Last chance to register for this competition. The first Test Match starts at midnight toniight. I'll check just before then to see if there are any latecomers.
Last chance to register for this competition. The first Test Match starts at midnight toniight. I'll check just before then to see if there are any latecomers.
I've just joined Alcoholics Anonymous - I still drink, just under a different name.
First day of the first Test and the morning session has been a bit up and down. Strauss wins the toss and bats and promptly gets out for a third ball duck, is all this hope and anticipation at the start of an Ashes series to be misplaced yet again. Trott looked steady and robust until he played a lazy shot at a Watson delivery and was bowled for 29. In comes KP, the run rate picks up and he shows a few flashes of his old imperious self - even against the Aussies new left arm spinner who seems to have been bought in just to bowl to KP. Cook grinds out runs in Boycottesque style, surviving a dropped catch late on off his first aggressive shot, and I'll need him to stay there all day if my prediction of a draw for this match is to have a chance. 86 for 2 at lunch and Australia have probably just shaded the first session.
I've just joined Alcoholics Anonymous - I still drink, just under a different name.
Well things were ticking along reasonably well, until birthday boy Peter Siddle grabbed a hat-trick. We're now in a pretty precarious position at 226 for 7. I reckon we need to get up to around 300 to avoid being on the back foot foe the rest of the Test.
I've just joined Alcoholics Anonymous - I still drink, just under a different name.
Set my alarm set for 5.30 for the final session, managed to catch approximately 20 minutes of play before they went off for bad light, and then it started raining anyway.
Seems like it was a fascinating day - Australia dominating the morning session, reaching 96-1 before England turned things round during the afternoon and reduced the Aussies to 143-5. The early finish probably suited England more than Australia by the end, though, as they reached 220 with no more wickets down and the supposedly out of form Hussey still there on 81.
Jimmy Anderson seems to have bowled very well, but reports suggest Graeme Swann has been poor. Advantage Australia, then, and England can’t afford to let them build much of a lead tomorrow, with the pitch looking as if it might start deteriorating quite quickly by day 4.
I think I may be revising my original prediction later.
And you can really taste the hops!
With the snow about to disrupt all footy plans for the weekend, I may just become temporarily nocturnal and have a couple of all night TV / fall asleep on the sofa sessions! Had it not been for the quick exit for Strauss and Siddle's once in a lifetime fluke it would be quite close. We need some big innings from KP but I'm still reasonably confident we can get at least a draw out of this one and not lose the series.
Things looking much better for England this morning after two gritty tons from Strauss and Cook. Just wish they'd done it in the first innings. My initial prediction of a draw is looking favourite although I bottled it with my midway pick and went for the Aussies.
I've just joined Alcoholics Anonymous - I still drink, just under a different name.
Marvellous stuff, double hundred for Cook, a ton for Trott, Johnson bowling like a drain and Ponting acting like a spoiled brat over a catch that wasn't given. 466 for 1 for a lead of 245, get 'em in just before tea and knock a few over.
I've just joined Alcoholics Anonymous - I still drink, just under a different name.
Luckily I didn't get round to making a 3rd day revision when I would have doubtetly changed my predicted draw for an Aussie win. I certainly never saw that 2nd Innings coming from anywhere.