I usually reserve judgement on what a decent 1st innings score is (unless it’s 88 all out) until after both sides have batted.
That has now happened and as suspected England’s 1st innings effort simply wasn’t good enough. I said on this blog before, that the key to England getting anything out of this test series is our batting.
England’s bowlers showed plenty of heart, but ultimately they didn’t have enough runs to defend. They kept things tight for most of the day, but we could well do without too many more days like this – with all 3 seamers bowling over 30 overs.
They’ll be fit for the knackers yard at this rate.
The Aussie batsmen played well and deserved their good fortune, Mike Hussey showed how small the margins are in cricket, he could have been out on zero, but survived and the rest is history.
It’s now a straight forward fight between Marcus North and Paul Collingwood to see who gets the boot first.
As for this test, well it now looks all over. I’ll be absolutely amazed if England’s batting manages to bat the four to five sessions needed to save this match, especially after that pathetic 1st innings attempt.