England v Australia, 3rd Test, Edgbaston, Jul 30-Aug 3 (II)

Congratulations to Aus for drawing this test. England messsed it by not getting past 450 from the first innings and missed the chance of putting Aus under more pressure. This escape by Aus may well have swung the momentum from a possible 2-1 series win to a 1-1 draw for Eng,.

Aus needs a win to retain the Ashes. England needs a draw to remain unbeaten this rubber and a win to revist 2005 to retake back the Ashes.

It will be an interesting 2 tests coming up and hopefully rains won't alter any possible result. I still feel England will win 2-1 but it isn't impossible for Aus to build up the momentum gained from this test and go for a 2 in a row result.

A word of appreciation for the Pup again. Again when the chips are donw he delivered. He has gotten a bit consistant in this regard last couple of years and hopefully he will continue it.

Batman wrote: This escape by Aus may well have swung the momentum

Don't really see the comparison with Cardiff myself, in this game England were long shots at the start of the last days play - the draw was 1.2

JKLever wrote:

Batman wrote: This escape by Aus may well have swung the momentum

Don't really see the comparison with Cardiff myself, in this game England were long shots at the start of the last days play - the draw was 1.2

Exactly. England had put themselves in a position where only they could win, but the draw was always the most likely outcome. As for the comment about England getting 450 - the loss of time in the game meant that they had to score very quickly to try to set up an unlikely win. That would have affected everything, from the mindset to the approach. England did as much with the bat as they could reasonably have hoped to do. Australia did exactly what they ought to have done and batted out the day. For them to collapse a second time would have been shocking.

JKLever wrote:

Batman wrote: This escape by Aus may well have swung the momentum

Don't really see the comparison with Cardiff myself, in this game England were long shots at the start of the last days play - the draw was 1.2

A more bigger lead could have put Aus under more pressure. A collapse was always possible. But that's just one of the many possibilities in Wonderland after a test is over.

On the flip side, when was the last time the first 3 Ashes tests in a series threw up 2 draws?
1 more draw and it could well end up as the slowest and the most disappointing Ashes in the last 2 decades. No?

They didn't have time to calmly try and build a bigger lead - hence the very aggressive approach. Sure, another hour of batting would have been great, but it was a high risk approach to try and put Australia under at least some pressure.

They did as well as they could have hoped to.

Shoeshine wrote:They didn't have time to calmly try and build a bigger lead - hence the very aggressive approach. Sure, another hour of batting would have been great, but it was a high risk approach to try and put Australia under at least some pressure.

They did as well as they could have hoped to.

Hopefully weather and delays won't hamper the last 2.....

..it could well end up as the slowest and the most disappointing Ashes in the last 2 decades. No?

No.

Batman wrote:

A word of appreciation for the Pup again. Again when the chips are donw he delivered. He has gotten a bit consistant in this regard last couple of years and hopefully he will continue it.

Arguably Australia's best bat at present.

Merlin wrote:

..it could well end up as the slowest and the most disappointing Ashes in the last 2 decades. No?

No.

No!

JGK wrote:By the way, Clarke now averages over 50. That is by far the highest average for someone with 2000+ test runs but a HS of <160.

Next best is Mark Richardson with 44.77 and then Al Cook with 43.97.

JGK pulls out a fantastic dubber-centric selective stat to maintain his subi heritage

He must have that one canned, waiting for the moment.

Well, I think Vikky is a little harsh. We played expansively looking for quick runs and we also set attacking fields in their rearguard, I think that skewed how we would've performed over five days. Saying that, we did bowl some form of pants for them to be comfortable enough.

Bowled shite on day one and shite on day five.

Finished as we started.

Dello wrote:Bowled shite It didn't swing on day one and shite on day five.

Finished as we started.

fixed.

Bollocks. Was nothing to do with swing on day one - it was garbage, through and through. Too short, or over-pitched, or sprayed everywhere knat's piss.

JKLever wrote:

Batman wrote: This escape by Aus may well have swung the momentum

Don't really see the comparison with Cardiff myself, in this game England were long shots at the start of the last days play - the draw was 1.2

It is clearly not in the same league as Cardiff but the Norf/Pup partnership must give the convicts some encouragement going into T4.

But all that will mean nothing when they pick Bung and Midge and leave Clark in the sheds again

Australia will know now that England can't bowl them out without bucket-loads of help from the conditions.

That'll be a boost, I reckon.

It will be a bigger boost to England realising they don't have to.

They just need to avoid the reverse happening to them

Dello wrote:Australia will know now that England can't bowl them out without bucket-loads of help from the conditions.

That'll be a boost, I reckon.

No different from any other country in their home conditions. You don't complain about Indian conditions suiting Indians. English bowlers do well when home conditions suit them. But if some fool prepares a completely dead strip and the ball doesn't swing, it shouldn't be a surprise they don't like it as much.

australia is the only place that does not prepare wickets to suit the home team.

horace wrote:australia is the only place that does not prepare wickets to suit the home team.

Yet you always start at Brisbane and give the touring team the game before totally different conditions

ffs it was horace

G.Wood wrote:ffs it was horace

Got to give the old git some rope to tug now and again...

stoopid RD...JKL...the first test is always in brisbane because the weather later in the summer is as iffy as the shermanator
's recessive chin...we used to routinely face up to the Windies there to be slaughtered.

G.Wood wrote:It will be a bigger boost to England realising they don't have to.

They just need to avoid the reverse happening to them

But in Cardiff, it looked like the Aussies had 20 wickets in them on a flattie.

England's top six has only been contributing around 190 runs per innings - it's the tail that's kept them in this series.

Surely it's only a matter of time before the tail fails...