jim mk2

He's a Kiwi, is he? Playing for England?

Stokes moved to England aged 12. Presumably he had the choice to play for New Zealand but he wants to play for England. Well done to him.

Stokes gone for 120 clapped of by the Australian players , good to see that , particularly with England's lack of sportsmanship.

Lyon with the wicket, very underrated bowler in my opinion.

Good to see Stokes come good. England clap sporting players. You never have a good word to say about England. Now admit you're a convict.

I presume that's a convict attempt at humour.

Fail.

Cook and/or Flower should remind the players about their responsibilities before the next match. They are very good players playing extremely badly at the moment and they are letting themselves and the country down. Is Cook too "nice" as captain ? Does Flower have the bottle to give the players the hairdryer treatment ? Something needs to change, and soon.

Correct Bryan.... Sir Geoffrey reckons this Aussie team aren't really all that good.

The story isn't about them more about England's collapse in batting form. The warning signs were there last summer and previous series when Cook and a few others struggled for runs. It's not unusual for players to suffer a dip in form but not usually the whole team. I also think the team looked underprepared from the start of this tour, which comes down to the management.

This team has served England well for the past 5 years or so and some of the players for much longer. Time for change, starting from the top.

You may win this series but the game of cricket on the whole has been a loser. I fear for players behavior on future tours now the line has been crossed and the standard set.

The rock crunchers are back here in 2015. It would not be surprising if there were reprisals considering the way they have played in this series.

The "spirit" of cricket died long ago. Thanks to the home team it's well and truly in the gutter now.

You're begining to sound like the barmy army, signing the same song over and over and over again.

No originality. It was OK twenty years ago, but the rest of the world has moved on......

We haven't "won" yet.

your serve....

As an Englishman yourself I assume the "we" refers to England.

However at this stage I think the chances of us winning is rather fanciful and would probably be undeserved considering how we have been playing for the past 12 months.

Another missed opportunity by England. At 140-5 we were in the game but it's another backs-to-the wall effort now.

All the same to me matey.

Gower actually said in a Radio Times interview magazine: "How can you have a clash of cultures when you're playing against a country with no culture?"

Dave are you not English any more ?

Yes he is. But then he forgot his "heritage" and went over to the dark side. In my book you just don't do that - you know your roots, you remember where you come from and you stay loyal. I know Australians living over here for years who support England at all times except when they are playing Australia - which is fair enough and the way it should be.

Ask yourself my little Abbey friend, if you went to live in Burnley (god forbid) would you stop supporting Rovers and support our six-fingered friends ? Of course you wouldn't, and neither would anyone else. Well, in a cricketing context this is what this guy has done, and then comes on here (an English messageboard with 95 per cent England supporters) to boast about it. It's inexcusable -and shows what tolerant folk we are even when we have a traitor in our midst.

Back to the cricket I think there must be a case for some England players to be arrested like DJ Campbell. More than 50 per cent of the dismissals in this match were batsmen getting themselves out to poor shots, many of them so bad we would have a bollocking from our skippers when I played in the club game. Were some England players having bets too?

I read in the paper that of England's 40 dismissals so far more than 50 per cent have been down the leg side ! How do you explain that - except for downright poor play and muddled thinking by the batsmen ? Flower has to make only one demand of his players for the next Test and that is to leave legside balls alone. It's not rocket science.

Win or lose England supporters are always around. When it's going badly the other side disappear into the undergrowth.

Funny how some people are all over this thread when they're winning but nowhere to be seen when they're losing.

It seems like England are a bit too pampered and bow their heads at the first sign of adversity.

Don't agree with that but I would say they appear to have gone into this series underprepared and lacking a plan. There were rumblings about Flower not renewing his contract a while back and I'm wondering if he's had enough. Change at the top isn't necessarily a bad thing.

A

Mentally some of England's players seem all over the shop. 500+ to win and Cook pulls it, not too clever.

Cook is one of the biggest disappointments so far but he's had tough times in the past and always come back stronger. He's still only 27-28 and is not yet at his peak. He could break all England batting records before he is finished.

I h. Those of us who live out here will now have to put up with Australia's insufferable media for the next couple of years. Terrible losers, even worse winners.

We all hate losing but the Australian media has no class when it comes to winning. I feel sorry for you living there but at least you can access some decent quality British journalism online.

There has been some Aussie baiting in the English tabloids but even the Sun has an excellent cricket writer in John Etheridge who manages to report on the game with balance and fairness. Here in Adelaide the only alternative to the local rag is 'The Australian'. To be fair, I haven't read their reports but the headlines didn't look much different to those in the more low rent local tabloid.

Yes, some of the gloating in the English tabloids was a bit cringeworthy during the previous two Ashes series but at least you don't have too far to look for an alternative in the UK.

Etheridge is good and of course the Sun is owned by Murdoch too. Ownership is a red herring anyway. The difference is in the quality of the journalists and the journalism. In general the one-eyed nature of the reporting in Australia is childish and pathetic.

Thank God it's not on steam tv. I haven't seen any of it, reading about it's bad enough. Following England and Rovers at the moment is like a bad dream. Too many players in both teams have got inflated ideas of their own ability. I'm not picking on one bloke but what has happened to Prior ? Even the wicket keepers who couldn't bat a lick ( Bob Taylor, Jack Russell etc ) did better than this. I can't remember an England player ever having such a bad run of form and still getting picked. Since Jim bigged him up earlier this year he's done nothing !

Yes I must admit Prior's form has been a disappointment but then so has that of many players over the past 18 months. If Cook were not captain he might been dropped by now. I was defending Prior from attack by the anti-England Somerset supporter but like a few others Prior must be on a borrowed time now. Bairstow might come in and although he's a good wicketkeeper his batting technique to be honest is pretty awful.

I remember the photos of Close in the papers - his body covered in bruises. That West Indies side dished out far worse than Larwood was supposed to have done in the so-called "Bodyline" series (and yes they're still whingeing about it 70 years later). The point is the likes of Close and Boycott would never ever give up their wicket easily, which for old-timers makes the dismissals of Root and Pietersen yesterday even harder to take. I'm not surprised Sir Geoffrey went ape on the radio.

Effectively two down with three to go, England are down, and virtually out in this series already. The re-emergence of Johnson as game changer has swung what was a finely balanced contest into a procession now. Englands top order are walking wickets, the lower order bereft of any nerve, barring Broad.

The England side side built around the runs of Cook-Trott-KP-Prior, and the bowling of Anderson-Broad-Swann, of whom the only serious contribution so far has been a fifty from Cook and a clutch of wickets from Broad on day one of Test one, which seems a long time ago already.

The only hope England have now is if Mitchell Johnson turns his ankle over in the warm up tonight...

Um, I think you forgot Ian Bell, man of the series last summer ?

Pietersen's a walking wicket at the moment - a decent club bowler could get him out. Put three men on the leg side in the mid-wicket area, bowl at middle and leg and wait for him to hoick it in the air. Flower needs to have a stern word with him or is Pietersen above repproach ?

The trouble is Trott has not "excelled" for some time. He was a liability last summer.

Well I'm an England supporter. So watch your step. Agree about Onions though - he must have upset someone in the England hierarchy. He should have been picked last summer too.

.... and at international level ?

From your use of the word "they" instead of "we" I assume you are not an England supporter. So who do you support ?

I'm not expecting an England fightback today. The team hasn't played well for some time and several players are woefully out of form. England won last summer thanks to Bell and Broad in the main and you cannot rely on one of two players to get you out of trouble all the time. You also have to question the preparation for this tour, which seems inadequate and comes down to the management. Flower has done a great job but I sense he's had enough after a fair stint and it could be time for change - and that goes for some of the players too. This tour could well be their last. Fortunately we have some good young players coming through.

Quite right. A cricket team, like a football team is for life. You don't change sides. For an Englishman to support Australia at tiddlywinks never mind cricket is unforgiveable.

And the Somerset gnome still hasn't stated why he doesn't support England at cricket.

Back to the action, Warner is out to a stupid shot. Couldn't happen to a nicer chap after his comments in the first Test.

Good luck to Panesar. He needs something to go right in his life after his problems this year.

I don't have an agenda, there questioned answered.

Perhaps the question was too subtle for you. Which international cricket team do you support ?

You've been asked several times. What's your agenda ?