Ashes 2025-26.

[meninblue]

There is definete movement on the in-cutter deliveries as soon as the ball is hitting the wicket.

[meninblue]

Lot of deliveries not bouncing over the stumps. Shot making is not going to be easy if such low bounce accompanies the cutters.

[GarlicJam]

Australia mounting something of a comeback, then there's the totally unnecessary run out of Green.

Good work from Carse though.

[GarlicJam]

How could that "dismissal" of Starc not be recalled for the very obvious no-ball?

Possibly a game-changing wrong decision by the umpires, with Neser's following dismissal.

[GarlicJam]

I think a lot of people don't like Mark Howard, or Howie - the all-sports caller/host for Kayo. I don't mind him, for what he is and his job role is, but he did just come up with one of the worst calls of all time:

"can Crawley hold this innings together?" - the other batter was Joe Root, and Crawley was in no way looking solid.
Of course, you know what happened the next delivery or two.

[Gingerfinch]

I don't know the stats but this has to be one of the lowest scoring ashes series of all time!

[backfootpunch]

We should send the batting out in reverse order in the 2nd innings

[from_the_stands]

Interesting day.

[Arthur Crabtree]

The opposite of a Chief Executive's pitch. Could be over in 2 days. Again.

Reminds me of the Aussie pitches when I stated watching cricket in the late 70s.

[GarlicJam]

Jake Weatherald just doesn't look like making it at this level. Personally, I would rather see Matt Renshaw brought back in from the cold.

You may well be right, but I think he should be given the series, to be fair. Having won the series takes a lot of pressure off, and I reckon that's the way Georgie will go.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Feels dismal for England after getting themselves into a good position. But it's still game on. Could go either way.

Well, if we ignore the evidence of the series so far.

[alfie]

Mirror image of day one in Perth. Australia probably won't commit suicide in their second innings tomorrow though...

Lot depends on how the pitch develops from here. If it gradually gets easier , a fourth innings chase might not be too tricky - depending how many it is of course !

Thought before the series both sides were stronger in bowling than batting , which I still think they are. Difference being Australia haven't had any bad days with the ball - and England have had two or three.

Can't say it isn't entertaining (even if this pitch , like Perth , was a little too bowler friendly today.) Trouble is the entertainment tends not to last long enough.

[sussexpob]

Wonder how Rob Key felt when he seen Brook's first shot....

[sussexpob]

I am loathe to blame the pitch for the appalling exhibition of technique on display today. Just horrendous from England...

Crawley - With no trigger and an open stance, Crawley's technique is set up to pick length early, but he sacrifices ability to pick line. In order to get the front foot to the pitch, it has to come a long way across to "close" his stance, often he does not get far enough across and plays inside the line of the ball, bringing the outside edge into play.... This error is hugely problematic v left arm pacers, he averages only 8 per wicket against them (and not even the majority of those wickets are Starc, so this predates this series). This is because the ball angling across him means he has even more tendency to under-estimate how much he needs to come across to play the correct line.... Foot is planted on middle instead of off stump, plays the wrong line, curtains.

Duckett - Almost zero stride into the ball, front leg is vertical/straight instead of bending his knee into the shot, stance too narrow.... result is the bat is not pointing downwards, but slightly up, which means he then chips it in the air. Quite honestly one of the worst dismissals I have ever seen from an opener with such a record.

Bethell - The same really. Front foot is planted with no stride into the ball, attempts to compensate by transferring weight down through the hips, ends up falling forward into the shot with his arms well out in front of his body. Would have been bowled if he didn't edge it.

Root - Pre-meditated decision to come down the pitch, ball is on the money, head is on the move and plays inside the line....Stay in his crease, he watches it harmlessly float 2 stumps width outside off.

Brook - Starting to lose count of how many times Brook is now getting out lbw to balls moving into his pads. It's a clear emerging chink in the armour that India targeted a lot last summer. Hard to know where to start here. Trigger movement of back foot pushes his head away from the ball, front foot again planted vertical. Scored runs in Pakistan on 2 of the top 10 flattest decks ever, when the ball moves in the air or the deck... hmmm.

Jamie Smith - Can drive a car through that gap between bat and pad. Not even going to decode this one, its just rubbish.

Will Jacks - Played a forward defensive to a short ball. Plays it on the back foot, he dead bats it.

Stokes - Another open stance. Trigger movement pushes him to commit forward and too far away from the pitch of the ball before he really sees the pitch.. Quite why he plays the stroke is a mystery as he's never in position, can't get on top of the bounce and therefore can't keep it down. Assume he knew this half way through the shot because the way he ends up flicking it as opposed to powering it makes me think he tried to check out.

Brydon Carse - No problems here. This suicidal, braindead slog is the least embarrassing of his dismissals I can remember. At least he didn't try that weird 180 dilscoop he got out to in Perth and Brisbane again

[Arthur Crabtree]

Aussie first innings was a reminder of the 2011 Melbourne Test when they batted first. Though England's reply wasn't at all similar.