Ashes Test Day Three - Talking points

So England ended Day Three 128 runs behind Australia after Ellyse Perry's mammoth knock of 213* took Australia to 448/9 declared. It was simply magnificent. A chanceless double hundred. The first time she has ever got into three figures in international cricket. A pleasure to see no matter what your affiliations may be.

England were 40/0 at the close of the third day, but not without a few flutter. They will have 100 overs to negotiate tomorrow to draw the Test and keep their Ashes hopes alive. If they lose then the Ashes are gone.

But is an England win completely out of the question? The bookies think so. You can get 80/1 on England winning the Test, but just hang on a minute....

There are 100 overs to be bowled tomorrow. If England treated the game like a 50 over game and could score at 5 runs an over then after 50 overs they would be 122 runs ahead of the Aussies. Bat another 10 overs and they could take that lead to 200, if they have wickets in hand. Declare and that would leave Australia 38 overs to score 201 to win. Would they go for it? Of course they would, at least to start, which could open the door for England with the final session under lights.

It would be a risky strategy, yes, but one that I am sure Mark Robinson will at least be thinking about, albeit only briefly. England are not good at simply batting out time, so why not take the positive route. Let the batsmen express themselves. That is how they bat best.

True if England lose the Test then they lose the series, but if they draw then the Aussies will only need one win in the three remaining T20Is to keep the urn anyway?

Come on England let's go down all guns blazing!

MD
11/XI/17