The Pavel Florin Supporters Club and Cricket Thread

[Harvey Dent]

Pretty mad day, all in all. Obviously not a great total but to have the Aussies 4 down shows there's been nerves on both teams. Key is obviously that delicious ball from Jimmy Anderson to send Clarke packing. Get rid of Smith and Haddin cheaply tomorrow and we could be bang on top. I have tickets for day 5 on Sunday so hopefully they save a little for then.

[Devon Malcolm]

You might as well get a refund now, Harvey, no way this is going 5 days!

[Loki]

What a day! There we are all sweating and thinking this is like the England of old, forgetting how good our bowling attack can be when it's on song.

 

Highlight was the crowd chanting "you're not singing any more" at the Aussies after the 3rd (?) wicket. Game on.

[SiMania]

That third wicket was tremendous, just watched it on the replay. I managed to leave the office for a few hours and take the laptop to the pub so I could work and watch it.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

What a mental day. When England were bowled out for 213 my trousers bore a striking resemblance to Mark Cavendish during this afternoons stage in the Tour De France. Great comeback by Finn and Anderson though. 14 more wickets tomorrow and we will be 8 down at the close. Tickets for the weekend looking worthless at the current rate.

[Devon Malcolm]

Bairstow looked pretty good, which was encouraging. Been a bit worried about the number 6 slot, they've tried quite a few guys but he looked good there today.

[PowerButchi]

Lunch.

 

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful knock from Ashton Agar. He's pretty much dragged Australia out of the shit here and shown composure that belies his age and status as an Ashes debutante. Much credit is due to the man. Some terrible bowling certainly helped though. Finn's deliveries to him were shocking.

[Loki]

Trust the Australians to turn up at the Ashes at the nadir of their national team with a fresh young Turk who'll turn out to be their greatest all-rounder in 20 years or something.

[Keith Houchen]

He should have been out when he was on 6, he was stumped. GLY wasn't happy about it.

[PowerButchi]

Young Aussie Ashes debutante spinners are starting to find a habit of fucking things up for England.

[Endorphin]

Feel so sorry for the poor kid, amazing innings. Still the highest No. 11 score of all time isn't it?

 

(This isn't live discussion, they have left the pitch for the changeover).

[Devon Malcolm]

I have to ask if Steven Finn is anywhere near as good as so many seem to think he is. Because I really don't think he is. I would have preferred Bresnan or Onions over him.

[Endorphin]

I don't rate Steven Finn too much either. He is often very expensive, without having the destructive quality to justify it. Graham Onions might have been better at least on this pitch, I feel like Bresnan is a bit overrated as well, albeit he offers more with the bat. Maybe Finn needs a break from international cricket for a while, it helped Broad no end when he had some time off a while back.

[PowerButchi]

I think a lot of it is him being tall. He's got a bad habit of bowling far too short. I prefer my quicks to be able to get movement out of the ball as opposed to just pitching it around shoulder height too often.

[Loki]

They're certainly re-writing the record books in this match, aren't they? Amazing innings. Even though he's an Aussie, and even though it's the Ashes, I'd still like to have seen him get a debut century in Test match cricket. At No 11. Amazing.