Ashes 2021-22.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Starc having a good series with the bat, as well as the ball.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Opening partnerships in the series: 7,4, 7,4,23,0.

[Gingerfinch]

Opening partnerships in the series: 7,4, 7,4,23,0.

Pretty decent if you take away the commas!

[Durhamfootman]

I thought it was 9 overs they had to face, but it seems to have only been 5

just as well, really, because they could have lost 3 wickets in those extra 4 overs

[bigfluffylemon]

Past 400. That's plenty. Even if England have their best day with the bat there will stil be a big lead.

As often happens, England get a sniff at 240-5, and can't bowl out the tail. Losing position now. Pray for rain.

[sussexpob]

Not sure I'll pray for rain. Escaping loses due to rain will only make this tour look better on paper than it was, and let people off the hook

[sussexpob]

Khawaja gets a century on his comeback!

His record at home is exceptional, so no one should be surprised he has performed. Although under the pressure of the last chance saloon, its impressive.

[yuppie]

Its great to see Khawaja get a century and see him really enjoy the moment. I never thought he would get a chance again but he is great to watch in full flow. Its also good to see the selectors reward shield form with another chance. At 35 it would have been easy to give up on national selection and chase money in other ways. By all accounts he has just made the decision to enjoy his cricket and relax.

What it does show though is that Shield cricket does prepare players for home series. 2 of the form players in shield cricket have been given the chance in this series and its no coincidence that they have played 2 of the more important innings in this series. This does create a problem for Australia. Australia is not in a situation where they can choose to drop form batsman, especially those that are making big runs.

Before this series Head and Khawaja were playing for the 5th batting spot. Both have now made a 100 in this series. So how to accommodate them both. Green has had a very poor series with the bat. Not sure where his off stump is, the experienced English bowlers seem to have worked him out. With the ball he his doing well and could be the answer to Australias 5th bowler problem. Young and destined for big things im sure Australia will stick with him in Pakistan. Carey still not doing enough to convince me his batting is good enough. With Green not making runs his lack of runs are highlighted even more. With out Cummins and Starc chipping in the batting issues at 6 and 7 would be causing major problems. As it is, Australia's runs at the end of the innings is presently covering this issue.

This leaves Harris at the top. The second best opener in this series.........his form has improved as the series has progressed. But he has not set the world alight and has not convinced many he is test class. Australia might decide to put Khawaja at the top of the order again and hope he can do a Simon Katich type job at the end of his career. The only problem with this is Katich had the defense to see off the new ball. Perhaps a more relaxed Khawaja can finally make the openers position his own?

Before this series Australia had 3 reliable batsman in Warner, Manus and Smith. Now Head and Khawaja are showing that maybe they can offer more. But how to fit all of them into the line up.

[alfie]

Reckon England would rather like to have Australia's "problem" with accommodating all their batting prospects

If any England fans are just waking up - I suggest they go back to bed. Nightmare at the "G" on replay this morning...

[sussexpob]

Guess bairstow just bought himself another 5 years of failure

[Arthur Crabtree]

First hundred of the series, first time someone other than Root and Malan went past 50.

Did Bairstow save his Test career, or would he have been able to continue at his current level of failure anyway. He has given England a chance of steering away from the whitewash, so well done to him. And Wood, Stokes.

[alfie]

Well that turned out to be worth watching after all

Looked at lunch as if it might have been done today - but the two Ginger boys played with tremendous courage and spirit to take the fight back to Australia. And Mark Wood weighed it with a swashbuckling effort at eight (the sixes off Cummins were rather fun to watch !).

Stokes had some luck all right - you don't often get away with your stump being hit at 130k plus. But he earned it. Played through pain. Showing the way. And Bairstow was quite magnificent - sensible playing himself in as it wasn't easy early on ; and then stepping up the counterattack . Don't know whether the thumb is actually broken but he was clearly in a lot of pain : but it only served to step him up a level and ensure England not only avoided the follow on but are still batting into tomorrow. That is one of the gutsiest centuries I've seen from an England batsman for a long time

Lot of work left to get out of this with a draw. Still 260 behind and who knows how much time will be lost to the "unsettled" weather. But for anyone who had been hoping for England to show some real fight , today was one to savour.

[sussexpob]

Stokes had some luck all right - you don't often get away with your stump being hit at 130k plus.

Thats the third time in recent memory thats happened to Stokes. He does get a lot of luck go his way at times.

I guess if you cant celebrate when England show some backbone though, then whats the point? Well done to the middle/lower order for at least providing a rearguard for once and putting a result in question. Australia may still fancy their chances if they can end the innings quickly tomorrow, but with weather around it may have halted the 5-0 whitewash....

[alfie]

Stokes had some luck all right - you don't often get away with your stump being hit at 130k plus.

Thats the third time in recent memory thats happened to Stokes. He does get a lot of luck go his way at times.

I guess if you cant celebrate when England show some backbone though, then whats the point? Well done to the middle/lower order for at least providing a rearguard for once and putting a result in question. Australia may still fancy their chances if they can end the innings quickly tomorrow, but with weather around it may have halted the 5-0 whitewash....

It was bizarre ! The other crazy thing was that Paul Reiffel gave him out lbw ! It missed his pads by several inches and you'd imagine it might have sounded a bit "woody" DRS was handy...

I make no prediction for Saturday. Except I'd expect some rain. Might be a bit of a question of timing for Cummins with a declaration later on though : he has got just about everything right so far !

[bigfluffylemon]

Well batted Bairstow. His overall test career notwithstanding, that was a great knock. I feared it would be all over today at 36/4, but a first (only) ton of the series, and a bit of fight from the batting was sorely needed.

Australia still a long way ahead and should still win this, but there is a fair amount of rain forecast for tomorrow, so the draw is still a narrow possibility. It's the hope that kills you