4 x 98 over days I think.
Will be sone tired bowlers if one side gets in and bats long.
Bruce
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Good start by England, is Tongue the real deal.
Is this the start of summer? There was a chill easterly this morning, but now Lords looks a picture.
I’m glad that there are highlights on the Beeb, and that Alex Hartley has not given up cricket completely. All is well with the world as Broad takes another wicket.
It’s a shame that Ireland do not get enough opportunities to play Tests and I wish them well, hoping that this one lasts four days.
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I’ve managed to sync the radio commentary to the TV. An afternoon with my feet up.
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Tongue looks a quite good. Not a long run up, an easy high action but the ball comes down quite quickly. He has obviously been told to bowl a load of short stuff today which I don’t think he would do normally. He has bowled accurately with no dross so far. No sign of nerves. He got Steve Smith out a few weeks ago. He plays for Worcestershire in Div 2.
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Yes but apparently Smith has had a few howlers (bad decisions) that even the English commentators questioned.
It would be good for England to have a good (young) seamer.
Tongue looks OK but I am consistently impressed with Potts. Always ‘at’ the batsmen, seems to surprise batsmen a bit with his pace and gets seam movement. Reminds me of Peter Siddle (and that is a big compliment) and his bustling action is not dissimilar either.
Tongue has kept good pace and not given much away. He is the sort of bowler I think Australians will be used to though; tall, bit of bounce and quick without extreme pace. He looks like a back-up option in the Ashes to me. Not to say he won’t be needed with injuries and rotation etc.
I am more interested how England bat. There isn’t much in this wicket so they should prosper.
Bruce
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I have watched Smith’s LBW dismissal by Tongue on Youtube a couple times.
Absolutely Plumb middle stump. ( If the middle stump was moved about a foot more to the leg side). 
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My prediction is that all over by end D3 i.e. England will bat out D3 and achieve a lead of ~300 and Ireland will be out ~160, noting Lord’s wickets only get worse, not better.
Do you mean Ireland 
don’t get enough opportunities?
Best wishes
Ian
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The wicket at Lord’s doing its usual stuff, with uneven bounce at times, little pace and no turn on D2. Sometimes I wonder if this wicket was at another ground, would it be regarded fit for Test cricket?
Looking all too easy for England.
I gather from TMS that the square was relaid over last winter … perhaps it was just resown, judging by the signs of the vertical cutting.
Whatever’s been done to it, I’m struggling to see how this is classified as a Test match, as the Ireland attack is lower Div 2 Championship level (if that). Such a shame, as it devalues and distorts the achievements & records IMHO.
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You are right, but “smaller” cricketing nations have to start somewhere. With no prospect of development, the best players from Ireland may come and play for England. Morgan, Joyce etc.
I remember in 1985 Bangladesh played a Worcester Pub side. The Lamb and Flag nearly won although they could put out some serious club cricketers.
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I’m not a slave to convention but rewriting some of the record books with the performances in a match like this, deserve an * being applied. Better still, I’d not overwrite the records and just call it an Eng v Ireland match – but, I suspect, then one gets in to issues of whether it is a bona fide 1st Class match?
Probably like you, I recollect when Sri Lanka were also fodder for the better Test countries (inc. England), and then they weren’t, thanks to their wonderful generation of talent.
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We should also be asking if England feel this is good preparation for the Ashes. Australia have a rather more competitive ‘warm up’ fixture
Bruce
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True.
( But at least England will be coming off a win)
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Not sure how useful playing a second tier team (no disrespect to Ireland just a fact) is as a warm up match before an Ashes series. We’ll get a much harder harder task with India next week and think will be to our advantage.
I think it’s rude that he didn’t least stand for the anthem.
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