WACA Ashes Test Day 3 Observations

Was Watching... Gilly!

It's been a while since Gilchrist worked his bat like this. Maybe it was never. He almost equalled Viv Richards' quickest century mark by hitting his century off 57 balls.

Gilchrist came within two deliveries of scoring the fastest Test hundred of all time, hammering 12 fours and four sixes to bring up three figures off just 57 balls.

His stunning display, which included hitting left-arm spinner Monty Panesar for 24 in one over, saw him narrowly miss beating the 56-ball ton by the legendary Viv Richards against England in Antigua 20 years ago.

Gilchrist added an awesome 162 in only 20 overs with Clarke to bury England under weight of runs.

Until Gilchrist's stunning innings, England could have counted themselves unlucky not to have made further inroads after a combination of missed chances and denied appeals.

That was some wild hitting. The over in which he smacked 24 runs off Monty Panesar was a delight. It looked so effortless. Anyway, Australia look to be about set to re-take the Ashes today.

England lost the wicket of Andrew Strauss, LBW without playing a shot, in the first over of its second innings, after a demoralising day in the field all but ended its chances of regaining the Ashes today at the WACA Ground.

After Australia's batsmen teamed to grab the ascendancy, Adam Gilchrist blasted the second fastest century in Test cricket to put the Test beyond England's reach.

It took Gilchrist just 57 balls to register his 17th career century, and he fell just one delivery short of equalling the record set by the West Indies' Viv Richards 20 years ago.

His remarkable innings of 102 not out, which contained four sixes and 12 fours, took Australia to 5-527 when captain Ricky Ponting declared late on day three of the third Test.

England needs a virtually impossible 557 runs to win, or must bat out more than two days to draw the match and keep the series alive.

Now, I didn't think it would happen twice, but Strauss was unlucky again. The English really haven't had much luck in this series, a little bit like 2005 where it could be said Australia didn't have much luck at all.
Well, so much for the hype.