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.

Not complaining but what the hell is Ponting doing, this field to KP is ridiculous!!

Expecially when it's meduim pacers dropping it short. Right now the only person who looks like getting KP out is himself if he gets too adventurous.



Is that 450 runs for Cook in the series now? Outstanding, he looked mentally drained last night when doing his aftermatch comments.

pitch still looks a belter for batting - get to the afternoon session 3 or 4 down and the runs could really flow in the afternoon

Theres been a few interesting bounces etc for me to think there could be something in it for our bowlers.

I think they already are - 66 runs in 70 mins and the longer KP stays in the more the runs will flow.

450-3





Over 5 runs an over in that session, hope KP can go on to improve his 158 to a double ton!

Bat out the next session then have a half hour slog in the last before putting Ozzies back in. Get em 2 down tonight and we are laughing.

Bar a collapse that is exactly what I would do.

We have them on the ropes here, just hope we can finish them off!