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It had to happen eventually. Today was the day James Vince finally managed to avoid edging one to slip.
And it was so easy to avoid. All he had to do was persuade an opposition bowler to aim a 90mph delivery about a foot wide of leg stump only for it to hit some sort of chasm which would persuade it to chart a new course for off stump.
He did his best though, did Jimmy the Nick. Presented with this heinous crime against physics, our boy presented the full outside edge of the bat. Alas, for once he couldn’t make contact.
We all have our limits.
ICYMI: The ball of the century
Mitchell Starc’s ridiculous delivery from EVERY angle ????
Just. Wow.#ItsTheAshes pic.twitter.com/H165bQXTJy
— The Ashes on BT Sport (@btsportcricket) December 17, 2017
Hope isn’t yet extinguished but it’s hard to escape the thought that the BBC Sport headline at 6am will feature the words ‘plunge’ or ‘slump’.
If the weather forecast is to be believed, the “plunge” in question might be the rain puddle variety:
https://weather.com/en-GB/weather/hourbyhour/l/ASWA0604:1:AS
Not really a satisfactory outcome, but sweet irony if it really does rain all day.
I’m finding this weather surprisingly exciting!
Of all the places to be bailed out by rain…
Hours later, no balls of play, and I am still gripped!
Sadly, not even the English-style weather has been adequate on this tour.
Too little, too late.
Flashes of hope – the “water under the covers” story seemed especially promising – the odd sustained period – by gosh the morning session went well – followed by petering out limply and succumbing to the inevitable.
What a relief.
This new three match series has worked better for the Ashes than I expected.
Can we still win the mixed format points thing? That’s what we’re all interested in, isn’t it. I’m get bored of these warm-up matches, bring on the ODIs.