Andrew Flintoff gets five-for

It is with a sense of Titanic relief that I am writing about an England win.

I woke up at 4am on Monday (Australian time, about 7pm the night before in Blighty) and hurriedly checked the Day 4 score. I then tossed and turned for hours after I learned of Clarke and Haddin’s mammoth stand. My Inner-Australian was getting a bit lairy and hurling empty tinnies against the inside of my skull (I don’t know where he came from, he just turned up one day with his mates and an esky full of VB). Surely England couldn’t throw this away. Surely!? I kept running all the possibilities through my head. “If Haddin and Clarke add another 100….”

This fear comes from a very deep place in my psyche. It is born of 27 years supporting Manchester City and watching the England Cricket Team. If you’ve never been an England fan, or even a sports fan, you’ll never understand. But as the day’s play drew nearer, I sought reassurance from my fellow sufferers in England. They failed to provide any, so, thinking positive and before heading out the door to go to the pub, I declared to no one in particular that England would have it won by lunch. Positive thoughts.
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Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar hold out

Talk about sore winners. Or drawers. Or whatever they technically are, but such is the media reaction to England’s remarkable escape from the jaws of defeat that greeted Australia this morning.

I must admit, I remained in bed for half an hour this morning, dreading the thought of checking the cricket score. The previous day, prompted by the wickets of Cook and Bopara, I had gone out to the shops to purchase a digibox which would enable me to watch the Tour de France rather then the cricket. If I can’t see it, it’s not happening. But despite this, I was still drawn to the cricket like some kind of crazed drug addict. I think I skulked off to bed around lunch (11pm here) and resigned myself to the inevitable, trying to formulate come-backs for the pommy-bashing I would no doubt receive in the morning. There was still a small voice of hope in my head, but he was being violently suppressed by my subconscious Riot Police.

You can understand my joy then, when I did finally drag myself out of bed. Suddenly, a day of work wouldn’t be so painful.
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Can Australia defend the Ashes?

Less then 24 hours to go now and I am cautiously excited. Only cautiously, because I think my subconscious is protecting me from any potential Pommy-Bashing that will undoubtedly come my way should England make a poor start to this series.

So, with less then a day to go, where do we stand? England announced their squad for the first test the other day with few surprises. Some may have argued for the inclusion of Steve Harmison after his performance for the Lions, but the selectors seem to be leaning towards playing 2 spinners for the first test. In the Australian camp, the major news is that Brett Lee will miss the first test, and possibly the second test with a side injury picked up in the warm up game. It is a bitter blow for the paceman who seemed to have done enough to regain his test berth. But Australia’s loss is England’s gain, I had the feeling that Lee’s pace and aggression would have been a crucial weapon for Australia. Stuart Clark looks set to replace him, and he is a heck of a replacement to have.

Superstitious England fans will be delighted to hear however, that Glenn McGrath has predicted a 5-0 whitewash for Australia. Cast your minds back 4 years and remember the last time he made that bold prediction. I seem to remember a certain key bowler picking up an injury on the eve of the first test also!
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