Oh well ABD, that's $50 you'll not get back.

Great stuff from England. Stokes is probably their best white ball player too - but they just have so much firepower even without him.

FWIW I reckon that when it comes to the ball carrying to the keeper, if it's looks inconclusive it's probably >90% likely to be out. With those stubby fingers the ball can't really hit the ground and the fingers at the same time. When it bounces just short it's very clear from the replays.

Grrrrrrr

Australia and its selectors only have themselves to blame - White (should have been short or Khawaja), Paine (Handscomb would have been better even) and no Nathan Lyon.

I sorta dont mind when I bet on Oz to win they dont, its a little bit of a win/win situation

Betfund took a hit but I enjoyed watching Aussie wankers getting beaten, especially seeing Smith failing so amatuerishly at times

Our lads NZ have won a fair few games in a row now across all formats, its good times

What is the story behind the lack of Garry in one day cricket?

I like Zampa and it's always fun to have the leggie option, but Lyon is so good it seems unfathomable that he's not involved. Unless he's a complete liability with the bat?

Yet another NZ win - bashing up on the average/poor sides like it's 1968. I'll almost feel sorry for the Kiwis when they go from all these wins to seeing England cave their nuts in when they get there.

Zampa doesn't seem to do a whole lot with the bat and in any case Starc and Cummins bat OK so you'd think he's at least be in their thoughts as an option.

Australia the last few years have tried to keep their bowling options based on one form of the game or another. As it turned out, we had a few quicks turn on the style and as it seems Lyon has just moved so far ahead of the rest it isn't funny.

Zampa is a worse bat than Lyon, so no reason not to use him unless you specifically wanted Lyon to practice in Test Match conditions, which half makes sense pre Ashes when Shield games were on but at the moment there is no point in Lyon coming back to play Big Bash (where he has been absolutely styling on the competition so far) as opposed to playing ODI's.

Lyon isn't much of a hitter with the bat, and generally a mug, but he is a number 11 so who cares? Zampa is still worse anyway. Now if our bowlers where Chris Martin and Alan Mullally and the other spin option was Agar (going at 5.6 in the BBL btw) sure, take Agar to bat 8 but at this point its a fistpump look at Agar for 2019 WC.

The current Champions Trophy holders are a poor side?

Compared to Zampa he isn't that much worse. But as we are talking about a full time bowler we shouldn't even be having to mention his batting.

You know they only perform in the international tournaments (champions league, world cup, etc.)

I said average/poor, and at 6 in the world ranking and being way closer to 7 than 5 I'd say that "average" is being fairly generous. They hardly played like any kind of champions.

Domestic T20
Zampa 91 runs averages 5.35 @ 90.09
Lyon 47 runs averages 5.87 @ 97.91

For List A cricket

Zampa 454 runs averages 17.46 @ 97.21 HS 66
Lyon 182 runs averages 14 @ 105.81 HS 37*

Pretty small samples, but Lyons better strike rate in both has to give him an edge if the only reason Lyon isn't playing is for the fact he isn't an ODI bat compared to Zamps.

If the selectors/the guv wanted him rested fine, but rest him for BBL as well and give him a proper two weeks away from the game.

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Unrelated but Johan Botha had the worst piece of fielding I have ever seen today in the BBL in the final over.

Mentioning the special Olympics of cricket doesn't help your case

Lol england

Just stopping in for a lolEngland.

Any explanation for lol England?

Lol Hastings even being considered as a player that can be auctioned off for IPL.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket...c5e66cef1450c2

Good bowling for the conditions vs. aggressive batting. Bowling wins.

England digging in now. 15 run partnership!

Chris Woakes deserves a century.

Best innings I have seen from a lower order batsman in a long time.

Woakes literally is out the next ball....

**** me

Oh yeah the Aussie batting conundrum following Head's innings - yeah so hard...for one either Mitchell Marsh or Stonis have to go with it probably being the latter given the former probably has the edge on him in the bowling. And I mean the obvious one is that White has to go - **** me send him out to the pastures already. And for those following tabs on the numbers - obviously Khawaja at 3 and Head at 3 with Marsh 6.

Paine has to go too btw.

No one watching india-SA drama here it seems.

Test match almost got abandoned today

Re Lyon as an ODI bowler.

I think Australia are doing the right thing by not picking him. I see it as they're protecting him from being smashed all over the place in the limited overs formats.
He bowling suits test matches as he can tie down an end. He hasn't got a box of tricks like a Kumble, Harbajan, Warne, Murali etc that will get him out of trouble in a game that's about making big totals.
Test matches are about taking wickets. Even if he's not taking them himself, he's allowing others to have a rest and that helps them take wickets.

If he was thrown into ODIs I think he'd be targeted and it could have a knock on effect in his test game.

This SA-India series has been more competitive and exciting than the recent ashes. Think, our current bowling unit is probably the best we had in a long time. Bumrah has been an excellent pick and Bhuvi has been brilliant with both bat and bowl. Infact he's averaging 40+ with the bat in this bowling friendly wicket series. Wonder why Kohli dropped him in the 2nd match and why he didn't pick Rahane for the first 2 matches. He has a decent record in the overseas. And of course Kohli proving his critics wrong once again. He's not a flat track bully, infact he's leading the series with most runs. Also, loved Amla's technique to counter bhuvi's swing.

Loooool who would have thought Indian pacers would trouble these SA batsmen more than these SA pacers (Morkel, Rabada, Philander) did to Indians. No doubt this has been a very difficult pitch but cmonnnnn if you don't have the technique to play short bouncers, you shouldn't be playing as an opener when the ball is hard. Our Indian batsmen were playing at the same pitch and they were getting the blows too including the bouncers from 6 foot+ guys but we handled it pretty well but no way I'd call this as a dangerous pitch.

Worth quoting these tweets:







Gavaskar on air rightly said