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Starc again, great ball.  Warne no praise, Fukn wanker.

An spineless batting effort by England against an Australian attack without their two best bowlers. From 2 for 150 with Root and Malan in control to 236 all out with the prospect now of having to bat out 4 and a half sessions for a draw. If they fail to do this, the ashes contest is pretty much over. Starc and Lyon were very good in leading the otherwise inexperienced attack but most of the English batsmen are clueless when it comes to playing on Australian wickets

Virtually a carbon copy of England's second innings at the Gabba, Mike.
Dawid Malan and Joe Root were completely untroubled against the Australian attack in the first session.
Once they went, again in quick succession, it was inevitable that England would struggle to make a decent score.
Barring a massive collapse, I expect Australia to send England a target of around 450 in 4.5 sessions (potentially 135-140 overs).

hopefully we bat until the natural light ends and put them in under the flood lights - that should be the aim today

England's selections and plans for this series have seemed muddled and over reliant on statistics. I couldn't believe they went into this test with 5 right handed seamers of similar pace and left out Wood who is the one bowler of genuine pace capable of making life uncomfortable for the batsmen and also not going in with a front line spinner on a dry pitch. Its almost like they have been playing for a draw from day 1.

This is shaping up as as 06/07 Ashes series, Australia 5-0.

Hopefully Green can get a 50 today, too good a batsman to be missing out......though for him to get a decent hit today Aust would have to lose 3 -4 in pretty quick time....simple plan of batting 2 sessions today - get 400+ in front.....Eng weary bowlers should be there for the taking.

Fingers crossed Richardson can take a 5 for in the 2nd innings.......think he need to take a few if he is going to push above Neser for the Melbourne test.....whilst Starc  has done well in this test , surely rotation will come in to play for the Boxing day test.....Cummins and Hazlewood will come back in.....with Neser and Richo battling out for that 3rd seamers spot...with Starc resting......if he plays then he can't play the 4th and 5th tests.....though Hobart would be a good venue for him.......lets hope JL stays true to his word and rotates the fast boys......

taking Root in the last over might be the ashes - some good bowling from all of our bowlers

The Aussies won't take anything for granted given the ability of Stokes who is capable of batting out the day, the problem is  who is going to support him with only Pope, Buttler and Woakes capable of batting for any length of time and they haven't been doing this recently. Odds are then that Australia will be 2-0 up by this time tomorrow which all but secures the ashes unless England can win the last 3 tests which looks about as likely as Subiaco getting the wooden spoon next year.

England have had periods in both games where they have been dominant with both bat and ball, these periods have lasted from around an hour up to a session. The problem has been when Australia have pushed back and exerted some pressure of their own, England have not been able to sustain their good play and have fallen in a complete heap. For example in Brisbane they lost 8-77 after a 150 partnership was broken. Almost identical collapse in Adelaide. This morning they took 3 for 12 in the first hour but then leaked 0-75 when Head counter attacked. This indicates a fragile team which doesn't respond to situations when their plans don't work.

Stokes looked to me like he was planning on digging in all day today, he just needs to find a partner or 2 willing to hang around with him.