Morning session will be crucial. We're less than a hundred ahead remember, if we lose three or four wickets early on it could all go badly wrong.

Whats the difference between an Aussie & 747 jet?

















The 747 stops whining when it gets to Heathrow

Cracking performance from the top 3. Really has shut the Aussies up. For now anyway.

Mind we still have to bat well on the final day. As people have pointed out Australia are still the only team that could possibly win the match and a couple of early wickets would really put England to the test.

no you didn't

Well iv had a daft tenner on the aussies at 12/1. Will make it a bit more interesting to watch.

Bad craic Mr Hamster. I hope you did it on betfair so some punter gets some cash rather than donated to Paddy power or ladbrokes...?

piece of pish this innings

No sign of a collapse at all :)

Nil chance of an Aussie win now..!

Just waiting for Trott to get his century before Lunch and I'm off to bed.

I'd love to stay up, and watch us shoving it down the Aussies throats, but I suppose I'd better get some sleep.

What a stand by Cook and Trott!

How the hell did we manage to save that test?

That was incredible.

The Aussie bowling attack lacks punch. Mitch Johnson is overrated and he is supposed to be the best of them.

I know it's not breaking news that Ricky Ponting is a twat but what is this bloke on?

http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2 ... 89666.html

So it's technology's fault that he didn't know if the ball had carried or not. If he (you know, the bloke catching the ball) doesn't know then what technology does he fcking want? He should be more embarrassed that he doesn't know himself rather than blaming some TV camera that is 100 yards away.

The whole English/Aussie rivalry and I've got more respect for so many past and present Aussie cricketers than any other country but I can't wait to see the back of Ponting for good.

To be fair to Ponting he said he was pretty sure he caught it (which he did) and he's always been the only captain in the World he'd rather go on the fielders word than even use technology when it comes to catches. All he is doing is being consistent in his view on the matter.

That was a clean catch but they always look like they have hit the ground because you can't see the fielders fingers under the ball.

Yer I appreciate that but I just don't see what he wants the technology to do. It would be impossible to get a camera to instantly produce an image confirming whether it carried or not so he either says he catches it or he doesn't. He just seems to want to whinge either way.

He either wants technology or he doesn't. Technology benefitted the Aussies in the first couple of days and Cook's dismissal made not one jot of difference on anything yet the kunt is still moaning. He does my fooking napper in.

In the case of did the ball hit the deck or was it a clean catch then Ponting doesn't want technology, he wants the word and integrity of the fielder to be taken.
Back in the day when sportsmanship was important in the game of cricket if a batsman wasn't sure whether a catch had been taken cleanly he would ask the fielder. If the fielder said that it was a catch then the batsman would walk.
Ponting is trying to get back to that but I think he is flogging a dead horse personally.
I don't like him either but, as PJ says, he is consistent on this one.
He is not against the use of technology generally but specifically in this case he is. He has been on about this for years but, as I say, he is flogging a dead horse.

It highlights how well his bowlers did for two days when all he's got to talk about is a disptuted catch to dismiss a bloke who was 208* at the time

the aussies who are honest as the day is long, and always walk after blatantly nicking the ball to slip??
them?

they can get to fuck, and ponting can go to top of the pile....horrible 'lovely lovely person'

If Ponting doesn't know for certain he caught the ball, how can he expect the batsman to accept the integrity of the fielder and walk off?

Unfortunately the sporting ethos of 'fair play' in Cricket is long gone, the fielder will now always claim to have taken a catch, so that his side can benefit from the decision.

concurring with salty and disagreeing with derwent. ricky ponting is the tommy elphick of test cricket

Ponting did know he'd caught the ball for certain though, it was the umpires that weren't sure.

"I said to the umpires straight away that I was pretty sure that I caught it,"

Doesn't sound that certain to me.

You can't ever be 100% certain with those catches as you can't see the ground, but you are pretty sure what a 'clean' catch feels like. It is grey area when it comes to technology, lot's of very good catches are denied due to it. Say in the fifth test with 5 to win and the Ashes at stake we don't get Ponting in similar circumstances lets see how we all feel about the matter.

well I have never claimed a catch* that has touched the ground even if fingers/ground/ball are close....

its called cheating and should have no place in any sport.






















































*usually I drop em anyways, especially steeplers!

And I disagree with you disagreeing, na na na na na...............

talk about a dream start !

Aye very good England, now rack up a big score. Two days of Aussie fielding will be very nice, more would be better.

Ricky Ponting is rattled. He has having words with Strauss at stumps. The Aussies don't like it up 'em.

Ricky Ponting is a gunt. That is all.

119-1 with two very in-form batsmen at the crease against a very very vulnerable attack. With the depth we can now bat to on this wicket I'd be gutted if we didn't make 450 now.

great peformance, from me to saty up all night.

If Cook keeps this up surely he will break all the records for runs scored in any test series?

Quality cricket so far from England. Ideally need to bat for the majority of day 3 to put the Aussies into a hopeless position.

Hopefully it will be 1-0 England by the end of day 4 (or the end of day 5 come to that )

Even if we bat terribly today we will still have a lead of 150. Hopefully KP can stay in for a few hours and then we can really start to inflict pain on the struggling Aussie attack. Looking forward to midnight already...

Lets face it, up till now the Aussie bowlers have been poor!! McGrath, Warne & Lee could piss all over this lot even though they havent played for ages!
Makes a nice change though that its us looking good rather than them! Cant beat the pissed off look on Pontings face

they've had their golden generation, in fact they had it for almost 2 decades with a revolving door of talent. At least England have a chance of beating them over there now - as they have done over here the last twice. The tide might have turned at last

Ponting was stll having a go at the umpires. Good to see him cracking under pressure.

Australia's attack is indeed nowhere near as good as the fearsome attack they had for much of the late 90's a good chunk of the noughties (I hate that term!). But it does have to be pointed out that when Australia where regularly handing out beatings to us during this period all we heard was how good the Aussie team was. Little was ever made of the fact that England's team was not up to much. It would be a great shame, if England do indeed go onto win this series, if people simply focus on the Aussies not being as good as the great team of a few years ago. England have an excellent team as things stand and should they win this series they deserve huge praise. This is the same Australia team that came very close to winning in India, a superb team themselves, earlier this year.

The Aussies were utterly abysmal last night. The amount of full tosses Doherty was lobbing up was criminal. I'd be looking to put them in for a good period before tea tomorrow, get ourselves another 200 ish on the board and then leave us plenty of time to force a result.

Cook sitting pretty on 438* too.

I'm not one to be picky but it will actually be 438 and out once, hence why his average in the series at the moment is so high.

Sorry meant 371*



Only Sachin Tendulkar had scored more test runs by his age too. Didn't turn out to be too bad a player that lad, did he?!

Trott at one point had the third best average score ever whilst he was not out, he may hae dropped a place or two now though.

It's not going too bad!

The useless South African tart has dropped to 4th now

I would hope we could bowl the Aussies out in 4 sessions. We should probably declare over night or bat for no longer than 30 minutes. If rubbish spinners like Doherty and North can get the ball to spin a bit on that pitch then Swanny should be able to do a job. Hopefully the rain won't dictate things too much...

I've seen better left arm spinners playing club cricket than that Doherty he's absolutely shite.

I think England will win. The forecast isn't horrendous by the look of things and as its so hot even a quick shower will not put too much of a dent in the day's play. Ultimately we need a quick wicket. I think the Aussies will fold if they lose someone in the first couple of overs. Pietersen's late strike will have knocked a lot of stuffing out of them as it is.

Whilst I agree I am pretty worried about us getting a result now. However that could instantly change if we get a wicket or two before lunch. The Aussie tail is shite and the length of time it takes to start to get into them will determine whether we win or not.

Micheal Clarke should be/will be utterly embarrased by himself but at least he apologised.

It pisses me off when they don't come out for the final few balls though, never understood that one.

As long as there is 3 or more hours of play England should win. This mornings session should see Pieterson and Swann have a go for 6 or 7 overs. The new ball is due in 4 balls but it's probably worth giving the spinners a chance to get the breakthrough before letting Anderson (and hopefully Broad) loose with a new ball. Players at the bottom of the order don't tend to last long when the pressure is on and the bat is surrounded for long periods of time.