Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[Avirunes]

Back to the England vs Australia test. English team should socre 300+ runs and they will need Smiths wicket if they want to win this match and tie the series. There is a very thin line between Smith and entire English team. This thin line is going to decide if we will have a tie series or Australia to win the series. Either way they are retaining the Ashes though.

I have slight doubt that England will touch 300 since they are 8 wickets down now. Yeah Smith has been a crucial part in every match. Still I expect someone else to score. It's getting quite boring watching same guy scoring everytime.

[AB de Royse777]

~snip~

I have slight doubt that England will touch 300 since they are 8 wickets down now. Yeah Smith has been a crucial part in every match. Still I expect someone else to score. It's getting quite boring watching same guy scoring everytime.

I enjoy the Smith character. It's beautiful to see him handling the English bowlers. In this Ashes, the entire series was between him and the entire English team. The only match he was missing in the 3rd test and England somehow found a way to win that with the Stokesie innings. Other than that I can not see anything much for England to remember.

England should score 300+ runs but if they can't, I would not surprise.

[Vishnu.Reang]

OK... So England bowled out for 294. They had a very good chance to make 300 and it would have given them a lot of advantage in terms of morale and psychology. To their advantage, the Australians bowled really well, with Mitchell Marsh picking up 5 wickets and Pat Cummins picking up 3. Out of the 87 overs bowled, only four was bowled by Nathan Lyon. Now the focus shifts to Steve Smith. Will he be able to get 1,000 runs in this series? He is just short by 329 runs.

[Haunebu]

OK... So England bowled out for 294. They had a very good chance to make 300 and it would have given them a lot of advantage in terms of morale and psychology. To their advantage, the Australians bowled really well, with Mitchell Marsh picking up 5 wickets and Pat Cummins picking up 3. Out of the 87 overs bowled, only four was bowled by Nathan Lyon. Now the focus shifts to Steve Smith. Will he be able to get 1,000 runs in this series? He is just short by 329 runs.

I think England are in a bad position currently since Australia could easily win or draw this match from this stage. If Smith gets going again, its game over for England. I guess they will all target Smith primarily.

If England manage to bowl out Australia within 200, they would have the upper hand. Archer and Woakes are the bowlers to watch in my opinion.

[Vishnu.Reang]

OK... So England bowled out for 294. They had a very good chance to make 300 and it would have given them a lot of advantage in terms of morale and psychology. To their advantage, the Australians bowled really well, with Mitchell Marsh picking up 5 wickets and Pat Cummins picking up 3. Out of the 87 overs bowled, only four was bowled by Nathan Lyon. Now the focus shifts to Steve Smith. Will he be able to get 1,000 runs in this series? He is just short by 329 runs.

I think England are in a bad position currently since Australia could easily win or draw this match from this stage. If Smith gets going again, its game over for England. I guess they will all target Smith primarily.

If England manage to bowl out Australia within 200, they would have the upper hand. Archer and Woakes are the bowlers to watch in my opinion.

Smith has come to bat now, and Australia is in very bad state (14/2). David Warner and Marcus Harris made a total of 8 runs and they are back in the pavilion. Two of the best Australian batsmen at the crease (Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne) and they need to build a three digit partnership for Australia to have any chance remaining in this test.

Now coming to the weather, there is no chance of rain at any point of time during this test match. So we're assured of a result, provided England doesn't put up a very big score in their second innings.

[AB de Royse777]

I was expecting England to score 300+ but good to see that they were close. Losing early wickets turns out to be a habit for Australia. I wonder why still Warner is in the squad. I missed last match to follow but I am sure he was flop in that test too.

How many more chances Warner needs LOL.

Anyway, like I said earlier, it's between Smith and England now.

[RapTarX]

Not bad. With a bad start, England recovered a lot. Credits- Butler certainly, and now 2 wickets down for Australia. I guess Australia as well will not be able to score much, England needs to get Simth down as well, otherwise, things may have changed.
Sad to see Warnar is having bad days. He deserves to have better perform. I wish he could.

Anyway, like I said earlier, it's between Smith and England now.

England vs Australia or England vs Smith? That's frustrating, in almost each of the matches, they lost to Smith.

[akhjob]

I was expecting England to score 300+ but good to see that they were close. Losing early wickets turns out to be a habit for Australia. I wonder why still Warner is in the squad. I missed last match to follow but I am sure he was flop in that test too.

How many more chances Warner needs LOL.

Anyway, like I said earlier, it's between Smith and England now.

Yeah Warner didn't even survive 6 balls from Broad in both the innings and got out for a duck. Atleast he improved in terms of score 1 run of Broad and a boundary of J.Archer 

Now Labuschagne is nearing his fifty and looks settled and Smith is in great form throughout the series. It would be good for England to break this partnership, else AUS will win this match too.

[Haunebu]

I was expecting England to score 300+ but good to see that they were close. Losing early wickets turns out to be a habit for Australia. I wonder why still Warner is in the squad. I missed last match to follow but I am sure he was flop in that test too.

Yup. Warner is scoring so badly these days. He keeps getting out within the 10 runs mark which is embarrassing to be honest. Except Smith, all other Australian batsmen are playing horribly. Their bowlers and Smith are winning them matches.

Anyway, like I said earlier, it's between Smith and England now.

Cannot believe that people can still chant boos at a player who single handedly carried his team through out this series. Smith had a concussion and is still performing. Legendary material.

[7788bitcoin]

Cannot believe that people can still chant boos at a player who single handedly carried his team through out this series. Smith had a concussion and is still performing. Legendary material.

Even in this match Smith is the lone survivor and taking the team to a respectable total even when the entire team fail to spend some time on the crease. He is on a legendary form at the moment and he could break many records in the series for the most runs scored in history, hands down he is the best Test player right now with an average above 60 is something incredible. England is bowling really well as they have already lost 7 wickets and Smith is the still batting and looks like he will run out of partners.

[FIFA worldcup]

Back to the England vs Australia test. English team should socre 300+ runs and they will need Smiths wicket if they want to win this match and tie the series. There is a very thin line between Smith and entire English team. This thin line is going to decide if we will have a tie series or Australia to win the series. Either way they are retaining the Ashes though.

I have slight doubt that England will touch 300 since they are 8 wickets down now. Yeah Smith has been a crucial part in every match. Still I expect someone else to score. It's getting quite boring watching same guy scoring everytime.

Again smith alone is taking his team close to the England total of 294. Smith is batting on 75 and is single handed helping his team to a reasonable position against England. England will be hoping to get smith out quickly and get a lead of 100 runs at least.
Also Remember if this match ended in a draw, the Aussie will win the Series 2-1.

[Duzter]

Back to the England vs Australia test. English team should socre 300+ runs and they will need Smiths wicket if they want to win this match and tie the series. There is a very thin line between Smith and entire English team. This thin line is going to decide if we will have a tie series or Australia to win the series. Either way they are retaining the Ashes though.

I have slight doubt that England will touch 300 since they are 8 wickets down now. Yeah Smith has been a crucial part in every match. Still I expect someone else to score. It's getting quite boring watching same guy scoring everytime.

Again smith alone is taking his team close to the England total of 294. Smith is batting on 75 and is single handed helping his team to a reasonable position against England. England will be hoping to get smith out quickly and get a lead of 100 runs at least.
Also Remember if this match ended in a draw, the Aussie will win the Series 2-1.

This is the most important time for England to plan and take the wicket of Smith. Looking the ongoing situation I believe there is more chances for Australia to reach 250. This is going to be a very close match, if Australia take 250, the pressure will get reflected on the second innings on England. Right now the winning chance for England is found above 60% and this seems to change by the second innings.

[erikalui]

Smith gone. Wooh! Finally Aus has shown they can't even chase down such a low score on their own and this time Smith has gone for 80 being the only player to cross 50 runs. Such a poor performance. England have almost won the first innings which is a good start and now they need to repeat this in the second innings as well.

[ene1980]

Australian batting depends too much on Smith, so it is understandable that the bookies are preferring England to win the match. But the problem is that the English bowlers failed to get Smith out regularly in this series.

Once again Smith was the only player who played for Australia and now he lost his wicket after scoring 80 runs and they are still behind 100 runs and England is in a good position in the match and if they are able to play sensible cricket in the second innings and built a good lead then England has the possibilities to tie the series. It is an interesting phase and it all depends upon how they are going perform in the second innings.

[Vishnu.Reang]

Smith gone. Wooh! Finally Aus has shown they can't even chase down such a low score on their own and this time Smith has gone for 80 being the only player to cross 50 runs. Such a poor performance. England have almost won the first innings which is a good start and now they need to repeat this in the second innings as well.

Apart from Steve Smith, none of the Australian batsmen have scored enough runs in the Ashes so far. Just check these stats for their other batsmen:

1. David Warner has scored a total of 84 runs from 9 innings at an average of 9.33
2. Marcus Harris has scored a total of 49 runs from 5 innings at an average of 9.80
3. Usman Khawaja has scored a total of 122 runs from 6 innings at an average of 20.33

Just imagine what could have happened to Australia if Steve Smith was not there. IMO, the only player who gave him any sort of support was Marnus Labuschagne.

[Little Mouse]

Despite such contribution from Smith, Australia failed to have some leads. Without Smith, Australia has proved themselves how much poor they are.
I'm very much impressed with Smith. He is a real genius. I can even not imagine such a test player for Bangladesh. "Give me a Smith, I will give you the Test Championship." 

[7788bitcoin]

Just imagine what could have happened to Australia if Steve Smith was not there. IMO, the only player who gave him any sort of support was Marnus Labuschagne.

Smith is the only player performing consistently in both teams and England lost the match when he was injured, if any player was able to give Smith some support in this match he would have taken the team to a good score, now it is time for England to perform to save this match and i guess they will score a good lead and put the Aussies under fire in the final innings and i am going with England and draw to wage a bet in this match.

[Indymoney]

Just imagine what could have happened to Australia if Steve Smith was not there. IMO, the only player who gave him any sort of support was Marnus Labuschagne.

Smith is the only player performing consistently in both teams and England lost the match when he was injured, if any player was able to give Smith some support in this match he would have taken the team to a good score, now it is time for England to perform to save this match and i guess they will score a good lead and put the Aussies under fire in the final innings and i am going with England and draw to wage a bet in this match.

Now its good time for England to have some decent lead and draw series as they have very good review on last ball of the day and Burns safe now tomorrow is very important if they able to 300+ this is going to be good for them Root is also under-pressure for not performing and few other batsmen also need to play some big inning for me its right now only England to win is good as Australian batting line up is also feeling pressure and only Smith and Labuschagne only doing good job all others have some poor series.

[vella85]

I'm really not sure why the Australian selectors keep playing Warner as he failed once again with the bat, he should of been dropped for Finch and maybe then Australia could get a good start. Once again it has been left up to Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith to get Australia out of trouble as it was looking bad early losing two quick wickets. Everyone is mentioning Smith but Labuschagne has had a great series also since coming in for Smith in the second test match, he is Australia's next best batsman this series. England can now take their time and try and get as close to 500 runs as they can which will make it very tough for Australia to get the win and even draw as there is a lot of time in this test match.

[eaLiTy]

England is in control of the Test match for the first time in this ashes and if they are able to built a good second innings score they could level the Ashes. Smith is continuing his form if not they would have lost the Ashes. Australia need some major changes as none of the players are consistent and hence they are changing the team members with every match. England has good players but they are yet to prove their worth in the longer format of the game.