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Well done to all the Australian batsmen today, especially Usman who was very disciplined after he had notched his century. The England attack was pretty toothless as it has been for most of the series though and our batsmen will have more testing challenges in South Africa.The plan tomorrow will be to score as many as possible in the first session after which they should have a lead of 250 or more. Then put England back in on a deteriorating pitch on which Nathan Lyon should have some fun.

Even the toughest critic would have to acknowledge the valuable contributions of Mitchell Marsh & Shaun Marsh - everyone knows how good Shaun is , it's probably been a combination of injury & batting order positioning that has kept back true results but we're seeing how much value there is currently
Haven't seen anything like this from Mitchell Marsh - his first few overs from that leggie in previous years would have seen a brainfart and "see ya later" shot soon after , but now there's a maturity level that's appeared and some smoking hot strokes coming with it
Khawaja has some real issues with spin and it isn't going away - some tough tests will be coming up shortly not too sure whether he'll make it to be honest time will tell

another dead wicket unfortunately giving up only 15 wickets for 900 runs so far in 3 1/2 days of play. now that the Ashes have been won I wonder if its a deliberate ploy to keep the Poms out of the contest completely. 3 nil with 2 draws Oz's way is better than 3-2...but hey, we live in hope it will start turning at some point.

Taken a couple of nice catches in this series so far has Uzzie from memory....he will never be a Steve Smth or Mark Waugh.....any how gonna be a tougher test v SA pace attack than what Eng had offered so far.....gonna be a test for all Aust batsmen even Smith.....could be the battle of the pace attacks...pity Pattinson is crocked..... can't see how Bancroft will be dropped after finding out there will be no shield games before the touring squad is selected...how farking stupid is that?....

anchorman wrote:

Tiger of old wrote:

anchorman wrote: Freez, I think he is in trouble, but who takes his spot.I haven't seen Renshaws name mentioned much of late and with the shield season not due to start in the near future ,who comes in.We will be more or less relying on BBL form as a guide, and I really don't see that as a viable option.
Do they go back to Shaun Marsh as an opener!!! I would think that highly unlikely and unfair.
A dilemma for the selectors.I think they will take him to SA any way.

Joe Burns is the one pushing hard for Bancrofts spot Anchor

TOO, I couldn't see the selectors having Burns due to his poor fielding.Remember he and Khwaja were singled out by Lehmann a short time ago players who had to improve their fielding.Not sure Khwaja has improved very much.

Runs is the currency the selectors are looking at Anchor and Bancroft isn't providing them unfortunately, and burns is albeit in the Shield and does have 3 test centuries to his name. I hope they'll give Bancroft one or two tests in SA and if he doesn't produce then it'll be see ya later for now.

Given the extreme heat in Sydney yesterday and the fact that Joe Root ended up in hospital with dehydration, should the cricket authorities give the umpire the discretion to bring the players off if the on field temperature goes over a certain mark? A cricket ground is a workplace for these guys and there is no way there would have been any work happening on a building site in Sydney yesterday. Most grounds have floodlights so if you lose a couple of hours during a day of extreme heat, this can be made up during the cooler part of the day. The bottom line is that Cricket Australia has a duty of care for these guys and hopefully it won't take somebody to become seriously ill for them to consider this. Bugger the television schedules, player welfare comes first.

Turns out it was a Gastro bug & not dehydration via onfield exertions mate - everyone has jumped the gun as is per usual for our Press corps anyway

Agree with everything you've said Mike...in fact there should be an international standard to cover places like India as well where play is called off when a certain temperature and/or humidity level is reached. I'm actually surprised the Pommy quicks weren't affected more as the likes of Broad and co toiled manfully for most of the day.

they have 400 drinks breaks these days and it seems a medical staff member for every player.
its a summer sport so keep playing, you want to call games off in India due to heat or humidity level you never play a game.

So MO...I take it you're all in favour of taking away the policy of downing tools on union controlled construction sites when the temp gets over 37 degrees or whatever it is these days?