Terrible start to the innings, already 2 down for about a dozen. Again left to Clarke to try and hold the top order together. If he falls cheaply you have to question whether Australia could even get a lead given how fragile their batting has been. Maybe a bit doom and gloom after the last test, but as they say one swallow doesn't make a summer. Edit: Clarke just got out meekly for 6. Rogers and Smith need to put on a stand here to have any hope of getting a decent first innings lead. It wasn't Rogers and Smith, but Rogers and Watson. Watson missed out again on getting a century and apart from getting out played well to drag the game back towards Australia. Rogers also made his first test century, not very familiar with him since he's been in England, but him and Smith have been the best of the rest and it is good to see someone other than Clarke convert a start into triple figures.
So day three begins with yet another utterly stupid waste of a review by an Australian player. Haddin was so obviously out it was ridiculous; why the hell he elected to review it is anyone's guess but it was complete idiocy. Since Starc has been dumped yet again () our tail is significantly longer than it's been to date. England go back on the front foot. Hopefully we can eke out a bit of a lead and see what happens. Kudos to Rogers for a Test century a very long time in the making, and Watson finally contributed something other than lbws and dumb reviews. Our women are also in action today in a one-off Test against England. Hoping for more success from them.
Just started to watch and I'm a bit saddened to see the Aussies are back in the field, though they have managed to get rid of Root. I was hoping that they could get something closer to 100 in terms of a lead rather than the 30-odd. Good luck to the womens team, they are the current holders of the Ashes and World champs as well.
Finely poised at the end of the third day. A couple of quick wickets tomorrow morning and it's advantage Australia. Alternatively, the longer the England innings drags on, the more the momentum shifts the other way. Really couldn't call this. If nothing else, the last test, and this one so far, has shown Australia that England are far from infallible. The return series could go either way based on what we've seen so far.
Argh, another pathetic batting display by Australia to go with mostly ordinary bowling with the exception of Harris earlier. England should win this. Wish I went to bed, but congratulations to England for the fight back after losing their way in the first innings. Any chance of getting the Southern Stars to play at the Oval? Might win one for a change. Edit: Thankfully England just won it as it almost looked like it would go to day 5 with Australia 9 down and 80 behind. Congrats to Broad for getting 11 wickets and turning the game today from a possible Australian victory to a resounding defeat. Great work.
Fantastic late afternoon/early evening burst from Broad and England. Completely turned the match around. A shame for Australia tbf, I thought that they'd had the better of it up until that point. In hindsight they let the England tail-end get a few more runs than they should have but other than that, and the batting collapse, a much improved Australian performance.
Well, that turned out pretty much exactly as I'd expected it to once the England tail got right away from us. I'm so disappointed for Ryan Harris, who deserves much, much better than to be stuck with this rabble of a batting lineup. Lyon demonstrated he's worth persisting with as well. Rogers made a decent contribution but the rest ought to be ashamed of themselves. A flood at The Oval or the England side having food poisoning en masse is about all that'll save us from 4-blot at this point. While that would be a bit harsh on the handful of blokes who've proved they are or may be Test cricketers at some point, 4-0 might provoke some action at Cricket Australia toward taking some steps to steer the Titanic away from the iceberg. Or not. Hit 'n' giggle crap and sucking up to India seems to be their focus these days. Sounds like a plan to me.
Watson finally gets a ton. I think they said he hasn't got one since 2010. I don't think I'll ever be convinced he should be in the top order, but he has played well and deserved his ton.
At least he had the decency to mention how irrelevant it is now the series is lost. Given it was a flat deck and there was some rather ordinary bowling at times, all it really proves is that he's a flat-track bully who only performs when there's no pressure. I don't rate him and I doubt I ever will. This is a reasonable start but that's all it is. If Watson can make a score then England's lineup ought to be able to do the same.
447 runs on the final day. A farcical ending, but a draw was the right result. It would have been incredibly hard on Australia to lose a game that they'd tried so hard to keep going with their earlier declaration. England never really got out of second gear in the series, and won fairly comfortably. Can't really see the return series being any different tbh.
I thought Clarke should have held off the declaration a bit longer. While I thought the target was too generous I was more concerned about the shape of Harris, Siddle and Starc and whether they still had it in them to defend such a total. The almost result suggests they didn't. As for the light rule, it's one of those that fans like when their team gets the benefit, but hate when it goes against them. Australia were on the bad need a few times in the series and it seems the rub of the green balanced out and it (plus a slow down by Australia) prevented a loss. No doubt if it was England 9 down with Andersen and Kerrigan in when play was called off the booing would be a lot smaller and likely drowned out by the cheering. Anyway, in the end it doesn't matter. England won the Ashes handsomely. Australia looks like they might have figured out one or two or their problems, but the other half dozen are still floating around. Australia needs to hope they can deal with some of their issues and that England's batting line up doesn't suddenly click if they want to get a different result at home.
In some ways it seems bizarre that we lost the series so comprehensively given that Bell was the only one of England's batsmen to play with any consistency across the series and that Anderson really only had a major impact on one Test. I reckon those facts say more about how ordinary we were than anything else, but no sane person could argue that England didn't deserve that result. We had some good sessions but they won all the "big" moments in the series. Hopefully Cook, Trott et al don't get going over here or it could be another nightmare in a few months' time. I'd like to believe we'll be more competitive on our own turf but frankly the issues in Australian cricket aren't going to go away within several years, never mind a few months. This article contains a few rather peculiar assertions about Australian sport but the author's assessment of the problems facing cricket in this country are pretty much dead-on. Until hostilities (which seems an accurate word to use; there doesn't appear to be much love lost between these sides) recommence...
Well, what a first two days of the return series. After yesterday I where it looked like it would be the same old thing from this current national team I wouldn't have been the only one thinking they might go 12 months without a win. Today, things went crazy and Australia has managed to bowl England out for 136 thanks to a great post lunch session and are now building on that. Most surprising is that Johnson is the hero of these first two days. It was his partnership with Haddin yesterday that saw Australia able to get close to 300 and today he took 4 wickets as well. Back in the series in England I remember one of the brit commentators saying Johnson for Brisbane and thought he was insane...looks like he made a good prediction. I want to say that they will win, but this Australian team has shown they can lose from anywhere.
/\ yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how Australia balls this up... OTOH, why would anyone rather watch T20 over this?!?
^ A better question, IMO: Why would anyone watch hit 'n' giggle pseudo-cricket over anything? Still a long way to go in this Test, never mind the series, and now Johnson's gotten his solitary half-decent performance per series out of the way it'll be back to the usual dross from him. Hopefully we can build a lead around 450 plus, which I'd suggest is about the minimum required. I won't hold my breath or anything, though.
Give me test cricket over that T20 rubbish. I still think we can win, but we need first session tomorrow. And the rest of team needs to score some runs. On Johnson - I hope he can back up for second innings and future tests. Only time shall tell.
Welcome to another Ashes summer, cricket fans Once again, all I hope for is a series that is live right into the new year with an Australian team that plays as if they have some pride in the baggy green. I want to see an Australian XI proving that test cricket means something to them. It means the world to me (and a few others on here by the looks of it), and I think that's why I've struggled to enjoy the last five years or so when Australia plays - never get the impression that the baggy green means all that much to them (with a couple of exceptions : Hi Siddle, Huss, Punter and Katich). Have only seen bits and pieces of this test so far but here's hoping this series isn't over by the second test like the Ashes of a few months ago. So far, so good. A few things I never want to hear again from a commentator : Siddle is a vegetarian, Clarke is an innovator, and Nathan Lyon was lucky to play today. I watched that post-lunch session yesterday, and England looked set to bat for days, then Lyon came on and bamboozled the settled Carberry. Sure, Johnson got the wicket in the books, but Lyon unsettled him, and after Carberry went the floodgates opened, turning the match on its head. So please, media pundits, give Lyon the respect he is due. Thanks. I'm with you Orac Zen, Australia look impregnable from here, but no champagne being popped here just yet - I remember thinking we had England on toast at the Gabba in 2010, then Strauss and Cook put on about 400 from memory - so no cavalier declarations please Clarke, just bat them out of the game with 600 lead if possible then take it from there.
Decent day for Australia. Two centuries from Warner and Clarke and Haddin and Johnson again battled well for them to set up a big run chase for England. Also got two wickets before the end of the day. Still a long way to go, but you'd definitely rather be in the Australian shoes than the English at this point.
All going to plan so far, but I have to say I would like to have seen Cook get out. He batted 625 minutes at the 'Gabba in 2010. One massive positive is that the other run machine of that tour, Trott, has been mentally shot to bits by Australia over the last six tests - a big win for us. He has gone from one of my most feared Englishmen to a walking wicket - he would want to score some runs in Adelaide.
Wow. Been flat out all day and so it was rather startling to learn we were 550-plus in front when the radio reception became half-decent. I'm too used to seeing us screw up monumentally in these situations, I suppose. Good to see Clarke shove it up his critics again but he needs to demonstrate this isn't a one-off performance. The Aunty commentators mentioned at one stage that he averages much more in the second innings against England than the first and it'd be good to see him turn that around. It would have been even better to see England 3 or 4 down at stumps but for the first time in a long time, I'd rather be in our position than theirs. Still a long way to go, though, and there remain several Poms who can bat for days if need be. Here's hoping that doesn't happen; as BB said, this series needs to be a contest and several of our lot need to demonstrate that an Ashes series actually does mean as much to them as they say it does.