well its interesting for sure. ballance and root are offically "in" right now. both are tipping on towards half or full centuries. if they can deliver then really england have got out of it. equally a couple wickets now and england are phooked.
153/3 root progressing... ballance struggling on manfully. Its a pity ballance isn't in form as frankly the ball is getting older and the pitch is dead so scoring should be there. half way to 300 and the ball is 41 overs gone... 100 partnership now. so really if i said 150/2 to you at 10:30am you'd say ok no? another 50 runs here and it aint too bad.
175/3 44 overs left today including new ball i suppose. 87 for root and 49 for ballance. Getting close to squeeky bum time. Aussies will be trying to rack up pressure.
well.... the batting has some to go for fure but you cannot tell until they get in amongst us again. stoke and buttler are our next two. Ali was out of form IMO so not expecting ayhting there. I'd want another say 100 out of this pair min before getting confident. broad woud like a 30 or so as well. It could go badly wrong if thye get in amongst us but in the end the pitch is dead and the ball is now half done and the sun is out too. It should be a dead pitch and dead ball for another 25/30 overs.
I think the first test is so important in this series, as they usually are, as they set the tone. Sometimes they can turn on one incident. It remains to be seen whether Haddin dropping Root when he was on dot, might prove to be that moment.
root has done wonders for the run rate too. 3.82 per over over 50 overs. about 4 will be very good this series
