Fourth Test

[Michael Rolls]

I listened to TMS with a growing sense of dismay, so much so that I couldn't bring myself to watch the highlights, but I have them recorded and once I feel brave enough (probably after a stiff gin) I will watch them - possibly from behind the settee.
On a more serious note - apparently there is considerable concern over Stokes - may not be able to bowl again in the match, perhaps even not in the series.
Mike

[Cassandra]

Thank you Cass. It'll be right in a week or so but it takes a while to recover. No complaints, mostly self-inflicted, unlike your good self. Interesting choice you have of getting there. If you'll allow me to express a personal view, I've always found the Ocean, in most of it's moods, a soothing and meditative place to be. The folk on board, disparate and for the most part friendly and the service superb on the smaller ships. Which is possibly redundant information but offered in a good spirit to a new friend.
  As far as the game goes, it was a difficult listen as I feel one really has to see an innings like Smith's to appreciate the quality of the man and his wonderful abilities. A description by a commentator is a poor replacement.
  As Scarlet O Hara remarked.." Rhett Butler! That hurt!"

Glad your feeling better Zoon, it's surprising how long small knocks take to recover at my age. When I was playing I'd regularly suffer bruised ribs, shins, feet, fingers etc. At 20 they'd done between one Saturday game and the next. Today they take a month or two and Fibro Myalgia is like an embodied gypsy camp (PC talk whoops 'traveller'), it just ups and relocates to with no notice!

For me Smith is such an interesting player. Not a classic batsman by any means of consideration. Sometimes he starts a shot off balance and seemingly prances into place. He can be unattractive to the purists, who find his combinative unauthodoxies annoying to the eye. Expectant of this application with every shot played, one is sometimes shocked when he produces sublime cover driving like yesterday, off both front and back foot, quintissential of the greats like Cowdrey or their own Bobby Simpson. Simply he has the innate gift of timing and his sense of balance is amazing. At precisely the right time all his weight gets behind the ball and rarely edges anything. Against Overton yesterday at 84mph, he actually started off outside leg, switched to off and played a superb pull hook for four to square leg! Not only can you not bowl at such immortality, good luck in setting a field to it! To me he's unique, Peter May and Denis Compton (the nearest I've seen to him) rolled into one. As an Englishman I sadly admit I was glad to see him return after the 'no-ball' recall. Banging the armchair again in reactive joy at his resource and imagination. Also he loves it, batting is clearly his life - Well played Steve and thank you.

[Cassandra]

I listened to TMS with a growing sense of dismay, so much so that I couldn't bring myself to watch the highlights, but I have them recorded and once I feel brave enough (probably after a stiff gin) I will watch them - possibly from behind the settee.
On a more serious note - apparently there is considerable concern over Stokes - may not be able to bowl again in the match, perhaps even not in the series.
Mike

Morning Mike, as I've said to Zoon, when you can bear watching the highlights, its a magnificent display of run scoring. I was ready for him getting a barrage of bouncers but he's so good, he just dodged and weaved around them like Mohammed Ali at his consummate best. That said the bowling was indifferent (Broad√ again excluded). A Trueman, or in even modern day bowling parlance, Anderson would have made the batsmen's lives more difficult. Don't expect much today, can you honestly see any of them getting 200! If we pass Smith's score alone, five down we will have done well. I should add I'm only being objective. I thought Ben Stokes was crocked somehow. We lost Anderson in the first and now Ben, another key bowler. We can't afford to lose him as a batter, but need his bowling, what to do? Answer drop Roy, we can manage without his miniscule contributions, accompanied by butter fingered fielding and play Woakes. He'll score more anyway, because he actually moves his feet while he's doing it and provides bowling balance. Of course the Root Academy of Selection won't want that - far too radical - persisting with failure is their preferred and proven method of consistency!

[Michael Rolls]

Summoned up my courage and watched the highlights. If ever there was a demonstration of ‘sometimes, it’s just not your day’ Smith’s innings was an exemplar par excellence. Could easily have gone to the second ball of the day when Broad passed the outside edge by a fraction, got a four to fine leg courtesy of an inside edge that missed leg stump by a fraction, that shot into the stratosphere that fell safe, the dropped caught and bowled chance to Archer (not an easy chance, but one that might reasonably have been expected to stick as often as not) and the final indignity of the ‘dismissal’ to a no ball.
Oh, and just to rub it in – that incredible catch to dismiss Denly.
Haven’t been able to find anything about Stokes’ injury so far. Inspection due at noon – apparently not raining for a while so here’s hoping (what am I saying - here’s hoping for three days of downpours – just about England’s only hope of avoiding defeat.
But over and above all than (partisan? Me? Never?) Smith’s batting was a feast to behold – sometimes purity itself, sometimes outrageousness itself, and above all, never a dull moment! Like you, Cassandra, I doubt we’ll pass his total with less than 5 down.
Oh, and did my eyes deceive me, or was there evidence of a real, live third man at one stage?
Mike

[Michael Rolls]

One of the problems with only seeing the highlights is that virtually every delivery is either a wicket, a boundary, or a 'near thing' of one sort or another. A fair number of the England deliveries looked less than clever - and listening to TMS it did seem that England were guilty of a bit of a scattergun approach.
Mike

[Michael Rolls]

Oh dear - raining again
Mike

[Cassandra]

Summoned up my courage and watched the highlights. If ever there was a demonstration of ‘sometimes, it’s just not your day’ Smith’s innings was an exemplar par excellence. Could easily have gone to the second ball of the day when Broad passed the outside edge by a fraction, got a four to fine leg courtesy of an inside edge that missed leg stump by a fraction, that shot into the stratosphere that fell safe, the dropped caught and bowled chance to Archer (not an easy chance, but one that might reasonably have been expected to stick as often as not) and the final indignity of the ‘dismissal’ to a no ball.
Oh, and just to rub it in – that incredible catch to dismiss Denly.
Haven’t been able to find anything about Stokes’ injury so far. Inspection due at noon – apparently not raining for a while so here’s hoping (what am I saying - here’s hoping for three days of downpours – just about England’s only hope of avoiding defeat.
But over and above all than (partisan? Me? Never?) Smith’s batting was a feast to behold – sometimes purity itself, sometimes outrageousness itself, and above all, never a dull moment! Like you, Cassandra, I doubt we’ll pass his total with less than 5 down.
Oh, and did my eyes deceive me, or was there evidence of a real, live third man at one stage?
Mike

Yes a cameo appearance at third man to satisfy the critics. Bit like the BBC covering pro Brexit bits on BBC4 at 3.30am

[Michael Rolls]

Yes a cameo appearance at third man to satisfy the critics. Bit like the BBC covering pro Brexit bits on BBC4 at 3.30am

Mike

[Michael Rolls]

Sadly, we were right - five down and we still haven't outscored Smith on his own
Mike

[zoony]

I'd enjoyed the days batting right up until the Root lbw. After that and predictably even to me, normal service was resumed. I guess we'll see what the morning brings and whether Stokes to some extent anyway, can continue his heroics..

[Michael Rolls]

One of the drawbacks of just having highlights - you would imagine that Starc scarcely bowled anywhere other than into the pads for easy helping the ball on its way. Also that Lyon was consistently bowling too short - and Sir Geoffrey was certainly of that opinion.
I feel sorry for Roy scarcely a run to his name and a dropped catch (can't remember who was the lucky recipient - please say it wasn't Smith)
Oh, and I went on about the number of escapes Smith had - Root didn't do too badly in the respect!

Mike

[zoony]

  I wonder what odds the bookies might be giving against a Stokes double century?..Things considered, I'd risk a tenner on it given some back-up...

[Michael Rolls]

Pondering upon Smith's recent performances, I indulged in a fit of masochism.
Smith’s record against England is, for an England supporter, the stuff of nightmares. Including the Old Trafford Test, he has played 23 times against us, in 37 innings scoring 2,558 runs at an average of 69.14. That’s worrying enough – but he was a bit of a slow starter. In his first 12 innings against England he scored just 431 runs at 35.92. However, in his most recent 12 innings (and who knows what the rest of this match might bring), he has scored 1,427 runs at 118.92. Overall against England he has scored six 50s, eight 100s and three 200s. On average, that’s a 50 or more seventeen times in those 37 innings. Oh, and one duck, and eighteen scores under 20, most of those in his early days. In the words of Ozymandias, ‘Look on my works, ye mortals, and despair’!
Mike

[Michael Rolls]

Pondering on Smith’s numbers made me look at those of that other Nemesis for England – Sir Don Bradman. Thirty-seven Tests, sixty-three innings, 5,028 runs at 89.78, nineteen hundreds, twelve fifties, so he passed fifty virtually every other innings against us. Even Smith can’t match that (yet!). Also, Smith hasn’t scored a triple century against us (yet!), To my surprise, Sir Don was dismissed for a duck six times, including, of course, that final heart-breaking innings stranding him on 99.94 overall.
Mike

[Michael Rolls]

Well, we've saved the follow-on, although given the amount of bowling his quicks have had to do, were I the Aussie captain, I would not have enforced it. Let the lads put their feet up, a quick 150-180, brief blast tonight, then all day tomorrow to bowl out England
Mike (curses, just revealed the master plan to the enemy  )