Ashes 2017-18: Australia v England first Test, day two – live!

Aleem Dar and Marais Erasmus lead Australia’s fielders and England’s batsmen out onto the sun-drenched outfield. Play will recommence shortly.

That’s right, a farewell for Kevin Mitchell Jr who retires this week after 27-years as head curator at the Gabba.

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How can you not love him?

Earlier on we heard of some schmuck voluntarily relinquishing his Ashes 2005 DVDs. It seems misunderstanding the value of cricket memorabilia is rife, especially in South Australia.

Revisiting the subject of Australian grade cricket, Mark Stoneman and Josh Hazlewood might be rivals in this series but not long ago they were clubmates in Sydney.

Seventh Horcrux I’m sure speaks for thousands with his email.

Morning/Evening Jonathan.

I have an exam day after, and I was marvelling on how long I’ll have to feel guilty about waking up at ungodly hours to watch cricket instead of studying. Reading about all these people skipping work or taking questionably long breaks to catch up just makes me realise it’s a lifelong endeavour. Feel slightly better now. Cheers!

As you can see, the weather is much more conducive to cricket today than yesterday, and it is expected to stay that way for the remainder of play.

While I go and brew myself a quick cup of something hot and brown I’ll leave you with a fitting track from the most quintessential Brisbane band.

England fans may be unfamiliar with some of the *bantz* they can hear emanating from behind the stumps when Nathan Lyon bowls. In case you didn’t know, Australia’s leading off-spinner’s nickname is Garry. This is in relation to another famous Australian sporting Lyon, Garry Lyon, who was a star of Australian Rules football during the 1980s and 90s and has since progressed into a prominent TV and radio personality. The Gary Lineker of Australian sport if you like.

Anyway, the cries of ‘Noyce Garry!’ became the stuff of meme, novelty T-shirts, and ultimately ridicule courtesy of previous gloveman Matthew Wade. The Tasmanian ‘keeper is famed for his chirp and the stump mic had no problem picking up repeated cries of support for the offie. There was a macabre fascination as to how his replacement, Tim Paine, would take on the responsibility. Thankfully, much less annoyingly at this stage.

I’m being fed doomsday predictions like a first-team batsmen receiving unplayable throw-downs from a fourth-team battler. Full disclosure, I may have just finished reading The Grade Cricketer’s latest book.

Dave Adams is worried about England’s prospects.

Hard not to think that England will be seriously regretting the Vince run out by the time yesterday’s lost overs are completed.

England 257; Australia 180-1 at stumps. Obviously would be delighted to be wrong.

Simon Thompson should probably get a good night’s sleep rather than put himself through the impending torture.

Back in the hutch for 249 before lunch. They come out without any ticker and all gone for 150 odd and we are batting again with a lead of 100 an hour after tea. Nurse nurse…

All the best

On the subject of TV coverage, here’s Simon Burnton (more from him later) on the Ashes experience delivered by BT Sport into the UK.

After sampling both BT Sport and Channel Nine yesterday, I would take the UK feed over the Australian one, given the choice.

Wardrobe update: KP is still wearing the fawn desert boots. Although this morning his first involvement was alongside Shane Warne, so the eye was drawn to other questionable fashion choices.

The local cheer squad was predictably delighted by England’s batting on day one. Apparently the Vince-Stoneman partnership of 125 from 310 deliveries against what has been trumpeted as the best new ball attack in the world wasn’t engrossing Test match cricket.

Hmmm, this is an interesting tidbit from Alison Mitchell.

In the ‘where in the world are you following from’ stakes, Frank Ventham takes the clubhouse lead.

Greetings from Seoul, South Korea. Very un-cricket like conditions here as we have had our first snow of the year . Looking forward to following the action today when not working.

Harkarn Sumal is in the less glamorous (well, to some anyway) Warwickshire, but he has a question to ask:

Evening Jonathan, evening everyone,

You will doubtless have readers and OBO correspondents scattered around the world this evening and through the night. In order to prove or disprove the old adage, may I be so bold as to ask if any of them is currently in the process of hitting Vic Marks for six?

Jim Lines is frankly disgusted with someone’s cricket-watching behaviour. And rightly so!

Good evening Jonathan,

Strolling home from work I noticed my local charity store had placed a copy of the 2005 Ashes DVDs on its topical-items window display.
I was puzzled. How could anyone part with a box-set that, frankly, is as indispensable as The Simpsons’ first ten years, The Sopranos, and The Office? Only last weekend I bought a new laptop, insistent on purchasing one with a DVD drive so I could spend a few more years feasting on Channel 4’s delicious coverage of Harmison’s slower ball, Flintoff consoling Brett Lee, the match-saving Aussie tail in Manchester, Pietersen’s maiden Test century at The Oval…

Correspondence arriving thick and fast – much obliged.

Stuie with a prediction I would be delighted to see eventuate, although I reckon we’ll see more runs today with the added overs, increased pace of the pitch and the likely batters on show.

Here’s your deck for today. Should be good for batting, should be good for bowling.

Opportunity for England to motor towards a healthy first innings total if Moeen and Malan can see off what’s sure to be a hostile opening hour.

Opportunity for Australia to bat before lunch if the pace attack makes the new ball talk.

Here’s the panoramic shot.

Jonathan will be here shortly. Until then, here’s all the reaction to the first day in Brisbane: