Yeah as much as it pains me to agree, it looks as if the Poms have a reasonable outfit to contest this series. You must be pretty happy with the $4 you got sportz.

So now we face the prospect of backing up with a two day break. With the lackluster bowling attack and a out of form batting line up i'm afraid the poms may go 2-1 up after Old Trafford - weather permitting.

Can someone explain to me how the poms managed to get so much movement with the ball and we did not???
How good was that delivery that got Ponting?
What's more what will happen when Mcgrath and Warne finally call it a day?
Is a drawn series now a reasonable chance?
Will these inane questions ever cease?
Ha ha ha

Poms win by 2 runs . They wont win another match this series . Aussies will get more out of this game then the poms.

I can't hardly ever remember Australia winning a close match. If ever a match is decided by a small number of runs or wickets, we tend to be on the losing side. I didn't watch any of the play today, but I was following the scores on the net and the only time that I allowed myself to think we might actually win was when there was 4 to get. Silly me.

Must be heartbreaking for the Aussie players.

I tell ya now though that poor decision by bowden when simon jones was plumb lbw when poms were leading by 260 or so now becomes extremly costly.

you are right Racing novice..i forgot all about that decision...

still a great test..,fantastic fight back,,,,

Geez, BIG difference between 2-0 and 1-1. We were 3 runs from basically retaining the Ashes. At 2-0 down, England would have had to win the last 3. Now we're under real pressure.

I don't know about your theory, RN. I reckon the poms would have taken a LOT out of this!!!

Old Trafford is supposed to be a spinning pitch. Normally, they would bring McGill in and only have McGrath and Lee as pace bowlers, but with no McGrath, would they take a risk? Perhaps, Gillespie might get dropped. Or Kasper??? The big difference is we still can't find a genuine all-rounder. If we had someone even remotely like Flintoff, we would be unbeatable. With only 4 bowlers in our team, there's too much pressure on them to get it right.

I reckon the batsmen are the real problem though. If Warne, Lee & Kasprowicz can do so well, what happened to the earlier batsmen? Batting like millionaires and throwing wickets away. Personally, I think Mike Hussey should be in the team for English tests, but he's not even in the squad.

Yeah the top/middle order for the aussies really needs to be looked at. They have under performed in all games sofar including the one day matches. Enlgand are running at 90-100% aussies are at 50% lol. If the aussies can get there batting in order the poms have no chance. England has already shown they cant handle warne could you imagine mcgill aswell. Flintoff and pieterson are the only ones to take on warne but they wont be able to do it every innings.

Still think the aussies are way to good.

The turnover & turnaround in odds on Betfair was amazing.
England blew from $1.04 to $3.90 in the last half hour of the test, with about $800,000 changing hands. $56,000,000 in total was traded. The stupidest bets being placed towards the end of the match were the fools taking 200/1 the draw. I don't think they knew the difference between a draw & a tie.

Yeah, looks like it. Don't laugh. With that one-dayer a few weeks back that finished in a tie, I think it was Ian Botham that actually called it a draw in the commentary and it was also called a draw in a couple of news items I saw and heard. No wonder a few were confused here.

Sportz,

What stats do you have for Eng vs Aus at Old Trafford?
Early market (Davidson) has Poms $3.85, however most have yet to make thier market.
Might be worthwhile taking Poms early again, considering current form and the fact the Poms will be bouyed by recent success.