Morning folks, it's 10:15 and i'm wide awake, how is this possible?? Woke today to find Australia finish the day (allbeit prematurely) on 220-5, so thats a total of 480 runs in just under 2 days of cricket, I thought the Oz wickets were run-fests?
I also woke to find a mammoth blog from the legend that is MIH, it appears it took him nigh on 2.5hours which is a bit worrying.....
Back to the cricket, lets look back at the days play:
Not the best of starts from the England bowlers in what should have been bowler friendly conditions, however, the runs werent flowing during this poor patch and that proved costly as Shane Watson (remember him, the man who has it easy at 1st slip) snicked off to Straussy, leaving Oz 78-1. Tricky Dicky Ponting came to the crease and after being drawn in to a few false shots saw Australia trhough to lunch with the help of Katich.
Who knows what England were given for lunch because within 2balls of the restart Munter had gone, snaffled down the legside off the bowling of Yimmy Anderson, all this despite repeated comment from Bumble that there needs to be 3slips and a gully!
This brought Michael 'bad back' Clarke to the crease and he was promptly drawn on to the front foot by some much rejuvenated English bowling. As mentioned by MIH, Clarke escaped a decent caught behind shout. Given not out by Aleem Dar, promptly referred by Strausso and promptly re-inforced by the Third Umpire. Snicko was later to prove there was a slight inside edge, why snicko isnt being used for referrals is beyond me!
****** Breaking News*******
Turkey farmer Bernard Matthew has passed away aged 80, I think you'll all join me saying Thank You to the man who brought us Turkey Drummers and Turkey Dinosaurs, I for one am eternally greatful!
S. Finn, the man who went to school with our very own Melon Head, managed to cling to a great low c&b to remove Simon Katich. The 'opener' had moved past 50 before giving the tough chance to the MIddlesex man. This brought Mr Cricket Michael Hussey to the crease and he promptly snicked to 2nd slip off of his second ball faced, only for the ball to drop agonisingly short of the waiting Graeme Swann.
A change of bowling and S.Broad (whataguy) planted one on Clarkes helmet. More good bowling kept the runs from flowing, but the introduction of Mr Swann changed that. Hussey seemed to take a liking to the off-spin, and coupling that with the indiscipline of arguably the number 1 bowler in the world the boundaries started to arrive, 11 coming of Swanny's return over.
From here it all got a little bit hazy for me as I started to doze off, despite the intake of vast quantities of Lucozade Energy. I'm reliably informed by Sky Sports and Cricinfo.com, Michael Clarke snicked off to S.Finn attempting a pull shot, the catch going through to M. Prior (what a beard!), this brought Marcus North to the crease.
Now many people, myself included, have likened the Victoria born batsman to a young Michael O'Donnell, you make up your own mind...... North didnt stay long as next over the toiling Swann found the outside edge which presented a catch to 1st slipper extraordinaire Paul Collingwood.
Keeper Haddin came to the crease and, along with Hussey, saw Australia through to the premature close of play (brought on by bad light).
All in all a mixed bag today, slow start from England then a few quick wickets followed by some Aussie dominance and then a meander through to close of play.
Some facts for you now, the highest partnership of the Test so far..... 78runs between Shane Watson and Simon Katich, although Hussey and Haddin only need 2 runs to surpass this. The shortest (you probably don't need me to tell you) 0runs from 3 balls between Andrew Strauss and The Chef.
It only leaves me to say, thank you to my good friend Alex Martin for the advert space in his blog, much appreciated. Please spread the word about the blog, the support and feedback we're receiving is great!
See you all in 12 hours time, it's time for a haircut and lectures.... in that order!
REA
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