TOPIC:

BH -Gary the Goat been a great bowler for Australia.And is only 1 wicket away from a huge well deserved milestone.
But we need to forget the 12 month break and go back to India last year.He just doesn't remove good batsman any more.Nor does he break big partnerships  any more..That's what spinners are supposed to do.He did hold an end up well today.But doesn't look like he's taking a bag of wickets.
Bowling Labuschane was ok ,he pretty handy.Good line but not sure he has the bounce of the wicket taking leggys.

Good fight back by England today.The first hour tomorrow will be huge for them.They would want both batsmen to get there 100's and carryon.And set it up for there big hitting middle order. 

This Test also has similarities to the 2010/11 1st Test at the Gabba where England made a huge score in their 2nd innings after not many in the first dig.
We all know how that Series turned out and CA in their "wisdom" dont have a Perth Test to rely on this Summer to at least make the scoreline like somewhat respectable (1-3) if losing an Ashes series at home can ever be defined as such!

Some observations of todays play

• Good fightback by England, Root is a quality player and you would expect him to get runs on a flat pitch
• Australia are still in the box seat as long as they make inroads with the 2nd new ball tomorrow morning
• I think Hazlewood is being managed through this game given that the Adelaide Test starts in less than a week
• Lyon is trying too hard to get the 400th wicket, you can see the anxiety written all over his face. He was a bit unlucky not to get Malan out on a few occasions. If he can just get the 400th tomorrow he might relax and get a few more.

I have mentioned before the 2010-11 series and if you recall the test in Brisbane that year, Australia had a 200+ lead on the first innings. Then the pitch became a feather bed and England scored 1- 517 in their 2nd innings to escape with a draw. This pitch may not be as flat as that one but Australia are going to have to work a lot harder than they thought to get their victory.

Well what another turnaround this morning was! 
Gee you have just got to love Test Match Cricket and an Ashes Series to boot! 

Amazing stuff wasn't it BH.
One wicket leads to a collapse and the rest is history.
Did you notice how much Lyons bowling improved after he snagged that 400th wicket.
For me the highlight was that beautiful ball that Cam Green bowled to snick Root off. Green is a massive talent and you can see his confidence developing at this level.
Back to the drawing board for England, they are not out of this series by any stretch, especially with no test in Perth. They do need to get their batting sorted, apart from Root and Malan they were very ordinary. They have the bowling attack to trouble the Australian line up. With Broad and Anderson back to support Robinson and Wood they have a unit capable of creating lots of problems in a pink ball test.
The Aussies have injury concerns for Warner and Hazelwood and Khawaja and Jhye Richardson would be on standby for these two I would imagine.

the first wicket of the day started the collapse - it was over very quickly after that one 
the day night test will go a long way towards deciding things now

mikeh wrote:

Amazing stuff wasn't it BH.
One wicket leads to a collapse and the rest is history.
Did you notice how much Lyons bowling improved after he snagged that 400th wicket.
For me the highlight was that beautiful ball that Cam Green bowled to snick Root off. Green is a massive talent and you can see his confidence developing at this level.
Back to the drawing board for England, they are not out of this series by any stretch, especially with no test in Perth. They do need to get their batting sorted, apart from Root and Malan they were very ordinary. They have the bowling attack to trouble the Australian line up. With Broad and Anderson back to support Robinson and Wood they have a unit capable of creating lots of problems in a pink ball test.
The Aussies have injury concerns for Warner and Hazelwood and Khawaja and Jhye Richardson would be on standby for these two I would imagine.

Amazing stuff that there was an English batting collapse in Australia?

The To and Froms have now lost 10 of their past 11 Tests in Australia.
Indeed, they've won just 6 (3 were during the 2010-11 summer) of 42 since their 1986-87 Ashes series success (they've had 29 losses and 7 draws in that time).
Yes, England will be "better for the run" and, with Jimmy Anderson and/or Stuart Broad returning, will perform much better in the day-night Test in Adelaide.
But whether they're capable of winning two more Tests than the Aussies for the remainder of the series to regain the Ashes is highly debatable.
It's possible that the MCG wicket will be a "road" (and then we factor in Melbourne's unpredictable weather), while the SCG is traditionally a "turner".
I expect Joe Root, whom I rate a better spinner than Jack Leach, will do a lot of bowling in Sydney.
The tourists will fancy their chances in Hobart, but again they may have the Tassie weather to contend with.
If England regains the Ashes I expect Root will be next in line to be British Prime Minister and the remainder of the squad (even Leach) will receive knighthoods. 

How have the Aussies gone over in England Arch?