I shall be switching on the radio in the morning when I wake up with nervous trepidation.
And from Australia, well to Danni Wyatt- Hodge for a sparkling performance in the WBBL , no doubt speaking to Charlotte _Edwards (not all communication is verbal)
“Batsmen who don’t walk when they know they’re out?
That would be every Aussie who has ever played the game, with the exception of Adam Gilchrist. They don’t like Broad because he held a mirror up to how they play, and they didn’t like what they saw. They have always been win at all costs.
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Starc v England. No contest 
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No worries, England always start a series badly.
Bruce
England don’t appear to have prepared for Mitchell Starc. No spoilers.
I was wondering if I should have made the effort to get very, very early. I’m glad I didn’t.
Sadly I have been watching since the lunch break. Just switched over for the BBC news. Not cheering me up in the least.
Archer/Atkinson unplayable just now!
The first innings score had an air of inevitability about it. Brainless and reckless.
Just woken up. Scratch head. I do hope England wickets were not caught pulling and hooking. Will find some highlights.
Best not to look!
However we’ve come back into it so the wicket might be what we used to call sporty.
I have watched since 4am. England are bowing fantastically. All of them.
Bruce
Yes, I kind of feel like going back to bed, pulling over the covers and sleeping through things. Wake me up at some point mid-January.
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I don’t have TNT. Didn’t realise it wasn’t on Sky. Cr@p.
Let’s just say, you don’t need to be Nostradamus to predict how many of England’s wickets fell e.g. Crawley, doing his usual fly-fishing impression, Pope playing around a full straight one. As for Brook, he seems to want to hit every ball.
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England may or may not get out of jail here but batting for only 32 overs is “poor”. No one seems to want to build an innings. But nothing new in that.
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I’m afraid I’ll be watching the WBBL and the BBL - at least in both leagues the teams will be playing to the same agenda .
The treasurers of Cricket Australia and the Optus Stadium must be sweating a bit (not just because of the local heat!), as playing 2/3 day test matches is a killer for the economics of the game.
Having watched a fair bit this morning, and having seen historic Ashes’ footage in Aus (days of Lillee etc,), I cannot help but think many batsmen nowadays don’t understand how to defend properly, especially against the short ball – bearing in mind short balls were unlimited p/o back then. Some are playing front-foot to the short stuff, and not ducking out of the way – this perhaps due to helmets.
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Possibly also down to T20, short balls can’t rise very high without being called, which makes them a scoring shot.
Just about to watch the highlights on TNT, but the cricinfo descriptions of Australia’s innings make it sound as though all out attack with the bat is catching.
My nephew is going on holiday Monday morning and was planning to get to the airport at 2am to watch the Ashes. Looks like he’ll need to change his plans.
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It seems ‘the leave’ is becoming a rare event in test cricket 
I agree, in that helmets and so much shorter-form cricket, has caused players to try and play at most balls. Of course, it helps when bowlers make batsmen play, as England did today (from what I’ve seen).
It’s amazing to see so much self-destructive cricket, especially from the Aussies.
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