The Ashes 2015

It's a fantastic weather forecast for the Edgbaston Ashes test which is now just hours away. I'm really interested to see how much pace will be in the wicket, most experts are predicting it's a crucial toss to win, and then bat. Big match for Ian Bell, I hope he gets a 100 on his home ground

Australia reeling at 136/9.

136 all out now! Good toss to lose it turns out

very much so, be extremely disappointing now if England don't win from here and go 2-1 up

The weather breaks helped england a bit, enabling them to keep Anderson on for longer than they would've and only use 3 bowlers, good move to bring Finn in for Wood since Wood's pace would've been down a bit, Finn back win a bang, removing Smjth and Clarke. Weather tomorrow should be much better and england can look to build a sizeable lead, hopefully 150 at the very least, a good opportunity for Bairstow now. Only downside thus far for England would be another Lyth failure to a ball he could've left, he's definitely in a bit of danger now but may be saved by a lack of good replacements. Can't help but wonder what the next major twist will be this series, been just bizarre so far

I said earlier that if the top order collapsed we were going to be in a lot of trouble... Even with that in mind 136 is just awful. Expecting much better application from Warner and Smith in particular in the second innings.

I can't help but feel that having Watson/Haddin instead of Marsh/Nevill at 6 and 7 would have given us better chances of reviving the innings... Our selectors have had a history of favouring youth over experience in the past and it looks like old habits are coming back again- Although Marsh probably earned his place, the Nevill decision was particularly contentious. Starc and Johnson Need to be properly consistent for the first time this series and make England earn their lead on day 2.

Hats off to Steven Finn as well... He's given Aussie fans plenty to cheer about in the past so the impact he made this time around was commendable.

England 281 all out. I think they'll be a little disappointed, but 145 is still obviously a very useful lead. Without the Ali Broad partnership at the end it would definitely be far less than they wanted. Pitch starting to turn quite a lot

And the Ali-Broad partnership was worth 87 runs. Hopefully, it will be unlucky for Australia again.

106-5 now at drinks in the final session. Steve Smith currently second highest scorer with 8, Warner with the vast majority of the runs

121-6; could be another 25 overs in the day to make up for yesterday's rain. Probably won't get that far (maybe 15-20 overs), but there's still some way to go. Can't see England getting an innings victory, but it's looking that it's going to be pretty conclusive.

And why England reviewed that LBW off Stokes is beyond me; the impact was well outside off stump.

....Ugh. I think I'm going to stick to the shadows for the next few days.

That said, the pitch is far from ideal for batting so if we can scrape a 150 run lead who knows what might happen? Even that seems like a big ask from here though.

Aussies 265 Ao, England need 121 to win

Not good.

nothing wrong with it, blame something else

Next up is Trent Bridge. Back in 2013, this happened: http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2013/engine/match/566932.html , a thrilling match featuring Agar's debut as a 19 year old setting a world record 98 as No.11 and a tight england win after a second innings fightback. Hopefully this year will be as exciting! As far as I'm aware there's no Agar equivalent in the Aussie squad, and I can't see england replacing Anderson with someone like that. Anderson will be particularly dissapoonted to miss it as its basically his most successful ground, bags of wickets and under 20 average.

Also, had a look back to the start of this forum and our predictions and already everyone is guaranteed to be wrong... Been that unpredictable

Wasn't an excuse- Just saying that it wasn't as flat as the first two, and a 150-ish chase would have been interesting. It was seaming and spinning as well, a first for this series. Hopefully they prepare a similar pitch at Trent Bridge but they'll probably flatten it out because none of the games has even made it past 4 days yet (although that's largely because of poor batting rather than excellent bowling)

I've just about given up on Starc as a test bowler. Even when he took a five-for in the first test his ability to keep it tight and build pressure was virtually non-existent. I wouldn't be surprised to see him replaced by Siddle for Trent Bridge because the Aussies really need someone with better consistency to back up Johnson at the moment. Finn played a similar role very well for England in this test.
Likely changes: Shaun Marsh for Voges, Siddle for Starc and maybe Shane Watson back in for Mitch Marsh?

It was a shame to hear about Anderson's injury as well- it's sad to see a great bowler like him sidelined, but Mark Wood bowled with a lot of energy in the first two tests and it does open the door for him to come back.

Your weather was too good.

that'll be the day! i still think it will be decided at the Oval, been a great series so far and i'm sure that will continue in the final two matches