England 219/8 at dinner. Any chance of retaining the Ashes rather depend on the next hour in my opinion.
It would be a tremendous rearguard effort to escape with a draw from this position given today's disaster. Obviously that depends on an awful lot of things being done properly, starting with avoiding the follow on (ideally inching towards 300) and the batsmen digging in once Australia have amassed their unassailable target. If we do get beyond the follow on, Woakes and Overton will understandably be praised for that partnership, but let's not forget their woeful buffet benefit-match power-puff bowling yesterday evening to Cummins and Marsh that was partly responsible for taking the England win out of the match equation.
It would be a tremendous rearguard effort to escape with a draw from this position given today's disaster. Obviously that depends on an awful lot of things being done properly, starting with avoiding the follow on (ideally inching towards 300) and the batsmen digging in once Australia have amassed their unassailable target. If we do get beyond the follow on, Woakes and Overton will understandably be praised for that partnership, but let's not forget their woeful buffet benefit-match power-puff bowling yesterday evening to Cummins and Marsh that was partly responsible for taking the England win out of the match equation.
