If Australia had won the toss and elected to bowl?

Mr Jinx, hats off to you for not being biased over your team like many in this section. Great to see someone giving a honest and reasonable answer.

I think no because Australia bowled on the same day but got 0 wickets at 157 runs. If Australia had won the toss and elected to bowl, England would probably be 350/3 or 375/4 or something similar.

It wasn't luck. The Australian team's batsmen really failed themselves, and the bowlers too, giving away 157 runs for 0 wickets. And no team can bat in a raining condition. Say batting while "overcast, and the pitch shining with moisture" (just an example).

I don't really think the weather, luck, or toss helped England - their fast bowlers and openers sure did though.

What also helped England is the Australian batsmen's weak pokes at the fast bowler's bowls - all wickets resulted in catches, and 7 of them were by the wicketkeeper. This is due to the Australian batsman nicking the balls weakly, especially on the off side. This proved the Australian batsmen's lack of confidence in their own pitch [I am not just bluffing - I have proof - read the commentary on http://cricinfo.com,/ for the current Ashes match]. 11 wickets, 11 catches, 7 of them behind the wicket.

Still, this match can go anywhere. Same for the India-SA match. Harbhajan has been showing traits of an all rounder, especially in the India-NZ series, where he batted really well. Dhoni is still there. If they can stay in the crease long enough, the match can swing anywhere. Same for the current Ashes match.

Thanks,

SC!

The Pommy batsmen are walking all over us the whole series so far, and our batsmen are failing miserably apart from a few rare lucky innings. Toss wouldn't have mattered, maybe we would have got one or two wickets first session but wouldn't have bowled them out in less than a day. The only thing we can possibly say after this series is that if we win the last test then we can can say that England underacheived against a hapless Aussie team and could only retain the ashes, not win them. However, I can only see Aussies winning last test by luck if at all, the Melbourne test was all over at lunch yesterday. It's about time we had a series here where we haven't had it so easy, makes for a good change from the past ten years and brings back the excitement of winning rather than just waiting for the inevitable like we have been used to.

All top sports teams go though ups and downs at the moment Australia after losing 4 or 5 world class players through retirement are struggling everyone accepts that but the way they batted in the 1st innings putting up no fight at all was embarrassing

May have got the Poms out but perhaps for 190 - 220 but we would've been 2 or 3 for not much at stumps.

We are are a disgrace at the minute.

Considering previous match results on this ground,this looks strange. But may be Ponting could have yaken into account the rain factor.Both the effect of rain on the pitch the previous day,and possible rain interruption later in the match.

They could have been. The ball was doing a fair bit before the sun came out just as Australia got all out! Hopefully it is overcast today and does a bit. Then few days after the forecast last night was for fine weather, so it is not looking hopeful if Australia can't doing a monumental comeback and get England all out for under 200 today.

No I don't think so. Australia is so down its actually tragic. Maybe now they will bite the bullet and engage on a huge culling process. Not just players but coaches, selectors. trainers the whole lot

Ponting had said that if he had won the toss, he would have sent England in.

What ifs and maybes are no good to anyone. It is what it is now.