It should be a good-to-watch and possibly very important session. Really hard to say where it goes from here. I can see the Aussies keep the momentum and take the remaining 3 wickets quickly. But I can see the English tail add 100+ too. I guess from here 350 is par.
From here, 350 would be quite a result for England. Still well under par for 1st innings on this track though.
A few thoughts, in no particular order.
Evaluating Bell's knock, I think the scorecard when he arrived at the crease trumps the state of the pitch. He's now carried the batting for two consecutive innings, which deserves more credit than I've been able to give him previously. Doubtless others will beg to differ though.
Quite what it says about the rest of our batting when IR Bell shows more mental fortitiude than the rest of the top 6 combined doesn't bare thinking about. Once the bowling stocks in world cricket pick up again, our batting is going to provide regular repeats of the heavy losses to Pakistan and SA last year.
I think some sections of the media are going OTT about Clarke's apparently godlike genius in bringing on Smith. Two guys have just put on 150, the new ball's due in a couple of overs, so why wouldn't you bring on a part-time leggie? Especially when both of them are notoriously gash against spin. Surely bringing him on an hour earlier would have been rather more praiseworthy. OTOH handing Watson the almost new ball was brilliant.
Disappointing to see the scapegoating of Root and Bairstow when 4 of our more experienced batters either failed or just got bored and gave it away when set.
I can't see that Smith's success means that Swann will be turning it square today. Wrist spinner vs finger spinner and all that.
I reckon that Clarke will pass 150 on this track. Without getting into another discussion about probabilities, he's due.