New ball. This is it.

Marathon not a sprint, eh

Without bazball there’d not have been a result there. England did everything to ensure a result - and very nearly made it a win for England. Absolutely deserve credit for that, for avoiding at all costs what would almost certainly have been a four-something day bore-draw

I’d take losing like this over useless test draws every series of the year personally. The margins were super fine - had stokes catch stuck we’d’ve won; had he not declared, who knows how many runs we’d’ve got on top. Great game, well done Aussies (don’t tell me vela that you weren’t shitting it until Cummins got those sixes)

Lol

Are you getting up or going to bed?

Having had the day to digest the first test I reckon the two teams remind me of the mid to late 90s ODI pattern.

Prior to WC1996, standard ODI scores were good if over 200, and exceptional if around 250. Sri Lanka changed that by routinely approaching or exceeding 300. Jayasuriya in particular changed ODIs forever. Fast forward to 2003 and beyond, and teams were regularly passing 350 and even 400 sometimes. And chasing big totals too. That's all because Sri Lanka upped the standard and in a big tournament focus.

But Test cricket doesn't have tournaments, so we will only know if bazball or rather, aggressive attacking, confident play becomes the standard as teams play and lose significantly to England.

Australia used to be extremely aggressive and attacking when we had Hayden, Langer, Ponting, S Waugh, Gilchrist et al, free to bat knowing their scores would be supported by McGrath, Warne, Gillespie, Lee. The teams from 1995 to 2005 never took their foot of the throats of their opponents except for one time.

India, 2001. Kolkata.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Test,_2000–01_Border–Gavaskar_Trophy

Australia scored 400+, bowled India for 170 and enforced the follow on. India then declared for 657 thanks to Laxman and Dravid. India went on to win.

Australia basically took their foot off, and India worked their way back in via an absolutely brilliant batting performance.

England's mistake this week was letting Australia have a sniff. I thought you had it in the bag. Fair play for going for a result, but I suspect England was closer to breaking the game open than they thought.

That said, Australia is a very balanced team now. Almost zen like in being able to defy previous expectations against historically challenging scenarios. Coming off some rare victory in India recently has probably boosted their confidence immensely.

This should be an excellent series with two very confident teams.

Take the new ball as soon as it's available and get the pace bowlers on is always my go to for cleaning up the tail. Mix up shorter and full deliveries. But no, short stuff with a dead ball and weak spin from the other end seems to be their favorite method

Was very tight like. Both teams prepared to risk losing in order to win, the way it should be for me

Can't wait for the next one. This is going to be another classic.

Did it? I would have sworn you'd trounced us...

That rings a bell. Aussie women are head and shoulders above the rest in women’s cricket right now, so I’m not expecting much from this series.

The guardian tells me that Australia have only played four tests since 2015 and all were draws. Utterly dominant in limited overs, but not so in tests.

The test in the ashes is also worth the most points in the series.

The women's Ashes series is one test, 3 t20s and 3 ODIs. Test worth 4 points, all others worth 2.

I know that the women's T20 domestic tournaments are getting big in Australia now. It's great fun to watch apparently, though I've never been to any T20 of either men's or women's.

It's great to see their competition be taken more seriously by the wider public. Same as women's football. There are some incredibly talented people playing and it's nice to see that get recognition.

Play halted after 9 overs.

They're coming back out, no drinks break