creeeeeeeekeeeeeet

[Dujon]

Marnus Labuschagne out. Steve Smith takes over.

189 for two as I type. Now SS out for 12. That should spark England.

193 for 3. Warner creeping towards ton.

[Dujon]

An afternoon grandfather snooze later:

343 for 7 at stumps. Warner out for 94. Travis Head scored a century in the final session, from 85 balls, and remains not out. England picked up two or three cheap wickets from the Australian mids but put down or simply missed chances.

Tomorrow is another day with the weather forecast to be rain free. If England can get its act together and clean out the last few wickets for not many runs there has to be a fair chance that it can compile enough runs to at least challenge Australia.

[BWFC_Insane]

An afternoon grandfather snooze later:

343 for 7 at stumps. Warner out for 94. Travis Head scored a century in the final session, from 85 balls, and remains not out. England picked up two or three cheap wickets from the Australian mids but put down or simply missed chances.

Tomorrow is another day with the weather forecast to be rain free. If England can get its act together and clean out the last few wickets for not many runs there has to be a fair chance that it can compile enough runs to at least challenge Australia.

Yeah good one.....

200 plus behind. They'd need somewhere in the region of 400 to even make a game of it.....not going to happen.

[Worthy4England]

Dear oh dear oh dear. Actually bowled well for two hours, pretty unlucky, lots of half chances and edges short. But that last half an hour was chastening. Leach gone for 31 from 3 (30 from the last 2!). Stokes limping badly. These two set and Smith to come.

Familiar feeling. Bed time for me.

Yeah. Had Warner with a no-ball, got Smith out cheaply (for us), didn't quite get the luck early doors...but sure got messy

[BWFC_Insane]

Read a lot of counter-intuitive/interesting things today.

Firstly apparently height of release point has been more important than outright pace in Australia. So good that our only really quick bowler likely to play much had the lowest release point.

And apparently despite predictions the pink ball swings less than the red. So good that Jimmy has been rested for the day-nighter (though sounds like he had a knock anyway).

And apparently the Gabba is as close to the Oval as you get in Australia, and Pope averages 99 at the Oval (this may have been straw clutching )

With Archer I think this would have been close. Without, given we have one really quick bowler and he's skiddy and made of glass, I just don't think we've got the attack to consistently take 20 wickets. I'm not sure they're great shakes with the bat either (Smith, Labuschagne, Warner then..) but their attack is world class.

Not hopeful. But you never know. Wonder what Glenn has predicted.

Forgot to reply to this yesterday. This is mental. Archer would be nice but Australia have 3 batsmen with averages over 40. Two of those average over 60.

So that's one very good test batsman in Warner and two seemingly all time greats in Labuschagne and Smith.

England have ONE player over 40 in Root who averages only slightly above Warner. And that's without factoring in the advantage their batters have in Australia over ours generally in Aussie conditions on those pitches.

The bowling attack England have is not much worse than Australia's though I accept in Australia it probably is - though I'm unsure Archer who doesn't seem to be able to bowl long spells or maintain pace would necessarily be that much different.

But fundamentally Australia - even with an average batting line up sprinkled with brilliance are streets and streets ahead in terms of putting runs on the board. And that's the problem. This is a decent enough pitch and 350 for 7 is good work from the bowlers and they are slightly unlucky. The problem is though as ever the batters are 200 short of par. You aren't closing that gap with Archer.

England need a 1, 2 and 3 of test level and a 6. 4 players that are so woefully poor at this stage of their career that its a non contest.

[Bruce Rioja]

Is Root not furnished with the weather forecast? Wins the toss and puts us in to bat on a green pitch in bowling conditions, then the very next day, Oz get to bat in perfect batting conditions?

[Worthy4England]

Is Root not furnished with the weather forecast? Wins the toss and puts us in to bat on a green pitch in bowling conditions, then the very next day, Oz get to bat in perfect batting conditions?

That seems to be the conundrum every one's trying to work out.

The wackiest I can come up with is, he wanted to save Anderson/Broad and play Leach as we usually lose at Brisbane...having come up with that cunning plan, then he's compounded it by ensuring Leach gets a 4th innings bowl, in an innings that now probably won't happen.

How cunning is that?

Just seems bizarre.

[jimbo]

Is Root not furnished with the weather forecast? Wins the toss and puts us in to bat on a green pitch in bowling conditions, then the very next day, Oz get to bat in perfect batting conditions?

That seems to be the conundrum every one's trying to work out.

The wackiest I can come up with is, he wanted to save Anderson/Broad and play Leach as we usually lose at Brisbane...having come up with that cunning plan, then he's compounded it by ensuring Leach gets a 4th innings bowl, in an innings that now probably won't happen.

How cunning is that?

Just seems bizarre.

I think the fear of doing a Nasser hangs over every England skipper.

[BWFC_Insane]

Is Root not furnished with the weather forecast? Wins the toss and puts us in to bat on a green pitch in bowling conditions, then the very next day, Oz get to bat in perfect batting conditions?

I didn’t see the pitch before but I guess it comes down to whether he had the guts to bat last over there.

The thing is looking at the stats for the Gabba surprisingly batting first is only a very mild advantage statistically so makes the decision even more odd.

[Bruce Rioja]

Is Root not furnished with the weather forecast? Wins the toss and puts us in to bat on a green pitch in bowling conditions, then the very next day, Oz get to bat in perfect batting conditions?

That seems to be the conundrum every one's trying to work out.

The wackiest I can come up with is, he wanted to save Anderson/Broad and play Leach as we usually lose at Brisbane...having come up with that cunning plan, then he's compounded it by ensuring Leach gets a 4th innings bowl, in an innings that now probably won't happen.

How cunning is that?

Just seems bizarre.

You appear to have given that considerably more thought than Mr Root did.

[Worthy4England]

Is Root not furnished with the weather forecast? Wins the toss and puts us in to bat on a green pitch in bowling conditions, then the very next day, Oz get to bat in perfect batting conditions?

That seems to be the conundrum every one's trying to work out.

The wackiest I can come up with is, he wanted to save Anderson/Broad and play Leach as we usually lose at Brisbane...having come up with that cunning plan, then he's compounded it by ensuring Leach gets a 4th innings bowl, in an innings that now probably won't happen.

How cunning is that?

Just seems bizarre.

I think the fear of doing a Nasser hangs over every England skipper.

No different if they hit 490 batting second, mate!

Still the same outcome of the toss decision...

I guess from a disaster management perspective though, no one looks at our batting getting 140 as anything other than the norm, so I get your point. We can just sit here and say "par score"

[jimbo]

Is Root not furnished with the weather forecast? Wins the toss and puts us in to bat on a green pitch in bowling conditions, then the very next day, Oz get to bat in perfect batting conditions?

That seems to be the conundrum every one's trying to work out.

The wackiest I can come up with is, he wanted to save Anderson/Broad and play Leach as we usually lose at Brisbane...having come up with that cunning plan, then he's compounded it by ensuring Leach gets a 4th innings bowl, in an innings that now probably won't happen.

How cunning is that?

Just seems bizarre.

I think the fear of doing a Nasser hangs over every England skipper.

No different if they hit 490 batting second, mate!

Still the same outcome of the toss decision...

I guess from a disaster management perspective though, no one looks at our batting getting 140 as anything other than the norm, so I get your point. We can just sit here and say "par score"

Agreed but there’s that weird public psyche surrounding sticking a side in and getting it wrong.

[Worthy4England]

They need to dispose of it. We're further behind in this match already, than Nasser was after a completed innings for each side!

[BWFC_Insane]

I still think 99% of the time in Aus you bat first.

[Worthy4England]

I still think 99% of the time in Aus you bat first.

I'm glad you're not skipper then.

[KeyserSoze]

That's better.

[jimbo]

Oooooh bastard hope. Great effort today but fully expecting us to be bowled out in the first session in the morning now

[Prufrock]

Read a lot of counter-intuitive/interesting things today.

Firstly apparently height of release point has been more important than outright pace in Australia. So good that our only really quick bowler likely to play much had the lowest release point.

And apparently despite predictions the pink ball swings less than the red. So good that Jimmy has been rested for the day-nighter (though sounds like he had a knock anyway).

And apparently the Gabba is as close to the Oval as you get in Australia, and Pope averages 99 at the Oval (this may have been straw clutching )

With Archer I think this would have been close. Without, given we have one really quick bowler and he's skiddy and made of glass, I just don't think we've got the attack to consistently take 20 wickets. I'm not sure they're great shakes with the bat either (Smith, Labuschagne, Warner then..) but their attack is world class.

Not hopeful. But you never know. Wonder what Glenn has predicted.

Have you read Nathan Leaman and Ben Jones’ book Pru? I’m halfway through at the moment. Really good deep dive into statistical analysis and some interesting conclusions. The height of release fact is the sort of thing they’d cover, though 8 years ago we had the tall tour where we went with Tremlett and Boyd Rankin and that didn’t end well!

Hitting Against The Spin? Hadn't heard of it but have now added to my list. Cheers!

[Prufrock]

Aye, still very very slim chances we'll win, and will likely to be a battering, but at least a bit of pride restored. Root going over 100 feels big for the series. Get that monkey off his back. Set them some sort of a total and maybe get a couple cheaply on the way to defeat and at least there would be some hope.

Nice to catch up on the live text and see us go past avoiding the follow on

[jimbo]

Read a lot of counter-intuitive/interesting things today.

Firstly apparently height of release point has been more important than outright pace in Australia. So good that our only really quick bowler likely to play much had the lowest release point.

And apparently despite predictions the pink ball swings less than the red. So good that Jimmy has been rested for the day-nighter (though sounds like he had a knock anyway).

And apparently the Gabba is as close to the Oval as you get in Australia, and Pope averages 99 at the Oval (this may have been straw clutching )

With Archer I think this would have been close. Without, given we have one really quick bowler and he's skiddy and made of glass, I just don't think we've got the attack to consistently take 20 wickets. I'm not sure they're great shakes with the bat either (Smith, Labuschagne, Warner then..) but their attack is world class.

Not hopeful. But you never know. Wonder what Glenn has predicted.

Have you read Nathan Leaman and Ben Jones’ book Pru? I’m halfway through at the moment. Really good deep dive into statistical analysis and some interesting conclusions. The height of release fact is the sort of thing they’d cover, though 8 years ago we had the tall tour where we went with Tremlett and Boyd Rankin and that didn’t end well!

Hitting Against The Spin? Hadn't heard of it but have now added to my list. Cheers!

Yeah that’s the one.