’s, a video and a photo gallery.
Yesterday morning a test match between the England and India women’s teams, at Lord’s, the first time a women’s test match has been played at that ground (a mere 89 years behind the other big London ground, The Oval, which staged the final match of the 1937 Women’s Ashes). With many ex-players present for the great occasion (from former world cup winner Alex Hartley, in her 30s and part of the commentary team as well to Enid Bakewell, some five decades older and still in full possession of her faculties) England won the toss and opted to bowl first. This post looks at developments so far in this match.
THE INDIAN INNINGS
For much of the day it looked as though India were headed for big score, but in the end they were held to 285. Sophie Ecclestone took the last three wickets in the space of six balls, in the process going past Katherine Sciver-Brunt to become England’s leading all format wicket taker. She is also the leading test wicket taker among current England bowlers, and sits third in the all time all format wicket takers list behind two Indians, the retired Jhulan Goswami and Deepti Sharma, also playing in this match (contributed a 50 to the Indian cause). Goswami’s record will be going in the not too distant future to one or other of these contemporary greats. Ecclestone is the younger of the pair, 27 years old to Deepti Sharma’s 28.
THE ENGLAND REPLY
By the end of day one England had lost veteran opener Tammy Beaumont, whose last international match this will be. They started very badly today, with overnight batters Bouchier and Knight departing quickly, and being followed in short order by Capsey. Amy Jones struck an aggressive 50 before being caught by Ghosh off Sneh Rana. Then Kranti Gaud, with three wickets already to her name already pinned England skipper Natalie Sciver-Brunt plumb in front. Because of the desperate situation the decision was sent upstairs, but it was definitively out – crashing into middle stump. That was 142-6. Ecclestone was eighth out caught behind off Sayali Satghare for 11. Shortly after that Gaud was recalled to the bowling crease, and became the first woman to claim a place on a test match honours board at Lord’s when a superb catch by Shafali Verma accounted for Lauren Bell. Her figures at that juncture were Gaud 15.2-6-33-5. Had she taken the tenth wicket of the innings and conceded 12 or fewer runs doing so she would have had the best innings figures by a woman in any international match at Lords, beating the 6-46 taken by Anya Shrubsole in the 2017 ODI world cup final. As it happened the final wicket, that of Lauren Filer, fell to Deepti Sharma, so Shrubsole’s record figures stand for now (when it comes to bowling figures in cricket the number of wickets is considered paramount, and it is only when considering hauls of the same number of wickets that the number of runs conceded becomes relevant). As it was Gaud, with final figures of 17-7-37-5 had been instrumental in securing her side a first innings lead of 115, which is likely to prove a match winning lead. Kranti Gaud is 22 years old, and as recently as 18 months ago she was not even on the Indian selectors’ radar. The other England v India match today, a men’s T20 at the Hampshire Bowl near, but crucially not actually in Southampton. got underway half an hour behind schedule due heavy traffic causing the Indian team to arrive late. That match is in its early stages, but not showing any great sign of ending the Indian men’s horror tour which has seen them reach this point with five defeats and a no-result to show for their endeavours.
PHOTOGRAPHS
We start with a short video of a small hedgehog which was in the grass at Kettlewell Lane Park this morning:
Now for the photos…
A demoiselle with a slender dark blue body and wings that are half translucent and half black sits right on top of a nettle plant.A robot in Morrison’s yesterday (two pics)The pontoon jetty being well used – eight boats, of which two are survey boats that are regularly there and one is the old cockling boat the Baden Powell, but five are bona fide visitors.This cormorant has secured itself a decent breakfast (it was about 9AM when I took this one).The gallery ends with the hedgehog (five pics)
A look at happenings in the test match between Australia Women and India Women at the WACA that concluded earlier today, focussing on a reminder of past glories from Ellyse Perry, a command performance from star of the moment Annabel Sutherland and a hint of future greatness from teenager Lucy Hamilton. Also a photo gallery.
Early this morning UK time Australia Women completed an emphatic ten wicket win in their test match against India Women at the WACA in Perth. This post looks at the three principal contributors to that result (with apologies to 35 year old Ellyse Perry, who I hope has a few more years left in her, for classing her for the purposes of this post as ‘past’).
ELLYSE PERRY
The veteran (who started as a bowler batting at number eight) was not called upon with the ball in this match, but she contributed a splendid 76 with the bat, an innings that saw her move to the top of the Australian Women’s all time test career run scoring list with 1,006 runs in the format.
ANNABEL SUTHERLAND
At the age of 24 Annabel Sutherland is well established as one of the game’s great all rounders. Even by her standards her performance in this match was incredible. In the first Indian innings she took 4-46, a test career best with the ball. Then she dominated the Australian reply, scoring 129, her fourth test century (a new Australian record, putting her behind only Jan Brittin of England who amassed five such scores in a career spanning almost two decades), which ensured that Australia had a big first innings lead. Remarkably she has now converted four 50+ scores in test cricket out of four into centuries. Three of those centuries have come in Perth. She added a further 2-15 in the Indian second innings to her earlier contributions, and was not required to bat in the second Australian innings.
LUCY HAMILTON
19 year old Lucy Hamilton was on debut, having shown herself to be a fine left arm pace bowler who can bat. She bowled superbly, taking 3-31 in the first Indian innings and 3-32 in the second, and in between times played a very useful little innings of 23, which helped move Australia from 79 ahead at the fall of the eighth wicket to their final advantage of 125. Her emergence onto the international scene has confirmed that Australia have unearthed yet another star. Hamilton hails from Bundaberg, a small sugar growing, rum making town which long ago produced Don Tallon, named by Don Bradman as the best keeper he ever saw in action. Full scorecard here.
A quick look back at The Ashes series and a photo gallery.
Although England made a fight of the fifth and final match of the Ashes series they were never close to altering the result that had looked likely for some time. They reduced the margin to five wickets, but that was all.
‘BAZBALL’ HAS RUN ITS COURSE
When Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes took up their respective positions England had recorded one victory in their previous 17 matches, and their approach had little entertainment. They came into this series with hopes high, especially with Australia’s bowling unit weakened at the start of the series. In the first two matches, when they should have been capitalising on this, and trying to force some serious miles into Mitchell Starc’s legs their batting collapsed three times in four innings, resulting in two heavy defeats. While there was some excuse in Perth where conditions were difficult for batting there was none in Brisbane. There England’s second innings began with the side considerably in deficit and having to bat under the lights early on, but with the knowledge that making it to the close without too much damage would enable them to enjoy the better daytime batting conditions on the morrow. They surrendered six wickets in that session of batting, five of them definitely batter error, and with it virtually guaranteed themselves an 0-2 deficit heading to Adelaide. In Adelaide the loss of both Ashes and series was confirmed. England went into the final innings needing 435 to win, and managed to score 352 of them. The Melbourne match saw England win by four wickets in a match that occupied less than two full days, as neither side managed to bat decently on a difficult track. In Sydney England were second best all the way, though Root in the first innings and Bethell in the second each scored big hundreds batting in traditional test match fashion to provide some comfort for their side. Bethell was only playing because Ollie Pope had fared so badly that England felt it necessary to drop him. Jamie Smith, who is a high class batter when his mind is focussed, had a very poor series, and his two dismissals at Sydney, holing out to deep cover off Marnus Labuschagne, walking into a very obvious trap, and then dozily run out in the second were illustrative of the malaise the gripped England’s batting other than Root and Bethell. Crawley’s returns were pretty much entirely typical of that worthy – some way short of what is required at the highest level, but about what he usually delivers. Ben Duckett had a horror series. It was not so much the four complete failures which made it so – most openers are sometimes dismissed very early, and four such instances out of 10 is not very surprising. The problem was that in the other six innings, in which he got as far as 20 his best effort was a mere 42. To have had an acceptable series as opener he would have needed four of those six starts to become fifties, and two of those four 50+ scores to become hundreds. Brook showed more inclination to dig in once the series was lost, but his early series efforts smacked of both arrogance and laziness.
LACK OF PREPARATION
England came into the first match of the series without having played a genuine match – their ‘warm up’ consisted of a game between themselves and The Lions as England call their reserve squad, in which both sides used more than 11 players. Then, although the Prime Minister’s XI match, a feature of every tour of Australia, was specifically arranged as a pink ball match in the run up to Brisbane England arrogantly refused to have anyone from the main squad play in that game. Several of the England XI who arrived in Brisbane had never played even a first class match using a pink ball. Matthew Potts had bowled well in the Prime Minister’s XI match, but when he next featured, in the final match at Sydney he had done no further bowling in match conditions, and he bowled very poorly, and frankly deserved his first innings figures (25-1-141-0). He was not called on in the second innings. England need to get their heads out of the sand on this one and acknowledge that they need to play more proper matches.
A look at day four at the SCG, a link and a photo gallery.
This post deals with day four of the final test match of the Ashes series, at the SCG.
A NEW TALENT ANNOUNCES ITSELF
Play resumed on day four with Australia 518-7, already 134 runs ahead of England on first innings. The last three Australian wickets boosted that total to 567, an overall lead of 183. England were further handicapped as they prepared for their second innings by a muscle strain suffered by Ben Stokes. Ben Duckett contributed 42, his highest score of the series. There was also a score of 42 from Harry Brook. Will Jacks, who as I have said elsewhere is actually more batter than bowler failed horrifically to take advantage of a promotion to number six, Stokes having decided to bat later in the order, playing a horrible shot to his second ball to give Cameron Green a catch off the bowling of Beau Webster. First to go had been Zak Crawley, LBW to Starc for 1. That meant that Jacob Bethell, batting at number three in spite of never having scored a first class hundred had to come in right at the start of the innings. He rose to the challenge brilliantly, playing a proper test match innings, showing skill, technique and the right temperament for the job in hand. It was during the stand with Brook that he reached that maiden first class century (while it is not commonplace for this to happen in a test match it is not super rare either – Charles Bannerman’s 165 in the first ever test match was his maiden FC century, and there is another member of the current England setup to have done the same thing, Gus Atkinson). Even after Brook’s dismissal and the Jacks howler referred to earlier he went on unperturbed, finding some support from Jamie Smith. Brydon Carse helped the eighth wicket to advance the score by 30, and at the end Matthew Potts was supporting Bethell, who ended the day unbeaten on 142, having faced 232 balls and hit 15 fours, with England 302-8, 119 to the good. Bethell’s innings was England’s third three figure score of the series, and both the previous two were scored by Joe Root, a universally acknowledged master of test match batting technique. I am not yet fully prepared to renounce my scepticism regarding Bethell’s selection, but I see no reason for this century not to be the first of many, and if he continues to deliver the goods as he did this day I will acknowledge that fact.
PHOTOGRAPHS
First I have a link to share, from science.org, to this article about how multi-cellular life may have come about. It is an appropriate share since my gallery includes pictures from all three of the multi-cellular or eukaryotic kingdoms. Now for my usual sign off…
A pair of swans on the Gaywood RiverA purely plant picture – a leaf lying on grass.Three cormorants perched on the structure I have named in their honour, with a large gull in among them.A Little Egret just far enough into the Nar to be reflected back by the water.And just a tad later on the wing.A lapwing at the edge of the Nar.A bracket fungus of some sort fairly high up a big tree. The sculpted sections of the Gaywood, in The Walks, clearly did freeze to some extent (and bear in mind that today has been less cold than Monday or Tuesday and that there was rain overnight).A kite flying above Bawsey drain.
A look back at days two and three at the SCG and a photo gallery.
Before I get into the main meat of this post, the events of days two and three in the fifth Ashes test in Sydney I have some important news from today. On Christmas morning my computer started failing to recognize the existence of WIFI networks, and today I was finally able to take it to a friend in Fakenham who is a professional fixer of computers, and it is once again fully functioning.
AN ENGLAND INNINGS WITH A FAMILIAR PATTERN
England resumed on the second day on 211-3. For much of that second day things looked to be continuing to go their way. Although Jamie Smith suffered the daftest dismissal of the series (even in this series, where that particular field is highly contested it stood out like a sore thumb) just before lunch, slapping a long hop from part timer Marnus Labuschagne straight into deep extra cover’s hands most of the rest of the news for England was good. At 375-6 a very big total looked on, but the last four wickets tumbled for a mere nine further runs. It was still England’s best first innings effort of the series, and what made the whole pattern of this innings so familiar was that it was undergirded by a huge score from Joseph Edward Root. Root’s 160 was his second hundred of the series, and the 41st of his test career.
POOR BOWLING FROM ENGLAND
Having batted reasonably well England proceeded to bowl like drains. By the end of day two Australia were 166-2, with Travis Head in sight of his third century of the series. Matthew Potts, playing his first match since the game in Canberra against the Prime Minister’s XI, and his first first class match since the end of the English season was especially poor, conceding runs rapidly and not looking threatening.
ONE WAY TRAFFIC ON DAY THREE
Travis Head powered on to 163 in the early part of the day. By the close a much more experienced cricketer, Steve Smith, had also cruised past three figures, and Beau Webster, batting at number nine through a combination of a batter heavy original selection and the use of a night watcher the previous evening, supported him impressively in the closing stages, against a tiring bowling unit. Australia closed on 518-7, already 134 to the good, having scored 352-5 on the day. Potts had 0-141 from 25 overs, Carse had claimed three wickets but had also been very expensive. Tongue and Stokes each went at about three an over, and even part time spinners Jacks and Bethell were far less expensive than the two Durham bowlers who had shared the new ball. At their high water mark of 375-6 on the second afternoon England looked well placed, a day and a half later they have every appearance of being deep in a Kimberley diamond mine sized hole.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
Ice on the surface of a frozen pond (lest the blue skies and evidence of sunshine fool you regarding the weather this January in England).A section of Bawsey Drain, frozen over (the faster flowing Gaywood river has not frozen over, and the Great Ouse is an even less likely candidate for doing so).This snow fell during Sunday night/ early Monday morning, and although there has been no new snow since then it has yet to disappear.A footprint (mine) in the snow.
A look back at the opening day of the final test match of the 2025-6 Ashes at the SCG and a photo gallery.
Late last night UK time the fifth and final test match of the 2025-6 Ashes series got underway at the Sydney Cricket Ground. This post looks back at the day.
THE PRELIMINARIES
Gus Atkinson was unavailable for England due to injury, and Matthew Potts was named as his replacement. This was England’s only change from the side that had won the Boxing Day test match in Melbourne, which meant that Shoaib Bashir, fast tracked into the England ranks due to the fact that his height would enable him to generate extra bounce, an asset that should make itself especially felt on Australian surfaces, would end up not playing a match in the entire series. Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bat first.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE FRUSTRATING
The bad element of the day came first, with England losing three wickets, Duckett (who has had a wretched series) for 27, Crawley for 16 and Bethell for 10. That was 57-3. and brought the two Yorkshiremen, Joe Root and Harry Brook together. This pair proceeded to bat beautifully until just before tea when it rained, sending the players in. In the event there was no further cricket in the day, though the commentators were absolutely adamant that there could and therefore should have been – it was dry for most of the evening session. Possibly, with most matches so far this series having not gone the distance, and two having finished in two days each the home side wanted as many days play as possible in Sydney and the local ground staff did not exactly bust a gut to get play back underway. The score at the end of a truncated day was 211-3, Brook 78 not out, Root 72 not out, and a wicket a piece for Starc, Neser and Boland.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
Not a common sight for a town centre location – a pheasant outside St Nicholas Chapel
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