Smith has scored the most runs this year and he has batted only 4 innings.

What did you think of Paine's 58, Gogos?

He played shots all around the wicket - hooks and pulls; clips to mid wicket;  on, straight and off drives; cover drives and cuts.

Paine really benefitted from me bowling rubbish to him in the school playground when I taught at the school he attended!  

He had all those shots at age 10! 

I had a very good view of those same shots flying off the bat to boundaries in the schoolyard!

It is astonishing to think he was first selected as a specialist wrist spinner  for Aus!

Wow!

I suppose Smith was a very different player in that epoch of his career.

Boycott is very knowledgeable though and proffers a myriad of opinions. I think along with Kerry O'Keefe, Jeremy Coney, Ian Smith and Jon Agnew, and it seems the retired Henry Blowfield, these are some of the great characters of cricket radio commentary.

 

 211!!! The master batsman has scored more runs than his entire team has. He may finish scoring more runs than the entire other 21 players. He is a nitemare for opposing teams. No mistake. 

Boycs may be a cricket aficionado DC but he compares others to himself. A corpse with a bat in his hand. He never.. never did anything like Smith is doing. What does Blowers say about this genius with bat in hand?

I'll go along with that. A good example is when he was stranded on 49. He played frustrated. Hooked and pulled everything to get to his first half ton of the series. Almost resulted in his downfall when he was dropped at mid wicket.

Yep DC. Almost 500 runs and only a blob in the wickets column for Archer. He is immature and lacking stamina for a five day game at this level at the moment. Looks to thrive on decks with some pace. He will improve over the next two years and I expect him to be a real handful when they tour in '21.

I think Blowers has been retired against his wishes, Baggers.

Boycs is often very complimentary about the opposition, albeit being a one eyed English supporter. He is very impressed with your favourite, Hazlewood - and - Cummins. He also points to Lyon's record over time.

Gday all,
jaszyjim - despite posting a great score & a great innings from Smith,
I still think the selectors have a lot to answer for.
We just cannot always rely on Smith, as if he does fail the team will crumble.
When he is batting so well, he takes the pressure off every one else & frees them up to score.

Look at the LH batters - 
Warner, failed - Harris, failed - Head, failed - Wade failed & Starc the only one to score.

RH batters - Labu, 50+ - Smith amazing - Paine, 50+ - Cummins, failed & Lyon hung in there.
When we already know our lefties have a problem, why do we exacerbate it with LH batters that
have already shown that they are struggling.
I keep stating against a bit of opposition, that M. Marsh should have been selected ahead of Wade
& as many others have posted, why wasn't Burns selected in lieu of Harris?
This track is going to be flat, our bowlers will end up tiring & Lyon who many wanted dropped will be the
one that holds it all together.
The selectors act with impunity, never having to justify who they have selected & why.
This test team selection to me was very poor & the selectors only get away it due to Smith.

Archer seems to lack stamina, ever since Lords his pace has dropped every innings. Langer was right in saying currently he can't handle the workload of a test series.

And England's bouncer strategy has been ridiculously stupid, a few good bouncers on a pitch with uneven bounce and pace has caused them for some reason to think we and specifically Smith can't play against the short ball. Honestly quite ridiculous, when they bowled a good line our batters were struggling.

*Bryan Waddle - Smith is tv and not that informative.


Ponting and OKeefe are my fav Aussie commentators for cricket.

Good post JJ. I could not have put it any better. You have reiterated what I have been saying almost to the word. 

I think Marsh would have been dangerous on this track. He certainly would not have had a brain explosion like Wade to toss away his wicket and give us a scare until the skipper came in. His bowling too is under rated. People forget he only gets to spell our strikers and is usually bowling against set batsmen and when the deck is at its least lively.
Lyon has been flat since the first test now he needs to lift as this deck could turn over the remaining days. It is not offering all that much for the quicks and we still need to take 19 wickets to win the series.. so the tweakers.. Lyon and Labuchagne need to pitch in and take us some vital wickets. Head may also be called on.

Don't think I agree. Pick the best batsmen, doesn't matter if they right or left handed. Pick the best bowlers, doesn't matter if they right or left handed. Yeah you may want some variety in your attack, but ultimately you want the best bowlers. End of the day, you want the ball sent down top of off stump. And batsman who score runs. Variety is far more effective in run control in limited overs, than it is in actually getting wickets in tests. Heck the Windies played 4 right arm fast, most of it tall... LLoyd had the spinners canned - that is how much he thought of variety.

When Warne became a thing, weak teams to him started bringing in lhb as they felt it was easier with the ball turning in to bat against. Problem is, you send a guy to play test cricket, just cos of which hand he writes with, you're in a lot of trouble already.

Eventually teams learned to play Warne from the hand and read leg spin. That is what they should have been doing from the start.

Damien Martyn was like that, as well.

Some more Smith stats, since 2013 he is averaging 108.8 in first innings. Absolutely ridiculous, especially considering he'd average even more if he didn't have to always go out slogging with the tail.

With many calling for the sacking of Tim Paine, consider the following:

Gilchrist average of 50 for most of his career. 

Haddin 32.9

Paine 31.9

Marsh/Healy 28. 

This was in an article in the English Guardian. Paine currently has the third highest batting average of any Aussie keeper in history! 

Wow! 

Just amazing! 

Another interesting phenomenon is that Pat Cummins is the number one ranked ICC bowler in the world. 

Yet he is bowling first change behind Starc and Hazlewood! 

Pom night watchman snicks Hazlewood to Smith in the slips. 

Poms 2-26. 

Overton gone!

Cummins sometimes falls into this trap of bowling too much short stuff. 

Might be part of a plan to force batsmen onto the back foot, then dismiss them with a pitched up ball or Yorker. 

Starcs bowling so far has shown why it’s taken four tests to get a came. Not bowling a probing line and not really bowling aggressive lines 

He has bowled some loose overs.

England now 2 -102.

finally a wicket

we dropped a couple and a couple of chopons just missed the stumps but apart from that its been an impressive partnership

then a couple more in a row

hazelwood on fire

england finish the day 5-200

lyon bowled beautifully so did cummins. Sadly they didnt get the reward

starc had the ball talking but was very inaccurate

Thanks for this info, Grazor. 

I was asleep in that period, but it is always interesting to know how players perform. 

Starc bowled some very very loose overs and took the pressure off when Lyon was exerting great pressure from the other end in partnership with Cummins and Hazlewood.  

One really has to admire England for batting well under scoreboard pressure in their last two innings. 

Chasing big totals is psychologically difficult. 

I still wish we had a pace bowling all rounder, like Neser or Marsh, to lighten the workload for the other three. 

Incredible!