The Ashes Boxing Day Test live scores, blog, highlights: Australia vs England Day 2

Problem is the third umpire takes an eternity to make a decision as to whether it is a no ball by looking at replay after replay until they are convinced one way or the other. If they went through this process every single ball it would take forever. TV viewers would turn off and spectators would vote with their feet.

The technology exists to easily check whether each ball is a legal delivery, but it's a waste of time especially in a Test match. The extra ball and extra run has from a no ball (or no ball non call) has no real bearing on the match.

Seems as if you are "looking the other way" whenever sport is happening. Not a lot that you see.

You did well to pick that up looking in the mirror. I was referring to the whingeing component of PIO's grumble. Very English.

Couldn’t agree more with you Ronan! I made a similar point after Perth that Starc and Smith have been head and shoulders above their opposite numbers in Root and Broad this series and that has been one of the main reasons why the series is already over. Starc has constantly had our top order rocking and never let the pressure off, whilst Smith has looked unbeatable with bat in hand. In this test Australia so far just haven’t looked anywhere near as penetrable the without Starc and once again beyond Smith and Warner the aus batting lineup looks as inconsistent as England. I believe this series has come down to one single fact Australia’s best bowler Starc has out-bowled England’s (best in Australia) Broad, whilst the best batter Smith has completely out-batted England’s best in Root. Switch the figures over and your looking at a completely different series. Shame our lead boys have taken 4 matches to find their feet!

Thanks for your input, Geoff. However, I do think no balls could be checked well before the bowler has walked back to his mark. If you think about it, the TV shows a replay of the ball before the next delivery anyway. Why not let the 3rd umpire see a replay of the delivery stride and adjudicate immediately by alerting the umpire to any no balls? I find it interesting that the TV cameras are obviously honed in on the delivery stride all the time. Imagine if they started showing all the dodgy no ball decisions. I bet you they'd be a change then.

England deserves to be in a strong position. Australia have had to work hard to score runs due to both Bancroft and Khawaja struggling with the bat and were inconvenienced in the field with Cummins battling a stomach bug. But England bowled a much better line today and seemed to get enough movement to get a few LBWs and got a bit of luck with Aussie batsmen chopping on. Cook batted very well and Root looks determined to make a big score. The Australian bowlers will need to regroup overnight and come back hard tomorrow. Also found it strange that Mitch Marsh only bowled 4 overs. He could have been pretty useful bowling stump to stump. I was expecting more from Bird as he has a good record in Melbourne.

If every ball was checked for a no ball a day's play would be finished by midnight. No thanks. Stick to checking no balls if a wicket falls. The players know the rules and its the same for both teams. And Vince had every opportunity to call for a review if he thought it got an inside edge but he chose not to. His call. Can't blame the current system for that.

Agree with you. It would only be fair and sporting, but it would be against the total hypocritical moral ethos of cricketer players in general. You have to remember it's totally acceptable to stand your ground when you're out, claim catches that aren't, sledge the crap out of opponents and then call players grubs for giving batsmen a send off. A stumping is brilliant but a mankad was as good as cheating. At the end of the day why didn't he review the decision?

*deficient... Haha. can you tell I'm Australian?

Why is that Don? Too many multi syllabic words or unacceptably deficit in grammatical errors to be an Australian question?

This was always a possibility with the ashes secured. The Aussies in some sense have nothing to play for , ya see this kind of thing happen time n time again.

Great to see Cooky get the ton. He's had a rough series but is a world class player. Let's hope for England's sake he can get his head down and grind out another. Root also needs to go on for a century too. If England can score 400+ they should go on to win this and restore some pride. Been too one-sided this series and we all want a closer contest. Well bowled and batted England and about time!

That's a very English question.

A bit strange wuth Cummins crook. Marsh gets the edge from a well set Cook...something others didn't do...and he only got 4 overs. Give the boy a bowl!.

Question for Roarers. Davey Warner is adjudged LBW by the umpire and decides not to review, but walk. He is called back as a check on the dismissal shows a clear no ball. James Vince is similarly adjudged LBW and decides not to review, but walk. A check on the dismissal indicates a clear inside edge, but he is not called back. Does that seem right? Also, if we're only going to check each dismissal for a no ball, shouldn't the 3rd umpire check every delivery for a no ball, because god knows how many are being missed!?

Im not sure what the go was, Mitch Marsh only bowled 4 overs for the day, I'm all for sportsmanship but Smith gifted him that finish when he should have had him losing sleep on 95-99 for the night.

Good one Stuart.

Thanks Stuart.