9 pins down and a devilish plan afoot by the Englishmen to be bowled out early instead of declaring so the Aussies will have to bat in the dark.

Broad should still have a couple of bruises after that short spell at the wicket.

Broad even walked !!!!

Aussie doing their best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory .....

Smith's gone ........ 50 - 4

Time to declare Statts. We already have 150 too much.

wazza wrote: ↑

December 4, 2017, 2:39 pm

We have lost control of the game.

Tipped it yesterday !!

http://live.cricket.com.au/#/1964/41089/audio

Tuffers and Sir Ian, funny as fuk,

Great fightback from the Poms

354 to win and Root due for a score , not a walk in the park, but doable , Hope they go for it

Last 4 overs ..... 15 - 2 - 4 - 14 ..... does that count as "going for it

Just a slight sniff of a repeat of the Ian Botham 1981 series.....

Australia,overnight 53-4 and bowled out today for 138 (Anderson 5-43,Woakes 4-36)
England set a record score of 354 to win currently 38-0.

Wheres Bob Helm with his daily analyses of whats goin' on ?

We may well rue to not refer That LBW upstairs LOL, Capt reluctant to waste one that early in the innings and it was out LOL

Wowsers! The old guard are in with a red hot chance.

Might be a few good sessions left.

Grab to Sports Bar perhaps....

Still rather be in our shoes but what do they say about giving a sucker an even break. Been reported that Smith consulted none of the bowlers about the follow on. Maybe his plan was to ensure a day 5. Great contest at the moment anyway.

One run short of halfway and 40% of wickets down ............ could still be tight [-o<

Interesting stat .......

In this series Nathan Lyon has 9 wickets and averages 14.33 against Left handed batsmen while he has 1 wicket and averages 108 against Right handed batsmen

If Lyon has just dismissed a leftie. You wouldnt send another in would you ?

Game on.....

Well known fact that England's top scoring batsmen usually bat between 6 and 11 or should that be lowest scorers usually occupy places 1 to 5

In the rather unlikely event that the tail does wag furiously and England manage to turn this round , there will be a lot of questions for Mr Smith to answer

And Barney....

Would imagine that either losing skipper would be under the pump. Root for winning the toss and bowling and Smith for not enforcing the follow on.
An interesting aside is that it was in an Australia v India test in Calcutta in 2001 that the Australian fad not to enforce the follow on began. Laxman and Dravid put on a pile of runs in the second innings and Australia choked batting 4th with that ***** Harbijan taking the wickets. Will be interesting to see that if the non enforcement in this test costs us the game whether or not this 16 year fad will fade? My feeling is that if the same circumstances presented themselves in a day night test in Adelaide then the follow on would follow on. In a day time test the decision to rest the bowlers would still be the best one most of the time.
Should be fun tomorrow. Either 5 nil is still on the cards or 1 - 1 going to Perth. Gotta love the cricket.

Still think that confidence plays a big part in the game .....

If you have just been bowled out for 200+ less than your opponents, you are questioning what went wrong? why did it happen? has the pitch changed? ...... it only takes a couple of early wickets to fall and a complete collapse will usually follow. Add that to the fact that you have a group of bowlers who have just ripped through the opposing team .... and they will all want the ball in their hand as soon as possible.

Unless there are questions re the weather etc you HAVE to enforce the follow on if you get the chance

My reply here confirms im following on.