And Harris proving I know the square root of fuck all. Gets Root lbw, and with the cost of a review (which was tight but fair enough decision to give him out in the end). Australia are off to a flier.
Yeah - I know nothing. KP goes - out to Harris. Seems like this was a good bit of selection.
Three down for not many on a good day for batting.
Bowling steady, generally good length but fairly wayward line.
If one of the English later order batsmen gets fired and doesn’t have decision review to correct the error, I hope he takes a wire brush to Joe Root’s nether parts.
The review showed a scorchingly hot spot on his bat (contrast that to the barest feather of an edge that got Petersen caught behind). It was the only thing that could have saved him and he must have known the ball hit his pads first. If he had got bat onto it he would have immediately called for the review rather than amble the length of the pitch first.
Pretty good day of cricket. England close at 7 for 289 with all specialist bats out.
Very sound recovery from England to regain control then a last flurry of wickets (from a legspinner on day 1?) puts the game back in balance.
I thought 361 for England was not going to be enough - everyone was harping on about how the pitch was decent for batting on and the overhead conditions were not going to cause too much of an issue, that England were short of runs. Well, that might be true but Australia are now 93-6 in reply and England are firmly in charge. Haddin and Agar currently at the crease though, so things can change, as both have proven they can bat. England need to keep their foot on the throat here.
104-8 now. Haddin still there, so could still save the follow on. England wouldn’t enforce it anyway though. They’ll want last use of the pitch, given the turn Swann has been able to extract on Day 2.
Baring a last wicket miracle, the Aussies are looking down under.
Australias batting is a mess these days. there’s little hope.
Maybe he would have got out soon anyhow but I was not convinced with Hughes dismissal’s decision by the 3rd umpire.
Looked like a very faint smear on the bat edge from the side on hotspot camera to me - subsequently backed up by Snicko (which is not part of DRS).
Not that it would have made a lot of difference I think. What might have made a difference would have been Watson not wasting a review when he was plumb playing around his front pad - thus taking the pressure of potentially losing the final review of Rogers, who should have reviewed the full toss that got him out.
It’s weird how many close decisions there have been in one and a half Test matches. We seem to be spending so much time talking about bloody DRS.
well said. this apart, watson getting a start and getting out once again - this must be so frustrating to watch for aust. fans.
I think the biggest reason for this is that, actually, most of the talking point has been about how bad the Australians have been at using it. Although the Trott and Agar decisions seem to been actually poor decisions by the DRS itself, everything else has been down to poor use - even Stuart Broad’s decision to stand.
Going back to the game, Australia are up against it here. England are 21/0 and will be looking to bat for a day and give Australia a little mini session at the end of tomorrow and over 500 runs to chase. Australia’s only real hope is for England to collapse for under 100. And even then they’d be chasing over 300.
What a crazy day! England need to start enforcing the follow-on in the future. Australia could be 31-3 at the close of play rather than the other way around. I’m still confident that we’ll win, but I can’t see the Aussies being bowled out as cheaply in the second innings.
They don’t need to - even allowing for the unnecessary cheap wickets, it’s not at all hard to set Australia 350 - 400 to win, and 500’s not out of the question. With a four-man bowling attack I guess the thinking was they should have a good rest before having to bowl again in that heat, although having rolled them over in just a couple of sessions it shouldn’t have been out of the question.
I see where you’re coming from. It’s a difficult decision to make and one that Cook seems to have got right this time.
It’s been a great day for England so far. Root looks so calm at the crease and there’s no reason why he can’t open the batting for us for years to come.
England 566 ahead at the close with five wickets left. Probably declare overnight and leave Australia to fight for survival for two whole days. Today started slowly but Bell and Root helped themselves after tea, for a net 302 runs on the day for the loss of only two wickets (including the nightwatchman).
England 566 runs ahead overnight, the bowlers have had the day off (except Bresnan, but he seems to have enjoyed himself) and now we’ve got 2 days to bowl them out.
There were many times in the 90s during Ashes tests in Australia when I went to bed, and got up to find the same batsman still at the crease. And now Joe Root has done it for us. I think he’ll be a stalwart of the English batting line up for some time to come.
One thing I didn’t like was the chorus of booing when he scored his 150. I get that people wanted Cook to declare, but he had no need to. There’s so much time left in the game, and that final session of batting gives his bowlers a good rest and takes any chance of an Australian miracle almost totally out of the equation. If they win from here, they’ll deserve it.
But even if Cook should have declared, there was no need to boo the guy who’s worked really hard and put Australia to the sword today.
Also, no reviews used at all, by either side.
I think the crowd were shouting “Roooooot” rather than booing.
It’s not so easy tell on the radio, but I thought it was “Roooooo-ooooot”, kind of like Luke Donald gets “Luuuuke”, and Bruce Springsteen gets well, you can guess.
In that case, I withdraw my objection 
Just got back from Lords and it was definitely ‘Roooot’.
What a wonderful day of Cricket, the elder sages, all MCC, were muttering about England declaring on a 400, then 450, then 500 lead… Cookies too obstinate for that.
Chilly down there today, especially when you start queuing at 7 in the am. The atmosphere was very welcoming, especially from the Stewards who really are in a class of their own.
Just wish my friend, the MCC member, could have got me a ticket for tomorrow.
Peter