I'm not sure the Aussies would have enforced it anyway.
I'm afraid the weather won't save them as the forecast is good.
There will need to be a massive change of fortunes for England to get anything from the game.
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Love to see Smith smash another 100 in this innings and really turn the screw.
Head and shoulders above everyone else.
I wonder if, in many years, we will refer to this as the Jason Roy test match...
When two of the three batsmen who have proved they can bat long periods in a test are dismissed in the first four balls of an innings where you have to bat three and a bit sessions to save the game, you are in deep trouble. Yet again, England are really relying on Ben Stokes to come up with something special, but even if he does, is there any confidence in the likes of Roy (who looks very heavy on his feet to me), Bairstow (I've only seen a still picture of his first innings dismissal, but it says it all about him) and Buttler being able to bat long alongside him?
The last named perhaps on a good day and Denly has proved himself as good as anyone in the team at getting "in" and making it to twenty or thirty, but, only in the second innings at Headingley has he batted for the sort of time that England need him to today.
If they can get through the first session having lost no more than one wicket, then perhaps England will have a chance, but, even if they, freakishly, come out of the series with a win, this summer has shown that they need a separate coaching structure for red ball cricket because, at the moment, the advances made in the white ball game have been at the expense of the test side.
England are in dire shape after last night. For them to avoid defeat, I'd say at least two batsmen have to "do a Ben stokes". And other than ben stokes, none of them has shown any sign that they are capable. The two men in are surely playing for their test careers exactly because they have shown themselves incapable of doing what it is that is needed from them now.
The only thing that makes me think we have a chance is that we have Ben stokes, and the fact that they choked at headingley and if we can bat long enough, they will start sh!ting themselves that it could happen again. Lyon has been poor and they may need something from him today. If we can get to lunch for just the inevitable loss of Roy, then they may start to do some daft things. If we can get to a position where the Aussies start to think "we might mess this one up too" then who knows what can happen?
It is a disgrace that this batting line up as survived to the 4th Test.
Root is a hopeless captain and needs replacing.
Roy Denly Bairstow and Buttler should be axed.
Foakes should get the gloves.
Hopefully Wood Stone or Anderson can be fit enough to back up Archer and Broad in the Winter. Somehow we need to find at least 4 batsmen good enough for Test cricket. But we certainly wont if we keep this bunch.
One session left. Australia need 4 wickets. Surprised it's lasted this long. New ball will be crucial.
Fantastic effort by Overton and Leach.
18 overs to hold out is an awful lot of cricket.
Shirley they can't pull this one off?
Who knows? The Aussies are bottlers, they could yet bugger this up. Although it sounds like they are bowling well.
Aus win
There was probably a clue to how England could do when Ireland bowled them out for 85.
Foakes? He's averaging 27 in FC cricket with 0 hundreds this year. The clamour for him is odd. We've also got decent bowlers, and it's a shame they're injured. Bairstow is fine as well, Denly probably deserves to keep his place and Buttler has the talent to persevere with. I'd play Pope at 5 or 6 though, Stokes to 4/5 and Root at 3.
They need to look at a wider question, why are our batsmen not firing at 4 day cricket. Only 3 players have got 1000 runs this summer, and one of them is Labuschagne. Sibley should be in with a chance to open in the winter, as well as Zak Crawley, and I'd like a look at young James Bracey for Glos. Chris Dent of Glos is another one, who's consistently scored 4 day runs.
Off to a decent start at the Oval. It still matters -let's at least tie the series.
Oh dear. They've got Tuffers on TMS again. What a bore.
You can tell they've won the Ashes, shelled Root 3 times.:hehe:
It's made it a really good series in a lot of ways but some of the cricket has been desperately poor. About 4 players can bat, and absolutely nobody can catch :hehe:
The rubbish batting continues with Stokes top edging trying to pull a short one, just like the Rory Burns dismissal.
WTF isn't the message to leave the high risk shots alone getting through to these people?
This innings... jesus. Australia did all they could to ensure we would bat all day but our batsmen seem to be on a mission to throw their wickets away. 205/7. Rubbish. I actually thought that we'd learned to try to bat properly - most got out to decent balls in the last test, but this seems to be a return to the norm and it's ugly.