The International Cricket Thread

[manic-road]

Well done Johnny Bairstow, dug in for a gritty century

[JD]

Well done Jonny Bairstow (and Stokes and Wood). A great innings and at last but too late England show a bit of fight.   

[PaulWinch again]

Yeah I mean the score illustrates our problem in a way. Even if two or three players do well the rest get virtually nothing and you just don’t get to a competitive total. For England to get decent totals one player has to score a huge score, which just isn’t sustainable.

[Gareth]

Well done Bairstow, Stokes & Wood….need the rest of the side to knuckle down and get out of this game with a draw

[PaulWinch again]

What I would say is I’d written off Bairstow, but if he can deliver that type of innings he does have a future in the side. Fair play.

[simboy]

Buttler is just not a test cricketer im afraid. It’s about time the English set up recognised that. A truly world class player in both shorter formats, but he is not a Test keeper and doesn’t score enough runs to justify the mistakes he makes.

Better from Stokes, Bairstow and Woods. Thought Bairstow looked ok last test too be fair.

Can we actually get to the second new ball this time? I  dry much doubt it, so a deficit of about 150? With a day and three quarters left. Let’s hope there’s a lot of rain around in Sydney. It’s highly unlikely this team bat out for a draw if they have a day to bat for it.

[Risso]

Yeah I mean the score illustrates our problem in a way. Even if two or three players do well the rest get virtually nothing and you just don’t get to a competitive total. For England to get decent totals one player has to score a huge score, which just isn’t sustainable.

That's it in a nutshell. Even with a century and a half century, we're still struggling to get to 300.

[Jon Crofts]

This will still end in a heavy defeat, Australia will bat again, stick 100 or so runs on the board with a 200 run lead and we'll be all out by lunch on Day 5.

[simon ward 50]

Yeah I mean the score illustrates our problem in a way. Even if two or three players do well the rest get virtually nothing and you just don’t get to a competitive total. For England to get decent totals one player has to score a huge score, which just isn’t sustainable.

That's it in a nutshell. Even with a century and a half century, we're still struggling to get to 300.

Take out Bairstow and Stokes and the rest have so far scored less than 100! England's batting has been awful for the last 5 years and nothing has been done to arrest the decline.

[olaftab]

Bairstow gone playing an unnatural shot for him; trying to protect his wicket.

[olaftab]

Couldn’t quite get to 300….again. 294 all out.

[Gareth]

Ffs….was preparing to post that I was wrong to say England wouldn’t get to 300 in any innings without a Root century….but still stands

[paul_e]

I'm pretty happy with that innings though, clearly there's a lot more to do but we've at least given them something to think about. Need to be really aggressive in the field now, a coupleof early wickets and they have to change from a quick rush to 200 and put us back in to actually having to think about things.

[Meanwood Villa]

Admire the optimism Paul but this is another pitiful display. Just not quite as utterly horrifying as others. If we don't lose this match I will eat everyone's hats.

[olaftab]

I know they are waiting for Khawaja to hit a ton but if the way Green is going he’ll be there soon☹️