titan_uranus

So we've set them a target of 441. History says that should be enough but if don't get some early wickets (especially Vijay and Kohli) I'll remain concerned. Would be a great win, for the series and for the team.

Incredible stuff, with India losing 7/11. That's the kind of stuff we all expected to see from Australia, not India. If we can get another 100 runs, get the lead up past 400, we'd have to back ourselves in to win this. I don't imagine we're going to knock India over for 105 again but only one team has ever chased more than 300 to win a Test in India so I think 400 will be a useful target to set. Renshaw is a find. A half-century under duress on Day 1 (in the context of the match, vital that he came back out and scored runs) and then an important 30-odd under more duress in an unfamiliar position today.

Good on Renshaw for making a half century despite sickness. The rest of the batting card looks about right, save for 4 wickets falling to Yadav's pace. Mitch Marsh 4, Wade 4. I wonder if they'll be 6 and 7 come the fourth Test of this series.

What a crazy ODI today! Hazlewood run out for a diamond duck after being part of a 50+ run partnership without even facing a ball!

The squad for the India tour has been named. We've picked three "all-rounders" (Maxwell, M Marsh, Agar), none of whom are good enough to bat at 6. Wade is also batting so poorly at Test level that he doesn't command the number 6 spot. Our obsession with finding an all-rounder to provide the third pace option (Marsh) to allow O'Keefe or Swepson to bowl alongside Lyon, or to be a second spinner (Agar/Maxwell) to allow us to play Bird means we're going to continually fail to put enough runs on the board, something which we've just seen cost England a few Tests when they failed to go on to post 500+ runs in the first innings. We are not going to win if we don't score runs and only playing 5 batsmen and then a hodge-podge of players who average 25-35 at 6-9 is not going to work. More importantly, none of Maxwell, M Marsh or Agar are any good.

Oakland had the ability to beat New England until Carr broke his leg. Houston's probably the worst team to make the playoffs since, what, the 2010 Seahawks who finished below .500? But I think Houston will win that game. Packers' current form means they should take care of the Giants, Seattle will destroy Detroit IMO, and I don't see Miami getting anywhere near Pittsburgh either. The Chiefs-Steelers game should be a ripper, as will the Patriots-Chiefs/Steelers game. I also think the Falcons-Seahawks game will be close, and I can easily see the Seahawks knocking them off and facing Dallas or Green Bay in the NFCCG.

Agree on all fronts Macca. I'm really looking forward to seeing how we bat on the Indian pitches. I'm confident there will be at least one bad innings, probably a few more than that, and the reaction will be interesting. Still a few question marks over the team, though. Wade is struggling (IMO we never should have dropped Nevill and the switch hasn't yet worked), Lyon traditionally doesn't bowl that well in the subcontinent, and of course there is the ongoing debacle of number 6. We'll see how Cartwright goes but I'm not sold on a half-baked "all-rounder", I'd prefer a proper batsman.

The MFC finally gets its house in order on/off field so my NFL team, the 49ers, falls apart. Kelly wanted to draft Prescott but Baalke said no. Now both are fired. $70-odd million owing to Kelly and Tomsula and we are at square one for the third straight year. Unbelievable, really. As to playoffs, I'm getting behind anyone whose name is not Seattle, Green Bay, New England or Pittsburgh. Also, sorry for my continued absence from the NFL tipping competition - I'm never on Demonland regularly enough over the NFL season to participate properly.

10/86, then 10/85, now 8/32. Batting lineup has to change. The problem is 5, 6 and 7 are as weak as they have ever been. Voges must go. Nevill is in huge trouble. Ferguson wasn't the right answer to replace Marsh and now we either have to drop him after one game or persist with him when not in form. Need to pick two or three in-form Shield batsmen and stick with them.

Agree with all that. Panthers are a long way back though. Seattle keeps winning the close games, again dominated by a clear refereeing mistake (first the missed PI call against Atlanta, then today the missed roughing the kicker and the delay of game costing the Bills a FG). Loving seeing Oakland leading the AFC West. AFC West is actually becoming strong, San Diego picking it up to move to 4-5 and Denver third on 6-3. AFC North, meanwhile, is terrible. Baltimore lost 4 in a row but leads the division!

The batting really is shallow. Warner and Marsh are in form but otherwise there's only Smith left, the other 8 of them are struggling. The Mitch Marsh experiment is surely over. Cannot be that weak a batsman and bat at 6, regardless of bowling. We are continually going to lose if we can't put up big enough scores with the bat and numbers 3, 5 and 7 aren't strong enough to hold an awful number 6.

Decent start, although from 5/81 I think we'd be a little disappointed to have let them get to 242. Nonetheless, at 0/105 we clearly have the Test under our control, but our biggest weakness is middle order batting and there's not a lot after Smith at 4. The Starc-Hazlewood new ball combination is starting to really gel together, IMO. I like the call to give Siddle the third spot too.

Bangladesh has just taken 10 wickets in a session to beat England and win their 8th ever Test. Great for Test cricket.

Given San Fran is probably the worst side in it this year, my main interest is in watching some of the traditionally weaker sides improve and push for playoffs - I'm thinking Jets, Jaguars and Bills.

Winning consecutive games was a big one, given how embarrassing it is that we went so long without doing it. But the fact we've gone through the season without losing any more than two games in a row is IMO the best.

2013, when we beat GWS (and only just, thanks to our best ever quarter). That's pretty sad, isn't it.

Broke a bunch of records last night that I can think of: Three wins in a row Beat Port Beat Port in Adelaide Make it through a season without 3 consecutive losses at any point (this, for mine, is as big as any of them. No losing patches. No extended drop offs in form).

Last win over them was Round 17, 2011 in Darwin - lost the last 7. Last win over them in Adelaide was Round 8, 2000 - lost the last 11 to them in Adelaide. Surprisingly, 2010. Worst losing margin in 2010 was 56. 2010, I think. With three rounds to go in 2010 we were 8-1-10. Win them all, we would have finished with 11.5 wins. Carlton finished 8th in the end on just 11 wins so I guess that means were were still in it at this point in the season.

Here's one: If we win one of the last 3 games for the year, we will finish the season having not lost 3 consecutive games at any point. We haven't done that since 1998, believe it or not.

Win 9 or more games in a year - broken (last achieved 2006).

He has one of modern football's most important traits - good running skills. He runs all day, he runs to the right spots, and he has pace. He can kick at full burst, too, also important. Really happy with his development this year.

How about some of the stats coming out of the Test: Third biggest comeback this century (117 being the third lowest first innings score from a team who's gone on to win) SL's second win over Australia ever Worst performance by an Australian opener since Mark Taylor's pair in 1994 (Warner scoring 0 and 1) Seven out of eight opening innings in the match were single digits (never has there been 8 out of 8 opening innings fail to make it to 10) Nevill's was the third slowest innings ever, the partnership being the slowest partnership ever End result is all too similar - lack of talent against quality spin. Also, Mitch Marsh is not the long-term option for us at 6, the top 5 isn't good enough for him to be batting at 6.

Weather aside, I think this is over now.

If we win it will only be because of Smith holding it together. Just saved on review as I type. The tail can bat but not against spin in Sri Lanka/India/UAE.

I can't imagine it would have been that often that we'd lose after losing the toss but bowling the opponent out for 117 in the first innings, but I think we're on track for a loss in this one. Left-arm wrist spin is the toughest spin to play and their new chinaman bowler is good at it. We only need 185 more but most of that is going to have to come from Smith and Voges.