Totally agree. It’s incredibly short sighted - everyone wants to see the contest play out. And I’m sure you could sell Day 6 tickets for £20/£30 and fill a ground more than half full. But we can’t even start at 1030 the day after we lose whole sessions, so…
Three things that contributed IMHO.
Firstly - There were only three overs before the new ball so that figures into the calculation.
Secondly - Had another few overs been bowled (with uncertain outcome) the chance to have fresh bowling legs and ball on the evening and the morning, would be lost.
Thirdly - they have committed to play this way. Bold to almost the point of recklessness but the calculation is that this mode suits England well and if it wins them just slightly more tests matches than it loses? that seems like a reasonable gamble.
It really does keep things interesting though doesn’t it?
They are going at a positively glacial 4 an over so far but if they can get up past 250 with still a full day and potential rain interruptions on a wearing pitch…could be very interesting indeed. And isn’t that what we want on a 5th day?
The forecasts for tomorrow has improved a bit - Met Office are now saying definitely rain-free by 3pm and less than 50% from 12 noon. It’ll still absolutely piss down in the morning so definitely some clear up needed but we should get a session and a bit more if we’re lucky.
So there is the 250 lead. We most certainly have a game and I have no clue where this is headed.
One factor to consider - Ali bowled his finger raw in the first innings so one big advantage of having a fifth day pitch is up the swannee
what do you reckon…declare 5 minutes before tea? 
But seriously…yes.
Thanks. Your 2nd reason makes a lot of sense to me. But regarding your 1st, are you saying that Australia would have taken the new ball, and thus England tail end batters would have been targets for Aus bowlers? To me, a new ball also means more speed off the bat, resulting for the potential for faster scoring.
I guess no declaration now.
No - interesting that now Stokes thinks any runs are worth getting.
For batters who have the technique to handle it, yes. For tail enders, a new ball comes off the deck faster so is harder to deal with. The reason openers typically score less and slower than other batters isn’t because they’re worse - they’re very very good, but facing a new ball is hard.
yes, Stanislaus put it well, I suspect Stokes thought that the last men standing wouldn’t be getting too many off the new ball and so that meant that the two goes at the openers was of more value.
It’s worth pointing out that, no matter how this game plays out, the change of approach known as ‘bazball’ has seen as big a change in fortune in the English game as I have ever seen. There’s no doubt in my mind that if we’d continued in the old way, we’d be losing these Ashes 5-0
Agreed, and to be brutally honest I’d even rather see us go down swinging (within reason) and trying to win the game than scrabbling a tedious series victory.
Well now, both teams seem determined to keep this on a knife-edge. 89-3, still nearly 200 to get.
Fantastic test match cricket. Games like this are why this is the greatest sport in the world. I don’t think any side has been that far ahead at any point in the game.
Absolutely, with potentially a wet start and swinging conditions tomorrow who knows where we’ll end up.
First and foremost, the biggest impact of a nee ball is bounce. Swing snd spin you can adjust too but bounce means you get your feet and hands into position to play your selected shot and you need to quickly adjust with your feet and likely momentum going the wrong way.
Much of the faster scoring comes from outside edges to fine leg or through 3rd man
This is very tense. And I’m nominally a neutral.
One Root over too many I fear