Australia V England

[paulllambert]

How on Earth did we contrive to lose that one?

[berniecuddles]

unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jim360]

Because Faulkner played very well at the death? That, with a little bit of luck e.g. Root's spectacular catch just as he was going over the boundary. Difference there between 265 all out and 271-9. Massive moment.

[toalisi]

They seem to find ways of losing.

I hoped that the 5 ball over wouldn't be the difference.

[gness]

Lord knows, Paul....just glad I didn't splash out to go to watch....x

[paulllambert]

Captain Cook must be longing for this tour to end.

[gness]

Ah...Jim knows...unless he's the Lord.....☺

[berniecuddles]

"Captain Cook must be longing for this tour to end." what and cut he's holiday short!

[jim360]

This has obviously been a disastrous tour for England. But this match was very close, and shows that despite the battering we're moving in the right direction, no? Came down to the last over, England actually reached 300 in an innings of some form or other, but Faulkner played an unbelievable innings.

Once in my life I'd love to see a sports match involving an English side not to be reviewed with "we played badly" if we lose and "they weren't up to much" if we won. Isn't it possible for the opposition to, you know, be good?

[jno]

close... but the answer is probably that England started too slowly again, with Cook, Root and Ballance swallowing up nearly 10 overs - a fifth of their innings - scratching out 33 runs. When the game is going at a run a ball, that's basically five overs wasted.

You could say it's tough to demand that the side batting first should know what the "correct" scoring rate is. But England are usually too slow off the blocks, and it happened again today.

[paulllambert]

Yes, Jim, Australia ARE good, but so too, are England on their day. It isn't just today, but all through the tour, England have been in good positions in most of the matches, but still manage to come up short. As toalisi said, they seem to find ways of losing.

[paulllambert]

Yep, very fair point jno

[jno]

jim, re the tour as a whole... Morgan and Buttler weren't on most of it. They're not scared of the Aussies, and are quite ready to go for it. Same goes for Bopara and Jordan.

But the ones who were in the Ashes (not counting those dropped, retired or succumbing to depression) are still shell-shocked - that means basically Cook and Root. I suppose they're being given the opportunity to play themselves back into form. But they aren't grasping it. They need a rest.

[DSJ]

I'm gutted.

[Cloverjo]

I didn't see all of the match, but I thought we must have batted well. I thought the bowling at the end was pretty terrible, which may have been most of the problem.