Well I was absolutely stunned watching this second day's play though I'm entirely sure I should have been. Going into the day I was confident we could roll them for under 300 then set about building a solid platform and over the course of the next couple of days get ourselves into a position where we may be required to bat only the once. This however has turned out to be utterly wishful thinking. Now I'm not going to jump and down and call for the heads of all the batsmen and everyone associated with the batting unit, but there were several dismissals that you could maybe have scripted weeks ago. Harris pitching it up and going across Cook who nibbles and nicks off - predictable. Jon Trott, despite undoubtedly putting in heaps of wicket against the short ball and devising a strategy to cope, still looked all at sea and while being strangled down the legside can at times be considered unfortunate, it has happened far too frequently now for it not be a real technical issue.
While I don't think the Aussies were necessarily planning on getting KP like they did, they have tried this route in the past with a couple of catchers in that area, he does flick in the air through his favoured area at times. The bowling and captaincy to Carberry was excellent both in the planning and execution. Bell, Prior and Swann all fell to cheap dismissals, Swann maybe done by a bit of pace while Bell and Prior's gifts were just sloppy, and Root was caught up in the moment and played a shot he will lambast himself for for some time.
To blame the batsmen for their dismissals though will not do sufficient justice to the excellent and aggressive Aussie attack. Mitchell Johnson the matchwinner turned up today and showed he doesn't need the ball to be curving in excessively to be a real handful. He bowled with plenty of pace and made England panic and play shots they wouldn't dream of playing to someone that might be bowling around 85mph. Siddle supported well and was always at the batsmen without giving them any chance to get the board ticking and we all know what a top bowler Harris is. Even Lyon played his role effectively and got some big wickets on just the second day at the Gabba.
With Warner and Rogers negotiating what should have been a tricky passage of play safely England are in real trouble in this Test. We have saved a Test before at the Gabba when it has looked unlikely, it'll need another big effort to keep the score at 0-0 after this one.
