bump
we can't have this important thread dropping too far down the list
I am listening to the Australian Rules Football game featuring the club I support--
Port Adelaide ( vs St Kilda ) being played in Melbourne
and then the radio "goes to Lords" for the cricket
England 3 for 30 in the second innings with a 260 odd run lead -- so Australia could easily be chasing a 400 run plus target & the performance of the "top order" batsmen is a worry Watson & Khawarja failed to impress in the first innings --what was Watson thinking ? 3 balls before lunch --- in that situation, you "shut up shop" and play straight bat defensively, go to lunch and start carefully again after lunch
Geoff Boycott would have had the "stone wall" defense well in place in that situation

So far, it seems more like that Australia has been losing, as opposed to England winning.

Neither Peterson nor Cook are having a good series, but finally Root is doing well, his smug smile finally paid off.

It's good to see Root doing well, and it's great to see England keeping faith in him despite him struggling in the first test. Australia I'm guessing had far less faith in Cowan and went and replaced him with the equally struggling Khawaja, which was a bit of a shame. Was he injured, or was he just told he wasn't good enough?

What I don't get is if there is a catch and the umpire misses it why does the 3rd umpire not correct him and overrule him?

I went to sleep with England 4 wickets out for 500 runs in front,
they're probably closer to 600 runs in front with 2 days to go
I heard a good line from the commentators -- England's first three batsmen all have names that are "verbs"--Cook, Trott and Root

at least my favourite Australian Rules Football Club -
- Port Adelaide won their game against St Kilda by 5
Manchester United won their game in Sydney against the Australian Soccer's
"All star's" team five goals to one

Geoff Boycott was at his best in the commentary -
-Bell was caught out and the Umpire should have given him out
& in discussion with the Leader of the Oppositon ( Milliband ? ) was in favour of paying the UK Prime Minister a million pounds a year and critical of Bankers who "lose all this money and send us broke getting paid bonuses, they should be sent to jail......etc"
& funny stories about Fred Trueman

Day 3 morning, lead 582, England second Innings 7 for 349
Root just out for 180 Pryor 1 not out & the "Declaration"
Estimated required run rate 3.3 runs per over ( easily achievable )
Target 583 ( perhaps less easily achievable )
Opportunity to rewrite the record books for Australia ( ho ho ho )

Agar missed another "ton" by two runs,
bowling in second Innings-- none for 98

"Agar missed another "ton" by two runs,
bowling in second Innings-- none for 98"

What Trent Bridge giveth the Lords taketh away

Two down...

I really want to see a bit of decent batting from Australia now. The series needs it. I can't see anything but an England win, but the way Australia lose will either give them hope for the future or condemn them to a very painful 2nd half of the Ashes.

Three down... :(

If by second half you mean when they play down here, they better for their own sakes. Losing like this in Australia would be a humiliation few people could bear.

turn it over the the Open golf. it is a much happier event and Peter Alliss is still at his best!!!

come on young Fitzpatrick!!!

I mean the 2nd half of the series in England. There's not a huge amount of time before the next Ashes, I know, but England are pretty average away from home these days and those few precious months will allow Australia to regroup at least a little. It's the next 3 test matches I fear for.

Huzzah! A 50!

Very disappointing...

Not even a whole day, Clarke is in some serious shit now. At least Khawaja won't be sent home, for the moment.

I am still to catch up with the end of the day situation,
at some point in the night I heard Australia 9 wickets for about 230 runs
and a few overs to go on the radio, turned the radio off....
have we lost & is everyone playing golf "tomorrow"

England won by 347, IIRC in the last over of the day, which had been extended by 8 overs.

yes I have caught up with the news by now
pathetic batting again
I heard Michael Clarke being interviewed, apparently he is quite confident that
Australia can still win the series ( despite being 2 nil down )
The Australian media is so desperate that when Michael Hussey ( Mr Cricket )
flew into Sydney they asked him whether he thought he would be called up to go to
England to play in the third test -- Hussey must have wondered what drugs these media types have been taking and quickly pointed out that as he hasn't played for over two months there is no way he would be up to the pressure of an Ashes test, the IPL is one thing, the Ashes are a much, much tougher was his view of the comparative competitions

bump

Amused to see AB has bought into the debacle...

select Calvin Coolidge as new number 3 batsman

He would probably do better than Shane Watson.

Shane Watson is regarded as a highly talented cricketer,
but in my opinion, he has failed to translate that ability into
performance at the Test level, his stats at Test level as a batsman are not that spectacular. While there are plenty of young bowlers coming along in Australian
domestic cricket-- in the State sides for "Shield" cricket, there is not the same number of young batsmen showing the potential, no new "Mathew Hayden" or "Mark Waugh"
types.
I was talking about "lefties" vs right handed Batsmen with a friend recently and he told me about three brothers who were all "lefties" when batting because of the way they played "back yard cricket" as lads -- the oldest brother was a natural left handed chap,
so he played that way, but his two younger brothers were naturally right handed.
The thing was that because of the way their back yard and house were "arranged" if you batted right handed the house & windows were vulnerable to "off side" drives-- so the eldest brother made his two younger brothers bat left handed -- so all three brothers
were "lefties" & the two younger brothers even play golf left handed even though they write right handed etc

bump
and now the Aussie batsmen make runs in an "exhibition" game
laugh or cry ????

At least it shows one or two of them can bat when the mood takes them. If you're really lucky KP will be declared fit to bat in the next test. He hasn't been able to do anything important for years.

bump
Warner is back in the Ashes squad,
just let him loose in a few pubs to "warm up"