Well that was obvious. He's looked like a rabbit in a car headlights since he came to the crease.

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Also Manc forecast looks poor lots of rain around Sunday and Monday so they need to get a move on.

 

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Good to see we brought the night watchman in with 6 months of the session still remaining.

Siddle has a face I want to punch all day long with an iron bar.

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And now he's out. Another stupid, stupid, stupid decision by England. What's the betting they bring a batsman in now making a complete mockery of him even being there

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Someone explain why Trott didnt come in when one wicket down

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Very old school England scoring painfully slowly and getting out. We will do well to make the follow on.

 

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Complete joke we over use the nightwatchman big time, there was still 10 overs left!

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There is no explanation. Exactly what I said would happen. Pathetic.

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Makes no sense at all.

I can just about understand Bresnan not referring his dismissal on the basis that a) it's better to hold on to the referral for a 'more important' batsman and b) we don't trust the 3rd umpire to spot a comet 30 seconds before it lands on top of him

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Thats what I don't get , Trott could get in and get between 10-20 runs on the board , very odd

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Root fails as opener again. That's one score in 5 innings - and he looked about as comfortable opening the batting here as, well, as an Australian batsman before this test.

 

I don't care if rain saves this Test for England - we've [predictably] let our foot off the convicts' throats. And that is shocking, a disgrace.

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Any chance of a washout at Old Trafford on Monday? The latest met office forecast for Manchester shows rain all day.

I think his record speaks for itself, don't you? 300 Test wickets and counting.

I think there was way too much misplaced media hype about this Aussie side. They're not great but neither are they anything like as bad as some have suggested. Clark is a top class batsman and they have a decent seam attack. Swann gives us a clear edge on the spin bowling side. On a good batting surface you would expect them to come good at some stage.

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"England saved by the rain" .....

LOL

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It would really irritate the Aussies if they lost the Ashes due to rain when they had their best performance of the series.

 

This.

 

I never bought this 5-0 hype. Said before this series that their bowling attack is more than OK and they are capable of pulling out results, though not on a consistent basis.

 

We've mostly bowled well and we've mostly batted not very well.

 

This is a moderate Aussie side at worst and I always said they would give us a good run for our money unless we were at our very best.

In the event, we havn't been at our best, particularly batting, and this series could easily have been 1-1 rather than 2-0. In each of the last 3 series wins against the Aussies, we've had a bad match (Lords 05, Headingly 09, Perth 10), and we have been sufficiently flaky with the bat in recent years for me to expect one this time too. Especially if the Aussies won a toss and bat first on a good pitch offering the seamers nothing,  and put us under some pressure.

We will do well to get out with a draw in this match.

We can, if we bat with discipline and sensible shot selection (as Ian Bell has done), but I'm not convinced at all that we will do so.

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Models all suggest a draw is by far the most likely result. Sunday there will be rain/showers and Monday will be a washout.

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We've produced extremely unlikely and unexpected searing heat for the past 2 Tests to make the Aussies feel at home, even though it's put us at a very massive disadvantage since we sooner expect the Spanish Inquistion that such weather in an English summer.   Only fair we have some more normal weather hereon in.   If the Aussies planned for 30c+ every day for every Test, rather than 16c with strong winds and rain, then all fool them

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He's good, no doubt about that. But, the best bowler of his generation thing is stretching it a tad. Steyn is better and has the record to prove it. He has Andersons control and swing, but has the added dimension of extra pace and hostility when the wicket offers little.

A predictable end to yesterdays play. It was a very difficult situation for England to be in, how often do you see sides declare and put the other side just after tea and a couple of wickets go down, happens all the time.

Time for Cook and Trott to step up as after them there really only is Bell. I have no confidence in KP's ability to hang around at the moment, he will probably smash a quick 65 and get out to some stupid shot, as will Bairstow and Prior.

We will do well to avoid the follow on here, we need the rain! 

Anderson was a little bit up and down and too nice with his bowling yesterday. The very best bowlers create pressure and make something happen on a flat wicket. He looked like he was just happy to throw some balls down the wicket and hope that conditions change in his favour rather than working the what he had.

But then Cook was guilty of sitting back and hoping a mistake would be made as well.

Flat wicket but could England have done a little more?

Personally I hope the Aussies win the test, it will kick England up the backside, we haven't played that great, the Aussies have been poor.

Still don't like Cook ( sorry guys ) , don't understand why KP is in the side . Listening to Tom Moody have to agree " Cook's captaincy lacks imagination"  he doesn't try anything out of the norm.

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I'm not sure any result will be a 'kick up the backside' - that implies some sort of complacency, which I haven't seen. This is a side that won the first two Tests without the batting clicking properly and they will have known is an area of vulnerability if the Aussies managed to put together a decent score, which they have. We won't know how good that innings was, or how sub-par the bowling, until England has batted through the first innings. I'd be disappointed if we don't get past the follow-on and beyond 400 because its a decent track.

KP is in the side on merit based on who is available and performing. Who would you bring in who would strengthen the batting line-up? We've already got two guys who are recent additions in Root and Bairstow. Adding another now wouldn't be a sound move. You could make a case for bringing Compton back to open and dropping Root to no.5, but does replacing Peterson with Root do anything positive? They won't abandon the Root/Cook opening partnership this fast so that leaves what? Taylor? That might be the medium term option but not yet.

Strauss's captaincy was alleged to lack imagination and it didn't stop him having a very decent record as captain. Cook seems little different but he is quite new to the job. I don't see what he has done wrong particularly - and "imaginative captaincy" is a very subjective thing.

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Anderson average about 30 runs per wicket. I don't care how many wickets he has take, that suggests he is good but not great as you say.  

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The thing is with Anderson, he started 10 years ago as a test cricketer but only became a regular since 2008. What has his average been since he became a regular? Well it is 27.8. Not bad.

The weather is not looking too clever tomorrow if the charts are to be believed. England need to bat through today for their first innings, obviously.

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