Yeah, Clarke played that inning stupidly.

@Octavious: I'd disagree with you on when Clarke declared in the first inning. I would have waited till 550ish.

I didn't think Australia would be able to bowl England out for under 327, and sure enough I was right.

Given the whether forcasts for days 4 and 5, the only way this wouldn't have ended in a draw is if the follow-on was forced.

Oh dear, the poor old Aussies, when it rains for them it really pours :-)

@ Fasces

I would have batted longer myself, and was quite surprised when they didn't. It turns out the declaration was a mistake, but it was a mistake I could understand and support. If you are going to make a cock-up, err on the side of attack. It showed fighting spirit, will to win, and faith in their bowling attack. If it wasn't for KP having a bit of luck with the bat it would have worked too, but it was not to be.

What I hated about Australia batting on in their 2nd innings was that it did the exact opposite. It pretty much said "our bowling's shite, we have no confidence, and we need a big safety net". It was just so un-Australian.

What really did for Australia, of course, was Nigee's prediction of an Australian win at lunch time ;).

Happy to oblige :-)

The nation thanks you!

oh well at least the Australian team was a lot more competitive
in the 3rd Test than the first two test games
looking forward to Durham & the 4th test

Losing by 14 runs isn't considered competitive?

I agree the only reason Australia did so well was the tail enders heroics at the bat, but it was still a very exciting finish.

The truth of the matter is it could quite easily be 2-1 to Australia at the moment. It would be a poor reflection of the quality of play if it was, don't get me wrong, but the series can hardly be described as totally one sided. In the Lords test Australia may have played like the Zimbabwe 2nd 11, but aside from that they've been respectable.

In both the 1st & 2nd Test matches the Australian top order batting
was simply not good enough
I appreciate your comment Octavious, but the fact is England played a lot better than Australia in the first two test matches & deserved to win those games
if, if, if, with enough if's you could fit Paris in a bottle

I still think it's a fascinating series, and am laughing at the latest "DRS scandal"
regarding the "taped bats" what an irrelevant storm in a teacup, if there is to be a discusion about umpiring, maybe it should be about the policy of having "nuetral" umpires perhaps preventing the best umpires from being involved & how do we get more 1st class cricketers to become umpires
I also believe that the best teams will win games despite the oppositon, despite the ground conditions and despite umpires -- that's been my philosophy coaching field Hockey eg there is no point complaining if you think the other side got a goal from poor umpiring, get back to playing the game and score three goals in response

The English top order batting are hardly setting the world alight, either. You could argue that the Autralian tail saved them from embarrassment in T1, but the Australian tail has historically always been a bugger to kill.

I don't know about former 1st class cricketers as umpires, though. Would they really be that much better? They would know when a team is pulling every trick in the book to slow things down, maybe, but if it's all within the rules what would they actually do about it?

We need a bigger pool of umpires not from England and Australia, but I think nuetral unpires is a good idea if purely for the sake of avoiding stories of bias in the media. If an English umpire, purely by chance, had called a few vital decisions in England's favour and the media ran with it, could you be entirely sure he wouldn't feel a bit a pressure to "balance the books" by erring on the other side next time?

I don't like cricket.

I love it.

Hoorah, Nathan Lyon gets KP's wicket,
to make up for the flogging KP gave Lyon in the 3rd test
& Watson got Root out via "Hotspot"
& Cook is doing a "Boycott" --- 51 runs so far from about 150 plus balls faced

My Gran could get KP's wicket, and she's dead. Quite how you let him get a century in the last test I have no idea.

Look's like Australia's day so far, although it's never easy to tell until both sides have had a crack at the bat.

Tea Day One England 155 runs for 4 wickets
if Australia can get a few quick wickets after Tea.........

Hoorah, Bell out straight after Tea
& Geoffrey Boycott is disgusted

It's just not the same without bumble :(

6 for 189 runs, a second successful review for Australia
might get England all out for less than 250 runs
( at one point they were 1 for 107 runs )
I was also thinking, given the controversial nature of some of the other Forum threads,
isn't it good to have a thread that those blighters haven't used to sling abuse at each
other ? ( hope I haven't hex'd this thread )

Lyon's 4th wicket ( 4 for 36 )
England 7 for 193 runs

204 runs for 8 wickets

Jeez that all fell apart rather quickly

You sound surprised :p.

Today we find out how below par that score really is. I doubt Australia can break 300 without heroics. I hope you will get closer to 250

If Australia wins both this test and test #5 they really will be kicking themselves for declaring too late in test 3

Lots of twists and turns in this test :)

once again 4 top order Australian batsmen fail --
Warner, Kwarjah,Smith & Clarke
well bowled Broad, just as well the other 3 bowlers were having an off day
especially Anderson, why didn't the English play Onions ??? this is his "home" ground.

"Bumbles" Boycott was hilarious when Trott came on to bowl
"get padded up Mum"
& the "discussion" between Jonothan Agnew & Boycott on DRS rules re the "caught behind / LBW " not out decision was a corker
& the reminiscing about Freddy Trueman and his TV show of "pub" games delightful

I can remember hearing Freddy Trueman as a guest Test Cricket commentator on
Radio for a Lords test match years ago, and I think Freddy got better "lubricated" as the day went on and his "after lunch" performance was a classic of uninhibited semi incoherence.

Wouldn't it be funny if someone slipped a LSD tab into Bumbles' cup of tea, and we had Bumbles on LSD commentating ? or Bumbles with a dose of Cocaine ???

Looking forward to Day three-- ( Aust 5 for 222 )
Rogers & Haddin will, I hope, pile on the runs & establish a nice 100 - 150 run lead
then we bowl well against England in the last session and day four finish them off by lunch & set up a win

270 all out. It could have been a bit closer but I have no complaints :). Here's hoping England have learned their lessons from the 1st innings and bat without playing silly shots. We have plenty of time. Get to lunch without loss and build slowly.

C'mon, lads!

Well, Root's gone but he was taken out by one hell of a ball. Can't do much about them. Keep the discipline, lads.