3rd Test England v Pakistan, Edgbaston, Aug 3-7.

[backfootpunch]

Wonder how many empty seats.

I'm expecting a precise number

[yuppie]

So who will get fined for there being 9 overs short today?

[alfie]

Good comeback from England today

As Hales finishes the day with a well earned fifty...

Still work to do tomorrow. But the game is back on an even keel. And I'd still expect a result , weather permitting ; despite the placid pitch.

Goodnight all

[hopeforthebest]

I think this batting from Cook and Hales put into perspective how easy batting has been on this pitch and how well the England bowlers did to get the 10 wickets fro 4oo runs. I do think Cook has to give Woakes the new ball as he gets so much more out of it than Broad has. It maybe different at the Oval but here he was swinging the ball more effectively than Anderson.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Wonder how many empty seats.

;)

Looking forward to reading your thoughts of the day's play Bhaves.

[Aidan11]

Good fightback.

Knocked off the defecit without losing a wicket.

[KipperJohn]

England's day. Pakistan were 40 runs adrift with 7 wickets in hand - finished 17 adrift with all England's wickets intact.

A lot of effort from Pakistan but with virtually no reward.

[Dr Cricket]

Reckon their was about 500 empty seats.
Was a good day play but can tell crowd were getting bored while Pakistan tail were batting and after tea when England were batting.

Is quite a crap wicket this could be a very dull draw.
Pakistan if anything could have saved the test just because of their slow batting in the first innings, can't see England getting bowled out and cook won't declare till he sets 400-450 odd so Pakistan should have 2 session and a bit to save the test.
Reckon both team will call the draw way before that though.

Weirdly at the moment both teams probably got the same percentage chance of winning the game with the draw the clear favorite.
Pakistan need early wickets tomorrow and restrict the chase below 300.
Where as England ideally need to score quickly and hope the pitch detoriates and they are all out setting a target around 300.
England won't declare and set a target around 300 so if England declares it should be a draw.

really poor test wicket reckon cook might have an over on Sunday,

[Dr Cricket]

As a wicket remind me of the 2014 Trent bridge wicket.
Weirdly enough even in that game England collapsed in the most docile wicket was a period for about 2-3 hours where Ishant sharma made the pitch look quick lol.

Tbh after that game been a fan of Ishant sharma lol.

Looking at it now you can argue that docile wicket made England win the series 3-1. If it was a more of a better wicket and India played like they did in the first 3 days they would have been 2-0 up with 3 to play.
Reckon if that happened England would have lost the series cook sacked as captain and Kp would probably be recalled as well.

[Dr Cricket]

Last comment of the day's play but reckon Pakistan will rue not having a strong tail if they lose the game.
They really should have scored 600 or 700 on this pitch.
Quite good to actually get a pitch like this on the Same day some pathetic Aussie fans were complaining on Twitter lol about the galle pitch.

Quite baffled they actually want these 600 play 700 pitch in the subcontinent and with the slowness of the deck makes bowling and bating so boring on day 3-4.

Reckon more people enjoyed the first 2 test in Sri Lanka and the pitches in India after 2012 then the crap that was severed before then or the games like Trent bridge 2014 or today edgebaston game,


In my stand people were literally falling asleep around 3-4 pm.

[Dr Cricket]

is colville been taking something when he said today play was compulsive viewing and the next two days should be the same.

Imho people at the stadium were quite bored today.
Not sure how it looked on the tv but the cricket was quite tedious today was only interesting when pakistan were batting and Anderson/Woakes were bowling well got crap again when Anderson got banned for the innings.

[Dr Cricket]

Pakistan are trying to win this game why is sarfraz taking 1 run an over

Just taking time out of the game

Just over halfway through the game, and the pitch is increasingly looking difficult to bat on.... no chance of the draw unless it rains for me.

quite interesting at the ground the pitch look dead around this time.
imho it only felt like anderson/Woakes was getting anything out of the pitch.

Signs that Woakes could replace Anderson effectively when he call it a day.

[Dr Cricket]

Over rate is disgraceful.

Surely cook gets a 2nd warning and misbah a 1st.
said in another forum if overs are not finished for the day after 30 minutes extra time then the culprit captain get a warning. 2 warning in 12 months results in a ban.

Match referee are a joke since over rates are crap yet most captain hardly get fined or banned.
TBH Cook would be banned so many times now if I was the match referee because without a spinner england are often quite poor with the over rates.
believe England didn't bowl full 90 overs in Lords either.

TBH with my criteria most teams captains would be banned.

Surely cook is banned after this game, no way is england over rate is good enough and enough time wasted to allocate 10 overs to save Cook for the Oval test.

Quite shocking that in the past 4-5 years only one captain been banned for over rate considering how slow the overrates are these days and how often overs are lost.

[Making_Splinters]

As far as England's over rate goes, as far as I am aware they were allowed to be 9 overs short due to breaks in play, so that's fine.

Pleasantly surprised to see England fight back into this test they way they have, when the lead went past 50 I must admit to fearing the worst. But, Cook and Hales batted sensibly baring a couple of lapses in judgement such as Hales' top edge over the slips that on another day would have gone straight up in their air or Cook's edge that fell 6 inches short. Hopefully more of the same tomorrow as Hales really could do with getting his confidence back. Still a big knock from the lad in a real pressure situation.

[Durhamfootman]

given themselves a chance?

can Ando bowl again? I forget the rules