Very good first day with the ball for England. Aussies probably got 50 or 60 more than they should have, given the position they were in at 130/6 but would definitely have taken this before a ball was bowled.

Need to get these 2 wickets in the first half an hour in the morning and set about getting 400+ on the board - 500 if they can, and maybe only look to bat once in this game.

Excellent work by the 27-year old medium pacer. More than happy with that on day one on what everyone suggests is a belter of a wicket.

Good to see the 27-year-old medium pacer walk into his press conference with a copy of the offending newspaper under his arm too.

Is he growing up a bit from the stroppy, petulant young man he used to be?

Was reading the Courier-Mail's live coverage this morning and they were very sheepish when referring to the 27-year-old medium pacer.

Even Piers Morgan was having a bash at them, irony at it's greatest there.

Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves

Nice to see the England team of my childhood make a guest appearance for today's play. Nostalgic.

bugger

How the tables turn so quickly! Good first day with the ball for England, put into perspective by the Aussies bowlers.

They went back to Johnson, who delivers at sheer pace and paid dividends, and we went back to a medium pacer in Tremlett who looks about as threatening as I do!

Trott going home with a stress-related illness. Hope he can get it worked out.

I can't imagine Warner will make any apology after his remarks about Trott.

I just wish we had someone in the team like Fred Trueman, he would soon make him regret what he said!

Must be very stressful making millions by playing sport, and having people say nasty things about you.
Crybabies.

I am being sarcastic. The English have been giving as good as they get for 100 years or more and I suspect many current and past players for England would be embaressed by the thought that the current mob are delicate little flowers who need protecting.

You probably should just forfeit any games you have against South Africa because those guys will say things that will make you all cry yourselves to sleep.

I'm glad we've got a contributor with such a great grasp of stress-related conditions.

As someone who has worked in the Mental Health field for nearly 40 years, I do know a few things about anxiety disorders, like they aren't caused by a few words from someone you hardly know, and they aren't "cured" by people being unnaturally polite to you.
You could probably get a decent case of PTSD from someone hurling a ball at your head at nearly 100 miles an hour over and over again. Maybe the Australians should stop doing that?

If sledging is part of cricket you can keep it.

There is a difference between sledging and out right abuse though.

I do feel there is a spot for sledging in cricket ( I do it myself when I play ) but you have to know where the line is and not cross it into it becoming personal abuse.

So you probably realise that there's more to Trott's illness than a bit of sledging, then?

I'm glad you're likely to be looking after anyone I know in your "professional" life.

I don't have a clue what is wrong with Trott, and neither do you.
I do know that sledging is not a cause of mental illness, and I do know that the very first thing I was taught about treating Mental Illness is that Sympathy is not helpful, while Empathy is helpful - in other words, understanding their situation and responding appropriately is good - getting all soppy is no help for anyone.

Anyway, back to the cricket.

Not going especially well in Alice Springs...

Exactly. So shut the f*ck up.



Quite. Good to see that they're building up form and confidence well.

At least one bowler is doing OK down under. Step forward Timothy T Bresnan.

50 for Barry Gallons, unbeaten 30 odd from Bairstow.

Expect Stokes to be picked at six for Adelaide then.

Never lets anybody down...but is always favourite to miss out to more fashionable players.

That's why Poms will never be good at sports.
You're all such delicate little flowers.

There are some very ordinary articles being written about the Adelaide test.
Every article I read is about how Adelaide is a dead wicket where guys like Siddle will have to do a mountain of work or a spinner like Swann could be a match winner, but all these 'journalists' must be aware that Adelaide is going to have a drop in pitch for the first time, and drop in pitches just aren't the typical flat tracks that Adelaide is famous for. I suppose they have to write something, but it's like they have just looked up what was written about previous Adelaide tests and rehashed it, ignoring the reality of the changed circumstances.

Drop-ins tend to be either one extreme or the other though. Very rarely do they turn out to be pitches conducive to 5th day results.

Either they're a bit shoddy and a nightmare to bat on, or they're a road and a nightmare to bowl on.