The referral system isn't perfect and, as has been said above, I think there will be tweaks before we have the long term, permanent system in place.



I was chatting to someone last night who thought only the umpires should be able to ask for a referral, but that they still be limited in number per innings. The problem with that is I think they'll feel pressured to always go for a referral if a player appeals for it strongly enough just to make sure they don't end up looking stupid.



I think reducing it to 1 referral per side would eliminate the use of tactical referrals hoping to get lucky.

Surely it should be unlimited, but only used as an umpire's aid, with absolutely no influence from any players, similar to how it is used in Rugby??.....Umpires are not stupid, to be fair, they get most decisions right and they are knowledgable enough to know when a decision is 50-50 and may need some assistance from off the pitch.



As for over-appealing??....Well, there are already rules in place for that and if teams decide to try and 'influence' an umpire to use technology by over-appealing, then they should be punished accordingly (Penalty runs, fines...).

If we are stuck with it I would rather see a system the umpires lead rather than the players.



It would require the umpires to be strong willed, plenty of the elite ones do seem to be now but I think the evidence from RL suggests they'd start over-using on the technology, can you really say that there is no influence from any players in rugby? The refs know that the players will be up at them within seconds, same with a bowler making his way back. In a way you can't blame them for doing that as they don't want to look stupid with the cameras picking up things they can't.

Collingwood's retirement from test cricket has just been announced over the PA at the SCG according to Simon Hughes on twitter.

Just been confirmed on Sky Sports News.

Been a great team man for England over the last few years, great fielder, useful bowler every now and then and a batting average of more than 40, the type of scrapper all good teams need.



Hopefully he goes out with his third Ashes series win.

Well done Paul Collingwood. He's always been such a great team player that will fight till the death for the side and he's made this decision with the test teams future in mind aswell as his own one day career.



He'll bow out a winner aswell which is great and even though his batting hasn't been great he's played a part with his bowling and especially his fielding(his catch off Ponting in Perth was unbelievable).

Regulation 500 up, Bresnan looking a little troubled by Johnson though.

from beeb



"In Paul Collingwood's last Test match, England are on the verge of a unique feat in Test cricket. Each of the top six have scored in excess of 10,000 first class runs and, as I write, Matt Prior is just 9 runs short (58 n.o 9,994 runs). A Test top seven with 10,000 f-c runs under their belt - how special is that!?"

Looks like they will let Prior get 100 if he can ... I know I would.

It's getting a bit slow now though.

We should push it on abit now imo. Prior is doing fine but Bresnan is really struggling to find the gaps and it's slowed our progress.

he's only faced 14 balls less than prior.

Bres is on fire now

Don't think speed of runs is an issue, I can't see us declaring unless we are still batting at tea - they won't have the time to win it, and I think we can back ourselves to bowl them out in 4 sessions.



Having said that Bresnan is picking up the pace a bit now, to be fair to him he's not had much time to play himself into form on this tour.

Well done Prior!

Bresnan's batting average is back above 40, he's well on course to take over Anthony McGrath's tag as England's best ever all-rounder.

Ninth century for an England player in the series. An England record for an Ashes series.

Another record set, first time in test match history that any side has had century partnerships for the 6th, 7th and 8th wickets.

600 up

FFS, typical English batting collapse.

would have loved them to have no balled him, but was probably legal, just.

Very very close, think he got the nod on the sympathy vote.

Upset they've taken Mitch off, was hoping he'd make his double century.

how ragged?

Lunch, 636-9, which equals our best ever score down under.



I really should go to bed.