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A word of caution. We've been up in our past two series and drew them both. And a draw here means Australia retain the Ashes.

Brilliant effort from England, Australia looked an old and creaking side in this match. Roll on Lord's and the 2nd Test.

"Stand up if you're 1-0 up!" "Sit down if you're 1-0 down!" Quality from the Barmy Army.

Root whipped that one through, got a bit of extra bounce that made the difference.

Amazing stat re Watson - dismissed 35 times vs England, but never by being bowled. That must be because his pads are always in the way - lbw 14 times.

The Aussies are on the run, the Albion's new striker has just scored and I have a pint of Dark Star on the go. Happy days.

It has to be said the weight of history is against Australia here. There have been better Aussie batting line-ups and worse England bowling attacks and still the 412 chase has never been done.

Stay calm, it's in the bag.

Or 412!?! That's it, England 289ao, I fancy Cook might have told Anderson we'll be declaring tonight anyway so swish away.

This is the 1st test so Broad and Anderson are still relatively fresh, Stokes and Wood have plenty of bowling in them and we have Ali and Root for spin. With a bit of moisture and cloud cover on Day 5 I cannot see this Aussie line-up chasing 400 down. If anything, I don't think they have...

This is where it's handy having No.s 8 and 9 both with a test century to their name.

The rain on Sunday is now a big concern. According to forecasts the day is likely to start wet and continue that way well into the afternoon. England just have to plough on, get through these 18 overs at a similar rate. The key is to keep positive, get a lead of 400 by close of play tonight...

I see that no Englishman has scored hundreds in both innings of an Ashes test for 68 years. Back then George VI was still on the throne and India was still ours. Root is 40 runs away...

The lead tew hundred and niney tew.

He bowls to the left He bowls to the right That Mitchell Johnson His bowling is sh1te.

One of the by-products of a positive "one day" batting mentality is that it makes defensive declarations a thing of the past. i.e. You score 400 off 100 overs, the opposition get say 300 at 3.3 per over (90 overs), you then get another 400 off 100 overs. You have a lead of 500 and there's...

I know there's a long way to go, but I like to think that the Root drop might be the Aussie "writing on the wall" moment a la Steve Harmison bowling that opening ball wide to Flintoff at 2nd slip in the 2006-07 whitewash series.

A career batting average of 36 vs Australia is - I'll grant you - unexceptional and ordinary, but there have been many top ranked batsmen with worse averages. On the other hand, he dominated the 2013 series and if one of your batsman performs like that they can carry the team through the...

We've punched out the lower order this morning, and it's fair to say that Johnson, Lyon, Hazlewood and Starc don't have the look of a unit capable of hanging around that long. Oh to have tickets for tomorrow! Gold from Cricinfo: "Quick as you like, game has change from Australia bowling...

How much of a lead will England require in order to win this match? I'd say 350, in which case England would need to reach 228ao here. Nice little counter-punch here, England once again maintaining that "one day spirit" - run rate over 4.