*sigh*

Best batting conditions you'll ever find... ffs.


See the Queen left early. Wigan fan?

Turns out it's not only the Australian top order who struggle with the moving ball.

Unless Root picks up a score in the second innings, he's gone and Compton will be back in. Stand by for the "told you so" chorus from the southern based media for Dennis's grandkid.

I wouldn't have moved Root up the order this soon to be honest. He's struggled against the new ball in recent test before this series, and Compton should at least have got first crack against the Aussies this time around especially considering he's been in decent form, and shown he can score runs against the Aussies in the warm up games.

Thank the lord that the Aussies didn't pick Harris in the first test!

Bugger Harris. Bugger Compton.

Root's an opener. He had to be moved up at some point and it may as well be against a low ranked side like Australia and not someone like South Africa.

Awful end to the day. Bairstow and Prior just threw away all the hard work that had been done to get us into a decent position.

Will have to bowl incredibly well to avoid a battle to save the test. Can't see anything in the wicket to suggest they cant get 400-450+

A nighchman. For Stuart Broad.
Stuart f---ing Broad. Nighchman. ARRGGGHHHHH!! F--- you, England.

Well done Twatto. Absolutely plumb, so he reviews... Genius.

lolstralia

If it was anyone else I'd almost feel sorry for them.

If England knock the last 3 over for 60 should they enforce the follow on? I'm not sure, its still a good looking pitch.

Sympathy for the Aussies? No Chance



Personally wouldn't enforce f/o. Give the bowlers a rest in this heat

Oops, it's not just Aussies that are crap batsmen.
Three cheap wickets for about thirty BOTH innings for England.
Pathetic.

Can you get us out of the clag again Bell?
It's your job to graft and be responsible while we just dick about.

The day began with two Yorkies at the crease digging England out of the mire. It ended in similar style, with a nice little knock from Bell in the middle of it.

Am I right in saying that Bresnan would have top scored in the Australian innings, and has more runs combined in this match than Cook and Pietersen?

We do what the great Aussie teams of the last 20 years did. When 1 or 2 or even 3 of the batsmen fail, others step up to the mark. KP, Captain Cook and Matty Prior will all have a decent knock at some point in the series.

That's what makes us the best batting side in world cricket right now.....

Here we go again then. Suggestion that Warner will come back at six with Steve Smith at five. Blimey. He was six places too high at six...

Some "interesting" use of bowling changes this session by Cook.

Bresnan makes the breakthrough, but only gets five overs. Swann takes a wicket in his second over and is immediately withdrawn from the attack.

Meanwhile, Anderson and Broad look as threatening as an Andrex puppy but continue to get the ball thrown in their direction.

Sounds like Khawaja got another Dharmasena special. Given out caught behind on the field, no evidence on hot spot or audio that he actually hit it, decision stands. If there's no evidence he hit it, then surely the only correct decision is not out?!

He did, a real horror show. Terrible initial decision, worse third umpire decision. Totally sawn off. Warne, rightly, fuming on commentary. Funny.

Tricky pitch. Not going to be many lbws with it so bouncy. Even session at 92/2.

You can have as much technology, as many gadgets, gizmos and gimmicks you like, it doesn't prevent incompetence.

I thought video refs were poor in rugby league. There's been some clangers in this series so far.

Nice to see the Aussies turn up finally though even if I do want the 5 0 hiding.

Rain in Manc. Who'd have thunk it? It's high time that such precipitous areas were avoided when the schedulers plan Test matches.

England (Swann apart) looking toothless on a flat pitch with no cloud cover.

No doubt that will mean either Finn, Tremlett or Onions in for the next Test in place of Bresnan, while Broad retains Golden Child status. Presumably his old man has some compromising pictures of Geoff Miller from their playing days.

Oh, and David Warner. The pantomime villain who fell into the orchestra pit. Clarke clearly too scared to tell him to stop being a halfwit and wasting reviews.

I suspect he may currently be finding that his coach spoils the stereotype of all fat people being jolly.

Maybe he thought it was such a good decision, he just wanted to see it again

Come on Manchester lets have some rain!!

For the amount of runs we get from the likes of Bairstow, Bopara and Morgan, we may as well pick an all rounder like Stokes, Woakes, or maybe Rashid.

Some decent batting in the middle session today, but we're still in the brown stuff. Need Prior, Broad and Swann to bat well, but suspect we'll bowled out for around the follow on score.

Bad captaincy from Cook this afternoon. Had a chance to put their openers in some pressure with the new ball, at least for a few overs. Instead just let them get 3 or 4 singles an over without taking any risks at all. Now just reduced to time wasting, which generally comes back to bite teams.