Oval Test, Day 4, Close
Sunday, August 26, 2001 Well, the weather has ruined a good day of Test cricket, though I am very glad that Australia bowled England out this morning and were able to enforce the follow-on. If they'd been caught batting when the rains came then tomorrow would have been ruined as well. Australia would have had to carry on batting, and England would have had less time to survive.

Given good weather tomorrow, and this is by no means a bold prediction, I reckon Australia will force the victory. They have enough quality bowlers to create nine chances in the course of the day, and provided all nine are taken, I'd say it's about 60-40 in their favour. The weather forecast is set fair, so it could be an interesting day.

At the end of England's first innings Adam Gilchrist stumped Darren Gough to move to 100 Test dismissals, the fastest wicketkeeper ever to do so. Quite apart from the individual quality of the guy, this record is a great pointer for the quality of the team as a whole. Both Gilly and Mark Boucher of South Africa, whom he pipped to the post, have kept to an extremely high standard of fast bowling from the moment they arrived on the scene. It is after all the bowlers who make the chances, the keeper's job is to bag everything that comes their way. Australia's recent successes have meant that the opposition have usually been bowled out twice as well, which can only improve one's chances of a big haul. So it is no surprise that Adam has got this record under his belt.

Ian Healy made a record 395 dismissals in 119 Tests for Australia, and was on the winning side in the last six Ashes series. His comments are appearing on Wisden.com at the end of every session of the Oval Test. He was talking to Andrew Miller.

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