Please no knee-jerk reactions of how bad Australia must have been, or how we should bin all the batsmen and bring in some county standard no-hopers.

However, simple facts that need to be acted on....

1. KP is world-class, probably our only true world-class batsman....However, he is both out of form and confidence - He needs the proverbial kick up the backside. However, to drop him is a silly idea. Would be akin to the Aussies dropping Ponting or Hussey.

2. Ian Bell is a good bat....However, he has no steel - He's another Graeme Hick, looks fine when the team's on top, looks an absolute bottler when he needs to knuckle down.....I wouldn't drop him, but would definitely get him a shrink to sort his head and heart out.

3. Eoin Morgan has to be dropped....He is not a Test player, never will be....I said it in summer, he's another Neil Fairbrother....Fine one-day player, but never suited to the rigours of 5 day cricket.

England can come back in this series, but they need to knuckle down and not think that all teams are going to be like the spineless Indian side they demolished in the summer.

We played superb cricket against the aussies. It's one bad game, maybe it will be a bad series but we have been consistent for a long time now.

In the longer format, England have been consistent albeit against limited opposition (India in England were injury ravaged and out on their feet IMO).

Performances in the ODIs in India however, followed by the last three days, are indicative of a bunch of players who seem to believe their own hype and think they only have to turn up to win.

As for Pietersen being world class, don't make me giggle. He's a flat-track bully with no thoughts about anything other than his own ego. His shot selection in this game would have been enough to get a club cricketer dropped to the Seconds in a flash.

By and large he plays the way he plays, looks awful when it doesn't come off, destructive and crowd pleasing when it does, it just seems to more of the former of late.

I think the aussies have something similar in Warner, looks like a specialist ODI players playing test cricket and will fail more often than not imo, but great to watch when it's his day.

Pakistan batting 122-4

Good to see Monty picked, and justified by picking up an early wicket.

Big morning tomorrow, need that tail polished off pronto & then Engload to bat well against seam & spin. A strong Day 2 and we'll be in the driving seat, I still think that it'll be hard to get them out a second time so time in the game will be vital.

Fingers crossed it goes well and we head to a decider.

Monty bowled better than the bare stats showed today, Broad was magnificent.

Pleased to see Jimmy get two this morning. Really good bowling display, could have been less than 200 had we held our catches.

Reasonable start with the bat, as soon as the spinners come on the momentum switches but 48-1 at lunch is a solid enough start.

207-5 at the close, Pietersen and Morgan looking like fish out of water again...

Bit of a mini collapse towards the end of the day there. Morgan is never a test player, and KP yet again fails. The game itself though is shaping up well.

This is the first time I've seen Ajmal bowl, and I must admit that action seems a little dodgy.

good work from Broad with the bat again, Pakistan 36-2

60/4

Looking good in the Pakistan second innings, we've got them 4 down still in deficit.

A good trait in this current England test side has been the ability we have to bounce back when we suffer a rare defeat.

great catch - in the tennis https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/s ... atch-video And Rodney Hogg makes a of himself on twitter www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/hog ... 1qix9.html

great catch - in the tennis https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/s ... atch-video And Rodney Hogg makes a of himself on twitter www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/hog ... 1qix9.html

Chasing anything more than 200 and Pakistan will be favourites.....160-200 target and its an even money game.

We need to be batting by midway through the afternoon session to give ourselves a favourites chance.

Just looking at Broad's stats, averaging close to 30 with the bat and maturing with the ball, very good 'all round' player now, always there to take the fight to the oppo when it's not all going England's way www.espncricinfo.com/england/con ... 10617.html

Just looking at Broad's stats, averaging close to 30 with the bat and maturing with the ball, very good 'all round' player now, always there to take the fight to the oppo when it's not all going England's way www.espncricinfo.com/england/con ... 10617.html

6 for for Monty

145 to win

Ffs

Our approach to this run chase has been appalling, seems we were just hoping to play very defensively and pick off the runs little by little, which has led to us inviting pressure and letting Pakistan get their tails up.

Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

Collapse of all collapses.

You have to build a half decent innings before you have a collapse. Couldn't even get half the runs.

Nostalgia

Indeed, that was proper old school England

at England!