Weren't complaining in the first test when the same rule saved one of your own.

They should either scrap the whole bloody stupid thing and just go back to the on-field umpire making a decision, or they give the whole tv review to the umpiring team and let them use it without this stupid "appeal" process involving the teams.

It's also unattractive for a different reason, because it is actively encouraging players to question and contest the umpire's decision.

mike hussey is the doyle brunson of cricket imo

Don't remember us having a successful appeal in the first test; Swann and Broad squandered our two "lives" in our first innings, and I don't remember us reviewing at all in the second innings.

Anyway, I'm quietly confident in saying that I've been against the UDRS itt since before you even registered on this forum. The fact that I didn't manage to make a post about it every time it fails is neither here nor there.

When a reviewed decision can be both out and not out, depending on the first decision, that means that it is still allowing errors. So what's the point of the whole exercise if the design of the system still intrinsically allows this ludicrous ambiguity?

Four wickets in pretty quick successsion, this is getting interesting...

England are capable of chasing 400 to win this. It's not yet tea on Day 3, so time isn't an issue.

Oh hai England

agree. i think this session before the end of the day w/the new ball is key

england 3 down with strauss, cook and collingwood in the sheds.

With no weather in sight for the next few days, I predict this match wont be a draw

sorry, kp instead of collingwood

collingwood out on the last ball of the day...

5 down and still yet to crack 100, its more of a case of if not when touchwood

amazing how England always seem to crumble when the pressure is put on them; just a pack of downhill skiers imo

Collingwood is a massive liability and has to be replaced, is there anyone capable of replacing him though

I think Eoin Morgan is probably the better batsman than Collingwood, but Collingwood is an amazing fielder and can bowl a bit to give the seamers a rest at times. I don't understand why Bell doesn't bat above him though.

I think there's no room for bits and pieces allrounders in test match cricket. If you can bat a bit, bowl a bit, and field really well you're a very good utility player in one dayers and t20's since you can bowl a few overs economically and add value to the team that way but in test matches that won't fly and you need one genuine strength.

If Collingwood's better than all the batsmen England has in reserves then fine but otherwise I'd prefer a genuine batsman at that position. If you're lucky enough to be blessed with a genuine all rounder then that's great otherwise I prefer a 6 genuine batsmen, wk, 4 bolwers calssic lineup for tests.

I totally agree with this, but if you look at Collingwood's Test batting average, he deserves to be there as a batsman on merit. I personally think he's run above expectation and that there are better batsmen in reserve. In what I see as a very strong, settled side, this is probably the spot which gives me most concern. I really don't think I'd mind seeing Morgan replacing Collingwood.

Recent history, has seen us fail to follow through after getting in a game winning position, but CMON 1 TIME DEALER

Umpire was poor. decision review worked very well as far as I can see. prevented the howler of Hussey being given out lbw and made no difference to the close one.

i think you cant drop collingwood from the team for the matches in melbourne and sydney. The pitches are so low and slow to drop him, plus with no 4th pace option they really need his seamers

well i scored a ticket to the game today, all 45 minutes of it...

1-1 bring on melbourne. Also trip report from day 2 coming...

So the ashley12 trip report from the second day of the third test at the WACA.



LOL #1 was with the tickets. A friend of mine was put in charge of getting tickets together for the day, and the general consensus was to get wickets on one of the two grassy banks that are on the side boundaries of the oval. When he ordered the tickets, one of the grass banks had "limited" alcohol areas, so he decided to sit on the other one. Turns out that the other section was a complete alcohol free zone, so that was a decent bit of fail from us.

So after 15 minutes of sitting down and not drinking, we decided to get alcohol, and found that there were a number of free seats in block 10, around 6 rows back. So we decided to sit their instead, and got to watch the first session comeback knocking over most of the English top order. This is when LOL #2 came in.

Cricket Australia were selling a number of mini radio headsets so that you could listen to the commentary from Channel 9 TV and ABC radio for $20. I decided what the hell and bought one. Turns out that Vodafone were giving away almost identical small headsets for free for Vodafone customers. All good, since Im not with Vodafone anyway, but it also happened for another company that they have merged with, which is 3, which I am with, and could have got the headset for free. So LOL #2.

At lunch, which consisted of a dodgy overpriced midstrength beer and a dodgy overpriced roast beef roll, I ended up sitting in the Prindiville stand, where there were apperently extra seats where a friend of my friend hadnt showed for the day. Being almost directly behind the bowlers arm for the majority of Johnson's onslaught was rather great fun. I also got deep into conversation with a few Englishmen about all things Perth, football, cricket and it was nice to be able to have a chat with having someone threaten to take it outside, which is what one group of Poms had asked me when my mate cared to point out that Pieterson hadnt made many runs and it was the Englishman in him coming out over his South African heritage.

So tea, more dodgy beer, and later in the day my friends in the Prindiville stand had to leave for work/other things (LOL #3), so I decided to back down in block 10, which was rather close to where the Barmy Army was sitting. For the most part, the barmy Army was a decent laugh, but there were a few peanuts involved, and a few people missing a few brain cells. This shirt I saw on a few people made me laugh though.



After tea two new people sat down two rows across from me and proceeded to give a barrage of abuse to Pieterson, Tremlett and anyone else that was fielding within the vicinity. It wasnt clever and witty remarks, or even something like "Pieterson old chap, I dare say you didn't make many runs today hm yes..." but a barrage of drunken slurring and swearing. It was the sour point of the day that people like this, who ruin a pretty good day out for most, are still allowed to even walk the planet, let alone step foot inside a cricket ground off a leash.

LOL #4 was remembering that I dad an indoor soccer game afterwards, and during the last session made a number of msg's looking for players. Playing 5 a side, we ended up with a grand total of 3, and recruited someone from the rec centre we were playing with, not unlike England's 12th man in 2005 . We actually ended up playing against a team with a few English guys in it, and they had 4 subs and actually had fans. We went ahead 7-3 at half time, lost the fill-in to injury for the first 5 minutes of the second half, scored two goals anyway to make it 9-3 with 2 outfield players vs 4, before our fill-in played in goals and literally couldnt move. In hindsight we probably should have played with 3 since he was terrible in goals relative to me, and we ended up conceding 6 goals in the last 10 minutes to draw 9-9 with effectively 2 players since I couldnt run partly due to sunburn and partly due to my body shape being more Mark Cosgrove then Michael Clarke.

Overall, day was great and the English I would say made up about 35% of the crowd, and about 80% of the noise. Im probably going to be at the ODI on the 6th Febuary as well so if anyone here is going to that then say hello.

Also, I went today and actually sat right behind where the hotspot system works. Its basically just two guys and a smalll little laptop displaying the feed from the camera, and IMO I thought it would have been a bit more then that. Ticket wasnt worth what I paid a mate for it for only 45 minutes of action lol.

So bring on Melbourne. Since there is almost always a result in Sydney due to the pitch always falling apart in the last few days, avoiding defeat is almost the same as winning. Obviously we want to win the Melbourne test and then hopefully make 1200 in the first innings in Sydney to get the Ashes back, but at least we havent been swept before Christmas unlike your lot last year

England need to get a sledging coach asap imo. KP's teasing of Mitch Johnson probably lost them the match and perhaps the series . You just leave basket cases like Johnson alone so they can self destruct. Much better targets in the Australian side would be the young blokes and Ricky Ponting.

Will be interesting to see if Ponting makes it to Melbourne. If he doesnt then we can just about surrender the series with Clarke as captain (on form I dont think he should be in the team anyhow). If we do lose this series and Ponting gives it away then I think Mr Cricket has definitely brought himself back into contention for the job given recent form.

good tr ashley. sorry about my earlier most. I was just a bit angry and it was a few randoms rather than the majority. i was in blok 8 ashley. yes today was especially bad. i didn't expect them to reach lunch but i thought theyd make the first drinks break.

england just really struggle on really quick, bouncy pitches. the game was almost exactly the same as the last test in south africa last winter, where after brilliant performances in past games they just couldn't deal with the pace of the wicket. Also as i said earlier losing broad is massive. even though tremlett had a great match broad is the second most influential member of the team imo(hussey is batting the most influential(swann) out of the series)), his general allround game cannot be replaced.

Hussey though has been simply brilliant though, all credit to him given how close to being dropped he was before the series started.

oh well onto melbourne, meant to be a drop in pitch and on past form could be a draw but boxing day should be great with the series poised at 1-1 and 90+ thousand there.

How can Ponting not make it to Melbourne now?

Mr Cricket isn't the future, Just as you lot have finally realised just how moronic the idea of not playing him was you will have to face up to his retirement.

Merry xmas all, cricket on xmas night in England is a reat treat.

Classic England. :/

broken finger apparently.

re. the captaincy, given the recent form of clarke and alleged lack of popularity from the playing group/staff I see Hussey now as the best option even if its only for a couple of seasons until a better option presents itself.

we had the aussies at 36-4 in the first innings. engloland