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

[barmyarmy]

Well England have done what Australia failed to do and got their overnight batters through to the new ball. Massive hour coming up.

 

[Dutch]

Mmm still 50 short one feels..........

 

[Skater]

Poor this morning. Poor. I'm amazed we are 2-0 up in the series with how badly we've batted throughout. The great Australian side of 2005 would have pummelled us.

 

[midgetwars]

Why are Australia bowling crap this match, it's insane.

 

[Chief]

Mmm still 50 short one feels..........

I think 280 should be a safe margin. I'm seeing Swanny rip through a cheeky five-for and bring this one home.

 

[barmyarmy]

@Skater - that's unfair. I think we've been very good with the bat this morning. Harris bowled three excellent new ball deliveries to get the three wickets and we've counter-attacked very well.

----------

@Chief - 277 now. I think it really depends on whether we get more than one of our fast bowlers pitching in.

 

[Umair7]

Harris has now more wickets than Anderson in this series am i right ?? Dont know what happened to Siddle in this Test

 

[Skater]

@Skater - that's unfair. I think we've been very good with the bat this morning. Harris bowled three excellent new ball deliveries to get the three wickets and we've counter-attacked very well.[COLOR="Silver]

Bresnan and Swann are doing a good job but it doesn't take away the fact that Prior hasn't been pulling his weight.

 

[barmyarmy]

Harris has played one test fewer as well. Very impressive bowler when he's fit.

----------

Prior got a brute first up. Didn't throw his wicket away.

 

[deepuparayil]

The Only way out for Australia is to bat aggressively today. Anything more than 100 to score tomorrow will be 'game over' for Australia.

 

[Dutch]

The Only way out for Australia is to bat aggressively today. Anything more than 100 to score tomorrow will be 'game over' for Australia.

Well if they are 199 for 1 at the end of the day I dont see how that works......new ball will be crucial. Wickets means pressure. For me Warner is the danger man here........

 

[Skater]

Harris has played one test fewer as well. Very impressive bowler when he's fit.

----------

Prior got a brute first up. Didn't throw his wicket away.

I'm afraid I'm not really a believer in the 'unplayable' delivery. There is always something the batsman could have done differently.

299 for Australia. An excellent chase coming up. I fancy us though.

 

[angryangy]

That's the Trumper principle isn't it? If you don't want to be surprised by the movement from the seamers, charge down the pitch to them.

 

[Owzat]

England got a few more than I thought they'd get, I'd edge England as favourites although it's all been so very close it may remain so - if England can score 330 there's no reason to believe the aussies can't score just under 300.

Owe a lot to Bresnan and Swann, Swann's little cameo adding the 30 runs that may be the difference between the two sides. I still feel annoyed he doesn't bat higher, he can be so destructive and 30no could have been even more decisive/influential. Is that 6/18 of his innings batting 10 have been not out.

I suspect the 'promotion' of Bresnan to nightwatchman is to keep a relative non-batsman (Anderson) at 11 rather than have that joke situation of Swann at 11 (Lords vs Australia 28no, Ahmedabad vs India 3no)


I'll go 'England for the win', but the aussies can make it close. If they can close at no more than 4-5 wickets down this evening then I reckon they've a chance, 180-210 runs today and it could set up tomorrow morning for a thriller finale.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

^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!

rogers was one of the most consistent converters in the sheffield shield last season and I felt, given watson, hughes and khawaja's inability to reach that milestone, it warranted his selection. Now he's gone to score his 100 in his 4th match so it's all gone to plan, sure he had some luck, but luck's too hard to quantify in that way, england missed a chance and he went on to convert.

if it had been one of the other three batsmen I mentioned they would have likely celebrated that lucky moment by edging something next ball. not many aussies have been making triple figures lately.