Aussies v England - 4th test

[tybfc]

Bancroft gone!
Woakes.

51/1

[bfccrazy]

Jimmy!!!

65/2

Got a feeling Smith is going to go quite soon here - within his first 40 balls.

[Buxtonclaret]

Got a feeling Smith is going to go quite soon here - within his first 40 balls.

Hope your right.
But either of these two in now would be good.

[bfccrazy]

Hope your right.
But either of these two in now would be good.

Seems like Broad is setting up for a good short ball soon with Warner - Just hope it works rather than being smashed over the ropes.

[Buxtonclaret]

Broad nearly had Smith then.

Lunch.
70/2

[Clarinetclaret]

I’ve been to two McG test matches between Australia and England - both with the series score at 0-3. Trust me, it doesn’t feel like a ‘dead rubber’ when you’re there, especially among thousands of English fans, many of whom will have invested a significant portion of their savings to get there.
You’d give anything to regain a bit of pride in this position and avoiding humiliation is serious motivation.
I figure English cricket fans would reflect on a 3-2 series defeat as an acceptable defeat- still a long way to go to achieve that mind.
As for Cook, I think this innings could go a long way to sparking a decent swan song to his career, judging from his interview he was clearly in the mire mentally, to go from that to batting for 10 hours in the cauldron of the MCG is a sporting feat worthy of great respect in my view. The Aussies suffering from a vomiting bug is a help too.

No matter how you word it it's dead rubber, the series has been lost and England couldn't stand the pressure when it mattered. In the last ashes I think Australia won the dead rubber tests, but in the tests that mattered we won, but not as convincing as the Aussies did. It's no use winning when it doesn't matter. You need to win when it matters. The fact is we've lost the ashes.

[BFCeltic1978]

The rain has cleared although the cloud is still above the sky-line of Melbourne. 2.30 restart, Preston fan and his flag now in attendance, let's hope they show my Dyche for Life - Proudsville banner