The Ashes: 3rd Test, Perth

3rd Test Perth, December 14-18, 2017

Australia:
Bancroft, Warner, Khawaja, Smith *, S Marsh, M Marsh, Paine †, Starc, Cummins, Lyon, Hazelwood

England:
Cook, Stoneman, Vince, Root *, Malan, Bairstow †, Ali, Woakes, Overton, Broad, Anderson

Subject to a final pitch inspection it looks as though Mitchell Marsh will replace Handscomb and England will remain unchanged.

The toss in about 7 hours for this last Ashes Test at the WACA.

Hi LD - thanks for the thread. With Surrey having signed Mitch Marsh for next season, I'll be particularly interested to see how he does. If he can maintain a regular squad place, that'll clash with part of the English county season and muck up Surrey's plans.

He is the definitive "horses for courses" selection, guildford, if we discount any 'political' reasoning behind this particular comeback. I heard mention yesterday (from Smith) of Peter Handscomb still being strongly in the frame for the last 2 Tests. However, if Mitch does shine on his home turf in both the batting & bowling departments; then yes, he may possibly disrupt Surrey's early season plans.  But hopefully not the whole season.  

England lost the first test on the second morning. They lost the second inside the first fourteen overs. This game, however, is a foregone conclusion before we even start. And you can still get 8/13 on Australia to win this test match; which is almost as generous as the 4/7 initially available on the hosts winning the series. Staggering, splendid, stupefying stuff.

I would love for the English to prove me wrong, but I can't see where the requisite runs and wickets are coming from.

And England have an atrocious record when they play at the WACA. Lost by 150 runs. Lost by 267 runs. Lost by 206 runs. Lost by an innings and 48 runs. Lost by seven wickets (in three days).

And that's just in my lifetime!

They're certainly won't be as much movement for the bowlers as there was at Adelaide, which must be a huge concern for the tepid, slow English attack. Root and Bairstow will need to contribute the bulk of the runs, it seems, for England to make a fight of it.

I think Warner's due a big innings. And what's the likelihood that Root wins the toss and elects to field again?!

Game on!

Hoping to wake up at 5am to Cook and Stoneman in bat!

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Hoping to wake up at 5am to Cook and Stoneman in bat!

After rolling Australia out for 50? Or is that an optional extra?

Quite sad how Dennis Lillee won't be present for this last match at the WACA due to some ill feelings in the fallout with the state government and developers during his time as President on the WACA board. It would be nice to see Terry Alderman there though...

Duty281 wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Hoping to wake up at 5am to Cook and Stoneman in bat!

After rolling Australia out for 50? Or is that an optional extra?

ill take the 50 out option and still be pessimistic

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5133944/ashes-2017-18-third-test-england-cricket-perth-bookies-rig-plot/

Not sure what to make of this.

Root wins and chooses to bat first.

For the love of goodness England, apply yourselves.

think we had to bat, after the last decision of bowling first then bowling so terribly and added threat of lyon

Yes, absolutely the right decision. England's only chance is to put the Aussies under scoreboard pressure.

England win the toss and will bat.

26/1. Australia persist with their full-pitched, aggressive tactic and it pays dividends. Cook gone.

Olly won't be waking up with his hopes realised.

starc with cooks number again. full and straight and just missed it

Enjoying Stoneman's battle with the Australian quicks. Short, full or good, he's dealing with it. Vince is being very patient, and leaving well on length.

Impressed with Starc's opening burst. Excellent pace. Won't be long before the Lyon.

So disappointing from Vince. He has been patient and built his innings well; now he's had a nothing poke outside off and perished. Wasted his hard work over the past hour and a bit.

Tips the session toward Australia.

Stoneman dropped off Marsh on 52. Should have been taken.

Pivotal?

Root out with a flick down the leg side. 115/3.

With Stoneman on the back foot, this is a glorious opportunity for Australia in what are tremendous batting conditions.

Stoneman has been peppered with some great bouncers and offered up two chances which weren't taken. England on the ropes on 115 for 3.

Woke up to see Root get strangled down the leg side - one of those unfortunate ones that if things are going your way will go for four...!

Malan and Stoneman up against fierce, hostile and world-class fast bowling from the three Aussie quicks.

But they're surviving...

What an awful, shambolic, disgraceful, disgusting decision.

Are you kidding me??? How is that out???

That is even worse than the Woakes decision.

Nothing on Hotspot. A spike on snicko that could have been off either glove (one was off the bat; the other was on).

It needed a closer look. It needed more time spent over it. In rugby (both codes) they don't rush it when they refer it to the TMO.

How can that be overturned?!

Poor Stoneman. He has worked so bloody hard.

I ain’t watching this anymore when you have umpires being as incompetent as this lot have been all series - what happened to needing “conclusive” evidence to overturn a decision? Now it’s just done on the whim of the third umpire.

Pathetic. The ICC need to look into that by Dar

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:I ain’t watching this anymore when you have umpires being as incompetent as this lot have been all series - what happened to needing “conclusive” evidence to overturn a decision? Now it’s just done on the whim of the third umpire.

Pathetic. The ICC need to look into that by Dar

If that was Steve Smith batting I bet he stays with the onfield decision

I sometimes wonder about the future of Cook. I don't know whether Cook will meet the same fate as Peterson after last 5-0 whitewash. The once English run machine, who made me believed that he will break Tendulkar's 51 Century record is not standing up to his own level.

Looking at today's score at 155/4, I am imagining another 5-0 win for Australia.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:I ain’t watching this anymore when you have umpires being as incompetent as this lot have been all series - what happened to needing “conclusive” evidence to overturn a decision? Now it’s just done on the whim of the third umpire.

Pathetic. The ICC need to look into that by Dar

If that was Steve Smith batting I bet he stays with the onfield decision

Didn't get home in time to see it..but the (Australian) radio commentators were very critical of the decision. Now the TV boys have produced another angle view which Warne says makes it clear the call was correct...
Hmm. Not quite certain as some suggestion it took a glove which was not on the bat ? I can't make any judgement on what I've seen but I do think it rather odd that the decision to overturn the not out was made so quickly...and apparently without viewing the so called "decisive" angle.
Have seen many apparently less doubtful cases subjected to endless replays before a decision was made so hardly surprising the rush to judgement in this case wound Joe Root up...

This WACA pitch looks a bit more lively than the last couple of years. Nice for playing strokes too but definitely something there for the bowlers.
Makes for entertaining cricket. England will be disappointed that once again no one has yet gone on after a start...Vince went as he usually does , Root rather against the run of play out to a strangle down leg ; and Stoneman (controversially or not) eventually falling to a short pitched barrage : he battled it courageously ; but you'd have to say he was struggling to survive for a while...
Malan has showed plenty of spirit. Not all his shots totally convincing ; but still there at tea.

Need a serious partnership.

Cook is becoming a concern. Thought he played quite well second innings in Adelaide ; but missed a straight one early today and the run of outs is growing...
Not betting against him bouncing back yet though : he's had rough patches before. I shouldn't think his eyes are going yet so a bit of technical work may get him back on track - though it's tough in the middle of an Ashes Series , especially now the matches are so close together.
A lot depends on his appetite : how much does he want to go on? Think England need him for a year or two yet so I hope he can recover...

Well it could be better, but to be honest at the start of play I would have taken 180-4 around tea time and about 270-5 at the close of play. Still a lot of work to do this session but hopefully we will still be in the game at the end of the first day.

Fifty for Malan

I like Malan. May not quite have the "class " you'd really want in an England top order batsman ; but he seems to really work at getting the best out of his skill set...and it's early , he may improve as he goes on.
Dare I say some comparisons with Collingwood might be made ?

Alfie this is now the most extrended rough patch of his career. Added to him being distinctly cagey about his future the real worry is that hes just lost the desire and especially with the teams backs up against it he isnt fired up to get back on course. Totally agree with your ending statement, England dont have a top 3 at all. His record over the past year or so has been no better than those at 2 and 3 who have come and gone through the revolving door of uncertainty.
Stonemans had another decent innings, but just isnt ever going to be a quality test opener. Vince isnt a test 3, I do feel its unfair to judge him solely on his struggles here (and hes done no worse than others in the top 4 recently) but hes surely nothing more than a gap filler. Jennings is still an option, but the summer exposed that he like Stoneman is a decent county pro who can do a job and no more. Hameed may be the future, but theres still big questions on him notably around his ability to switch between defense and scoring. Hales and Roy arent really test openers but I suspect we will see one or both given a shot in team next year, especially if Cook does retire.

Anyway decent rebuilding job from the middle order, and so far Bairstow highlighting just how stupid it was to play him at 7/8. I still feel he could be a place higher again, but at least we have proper batsmen batting together and some support when one of these fall. Malans continuing to do enough to vindicate selection, whilst again being one of those players you cant help feeling is never going to be a world beater. 300 -350 isnt going to be enough runs with the attack they have, but at least the earlier wickets didnt lead to a full collapse. Im gonna say it ....they need a good century form someone, Im not sure Malan is really good enough to get there or that Bairstow will have enough partners to.
Itll be interesting to see if they try to open up a bit more now that Bairstow is well set and Malan has his half century, whilst the second string bowlers are on ahead of the new ball. The next 15 overs is the time to be accumulating some runs...but equally England will really not want to lose another wicket ahead of that new ball.

Cook has definitely had worse periods in his career than this - he scored a double hundred five tests ago! He's just out of nick again - it's a shame, but its what has always happened throughout his career. I'm sure he'll turn it around again at some point, it just looks like it might not be in this series.

Stoneman looks a decent stop gap to me - got a really poor decision today. Really poor

Good day all - just joining the play. 217/4. Looks a kind of familiar scoreboard. Maybe a bit better than usual with this partnership offering England an opportunity or, perhaps, just more false hope.

Does the scoreboard tell the whole story? Thanks, folks.

Hi guildford

Has been another day of starts not converted : but I think fair to say the intent shown by the batsmen has been quite impressive. On another day Root won't get that tickle down leg ...and the good scoring rate early on might have put them in a stronger position.

Has been entertaining stuff : some very testing bowling - pitch quicker than most here expected - and a lot of boundaries.

I agree with Olly that Stoneman has been by no means disgraced : he's been worked over pretty thoroughly a few times in this series but he's not sold his wicket easily : I think he will do a job in conditions that suit him better - and for most England bats Australian conditions are as alien as they're going to get.

I'd call it reasonably promising at the moment but really need someone to go big...

Just to add : Hazlewood has been the outstanding bowler ; very impressive. His attack on Stoneman after lunch was apparently something to behold !

This century partnership has hauled England back onto their feet from beingbon their knees on 131 for 4..If England can get through to close at around 300 for 5 they will have edged it.

From what I've seen it's been a good even day of cricket - Aussies have bowled well, and we've worked hard and are beginning to put ourselves into a half decent position.

Cook just missed a straight one - 91mph yorker from Starc but you'd hope he'd keep it out.

Vince apparently battled hard, but then got out in his usual fashion wofting outside the off stump.

Root as Alfie said just got a tickle down the legside - 99 times out of 100 it goes for four, but today was caught!

Stoneman shouldn't have been given out imo. The TV have spent a half hour looking at it, and have found an angle that *might* show it was out, but Aleem Dar decided that after seeing no mark on hotspot and one angle of snicko (which was very very unclear what it hit) that it was enough to overturn the onfield decision. If you're going to use the technology inaccurately, what's the point of having it? Same with the Woakes dismissal last test, if Hotspot doesn't show the edge, but you still overturn the decision based off just a debatable snicko - why even have Hotspot in the first place?

Bairstow and Malan are going well so far touch wood.

Hazlewood has been mightily impressive, and as ever I think Cummins has been really good

Well this is now looking very good from Malan and Bairstow...I may have to reappraise my opinion of Malans chances of a good century ( although he did get a couple of lives including an umpires decision on review)

Theyve done well to score heavily on the old ball without reckless play, if they can keep this up and survive to the new one then Englands position will look strong. But the real tests will be that new ball.

If nothing else its good to see some fight and a partnership.

Hi Alfie and Olly - thanks for the overviews. It's encouraging at the moment - 250 up. Malan looking sensibly confident and Bairstow batting solidly in the knowledge that it's not all resting on him. However, we all know how quickly that can change, particularly with the new ball not far off.

I thought I saw Smith warming up a couple of minutes ago and here he is. Keep the concentration going ....

One thing I like about Malan is that he is gritty. He has dug in at Adelaide and now here when the chips were really down. 257 for 4 and partnership is now 126.

Great 50 from Bairstow.

Malan is now the leading run scorer in the series...

Well theyve reduced Oz to giving Smith a bowl, thats a sign of just how solid these two are looking now ...and just how much Oz are placing on that new ball too. The three quicks have had a decent but by no means excessive load, but to keep them fresh we are now seeing a number of overs of makeweight bowling.

That these two havent got carried away with trying to score too quickly and take risks against the second string bowling shows a welcome change in mentality from England and Malan in particular whos previously fallen for traps trying to score big. 


I do wonder where England are going to get wickets from on this pitch though.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Malan is now the leading run scorer in the series...

He has had 2 more innings than Smith mind ... but fair play, hes done a great job here and has had a good tour.

(Needs to make a 160 though )

New ball taken and Malan dropped in the slips with the first delivery with it.