Oh dear. First Cook and now Trott give their wickets away again and we are effectively 17-3.

Aussies bowling to Trott on a plan and he fell for it despite earlier warning signs for him.

Australia getting a grip back on this game.

Belly and KP have a lot of work to do..... if they get out cheaply as well then we are done for.

Would have been a great series if the weather had not intervened in Old Trafford. This match would have had much more edge to it.

I think England will still win as long as the lead is over 200

Yes, but arguably the two best stroke makers in the side at the crease and the ball now 30 odd overs old.   If they bat sensibly they could put us 175-200 ahead by the close.  That would set up an interesting contest because you'd expect England to get 250-300 ahead from there.

So, no wickets in the final session or at worst 1.    On the other hand it could be a problem if we end up 5 down at stumps with Bell and Pieterson gone.

And Bairstow in so it will be 5 down imminently

Ludicrous to bring the players off due to bad light, only to bring them back out 5 minutes later. Would have been a good idea to look up at the (blue) sky in the first place.

Trouble is.. there are only 4 Elite umpires left that are not either English or Australian. Drop Tony Hill and we have only three for the series Down Under.

I think there is a case, now that we have DRS, to have an umpire from each country (i.e. England and Australia) in the middle, so that Gunner Gould, or Nigel Llong and Stephen Tauful for example could officiate, together with a neutral 3rd ump.

234-5 at the close. Decent day's work considering where we were at the start of the day. Really good day for England despite the top order getting knocked over early again.

If we can add another 100 runs tomorrow we would be in a strong position, but knowing how things have gone, we'll probably get knocked over for about 20 more...

Bell brilliant again. He should end up as our Man of the Series. 3 times now her has got a crucial hundred in a pressure situation.

Bairstow has talent but needs to add discipline to his game and he will make it.

If we can get a lead of 280-300, assuming a good first session, I can't see the Aussies winning. Whether we can knock them over and win is an entirely different question however.

Given the first innings scores, i think that both scores would be happy to be the equivalent of 202-5 with one guy in great form having made a 100. However, i have often seen someone make a big score one day and then get out early the next morning, and with the new ball looming things could quickly go wrong. England's innings is at almost the exact same stage that australia's was this morning actually. To say the first session will be critical would be to use an overused cliche - every session is important until one side takes the decisive advantage - if england have a lead of 260 then the next session will be the most critical etc.

I think 300 should give england a big advantage and that is what they will be aiming for.

300 is the important number here. I don't think 300 has been passed at Chester le Street so far this season at any level, that is what they said at the start of this test anyway.

Regardless of the wicket / ground location any side chasing over 300 in the 4th innings is up against it and history shows that.

What England would love is a 350 lead but the could just as easily be knocked over in the morning for another 20 runs on this wicket.

Yes, it's easy to forget that the batsmen have to start again in the morning.  OK, Bell's confidence will be high but you've still got to get 'in' again and the new ball will account for a wicket or three if the Aussies bowl well, which you wouldn't bet against.

I agree that anything over 300 will be a challenge.   I wonder where the pendulum swings past 50/50 towards Australia?  240-250 lead?

I think some of this criticism is rather unfair.   As regards the light, I know from personal experience that these situations arise - you simply cannot take into accountwhat might or might not happen in 5 minutes time.  If the conditions are deemed unsuitable then they're unsuitable.  How would the batsmen react if a wicket (or two) fell in dodgy light?

Whatever you might think of the umpires, what is 100% true is that they make far less mistakes than the players....  On top of that, the review system consistently shows that the umpires don't make that many mistakes relative to the number of decisions they are required to make.  Sure you can highlight the occasional howler but that's always happened in all forms of cricket.

At least, unlike club cricket, we've got away from biased umpiring.  It used to be said that when England were on tour they had to take 20 wickets to bowl out the opposition....

I think anything under 250 and Australia will fancy their chances, once you start getting up past 250 then England really get in the box seat, towards 300 and England should win.

Michael Vaughan mentioned that the game against Yorkshire was on a similar wicket. After some low scoring in the first innings, the second innings saw Yorkshire chase down 339

http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2013/engine/match/593470.html

Complete, not almost - what more would you have him do? 4 tons in 5 tests against the Aussies, including at least 2 (may shortly) be 3 that directly lead to wins?