The Ashes: Perth.

[meninblue]

Assistant coach Paul Farbrace admitted that England were paying price for the lack of pace in their bowling attack after a chastening experience at the WACA on Saturday (December 16). England took just one wicket for 346 runs as Australia dominated day three of the third Test.

"We don't have that extra pace and we haven't got the highest quality of magical spin," Farbrace told reporters after the day's play. "We've got what we've got and we've had to work exceptionally hard. It's been a very, very tough day."

"What can we do? We've got what we've got," he said. "We've tried various plans. The majority of our ways of taking wickets with the attack that we have is to be monotonous with line and length. We've tried that. We thought some of the cracks might have opened up and come into play for us. There was a little bit of variable bounce yesterday but that hasn't been the case today.

http://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/99059/ashes-3rd-test-lack-of-pace-haunting-england-admits-england-assistant-coach-paul-farbrace-cricket-news

[Durhamfootman]

impossible to rule out England losing their last 6 wickets in the first hour of the morning session for 30 or 40 runs.

35-6 in 9 overs for England. Great comeback by the Aussies.

it's as if it was written in the stars. Australia will declare in their innings and England will fall apart on day 4 leaving Aus with a 100 to win

oh for crying out loud.....

whenever I try to predict the worst case scenario for England in every situation, it inevitably turns out that I was actually being hopelessly optimistic

of course Australia won't need 100 to win.... they won't need to bat again

[Durhamfootman]

*modded* England!

what a bunch of completely useless to$$ers

send them home now.... nobody needs an endless, unrelenting cycle of humiliation.

[from_the_stands]

I fear the weather will save England, just like it did in Cardiff in 2009.

[Durhamfootman]

Now obviously I'm in the highly fortunate position of not being able to watch any of this series (jeepers.... dodged a bullet there.... gawd bless PPV TV.... heroes all), but.........

Before the series began, I wondered how Australia would fare with a 4 man bowling attack comprising a spinner and 3 injury prone quicks. What would Australia do if the 3 said quicks started to break down mid test... how would they get through the test.... which much more mediocre quick would they be forced to draft into the side?

All England had to do was bat long, force these delicate bowlers, of dubious fitness, to bowl, and bowl, and bowl and see how they would hold up. Apparently, it transpires, the plan turned out to be to capitulate at every available opportunity, so that these injury prone bowlers only had to bowl 30 overs a match instead of 30 overs an innings!

Good plan!

no wonder Starc, Hazlewood and Cummings look as pleased as punch. I'll bet they can't believe their luck.

Just in case anyone has forgotten..... this is an Australian side regarded by many, before the series started, as their most suspect line up for years and years. Thank goodness England are still the pile of useless sh1te that we've become accustomed to.

[Durhamfootman]

All England had to do was bat long, force these delicate bowlers, of dubious fitness, to bowl, and bowl, and bowl and see how they would hold up. Apparently, it transpires, the plan turned out to be to capitulate at every available opportunity, so that these injury prone bowlers only had to bowl 30 overs a match instead of 30 overs an innings!

If they played T20 matches on 5 consecutive days, they'd only have to bowl 20 overs.... that's what elderly players play when they can't bowl more than a handful of overs in a game

excellent pressure from England

[Durhamfootman]

Warne once commented that 06/07 was the series that never happened

got to have a shockingly bad memory, or possess a particularly stubborn streak, to forget 3 out of the last 4 away series

[Arthur Crabtree]

I think the last whitewash was the most humiliating since 06 (I know 'most' suggests this will be a clean sweep too). This series feels a more pleasant drubbing.

06-07 felt bad at the time (and had the most memorable bad moment in the Harmison ball) but England had their moments. KP, Hoggy and Colly were great and Freddie bowled heroically (but captained hopelessly). It mainly felt bad because the 05 Aussies so rapidly took their revenge, and we forget it so it won't diminish the memory of the ultimate series.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Classic posts in the England fan style above, Durham.

[Durhamfootman]

too much *modded* practice

[Dr Cricket]

Where is Aiden I miss his axe and bus.

[Durhamfootman]

on his way down under, if he can get his axe through customs

[The Professor]

Cook's dismissal today was the perfect example of his decline in form over the last 8 months.

[Arthur Crabtree]

If Cook has lost his hunger, then he's lost a big part of what seemed to make him the run scorer he was.

[bigfluffylemon]

Cook's dismissal was the perfect example of how when you're out of form you just can't catch a break. It was one hell of a catch. And Vince's dismissal was an absolute freak. England have often seemed to be on the receiving end of some pretty bad luck, but the fact is, when you're behind in the game everything looks unfortunate, and when you're ahead, you tend to make your own luck.

There is an outside chance that rain will save England. There is a fair amount forecast, but it's supposed to be showery rather than a constant deluge, so there will probably be time enough for the 20 or so overs England will need to capitulate, and lose by an innings after scoring 400 for the second time in a year, a feat that until last year had never been achieved before.

This series isn't as bad as the 2013-14 drubbing, I'm not sure anything could be, but in some ways the result here might be even more frustrating. 2013-14 was based on one player playing the series of a generation, and England just couldn't handle him. I don't think any batting line-up in history could. Australia are playing well this time around, but not out of their skins. England are being competitive in patches, then finding new ways to hand the initiative back. It's deeply, deeply frustrating to watch, as we know that the players, especially the senior players are better than this. Anderson's been ok, but Broad, Root, Cook, Moeen and Woakes have been so far below their average, let alone their best, that it's not even funny (and it's particularly heinous from the former three). The newcomers, Vince, Stoneman, Malan, Overton, have actually performed reasonably under the circumstances, and probably better than anyone expected, but without the experienced players standing up England were never going to have a chance.

Heads are going to roll after this series, rightly or wrongly, unless England can somehow pick themselves up, scrape a draw here with some rain, and score a miraculous win in Melbourne. Surely the Australian batting line-up is due a failure?