Nodded off at the 6am drinks break so I missed all the late innings fun.

Seems we have got under their skin and they are a bit rattled, superb. Now we need to put in a decent batting display and turn the screw on them from here.

The only downside is that I am beginning to like Jimmy Anderson as a bowler bit too much, must remember he's a Lancastrian!

You know it makes sense mate


He's bowled absolutely brilliantly so far hasn't he? Certainly dispelling all the talk of him not being able to bowl in Aussie conditions.

And a very welcome return to form from Swann too. Put pressure on at one end on a fairly unresponsive surface.

No idea what Haddin was whingeing about at the end, maybe the fact that England just waltzed off after the 1 over even though it was well after the scheduled close of play time. I seriously can't stand him, he just looks horrible, seems to think he's brilliant when he isn't and he's always gobbing off. Nothing new in an Aussie cricketer I know!

There's something curiously self-righteous about the way these Aussies react to any controversial decision going against them. They seem to feel they occupy some form of moral high ground; there always seems to be an undertone to their reactions suggesting that, in the same circumstances, they would have withdrawn their appeal or would have walked. Which of course they always do.

I read somewhere last week that the advertising stickers on the reverse of a bat have a tendency to baffle the hotspot gadget, which of course can be an advantage if you get a thin edge into the keeper's gloves, but not if you get one into your pads. Swings and roundabouts really.

Definitely, he's stepped up, developed his use of their ball and has taken on the responsibility of being our lead bowler, fair play to him, I've always had my doubts about him but so far so good and I'm happy to eat a bit of humble pie if he keeps it up.

He's not Lancastrian anymore as he hardly plays for them, he's English now

I live in Sydney, I thought I'd catch a bit of the Cricket in my lunch hour, so wandered to the local pub only to find a pub full of Aussies sat watching normal daytime TV because 'they were losing' apparantly

kind of sums up the Aussies attitude to sport in my experience, if they aint doing any good they don't want to know.



I would have asked them to change the channel but there was a lot of them and only one of me

Once a Lancastrian always a Lancastrian [size=50unless your name's Michael Vaughan[/size

Well what on earth was Strauss doing there? That's two terrible dismissals in the series already. Admittedly with a nice knock in the middle.

Two England wickets fall in the same day. We're in decline!

KP hopefully on course for an overdue ton.

Another great day for us, I think for the first time watching England I didn't worry when Strauss got out early - in times gone by I'd have been sure this was about to spark a collapse, but I was confident that Cook and Trott could go on and do what they did.

Both batsmen now in look in great touch, we should hopefully bat them out of the game tomorrow then have two days to push for the win.

Fantastic day for England, great batting again by Cook who is in top form and Trott also. Nice to see KP in the runs too, hopefully he will stay in for a while so we can get quick runs.

A great day for England.....Need to score quick now though, some ropey weather is forecast.....I'd be looking to score 250+ in 2 sessions tomorrow (320+ lead), and then get the Aussies in and go for their throat......Aussies looked totally dispirited and look to be there for the taking if body language is anything to go by.

There's only 2 days of this Test gone. I would be looking to bat at least the full day tomorrow. Just accumulate runs and make the Aussies field all day. Let Cook and Pietersen both get double hundreds no matter how long it takes them. I would not declare at anything short of 600.

In Mark Taylor's book he said that the Aussies belief on declarations was always that if you score 600 runs in a game you are probably not going to lose, ie if you're all out for 450 in the first innings you should look for a quick 150 second innings then declare. Obviously its not that hard and fast as you need to judge what the other team got and how long is left, but its a good rule of thumb, and it means in the first innings don't declare unless you have 600.

Personally I think that's a load of twaddle. Would look like we are playing not to lose the test rather than win it. I'd like to see us bat through until tea or maybe just after then have an hour or so at them in the evening. See if we can knock 1 or 2 over. Far harder for the Ozzies to come in and have a bat having been tonked around all day than having a good nights kip before hand.

Taylor declared on 501 at Headingley in the 1997 series. He also declared in the low 200s in the same series at Lord's when England had amassed a gargantuan 77 in their 1st innings.

This series so far just shows what being patient with players and coaches does in sport. Look at Cook, a player many were calling for to be removed from the England squad. He's looked terrible in recent years and I've seen many a test where he's been walking consistently on low figures. But now he looks unbeatable.

The Aussies don't look anything special but England need to be absolutely ruthless. They've got all day today to amass a lead, but from the start of Aussie's 2nd innings they need to forget the score and just go 100% for wickets. This games is rather similar to the last test, but it's Australia who look certain to lose. I wouldn't put it past the Aussies to bat through 1 1/2 days on that pitch. It just looks perfect for batting to me.

Yes - but when you show patience with players, then the coach gets criticised for always picking "the same old faces". To change sports look at rugby league - Brian Noble was always accused of having his favourites, players who picked themselves, harder to get out of the team than in it. We had a team under Noble which got sporadic successes against the Aussies, and was generally not too far behind them, but fans were saying we should be giving other guys a go.

In the last couple of years every Tom Dick and Harry has had a run out for England and we are miles behind them....

He was probably feeling confident seeing as he had McGrath and Reiffel on a seaming Headingley wicket...

just been reading in the aussie papers that brett lee has been doing well in league cricket again and there are growing calls for him to return to test cricket, which will grow louder should the aussie lose this test. anyone think this could happen? god knows they need a quick bowler

contrast this with the aussie appraoch - booting mitchel johnson out after one poor test - anyone think england could go through the whole series unchanged?

It's a total role reversal, when we were going through our (long) 80's/90's bad patch we'd be chopping and changing the side from test to test in the vain hope something worked.

Ton up for KP! Very pleased to see him looking confident again.

They finally get Cook out, good take from the keeper to be fair.

Hopefully Collingwood comes in and carries on the good work.

Well played Cook, good knock lad

Cook deserves a rest!

Outstanding effort from him and what a way to answear his critics who wanted him out before this series.

I just hope England don't lose concentration here and lose some momentum. I'd like to think on this pitch we could get up towards the 600 mark in time to put them in for a decent spell this evening.