Well. The second session was completely absurd. While you can’t deny the results, it felt like Bodyline V2. For a team that say they are there to “entertain”, I was very much not entertained. I really hope this doesn’t become the go-to strategy when things aren’t going your way, but you get the feeling that it will become much more common after the “success” of day 4. It doesn’t feel like a contest between bat and ball, the batsmen either constantly duck and score nothing, or take it on and inevitably hole out. I’m sure there are much smarter cricketing brains out there, but I can’t see how you combat it 🙁
On a more positive note, aus heavily in favour after the 3rd session. Though I won’t feel entirely comfortable until Stokes is out. Shame about the Starc catch, but I think it was a fair call. Just feels like the umpires haven’t been very consistent in how they apply the rules resulting in confusion everywhere.
I think the Starc catch gets given 9 times out of 10. He clearly had control of the ball, and his slide was not out of control. Badly worded law, and I can’t imagine too many Poms would actually complain if it was given.
Well. The second session was completely absurd. While you can’t deny the results, it felt like Bodyline V2. For a team that say they are there to “entertain”, I was very much not entertained. I really hope this doesn’t become the go-to strategy when things aren’t going your way, but you get the feeling that it will become much more common after the “success” of day 4. It doesn’t feel like a contest between bat and ball, the batsmen either constantly duck and score nothing, or take it on and inevitably hole out. I’m sure there are much smarter cricketing brains out there, but I can’t see how you combat it 🙁
On a more positive note, aus heavily in favour after the 3rd session. Though I won’t feel entirely comfortable until Stokes is out. Shame about the Starc catch, but I think it was a fair call. Just feels like the umpires haven’t been very consistent in how they apply the rules resulting in confusion everywhere.
I think the Starc catch gets given 9 times out of 10. He clearly had control of the ball, and his slide was not out of control. Badly worded law, and I can’t imagine too many Poms would actually complain if it was given.