The Ashes: England show fight, but on brink of defeat
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What are the current standings in the Ashes series?
You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live.
Bold Stokes coming forward, lovely bowling from Lyon, lands that on a roundabout, well middle stump but it's turned past the outside edge, it's clipped the top of off, Stokes himself acknowledges it, gives a little nod and says well don't know what I could have done about that.
So Australia are closing in. They need four more wickets to retain the Ashes. England resisted on the fourth day, but too much damage was done earlier in the match for them to recover. 207 for six at the close of play. They need a further 228. more to win the game set 435 to win after Australia were bowled out for 349 they lost their last 6 wickets for 38 in 65 balls England had a couple of overs before lunch they lost Duckett and Australia just chipped away Crawley made a fine 85, Root 39, Brook 30. But Nathan Lyon, as we thought he would do, had an impact on this fourth day. Picked up three quick wickets. He's taken three for 64 from 18 overs. And he's now on 567 test match wickets. Glenn McGrath is here.
Phil Tufnell is here.
How did England perform on the fourth day of the Test?
Jonathan Agnew is here. Well, what are your initial thoughts on that day's play, Jonathan? Well, funnily enough, England had quite a reasonable day, but the damage had been done, hadn't it? 168 for 8 in their first innings in reply to 371. And really, that was the telling moment, wasn't it? I know they got that. lead down to 85 but the Australians batter them out of the game at excellent 170 from head but you know today all we've been asking throughout this series and before it by the way you know you can pinpoint games in the last 18 months that have been lost when they really shouldn't have been is this for more Just basic cricket to be played. And they played it today. They played, in some ways, an excellent game.
Six for 38. Plan A was rigidly stuck to. Pitched the ball up, ran about the off stump. You take wickets. Oh, we had them.
What impact did Nathan Lyon have on the match?
We're taking six for 38. Now, they were sort of pushing on a bit, Australia, I suppose, at that stage, you can look at one or two wickets, but even so, they bowled sensibly, there wasn't the silly fields, that was all they could ask for, really, Duckett is disappointing, he's had a poor series so far, he's averaging about 16, I think. with the bat Pope as what happens when you're struggling you fall to a brilliant catch and that was a brilliant catch not a great shot mind you it was still edged into the slips but it was it was brilliantly taken and on many other days that that wouldn't have happened but I just thought today they all tried to play sensibly though people will look at Harry Brooks dismissal and go oh look oh crikey bowl playing the reverse sweep yeah I get that
But actually they had played the reverse sweep quite deliberately and played it well against Lyon to stop him from just bowling at them all the time with close field as the ball's been popping up and spinning a bit, there's some bounce. It's actually a totally legitimate tactic. The problem with the reverse sweep, and I'm no batsman and I've never even tried to play it, but the problem is it does have to be a premeditated shot. And most of the time, that off-spinner is going to be bowling outside the off-stump. You can play that reverse sweep down into that off-side deep area, and you can play it with impunity. The problem with that ball was that it was straight. It didn't really spin very much, but it pitched around about middle and off and hit middle and leg.
And therefore, you're in a bad position, and if you miss it, you're gone. So that will look horrible in the highlights. I don't think it's necessarily a fair reflection of how England batted today. I think they batted well. That was...
How did Zak Crawley approach his innings?
Well, it was a shot that didn't come off, but we understand why he played it. And we have been as critical of Brook in this series as anybody. But I'm not going to really criticise that shot, because under the circumstances, that was an OK shot to attempt, at least if he just didn't play it. Tupper, as an ex-spinner, how did you see it?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the current standings in the Ashes series?
0:00–1:22
2
How did England perform on the fourth day of the Test?
1:22–2:16
3
What impact did Nathan Lyon have on the match?
2:16–3:47
4
How did Zak Crawley approach his innings?
3:47–4:40
5
What are the analysts' opinions on England's batting strategy?
4:40–5:52
6
How does the England team plan to bounce back in the series?
5:52–6:56
7
What insights does Jason Gillespie provide on the Australian bowling attack?
6:56–7:19
8
What statistical highlights emerged from the day's play?
7:19–43:37
Speakers
9 identifiedMore from Test Match Special
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