I had a bad feeling about Ian Bell and his occupation of the crease, last night he proved my suspicions right. Credit where it is due, he played superbly so lets not forget that. Further proof that once in this pitch offers plenty for the batsman.
I am still scratching my head over the Broad decision, in my eyes it was a game changing moment where the umpire lost complete control of the situation. Broad knew he hit it, the Aussie's knew he hit it and for some reason the umpire's mind was elsewhere. It will probably cost Aleem Dar his career, a howler decision like that in the biggest test series in the world won't go unpunished by the ICC. Then again maybe it will serve as a lesson to Clarke to not waste reviews early in the innings, the drop catch of Bell in the following over just compounded the Aussie anger.
Poms are probably about 50 runs too far ahead IMO and should win this one easily now. Any run chase over 300 will be a near certain loss so Australia must clean up the lower order quickly tomorrow morning to have any chance. IF that happens, then we are going to need a centurion and some solid contributions from the middle order - something I can't see happening whilst Jimmy Anderson swings the ball.
England have shown its possible to score 300, whether we can do it is another story. Lehmann needs to inspire his troops and get them to dig deep.