Should the follow-on be enforced ?

[DomainK]

42 to avoid follow on. Assuming the English manage to dismiss the Aussies short of the mark, should they enforce the follow on? Or bat on to make the lead unassailable and then leave the Aussies to struggle on a 4th and 5th day pitch?

[MUMBAISKIPPER]

England should impose follow-on..that's an attacking move..will hit the aussies hard.Australia is not the team that gets dominated often.Now when you have them on the mat,make sure you keep them there.

[Riley's Girl]

Force the follow-on, keep the Aussies under pressure & enjoy the look on Ricky's face.

[DomainK]

26 runs left and only one wicket to go....its becoming very interesting. If the Aussies can avoid the possibility of a follow on, it will be a kind of moral boost for them.

[MUMBAISKIPPER]

Force the follow-on' date=' keep the Aussies under pressure & enjoy the look on Ricky's face.[/quote'] yeah then it will be daunting task for ricky pawnting..

[DomainK]

I think England should bat.

[Dirty_South]

Pomz to bat...

[DomainK]

Pomz to bat...

Is that official?

[DomainK]

Okay, its indeed official. Good decision IMO.

[MUMBAISKIPPER]

Okay' date=' its indeed official. [b']Good decision IMO.

plz justify

[DomainK]

plz justify

The opposition is down, you have a stronghold. Strengthen the stronghold, take the match beyond them and then let them bat on a deteriorating pitch. If Australia batted, they would have batted with hopes of coming back, with a strategy to find out possibilities of win. But if the bat 4th, they would be batting to save face. Besides, England had to chose between building a lead on a day 3 pitch or chase on a day 5 pitch. They saved the day 5 pitch for Australia to stare down at defeat and trying to run away from it. Also, Australian bowling showed weakness in the first innings, it can be best exploited now, on day three than on day 5. In fact the only argument I can think of in favor of enforcing the follow on in such a case is the possibility of rain.

[MUMBAISKIPPER]

if it's official then it's a defensive move...England must learn to play attacking cricket.Defensive stuff was ok when test cricket was at its peak.But now it is facing a serious threat with the advent of T20...JMO. Interesting moves,aggressive moves will help survive test cricket.We don't wanna see dull,boring games.

[Riley's Girl]

Would have been more interesting had England forced the follow-on, but I guess this was a more sensible move. Ricky looks WORRIED, which I enjoy. Don't like him, can't help it.

[hari504504]

Follow-on not a good idea. too much load on the bowlers ..with the likes of flintoff not 100% fit England should close the game out now... and Aussies lose the ashes after this ..and ponting looses his captaincy! ;-)

[yoda]

Enforcing follow on is good if the lead is massive like say 650 decl, opponent all out 250 or even 300. When you barely have a 200 lead, the pressure of having to score something like 150 in the 4th innings to win could bring you down. I would rather build the lead back to 400-450 and put the pressure on the aussies.

[umpire]

you only enforce the follow on if you have dismissed the team in 50 overs. You need fresh bowlers. Also you should consider time left in the game. Now look England have completely batted Australia out of the game.