England Prepare to Pounce

Australia will go to bed tonight praying. Praying that Alastair Cook will not be in his zone. The same zone which saw him through to both of his epic hundreds in this series. If Cook plays another long innings Australia will most likely have been batted out of the game. Australia lead by 113 runs but England are only 3 wickets down and unfortunately for Australia, Cook is not one of those wickets. On the bright side for Australia, they did remove the dangerous Kevin Pietersen shortly before stumps which will have given them some hope of quick wickets tomorrow morning.

Going into the third day it seems that the destiny of this game rests squarely on Cook's shoulders. If he bats all day tomorrow England will have secured a draw and therefore the series. However, if he falls early, it may well spark a collapse which would bring Australia right back into the game.

This is easily the most balanced game of the series so far. However, England are in a great position to make it just as one-sided as their other 2 victories.

It could have been even worse for Australia as they lost their 8th wicket for less than 200. Fortunately Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus came together to stage a resistance which pushed Australia up to 280 and gave them (and Mitchell Johnson in particular) a much needed confidence boost.

England bowled brilliantly this morning. They had a good platform on which to build on but they were far from dominant. They still had to dismiss Mike Hussey, Haddin and Smith. Which they did. Very quickly. Australia lost those 3 wickets for no more than 40 runs which gave England hope of restricting Australia to under 200 and they surely would have were it not for Johnson and Hilfenhaus' vigil.

The England bowlers have a simple game plan. Dry up the runs and wait for the batsmen to make a mistake. Simple, but very, very efficient. Especially against this Australian side full of flashy, run-scoring obsessed stroke makers. The shots that Brad Haddin and Steve Smith offered were typical of this Australian line-up. They clearly have not learnt throughout the series and it does not bode well for the future that the Australian batsmen are not learning from their mistakes.

Once England had finally ended Australia's innings, the England openers once again set about showing Australia how to bat in their own conditions. Andrew Strauss was particularly dismissive of the offerings on show as he raced to 60 from 58 balls before he was removed by Hilfenhaus. After Trott was removed for a duck, Australia were buoyant. They had high hopes of a first innings lead and were pushing hard. Unfortunately for Australia, they once again failed to press home an advantage as Pietersen and Cook repelled the Australian attack with ease.

As I have already said, this game is very finely balanced. Despite England having the best of both days so far in the Test. Once again they have looked a much better side. They have batted more fluently in this game without playing the flashy drives outside off which have plagued Australia. They have also bowled with much more discipline than Australia.

Both teams will head into tomorrow with high hopes of forcing a positive result. One man is far more able than any other to force the direction of this match. He's done it before in this series and he'll be desperate to do it again in order to cap off an incredible series for both him and his side. Sleep well Alastair Cook.