Australia need 412 in second innings to beat England: T1D3

Australia 308 (84.5ov, Rogers 95, Clarke 38, Smith 33, Voges 31, Watson 30, Anderson 3/43, Broad 2,60, Wood 2/66, Ali 2/71) need 412 runs in their yet to begin  second innings to beat England 430 & 289 (70.1 ov, Bell 60/129b/11x4, Root 60/133b/9x4, Lyon 4/75, Hazlewood 2/49, Starc 2/60, John son 2/69): T1/5 D3/5 at Cardiff.

Australia lost 5/44  as its middle and lower order failed to enhance its collective and some individual reputations against a tight England pace attack.  With a comfortable 122 first innings lead the home team lost early wickets as an injured Mitchell Starc drew inspiration from Ryan Harris and inspired his fellow bowlers to follow his example. Adam Lyth,  Ian Bell and Joe Root took the initiative back with bold strokeplay though once they were separated -and this took some doing- the rest hit out breezily obviating the need for a declaration and setting D 4 up nicely ( at least if you are an England supporter).

Credit where credit is due: England should win, and deservedly so, from here. Whether they,d have preferred to keep a couple of wickets up their sleeve (and thus Australia in the field for some time on D4) is probably of little consequence.

As it is Austrsalia have been out played, and in some respects embarassingly so;  numbers 3,4,5 and 6 all reached 30 yet Michael Clarke,s 38 was (certainly to my and perhaps to his surprise) the highest scorer of a moderate lot.

England should win from this point. I hope that Australia make them fight hard by batting resolutely and posiively. The bowlers, for all their lapses of line and length, did persevere in England''s second  innings (special mention of Mitchell Johnson): perhaps the batters can draw some fortitude if not inspiration from them.


Scorecard