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.

The fallout from the first Test will no doubt rumble on until hostilities resume on Thursday. Given their position at tea (7 down) and being 9 down with 11 overs to go, England’s escape is remarkable, and many of England’s top order must take a leaf out of the lower order’s Book of Steel. Australia are, quite rightly, fuming that they haven’t won this game, and blaming everything and anything possible. Ponting in particular has been pretty verbal with his criticism of England and their time-wasting ‘tactics’, accusing England of not acting ‘in the spirit of the game’. The media have jumped on his band wagon, vehemently attacking the England hierarchy.

But hang on just a second.

This coming from the Aussie’s? The Kings of Sledging. The Prince’s of “win at all costs”. What about the India series 2 seasons ago Ricky? The Australian’s can’t even pretend that they wouldn’t have done exactly the same thing had they needed to survive 11 overs. To be fair, the majority of the Australian public recognises this and is more concerned with the fact that Australia, ranked number 1 in the world remember, couldn’t bowl out England’s two worst batsman in 11 overs. Ponting is in fact coming under criticism himself in some quarters for his apparent poor tactical decisions. Certainly bowling North at the end was a strange one, and perhaps he persisted with Johnson a over too long.

Ricky’s whingeing and England’s Physio aside though, it was a thrilling end to the first test match. England should take heart from the fact that they have managed to escape from a truly desperate position. Paul “Brigadier Block” Collingwood spoke at the start of day 5 about how the individual should stand up and take responsibility, and that’s exactly what he did. Doggedly resisting the Aussies for 245 balls. He has a lot of critics in the media, but he proved his worth in the side today. Every team needs a Geordie. Bat him at 3 I say.

Hats off to Australia though. Their batsman proved to their English counter parts that if you stayed in on that wicket, you’ll make runs. And with the bowlers offered nothing, they ruthlessly went about their business. At the start of the test, the talk was all about winning the toss. And I agreed that the side who won the toss would win the match. But it turned out to be a good toss to lose. With the Aussies getting the best bowling conditions on the first morning, and then the best batting conditions. Hopefully, a few of England’s press will now take note, and realise that whilst they are not the team of yore, they are still very very good.

What has disappointed me most however, is that England didn’t have a plan B. Plan A was obviously to play 2 spinners on a pitch that would turn, but the pitch didn’t turn, and our spinners were never likely to take wickets. This is when we needed a plan B. Without one, England looked devoid of inspiration in the field, and simply went through the motions as a strong and watchful Australian batting line up amassed a huge total. The second test will no doubt see Monty sacrificed for Onions or Harmison. It’s harsh on Monty, as he did bowl better then Swann, but I’d still favour Swann’s batting. Whether it’s Onions or Harmison will very much depend on the pitch. There is nothing in the Australia bowling attack that should overtly concern England too much, whilst they shouldn’t be underestimated, as long as England bat with a little more application, they have every chance of scoring good runs.

The Ashes Roller-coaster now leaves Cardiff and rumbles off to Lords, but the Welsh can be proud of job they’ve done here. The pitch wasn’t as bad as everyone said it would be, and the Welsh even managed to arrange 4 and a bit days of sunshine. If you live in South Wales, you’ll appreciate that that’s a very rare feat. I hope not too many of you got sun burnt! One thing is for certain though, that must surely be the first time in history an England team has been cheered so enthusiastically on Welsh soil.