Australia v England, 3rd Test, Perth (day 1)

Game starts 2am in uk. approx 4hrs and 15 mins from now.

Australia 2-0 up and looking to wrap up the series, time for england to show some postivity and a fightback.

Hopefully Panesar, saj mahmood and Read will play, (more chance of boycott and Botham playing for england again in reality)

Aussies have won 11 out of last 16 tests in perth (lost only 2 of those 16)

England have only ever won once in ten attempts in perth, could it be Ashes signed and sealed for aussies in next 5 days??

If this is a turning track...maybe Monty can perform some brilliance? I think he is Englands last hope of getting back into this series if Harmison can't find his rhythm.

But i thought Giles was Englands only spinner?

Most reports from perth are that it will offer some juice in wicket for 1st two sessions and will then flatten out to be a batsmen paradise. The traditional pace & bounce has been zapped out of pitches due to excessive heat recently.

I think you should be banned!

using "Giles" and "spinner" in same sentence! scandalous!

he is a batsman. last match Pietersen was the spinner. there are reports that pitch might help spinners. Will Eng go for two spinners this time

Well since Fletch is in love with Giles, I think they might play 2 spinners.

wouldnt be surprised if fletcher still doesnt play monty

see this is the problem with cricinfo....they have been having a mini preview for the last week or so.... now a normal fan like myself can't tell the difference between the real preview and the fake previews! So since i didn't know if the match was today i might not be able to follow it like i would have if i had known since yesterday.

Wouldn't be surprised if our R/R is pretty high for this match. In other words, a loss inside 3 days rather than 4. We need four bowlers to turn up to have a chance...

Perth a spinning wicket ... What tha???

Who said anything about spin? I was speaking of his bouncers!

Well according to reporrs...the turned the pitch from thaat quick one that demolished Pakistan to a spinning one apperantly.

What about the sentence "Giles is not a spinner." Stil scandalous?

Mahmood and Monty replace Anderson and Giles.

il be supporting England for this game

Good moves. At least be positive while you can.

Aussies win the toss and elect to bat first!

Thats bad news for england

God save the English Team - was just sung

Good first ball. The openers are aged and past their best. They can be taken out. The middle is weaker without Martyn. It's time for England to strike.

Might be older but so far has proved to be much better. As for Symonds, he is a proven performer so Martyn's loss will not be that significant.

Symonds has proved litte in test cricket.

flintoff to open bowling instead of harmisson

Symmo's a waste of space. The only value he would provide here would be to block up one end with his medium pace trundlers.

Flintoff is simply too defensive a captain.

It's rather a pity for all the potential of an Ashes.

Just like he had proved little in ODI until he hit that century against Pak in the world cup.

Harmisson on. Ian Chappell saying there should be 4 slips here instead of 2

Nice to see a couple of Asians playing in the Ashes...was N Hussian the last Asian to play an Ashes test match?

47 up for Aus. 0 wickets

So guys how is the pitch?

Hayden out. Hoggard strikes. ct behind

Pitch is not slow and has good bounce

And Hayden fails again.

excellent delivery was that by hoggard

punter in and gets off the mark

Harmison giving Ricky some nice sighters

50 up for aus

Dar just ajudicated RTP lbw to Harmo

there goes the big fish! Was he out?

Ponting out - Hussey in
54-2

yep. clipped the top of stumps

well done Mr. Dar

Panear does a Jonty and fields cleanly

Dar gets a big

and a

This should narrow the gap between MoYo and Ponting.

not narrow, widen ...

we dont need RTP racking runs vs the ENG school boy attack....

There's a bit of carry in the pitch. I wonder how long it will last?

Harmy looking good.

Here comes the Full Monty.

And Monty gets a big cheer for bowling a maiden in his opening over.

Panesar bowls Langer!

WICKETTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT for Full Monty, Langer is goooooooonnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeee

145 kph from saj

Through the gate. OZ in deep doodoo here.

And that's lunch.

got him! panesar!

3/69 at lunch. Top order all gone. 24 overs, England are a bit behind the rate.

monty shud go slap fletcher in lunch time !

We were in a similar position to this a couple of years ago against Pakistan when Akhtar took fifer before lunch. Hussey will have to set himself to bat through to tomorrow, and Clarke, Symmo and Gilly will have to keep him company. If we can get 350+ then that'll be a good score.

its only 3 down ....one good partenership , you looking at a huge toatal agiain..but offcourse aus cant afford to loose wikts at this stage !

179.66666666666666666666666666667 runs is what Ponting needs to average per innings to match MOYO's record of total of test runs in a year.

Good start by England ... but still too early ... Remember Aus have the advantage of the Warne factor in the 4th inning.

i think GBH (Grievously Bodily Harmisson) is back.

England finally showing some guts and playing both Sajid and Panesar. It took them 3 Tests to figure it out, but with the exception of Read, they have their best XI on the field.

Hope this is a good Test match for the sake of cricket and series.

wow 150.4km by harmison!

Aus now 4/136. Clarke the latest victim for Harmy!!!

This is the critical partnership Symonds and Hussey.

This is Symmo's chance to show that he belongs in this company. Good to see a WACA pitch more like that of old, with some good bounce and some movement. Hopefully it remains so by the time we bowl.

666666666666666666666666666 for Symmo, lofted Full Monty straight down the ground.

Oz 4/156

GoJo must have the single most annoying accent of all wicketkeepers.

And another 666666666666666666666 from Symmo, he's punishing Monty. Straight down the ground again.

4444444444444444444444444 for Symmo this time, Monty smashed to long-on. 16 runs off the over so far.

Single from Symmo, Hussey on strike.

I am guessing you haven't watched Kamran Akmal keep much have you than?

Here comes Sajid Mahmood.

7.6 Panesar to Hussey, no run, defended quietly on the front foot
47.5 Panesar to Symonds, 1 run, Symonds looked for two there, keen to have another dart at Symonds... but Hussey says no
47.4 Panesar to Symonds, FOUR, and he lashes that one away through cover to big acclaim from the crowd. "It's a cow punch," I thought Ian Healy said. He actually said counter-punch, but I quite think cow punch works quite nicely as well, conveying the beefiness of the shot and the power behind it
47.3 Panesar to Symonds, SIX, tries the same shot and gets the same result. This time, though, it's a slightly flatter shot but it's just powered all the way. Lovely
47.2 Panesar to Symonds, no run, defended on the front foot
47.1 Panesar to Symonds, SIX, bosh, bosh and more bosh. What a cracker from Symonds who dances down and whisks that one straight back over Panesar's head: typical Symonds. Hello, massive

After bowling Langer in his first over and being 1/0, Monty's figures are now 1-56.

MS Panesar (sla) 13.0 2 56 1 4.30 (0nb, 0w) 8-0-50-0 11 33 33.12

If anybody doesn't know. It's 5 down as Monty had Symonds caught behind. 172/5 at the moment

MONTY MONTY 172/6 Gilly caught at square leg