" The Gentlemen V The Convicts "

[Mr Moore]

Not a bad start to be fair. Strauss out to a no ball, but there you go, cant complain too much.

[Simon-JG-hr]

250ish for 5... Not great on an oval strip. Should be looking for about 450 in the first innings...

Fingers crossed that our bowlers deliver the goods.

[Simon-JG-hr]

(In Victor Meldrew voice): "I don't believe it!"

Broad is bowling well. That's rather ununsual in the last year... Not a bad time to step up mind... Would still have preferred Panesar given how much the pitch is turning already.

Chasing 332, the Aussies are now 85-2. Looking like this could be interesting if the pitch continues to turn and produce uneven bounce.

[Simon-JG-hr]

93-4. Stuart Broad having a humdinger of a few overs.

I take it all back...

Keep it up... please...

[Simon-JG-hr]

Now it's Swann bolstering his figures with two swift wickets!

Australia 109-6. Need another 23 to avoid the follow-on. Not gonna happen though, even if we did finish them off in time (not likely), you'd have to be an idiot to want to bat last on this pitch!

[Simon-JG-hr]

Actually, reading that back again, you can never be too sure what Strauss is going to do...

[HabanoSy]

Getting 'VERY' interesting now...!!!

Cheers, HabanoSy

[nicwing]

What a wonderful Saturday.

It started with the whole family (excluding me) heading to the hairdressers, so I popped into Cafe Nero and had a bucket of coffee with the sports section of the Daily Telegraph, lapping up the reports of Broads destruction of the diggers.

One line really struck me, Derek Pringle described Friday as a "Major mugging in Lambeth"

[Mr Moore]

Hmmmm, I just dont want to start counting unhatched eggs.
It must be noted how many runs we scored today on this so-called sticky wicket, and taking into account Broad, Freddie and Swann most probably got the nod to go out and play shots and try to see through Trotts century whilst pushing the runs through, all to have an hour or so at the Aussies at the end of the day.

Take note, they also scored well in that short time period on this so called sticky wicket and more worryingly we failed to take a wicket.
The wicket is key for tommorrow me thinks.
Lets hope it becomes a tad more sticky, Im beginning to wonder what exactly is a par score on a 4th/5th day wicket at the Oval.

Ponting is one tough bastard and so is this Aussie team, expect no quarter to be given, I dont think this is going to be plain sailing.

[Simon-JG-hr]

What a great series, really topsy-turvey throughout.

The Aussies start well at Cardiff and should have won. Heroics from the least likely with the bat hold on just long enough for the draw.

Then we move on to Lords. England haven't won their against the Aussies for what seems like millenia, yet somehow they bounce back from a poor showing in Cardiff to upset the applecart.

Moving on... England should have taken a 2-0 lead at Edgbaston, however, a combination of losing half of the match to rain, and some heroics from the Aussie middle-order saw that opportunity fall by the way-side.

Headingly was a pitch with a match in the balance. England imploded. Aussie rout.

Who'd have thought it would have boiled down to four days on a cracking strip, in cracking weather at The Oval. As one of the Aussie commentators on TMS mentioned: "At last a pitch where we're seeing a true battle between bat and ball!" Nothing like those vile, flat as a pancake, non-spinning, draw creating pitches in the WIndies.

Flintoff also made quite a sentient point (odd, I know). He mused before the last test that a victory this year would mean more than in 2005. In 2005, he said, and I agree, England were almost expected to win. They'd been on a tear since Vaughan had taken over as captain, beating every team in the world quite handsomely. This time around though... It's a shambles. A middle-order that is about as consistent as lumpy custard, three coaches in a little over two years and as many captains in 18 months. In all honesty, he suggested, it would be a miracle if they were to win...

I'm on hols at the moment, but the first couple of days were built around fitting in the cricket. Very well worth it, and thankfully the lads wrapped it up with a day to spare, so I didn't lose another day of holiday... :reface:

I think... one thing summed up this series for me. England's bowlers were able to do the text book 'take one, take two' on so many occassions. Had they got stalled between wickets, it could have been a very different result, but they frequently made new batsmen work to get in. Unlike during most of the last couple of years.

Good stuff guys, and it was wonderful entertainment at times.

[HabanoSy]

Yep

Great Ashes series...

Made all the better (obviously) by an England win, terrific...

Cheers, HabanoSy

[nicwing]

Not sure if you saw this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8218358.stm

Make sure you send this to every digger you know!

[moidoid]

I still can't quite believe that we actually pulled it off instead of reverting to type and imploding.

I managed to get tickets to the last day at Lords and saw Freddie's awesome blast - the atmosphere was electric. The fact that we went on to win the Ashes means that the memory of winning at Lords will be all the more special.

Well done the England boys!!!

[nicwing]

At last, we've beaten the diggers at the one day form of 'the summer game'.

After playing them in warmer parts of the country we had to keep moving them further towards the Arctic cirle until it was so cold they couldn't fuction, and them we stuffed them.

6 - 1 for the series. But I bet the crowd were singing (as they did at the Rose bowl) "where's your ashes gone"