4th Test: England v Australia at Chester-le-Street Aug 9-13, 2013

[Dutch]

That's a good ball and all from Harris, but Root literally got nowhere near it. I could understand it more if he's edging that to first slip, but his technique doesn't look good enough at the top of the order yet.

He seems too agitated, jumping about all over the place, more busy with proving his worth at that position than actually getting on with playing at that position....

.....I hope England will look to rotate the strike much more, not allow themselves to get bogged down but to apply batting pressure to the Aussies as well as the bowling pressure.....we havent really forced the Aussies onto the backfoot batting wise yet this series.....

 

[Owzat]

England 51/3, while Cook and Trott may have made half decent scores 1st innings they are still not having good Ashes despite England being 2-0 up.

Effectively 19/3, if the aussies can't win this one then they may as well send in the sheilas. I know they can't regain the Ashes, never was overly impressed with a draw = retain, but they can shake England up. Are England all they're cracked up to be? For all the hype about Anderson being one of the best in the world, Harris is already on 16 wickets for the series compared to Anderson's 17 and Anderson has played one more Test, albeit Anderson still has 10 aussie wickets he can take to the seven left for Harris.

aussies have got to put him in charge, captain Harris just has a certain ring to it.......................

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England's session but the game is still in the balance. Doesn't seem to be much movement there and Aus won't fancy chasing more than 250 I reckon.

I agree, depends if England can force a 250 target which 21/3 effectively suggests they'll do well to. In fact won't they need to score the highest total of the match to set 250?

 

[Dutch]

How many times this series have England been 50 for 3 or worse? Puts massive pressure on the middle order.......what is the reason and what is the solution?

 

[Owzat]

while England will want to get to tea no more than three wickets down and with 110-130 runs on the board

123/3 at tea, no more than three wickets down and 110-130 runs on the board

England will want to get to the close no more than 4-5 wickets down, I reckon the aussies will bag a couple at least if the light holds. 210/5 or something not dissimilar would make for an excellent situation, around 180ahead with five wickets remaining

aussies will want 2-3 wickets I reckon this session, break up this partnership and get into the lower order before the target starts creeping towards 200+ with wickets in hand

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How many times this series have England been 50 for 3 or worse? Puts massive pressure on the middle order.......what is the reason and what is the solution?

Reason is Cook and Trott are not in good form, neither besting 62 in the series, and Root has one good score to his name opening.

The solution is to find a new opener and maybe break up the "exclusive club" and give Trott a match or two off to find some form.

Solutions do not include Carberry or Compton in my book, both too old and not really a solution to anything other than desperation.

 

[barmyarmy]

Never thought I'd say this but where would we be without Ian Bell?

 

[Dutch]

Sigh.....get ready for the 6 for 54 routine......

 

[Owzat]

England will want to get to the close no more than 4-5 wickets down, I reckon the aussies will bag a couple at least if the light holds. 210/5 or something not dissimilar would make for an excellent situation, around 180ahead with five wickets remaining

Nearly said something a bit closer to the close of play score, but wasn't too sure when it would come and was more focused on the advantage than trying to guess the close of play total.

Big morning tomorrow, England 202 runs in front which is a handy platform to set the 270+ target I suggested they'd want. The problem England face is the potential loss of a couple of early wickets and then the new ball, they will want to add more than the 48 runs the aussies added to their overnight total from almost exactly the same overnight position (222/5, just 11 runs difference)


I've maintained throughout the series I think it's daft bowling Watson, and now it's proved more than true. He's bowled tidily, but for two wickets in the series he's been overbowled and is essentially just adding runs to the England total most of the time in an England-esque "containment" style.

 

[barmyarmy]

The pitch looks totally flat at times. I'm really confused as to what a good target is.
Similar position to the one Aus were in this morning. If Bell can stay there and we can add another 100/150 I'll be fairly confident.

 

[Skater]

Anything over 300 I fancy our chances. With the match starting on Friday it's easy to forget that tomorrow is only day 4.

 

[Dutch]

Anything over 300 I fancy our chances. With the match starting on Friday it's easy to forget that tomorrow is only day 4.

Massive session again tomorrow morning.....love how it swings to and fro.....still a lot of cricket to be played in this one.....England favourites though....i

 

[midgetwars]

Get Bresnan out cheaply and Prior and the tail will fall. I wonder if the bowlers are up for it, Bird and Siddle haven't been great.

Though Bird has been economical.

 

[Haarithan]

Funny how Australia have boasted a first innings lead on 3 off the 4 tests played so far in this series, and yet it's 2-0 to England with the hosts just about sitting in the driver's seat again.. Reason enough to love test cricket!

Absolute masterclass from Bell yesterday. Probably my favorite test hundred of his to date. Prior is well due a big knock. He does that, it's all but curtains for the Aussies. Thing about him is how he paces his innings though - anytime he strikes at a rate of less than 50, I've only really seen him fail.

 

[Owzat]

The pitch looks totally flat at times. I'm really confused as to what a good target is.
Similar position to the one Aus were in this morning. If Bell can stay there and we can add another 100/150 I'll be fairly confident.

Always seems just when a side is batting well everything goes to pieces. The aussies were five down overnight and added just 48 runs with one batsman set and the new ball not far off

The wickets fall has thrown up all kinds of mixed messages about how the pitch is playing, what we can assume is it is safe to assume nothing.

England 1st innings : 149/2 > 238 all out
Australia 1st innings : 76/4 > 205/4 > 238 all out
England 2nd innings : 49/3 > 221/4

Best partnerships

129 Rogers/Watson
106 Pietersen/Bell
73 Cook/Trott
66 Bell/Bairstow

'Wicket rushes' *

England 89/8
Australia 33/6
England 49/3
Australia 76/4

*3+ wickets at less than 20 per wicket

I make it four partnerships of 50+ and four (mini/full) collapses of 3+ wkts for less than 20 apiece. If you're going to assume anything, it may be that after a partnership there may well be a clutch of wickets fall quickly. That's 21 of the 25 wickets to fall going for just 247 runs, the four 50+ partnerships adding 374 runs.



aussies really need to get England out very quickly, if England are still batting by lunch then it could be a very tough target on this pitch. No side has made more than 270, if England get anything like another 70 runs then the aussies will be chasing that, although England will then have passed 300 themselves.

Funny how Australia have boasted a first innings lead on 3 off the 4 tests played so far in this series, and yet it's 2-0 to England

I touched on it elsewhere, the aussies fought hard and narrowly lost the 1st Test, they were comprehensively beaten 2nd Test and robbed of a good chance of a win in a strong position in the 3rd Test.




Whether the BBC are right in suggesting England are in control I couldn't say with great certainty, probably just about if you assume they add more runs and set something around the 270 mark with the batting of the aussies not consistent this series.

They brought back bad boy Warner to average a mere 16.33 which is less than Khawaja 18.60, the dropped Hughes 27.67 and only better than Cowan 7.00 and some tailenders

That said, Rogers is looking like a Test batsman, Clarke is always a threat, Watson can score runs even if it is a modest 30.57 average and no score bigger than 68. Outside of the top two averages, Clarke and Rogers, EIGHT aussies are averaging between 26.00 and 36.00 .

While Broad has had a cracking Test with the ball, none of the England main bowlers is averaging under 26 for the series and 10 x 26 = 260. Of course Broad may well continue his form of the 1st innings and render that statistic moot, but if the aussies do to us what we did to the windies in 2000, basically play out the main threat and pick off runs against the rest, then his threat may be limited.

It's harder to block two major bowling threats than one, that works in the aussies' favour. Maybe Swann will have a good day, top wicket taker on either side in the series and took 5/44, 4/78 and 5/159 in three consecutive innings. Remarkably nine of his 21 wickets have come LBW, over his career 69/243 wickets have come LBW (28%) compared to 43% here.

 

[sifter132]

^Yeah I dunno if I'm ready to annoint Rogers yet either. If Swann doesn't dive across in front of Cook when Rogers is close to 50, his innings is done. He was VERY lucky in my opinion to be there by that point anyway, countless plays and misses, inside edges past the stumps, very close to being LBW via DRS. Yes it was a 'gutsy' innings etc, but those are just words that are used when someone hasn't really played very well, or memorably...I don't think he could repeat that score on that pitch against that attack again without more serious helpings of good fortune. That said...he got the runs! Very rarely has a non-Clarke Australian scored a 100, so he's probably locked into the batting order for a while now based on that alone!

Never thought I'd say this but where would we be without Ian Bell?

Was going to come on and make a snarky comment about Bell...is there any English fan game enough to say he's still rubbish? Take Bell out and Australia might have one hand on the Ashes by now - he was crucial here and Trent Bridge in tight situations. He's been brilliant.


And lets put it out there now, Steve Smith only bowling 1 over all day yesterday was a travesty. Definitely worth a go vs Bell in my view. Bell always had issues with Warne, plus getting someone bowling some occasional junk at him might loosen him up. At the moment he's being quite disciplined outside off stump, not doing the usual brain fade shot of days past. Aussies need to encourage that looseness to come back.

 

[dancingmongoose]

If Australia can keep the lead under 250 it's game on, under 300 slight advantage to England, over 300 nigh impossible