{"id":314719,"date":"2023-07-09T00:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T00:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=314719"},"modified":"2023-07-09T01:58:51","modified_gmt":"2023-07-09T01:58:51","slug":"grim-prediction-for-australia-as-2-1-looms-large","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=314719","title":{"rendered":"Grim prediction for Australia as 2-1 looms large"},"content":{"rendered":"

The third Ashes<\/a> Test is England's<\/a> to lose with two days to go at Headingley.<\/p>\n

Two schools of thought came out of day three. The first is that England's batting is good enough that they should cruise to the total set. The second is that Australia are good enough to take advantage of an ill-disciplined and mistake-prone England.<\/p>\n

In inclement conditions, England got the ball swinging and took wicket after wicket to have Australia rolled for 224, setting the home side a total of 251 to win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Eddie fumes at 'smart arse' journo after ugly loss<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Gripping England chase begins after Head brilliance<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Disaster': Wallabies bullied by second string Boks<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Travis Head gave the Australians something to smile about \u2013 including back-to-back sixes \u2013 scoring 77 runs before he eventually fell.<\/p>\n

\"Australia's<\/p>\n

Speaking on BBC Sport's Test Match Daily, legends Glenn McGrath and Michael Vaughan backed England to get the job done, but offered Australia a glimmer of hope.<\/p>\n

"The thing is, they (England) score so quickly, so Australia need to be on their game first thing tomorrow, see what the overhead conditions are going to be like," said McGrath.<\/p>\n

Every ball of the Ashes will be live, free and exclusive on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, and if you miss any of the action you can find full highlights and exclusive replays after every day's play<\/strong><\/em> here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

"I think that'll probably play a big part in what happens, but there's still enough in this pitch for the Australians. If we get enough balls in the right area, I think we can create 10 chances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"The fact that they put on 54 for the last two (wickets) was a bit of a bonus \u2013 250, it's there for Australia, but the way England bat, they love chasing, it's theirs for the taking."<\/p>\n

\"England's<\/p>\n

If there's a silver lining, it's that England has been ill-disciplined at times.<\/p>\n

Captain Ben Stokes has done a lot of heavy lifting for the team when its top order batters have failed to fire.<\/p>\n

In the first innings, Stokes made 80 runs while no one else in his team got near a half century.<\/p>\n

Despite fears the team is too reliant on its skipper, Vaughan backed England's batters to get the job done.<\/p>\n

"England should have enough," said Vaughan.<\/p>\n

"In the last year, they've chased a total like this and more four times, so they're a good chasing side. They know how to do it.<\/p>\n

\"Head<\/p>\n

"Australia will be hoping that the clouds are around. I don't think the forecast is for too many clouds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I think there'll be a bit of blue sky. Unless England make a lot of mistakes, and they have that in them too, I think they're going to have enough to chase down this target.<\/p>\n

"Australia will challenge England because they will bowl some good spells and they'll make it difficult," he added.<\/p>\n

"This England side, they have to win. They have to come tomorrow with the mentality that they don't have any other option.<\/p>\n

"Australia have another option because they're two-up in the series. They lose here, they've still got Old Trafford and The Oval. I think that counts for a lot.<\/p>\n

"England have to just go out there and score the runs tomorrow. Australia will hope for a bit of cloud and they'll hope this pitch just begins to crack a little bit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"We're only into day four, and it's showing signs it's going to play OK."<\/p>\n

Day four is scheduled to get underway at 8pm AEST with the home side resuming its second innings on 0-27.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The third Ashes Test is England's to lose with two days to go at Headingley. Two schools of thought came out of day three. The […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":314721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314719"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=314719"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":314725,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314719\/revisions\/314725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/314721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=314719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=314719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=314719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}