https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/100253102/match-referee-satisfied-there-was-no-ball-tampering-by-england

Looks very suspicious to me.

Well done Cook for carrying your bat, even though you didn't have to face a ball today to do so.

Frustrating day with the rain, if England can get off to a good start tomorrow then we are in the driving seat to force a win. We just need to remember how they collapsed in the first innings.

Shame the rain couldn't save us earlier in the series to get a draw in one of those games, could have meant tomorrow would have been a huge day in the series (not that we would have deserved it).

comment by (Kash) I'm the Mané, I'm the ... (U1108)
posted 11 minutes ago
https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/100253102/match-referee-satisfied-there-was-no-ball-tampering-by-england

Looks very suspicious to me.
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The video shows Jimmy pushing the leather back into the ball, if the leather comes off then the ball will be rough on both sides

The ball tampering debate is a non issue. The Australian media are just trying to stir up debate as the Aussies are behind.

Both teams are throwing the ball into the rough patches when fielding,

Frankly if England really were cheating, they'd be cheating pretty badly in the context of the series

Looks like it will be a draw rain ruined things here, would be nice if Australia completely collapsed.

Mind blowing Mr. Smith! Just frkn unbelievable..Total freak this dude is for sure!

At present no one comes close to him in tests. Now folks here supporting UN team should be happy with Cookie’s double ton That also is a gift from Smith cos he dropped him twice for u fans to cheer something about..😂😂

Smith has 15 hundreds in 30 Tests as captain. Damn that is truly astonishing!

Did England win, only the way the commentators are going on as if they did. They still didn't take 20 Australian wickets, and now apparently the wicket is getting blamed for why England didn't win. No mention of the pitch when England were batting.

Ah well, at least England have avoided the 5-0 whitewash.

Australian pitches are so flat, to win you need to have good pace bowling. England unfortunately despite having a good test with the bat looked hardly like taking 20 wickets.

Seems like only SA in recent history have won matches and series there consistently. All other teams struggle there for the very reason that they don’t have hit the deck bowlers who bowl 90mph consistently.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

Moeen Alli`s bowling on this tour has been club level at best, I`d even back myself to do OK against what he has shown in this series.

On these Australian pitches we needed a quality wicket taking spinner and express pace to have any chance, we had neither sadly.

Some might say the Aussie groundsmen have produced wickets to suit themselves, which is entirely their right as England have done the same in the past.

That wicket at the MCG was just a slow, low road with no sideways movement, swing or spin. Not very good for test cricket at all, but at least they got crowds in on all 5 days.

Reckon this series would have been closer with Jones and stokes available. Reckon Jones would have done well out there shame and the extra depth to the batting with stokes.

Pakistan have had one of the best bowling lineups of all time but have struggled to win a single test versus Australia in last 20 years or so if I am not mistaken in test matches.

You have to give credit to Steve Smith. Whatever you say about the pitch being flat, if we'd have got him early, I'd have fancy us to have won that match. He's a tremendous cricketer under pressure and that's what Root needs to deliver for England if he wants to get near Smith. Kohli is doing it for India now and Root needs to do the same over the next 2-3 years.

Keep Curren in for Sydney, Crane has to be given a chance.

Fair play for Moeen to try and come in and play positive but he's not been good enough with the ball, not sure what the Sydney wicket will do and maybe Cummins and Starc will miss out again giving us a big chance.

I'd like to see Crane given a go, he can't do any worse with the ball and he probably wouldn't do much worse with the bat.

Just needs to get 21 runs and two wickets

Poor Mo. If Crane does play, I wonder what odds you can get on him being the 3rd debutant in the series to claim Smith as their maiden test wicket.

Woakes is injured so Crane comes in to an otherwise unchanged team. Wouldn't have expected our batting to stay the same throughout the 5 tests but our bowling to change so much.

So two spinners in Sydney then, apparently it has a bit of grass on the wicket

Hopefully Jimmy and Broady can exploit those conditions. I've just read that it's first match that the new curator at the SCG will prepare a pitch for. There would have been huge pressure if the series was level going into this match.

What a horrible end to the day. A really poor shot from Root and Bairstow follows shortly after having to face the new ball. With an out of sorts Moeen in next against a fresh Australian attack with the new ball and a long tail, I wouldn't be surprised to see us all out for 260-270.

Root has to be more responsible, he plays his aggressive way which is fine when if we lose a 4th wicket we've got Stokes, Bairstow, Ali and Woakes to follow. However, in the first over of the new ball, exposing the lower middle order was careless, really careless. If he stayed in with Malan, 400+ was on and now Smith will show him how it's done in their first innings tomorrow.