There have been Indian "incidents" in the past... alleged watering of the pitch etc.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

3rd Test - Day4 - RAIN - Taking early TEA

England 403 & 71/3 * (19.2 ov)
Australia 662/9d
England trail by 188 runs with 7 wickets remaining


Minimum Ov. Rem 41.4

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Lyon doesn't lollygag around, and to me, seems like a fast bowler.

They need to leave him.

Spin bowlers are always quicker at getting through overs... they dont have the long run up each ball.

Top line Spin bowler is used for his own sake... the type of bowling that suits conditions, and the state of the game, but sometimes Captains will use themselves or other "part time" bowlers.. mainly to catch up over rate.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

RAIN - Delay

England 403 & 132/4 * (38.2 ov)
Australia 662/9d
England trail by 127 runs with 6 wickets remaining



Minimum Ov. Rem 22.4

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Covers off... play to resume soon... with over time..a little under 1 hour remains

ETA
As you were... players walked on... rain came again... players walked off


ETA
Play ABANDONED for the day

Play to start half hour early tomorrow... if its not raining

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

3rd Ashes Test - Day 5

Well... Today COULD be the day that Australia Regains the Ashes

But... sadly... it might well be a day of typical Rain effected cricket! With people saying damn, damn, damn!!

And Rumpole saying I friggin TOLD YOU SO!!!

If Australia do it today.. GREAT! But if they don't, they may well consider the fact that there were times when they COULD have scored more quickly.. advanced the game more quickly. It was not hard to see the likely weather deterioration.


Also The Poms need to be penalized for slow over rate. It is NOT enough that early lost overs were able to be (mostly) made up in overtime, the overs lost yesterday were not made up, the combination of that, with others lost, amount to at least an hour of play in FINE CONDITIONS lost. It could be critical... we'll see.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Play scheduled to start half hour early, in half an hour (10:00 AM local)

But... pre-match coverage shows... THE COVERS ARE ON!!!

Now covers off, but...........

Controversy
Apparently... there was a "Covers disaster" earlier... covers blown away during a hurricane-esque shower/wind gust and.....
the sacred pitch got WET...... a "wet patch". Work is being done with "hair-drier" type blowers (more like leaf blowers.. I dont think there is any heat involved?)... that in itself could be seen as "modifying" the pitch.
There is talk of match being ABANDONED due to this alteration of the pitch. It will likely need to be an ENGLISH suggestion.. since obviously Australia want the match to continue so they can win this game, and the series.

The decision (to abandon) will be down to Umpires/Match officials.

There will be a delay before play started.... and I see more showers forecast throughout the day.


ETA
Apparently there was LEAKAGE through the covers overnight.... so not the fault of the single cover blow away incident.
Umpires say the pitch has to be put back to SAME CONDITION it was in yesterday. Hard to define that, let alone achieve it!!

ETA2
ANOTHER RAIN SHOWER and covers coming back out!!!

EVEN IF they do get out and play... and Australia win... everybody will forever say it was because of wet patches.. and match should have been abandoned..


This could now well be an example of a "Sticky Wicket"

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Disappointing to say the least, but you called it (the rain) four days ago.

In fact, ALL your predictions have come to life.

From here on out, you shall be the Nostradamus of Cricket.

Now make the rain stop and the sun shine.

No Worries.... there will be increasing fine periods

I can't do much now that security let the English players sneak out over night and piss on the pitch

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

ROTF!

You just HAD TO put that image in my head.

Are we there yet?

If this was India... I would certainly be asking for last night's security cam footage... gnomesayin?
(Mind you if it was India.. there wouldn't be any.. or it would be "lost")



To be confirmed, but... Michael Vaughan tweets that there will be a 12pm start

ETA
Umpires aiming to start play at 12pm, lunch is 1pm, remaining sessions are 1.40-3.40pm and 4-6pm.

My Math
1 hour session, plus 2x2 hour sessions = 75 overs (MAX.. but expect some overs lost due to rain showers)

I HAVE to ask... WHY friggin 40 min lunch? They could have done lunch while waiting

AND.... maybe they can not schedule "over time" on the last day, but... there could be another hour of play.. 6-7pm


ETA
11.50: We're not going to be starting in 10 minutes - instead, they will take an early lunch from 12pm (because cricket), with a view to starting the afternoon session from 12.40pm

IF I ruled the world...
I would have told the cricketers to take a 20 min lunch by now. They have not been playing.. so they dont need to shower etc.
They COULD have started play at 12:00 pm played 2 long sessions with a 20 min Tea break in the middle somewhere.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Are you watching an 80s match between Aus-Eng?

Geoff Marsh is batting, no face mask. The one mask I've seen was Plexiglas with holes.

Dean Jones batting.

ETA:
Sorry, I jumped the gun asking. They had a commercial break and it said "BTsport Classics" is what they are showing.

Ian Botham was one of the bowlers.

No
But I remember those days

In 70's and start of 80's Players did not have helmets at all. Batted with bare head, or cap, or floppy hat.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

12:40 came and went... maybe play at 1:00 pm ?

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

I closed it after seeing them pull off the cover (again) and start blowing it again.

Don't know what Smith and Root were discussing with the umpires but they didn't look happy, neither one.

Smith is so animated, playing or not.

I'll check the espn comments every so often.

Play has started.

Play under way at 1pm. The post lunch session continues until 3.20 pm and then the final one goes on till 6 pm. In terms of overs, the teams need to get in 55 before the final hour starts. That's a possible 420 deliveries for Australia to pick up six England wickets.

After Cummins completed part over remaining... Minimum Ov. Rem = 70.0

I dont see why its not a few more overs... 2 sessions of 2 hours 20 minutes suggests 76 overs to me?

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

So... where is this CRACK that makes the ball do strange things... and the wet patches.... I expected to see English batsmen struggling and dropping like flies?

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

LOL.

It has been repaired on it's own. England singing "Hallelujah" instead of whatever they were chanting when it started.

My commentator is saying that cracks being pointed out by Eng players... "were there yesterday".

Lyon to Ali OUT made my evening already.

Hazelwood takes a "Michelle" *

With a result likely (Aust take 2 wickets).. play will continue an extra 15 minutes before Tea taken

Correction.... only 1 wicket required now
England trail by 48 runs with 1 wicket remaining

Session extended more.. Tea will be at 3:50 pm




*Five-wicket haul (also five-for, five-fer, fifer), colloquially a "Michelle", in honour of the actress Michelle Pfeiffer.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light