Great first day for England.
I watched the 1st session live & again couldn't believe how poorly the Aussie 1st 4 batted.
Tremlett looks like a good selection.
Stunning catch by Collingwood to dismiss Ponting & the Swann one wasn't far behind it.
The Aussie tail showed how easy the pitch is once the ball gets soft.
That makes England's start so good. If we get through the 1st hour tomorrow we should be in for another matchwinning score.

Not what I was hoping to wake up to, that tail wag does look expensive now

Yep they've come back and hit us hard and tbh we should been ready for it.
We can still get the win/draw if we can restrict them to 300 or under lead imo.

Barring interruptions from the weather on a significant scale, this is a result game now with 23 wickets gone on the first two days.

Australia are in the box seat, history shows that chasing 300 successfully to win a Test doesn't happen very often.

That's very true but IF we can see off Johnson with the new ball i think the team are more than capable of turning it around.

Well I would argue that we saw off the new ball today at 78 for 0, so much as I'd like to agree with you not sure that I can.
However, South Africa chased over 400 to win at the WACA so it can be done.

can we do this?

2 days 5 wickets/310 more runs.... sadly not

it worsened somewhat after i posted that, tend to agree. some cr&p shots there, Belly masterclass needed.

If it was 1 day to dig in Foxy i'd be more confident but this is over imo 1-1 and onto Melbourne.

I agree.
That's the beauty of cricket though, one day you're top of the world, the next you're down & out.
This game has been reminiscent of Headingley 09, let's hope that we can bounce back like we did then.
I wonder if it's time to move Bell up to 5, drop Collingwood & bring Morgan in. I also think they should consider resting Finn to bring Bresnan in, that would help the batting too.
Changes worked for the Aussies in this game & Tremlett's repaid the selectors' faith.

Leave the bloody batting line up alone!

I agree re-Finn OF but Collingwood is easily our best fielder so i'd leave it for now.

I agree but he's in for his batting at no 5, compare his figures with those of Mr Cricket.
With hindsight the game was arguably lost when Johnson regained his confidence on the back of his sh*t or bust innings on the 1st afternoon & evening. That set him up for his bowling effort.
England (Strauss) missed a trick when they failed to pepper him with short, straight stuff when he first came in.
They recovered from the Adelaide Test so we can recover from this beating.
Fingers crossed!!

ICC shortlist for the greatest ever ODI team www.cricketworld.com/icc-shortli ... /26396.htm? who'd make your team?

ICC shortlist for the greatest ever ODI team www.cricketworld.com/icc-shortli ... /26396.htm? who'd make your team?

we're having a bowl

Gonna catch a few overs before the NFL starts/ I fall asleep drunken.




Come England

come on

good morning session for us there, great to see Hussey go cheaply, send pig faced Smith back, Haddin is due a fail, and drive Johnson back into his shell

Went to bed just after Hussey went and it started raining, couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Fantastic day for England, and when we look back lets hope we can identify this as the day we won the ashes. Still lots of good work to do, but it's the best start we could have hoped for. Now need to bat for 2 days and hit 600 and get them back in so we can really attack them for a long period.

Fantastic effort alround we just need to drill home our advantage on day 2 with the bat and the wacka performance will prove to be the blip we thought it was.
How good is it to see an Aussie batting line up with the spine of a soggy kit-kat?

Aye, not sure how that could have gone any better, brilliant comeback from the last test. Aussie press will be interesting in the morning

not an ideal start, but we are still 72 ahead for 2, which you'd take.

Another great day for us ,hopefully we'll get the win and then for the last test i'd like to see Morgan in for Collingwood.

Ponting was not happy with that referral was he, couldn't happen to a nicer fella.

They don't like it up 'em Trotty lad....