The Cricketer wraps up all the action from Brisbane
James Vince and Mark Stoneman both made half-centuries as England held their own during the first day of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane.
Joe Root and Alastair Cook both fell for small scores but the tourists still closed the day on 196 for four.
The Cricketer wraps up all the action on and off the field for you to flick through over your cornflakes.
James Vince, of course. The England number three was excellent in putting together his innings of 83, pairing sound shot selection with that sumptuous cover drive.
Read our ode to the Hampshire man right here.
Zero’s a bit harsh but there must be some real concerns over Alastair Cook’s form after another failure with the bat.
His dismissal for two - a tentative prod at Mitchell Starc outside off stump which ended up in the hands of Peter Handscomb at first slip, smacked of uncertainty at the crease.
Cook’s been through ruts before, and you’d back him over most batsmen worldwide to haul himself out of this current one, but the last thing England will want at the start of an Ashes campaign is one of their two batting talismen struggling for a run.
Alastair Cook went for two
Nathan Lyon showed he can walk the walk in addition to his terrible trash talk with an exceptional piece of ground fielding to run Vince out while off-balance early in the evening session.
With England entering the final 45 minutes of play, after losing a couple of quick wickets including skipper Joe Root, you’d have thought Moeen Ali might have thought about being cautious against the spinner. But that’s just not our Mo. Out of nowhere, the all-rounder whipped out a slog-sweep against the spin which flashed over the midwicket boundary.
Maverick Damien Fleming has a new way of describing the corridor of uncertainty and he wants everyone to know about it. Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the ‘hallway of hesitation’. Lovely stuff.
MORE FROM THE CRICKETER: This was the day James Vince stood up
After Shane Warne piped up with the idea that Australia’s pace attack might unleash Bodyline 2.0 on England, the local Brisbane Courier Mail immediately bought a ticket for the bandwagon.
Poms in fear and present danger as Warnie demands Aussies unleash Bodyline,” raged the front page of the rag which has previous when it comes to fracturing Anglo-Australian relations (remember how Stuart Broad was referred to only as the ‘27-year-old English medium-pace bowler’ back in 2014/14).
That’s all well and good… but when the home attack spends most of the first hour trying to coax the English batsmen into nicking off to the wide and full stuff, the point is rendered pretty much moot.
Shaun Marsh’s back was bad enough on Wednesday for the Australian selectors to call up Glenn Maxwell as injury cover. So, you’d think the skipper would want to protect his specialist number six. Well, no, as it turns out.
Despite the fact the Aussies had a regular short leg in their line-up, in the shape of Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith opted to put Marsh under the lid when Josh Hazlewood opened up.
Thanks cap’n.
Go home Hardys, you’re drunk. The winery, a regular sponsor of the England side let’s not forget, came up with a dreadful put-me-down for their big-screen ad inside the Gabba on Thursday.
“Why can’t the Poms open a bottle of wine,” it asked.
“Because they don’t have any openers”.
Nice one.
Banter flying 🎣 pic.twitter.com/D6a8Caa1tz
— Nick Gubbins (@ngubbins18) November 23, 2017
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