With 2 days left my prediction is a draw. The ashes are overated, playing India often brings better matches.

yeah right 😉

setting up nicely. Good to see it’s not just England batsmen that play daft shots when the pressure’s on. An opener caught at deep square when a bloke’s just been put there and you’re on negative score, and Kohli nicking off to one on 5th stump line. Lovely……

The Hundred’s like a burger. A tasty, juicy burger, with all the trimmings in a toasted bun. Fabulous for what it is. But this is like a 5 course tasting menu with wines to match.

Cracker from Moeen 🙂

He’s a great player but I really can’t warm to Kohli as a captain or person

I mean, he’s actually right about the light (daft rule, floodlights being on and all) but the way he goes about it is almost contemptuous of the umpires.

Intriguing final day hopefully! Wonder if England will turn down chasing 200 odd like v NZ if they roll the tail over tomorrow morning?

might be a better bet to chase, Bairstow Buttler and Ali might prefer it that way

An assertive England captain chasing 200 odd in 2 sessions on the final day would be entertaining and what we want to see.

Root OTOH will probably ask his openers to drop anchor for the first 25 overs then – no doubt with himself and AN Other at the crease – still opt to bat it out rather than go for the win.

I admire him greatly as a player, but he’s far too conservative IMO.

Last time we had the chance to chase we didn’t have the likes of Butler, Barstow and Moeen in the side. Different proposition today. Just hope the weather holds

Seems the team looks so much more balanced with Bairstow and Moeen in the side. Drop Sibley, move Hameed to open (yes, I know he got a duck but we can’t drop him quickly again and batting at 3 is so different phycologically to opening which is what he normally does) with Pope (or Lawrence) at 3 and you have the makings of a reasonable batting line-up again.

I feel for Jack Leach, but unless Stokes and/or Woakes are fit, the tail is just to long with him in the team I’m afraid.

Get in!!!!!

8 down.

trying their best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at the moment

With India’s 9 and 10 scoring runs for fun, methinks this game is just edging beyond our grasp. Bowl them out in 20 mins and it might be game on, but have them stick around until after lunch and there’ll be next to no chance, even with the likes of Bairstow, Buttler and Ali.

Ohhhhhhhh FFS

errr crap.

Root’s 180 seems a long time ago!

All over by tea at this rate.

Just popped in to see how we’re doing:

Byes are doing well!

Wow. With the score on 66-3, you might be wondering who our second top scorer is… well, it’s Extras on 23! That’s insane.

oh dear oh dear oh dear 🙁

From being in the driving seat at 11:30 this morning to facing another defeat, this England side really has a to take a look at itself. Feels like we’re back to that age old conundrum of working out who should open.

a record for the ages

Sam Curran completes the first king pair by a Test batsman at Lord's, and Siraj is on another hat-trick. Kohli is delirious.

— Lawrence Booth (@the_topspin) August 16, 2021

It’s all getting a bit nasty

Without extras England would be 68-7.

I said yesterday. Kohli is a nasty piece of work. He sets the tone, same as the snarling Aussie sides of the past, his team follows.

I’d quite fancy Ollie Robinson to shove that bat up Siraj at some point. Possibly sideways.

Tell me the Hundred is better than this?

Where is Monty when you need a last man stand with Jimmy?

it has the advantage of being free to view on the telly as opposed to only for those with sky

And there’s another dismal defeat for England. Well played India.

Difficult to see where England go from here.

Four ducks (and a nought not out) for England. Root top scoring on 33, why can’t England bat?

Spanked by NZ, spanked by India, about to be spanked by Aus. I suppose it’s one way of re-living my childhood.

So, how do you fix it? Who comes in? What needs to change?

Can’t see much changing in the short term. Our domestic game doesn’t produce good test players and you can’t fix that overnight. Best we can hope for is that everyone else has the same issue so they become as crap as us and tests are at least competitive.

I’m not one for swapping and changing players. As I say, it’s not as thought there are lots of good test players waiting. But it’s hard to see how Sibly stays in the side now. He gets a lot of stick for his slow scoring and the one defence was that one day we might need someone who can just stick at the crease and help us grind out a draw. But when we did he went for a duck!

Hameed to open and Malan in at 3 is the obvious move, but it’s just a sticking plaster and will probably be the final nail in the coffin of Hameed’s test career.

Hameed, Jennings, Compton, Burns, Sibley, Ballance, Stoneman, Hales, Vince, Denly…..

Lathwell, Gallian, Crawley (J), Maynard, Morris, Bailey, Knight, Butcher…..

Ah, the memories….

My feeling its nothing to do with skills but its about the mental preparation / attitudes. England clearly had enough batsmen with enough skills to bat out if not win – but something between the ears is wrong.

Hameed to open and Malan in at 3 is the obvious move, but it’s just a sticking plaster

Yep, that’s my thoughts, or Pope at 3. I think Hameed was OK in his second innings, he’ll be better opening.

I’m not one for swapping and changing players.

Neither am I, but there are several players in the team with 20+ test matches and very little to show for it. Root is a terrible captain (what was he thinking yesterday morning!) and the best bowler is now 39 years old.

I find it interesting that Vaughan and Trescothick were selected despite modest first class averages – makes me wonder about the quality of England’s current scouting system.

Vaughan and Tres were selected on the basis of being made ‘of the right stuff’ – good enough technically (you could argue Tres wasn’t really, limited shot repertoire etc.) but going to be able to stand up to the Aussies mentally.

This was a part of Fletcher’s selection process – who do you think can stand up to the pressure, which is where I think we struggle currently.