Tea.

The breakthough has faltered - no more wickets have fallen and Oz are now ahead - 454 for 4 (which for some reason reminds me of Ivor the Engine) means they're 19 runs ahead with 6 wickets in hand.

Jon

At least the rain is helping put us out of our misery.

I realise this is a bit... churlish but as I lost out seeing this Ashes series at OT because Glamorgan got handed a big wodge of free cash from the Welsh Assembly to bid for it, I really wouldn't mind at all at this point if it threw it down all weekend, the match was drawn and Glamorgan CC make a whopping loss.

Jon

er we r doing rubbish lol

That's generous.

Tea on day four.

OZ have declared on 674-6 after Haddin was out for 121. Of the 7 Australian batsman who faced a ball, 4 of them made centuries and one of the others made 83. Utterly shocking bowling by England.

So England are in to bat, with the tourists having a 239 run lead. And proceed to bat like a schoolboy team. They are currently 20-2 with Cook out for 6 and Bopara out for 1, both LBW - although apparently the decision to give Bopara out is 'questionable'. Strauss and Pietersen are at bat. However rain has arrived at Sofia Gardens. England's only real hope is that it continues for the next 24 hours.

JOn

Lunch of Day Five.

The rain has stayed away so far and England, now at 102 for 5, have continued to play like are 11 blokes who have been pulled in off the street. Pietersen, Strauss and Prior all sold their wickets cheaply when to anyone who even understands the game at all it's obvious their first priority should have been to bat as long as possible and the score is pretty much irrelevant. England seem to have lost the ability to play anything other than one day cricket, and they're not even any good at that. Flintoff and Collingwood are in at bat with Collingwood looking like the only English player even vaguely likely to stay the crease for any length of time. Even the chances of getting a draw are slipping way by the minute. It seems to me now it's far more likely to be an innings victory for the Australians than a tie. If we're still playing at tea I'll be surprised.

Frankly - so far at least - Colly is the only England player to have come out of the game with any sort of dignity intact. The specialist batsmen have proved mentally incapable of playing the game required and the much vaunted spinners, for whome Sophia Gardens was supposed to be a ripe wicket, were about as threatening as a slightly grumpy chihuahua. Strauss's decision making has been suspect. I cannot see anything other than major repercussions from this - the team will be utterly slaughtered regardless of whether they hold out for a draw or not.

Jon

Sounds like a right little minx

I really must give the cricket 'a go' (I'm not a sports fan at all normally)...

Tea on day five

England are 169-7, still 70 runs to get, or a whole session to bat, to avoid defeat.

Collingwood (currently on 55) continues to plough manfully on, like the one calm man on the deck of the Titanic. Flintoff was out for 26, wafting at a ball he should have left and edging it to Ponting at second slip. Chris Broad came out, did a good impression of a small animal in the way of a large lorry and went back in again. Graeme Swann is partnering The Ginger Warrior. Swann has the reputation of being a bit of a decent batsman, we'll see.

If England get the draw and Collingwood carries his bat, he probably has the right to go round the changing room and slap each of his team mates round the face. Compared to him, they all deserve to have their pay docked.

Jon

End of play - and it's a draw!

What a tense and dramatic final session that was. The cause looked lost at 6PM when Collingwood was out for 77 with England still 7 runs behind, leaving only James Anderson and Monty Panesar to bat. Believe me - most of the members of this forum are a better batsman than Monty. Even if by some miracle they could post some runs, they surely couldn't last long enough to give the Aussies a target that would be anything other than a formality.

And yet.. they managed it. Panesar and Anderson stuck to the task with grit and it looked like the Aussies were just too tired to winkle them out. As the minutes ticked by they nurdled the odd run, struck a couple of fortunate fours and just damn well refused to be out. The game was set to stop at 6:50PM. Given there is a mandatory 10 minute break for the change of innings, essentially if England passed Australia's total the game would be drawn if Anderson and Panesar were still in at 6:40PM.

18:19 - Anderson gets an outside edge for four and England are two runs ahead. 6 overs (or half an hour, effectively 20 minutes) remain.
18:26 - Huge LBW appeal against Monty, Umpire Doctrov waves it away.
18:34 - Ponting turns to part time bowler Marcus North in an attempt to trick one of the pair out. He gets hit for six runs in the over - England are 12 runs ahead!
18:41 - An over from Hauritz sees no runs scored but, crucially, Panesar and Anderson remain.
18:43 - After a consultation with the umpires, Ponting offers the draw to the two batsmen, which they willingly accept.

A massive escape for England who have been thoroughly outclassed for all but two of the 15 sessions of play. But for a gutsy innings from Collingwood and a heroic but fraught final stand by their tail enders, they would have suffered a humiliating defeat. Things have to change in the England camp regardless of the result. I suspect Ponting will also have some stick heading his way from down under for failing to put away such a poorly performing opposition. Could we have a repeat of the barnstorming 2005 Ashes on our hands?

Jon

Well the next match is at Lords, god help us when we get there....


We haven't won a Ashes match there in donkeys

It's been very disappointing the way they have played only hope they get better.




yours wecrookie

I can't believe that Collingwood didn't get "Man of the Match" !

Who did?

I think Ponting must have done, because when I was watching the highlights last night, he appeared to be wearing a medal while being interviewed by Athers.

Poor batting performance by England. Bring on next weekend, I've now got tickets for Saturday and Sunday, woohoo!

Yes... It was Ponting who, let's be honest, had a superb innings.

However.... I thought Collingwood contributed more overall to the outcome of the game.

Just my opinion.

Harmison added to the squad for the Lords test, ostensibly as cover for Flintoff who has a knee-knack that may keep him out. Nobody dropped. The 11 to play will be announced Thursday before play starts.


Jon