It's a beautiful day

Sunday 5 December 2010

Just woke up and drew aside the curtains fearing the worst from the unpredictable Adelaide weather. But no, the clouds have disappeared and we have a beautiful cloudless sky. Come on England!

Advance warning (mainly to Brian, who I know will be on my case) that today's close of play blog will be somewhat delayed by the fact I have been invited to have dinner with Sally, Fiacre and Ronan at their gorgeous home in the Adelaide foothills.

In the meantime I will leave you with a photo of a representative cross-section of England flags displayed yesterday at the Adelaide Oval.

[Original comments]

Glenn December 6, 2010 at 9:22 AM

Definitely looking forward to today's close-of-play blog... have England got the tactics right, or have we again managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory?? Could KP have changed it all again; this time with the ball?? We need the insider line....

Rain stopped annihilation

Sunday 5 December 2010

Adelaide Day 3: England 551 for 4, 306 runs ahead. Rain stopped play at tea. The Sunday papers here led with a picture of Aussie captain Ricky Ponting looking imploringly to the heavens. The inevitable headline: "Pray for rain". Well, Punter got his wish during the tea break when the rain did indeed set in for the day - but not before England had inflicted further pain on his pitiful bowling attack. After my day of abstinence on Saturday (and a much needed early night to see off the last of my jet lag), I was back in the thick of the Barmy Army today. Standing room only again, though the number of locals daring to show their faces seemed to be in terminal decline. Delighted to hear early on that Steve managed to pick me out on the Sky coverage back in Germany! Some Day 3 trivia: until his dismissal for 148 early today, Alastair Cook had spent all but one hour of the series so far on the field of play. He certainly deserved a rest. More interestingly, even the Aussies are starting to draw comparisons with legendary South Australian (and greatest ever Test batsman) Don Bradman - apparently both players scored the same number of Test centuries (15) by the tender age of 26. But enough of Cook (and the Aussies certainly have had), the truncated day belonged to Kevin Pietersen with a double century which was as disciplined as it was commanding. The first double century I have seen live since my mum took me to the Oval to see Dennis Amiss score one off Holding and Roberts in 1976 - now there's a piece of trivia to be reckoned with. Amazingly, it was also KP's first hundred of any kind for 19 months - which may explain (but not excuse) the orgasmic squeal he emitted on reaching three figures. So quickly did England score in the opening session that the Barmy Army was in danger of becoming prematurely hoarse from the chants of "Four more to the Eng-er-land". It took the belated appearance of Jimmy Savile [*/** see footnotes below] in mid-afternoon to get the singing started again. But alas, after only one rendition of the BA anthem, he was led away by members of the local constabulary, presumably for inciting a crowd to have a good time. Absurdly heavy-handed policing by Adelaide's finest. The cheers which greeted Jimmy's return around 20 minutes later (after a jolly good ticking off) almost overshadowed those for KP's 200. Regrettably, there was no sign today of two characters who amused us so much on Day 1: - "Mr Angry" in the purple shirt, an Aussie fan who was so incensed by the mere presence of the BA in his own backyard that steam was coming out of his head (you know, the sort that is definitely visible after 10 beers) - The respectable-looking, middle aged BA fan who decked an Aussie for insulting the Queen, then cunningly disguised himself from the police by donning a Batman costume that just happened to be lying around. And so to my Day 4 prediction: now more difficult to call due to the threat of rain, but I'm going for an early England declaration with a lead of 400, then Anderson, Broad and Swann to chip away and leave England on the brink of a win going into Day 5. * Apparently his real name is Vic, but I did have difficulty convincing an ageing Australian hippy that he had never actually presented Top of the Pops.

** 2019 edit: Clearly this part hasn't aged well, but this was still a time of relative innocence before the lurid revelations to follow. By the time of the next Ashes tour in 2013/14, the England fan formerly known as J.S. had given up the cigars and undergone a full rebrand to "Vic"

[Original comments]

BJ December 5, 2010 at 11:09 AM

It is really incredible how many runs are being clocked up. I still find it hard to understand why the Aussies are so bad (and our boys so good). It couldn't be as simple as a fantastic batting pitch could it? Have you seen Geoffrey yet - my hero!

Richard December 5, 2010 at 4:54 PM

Haven't yet spotted Sir GB. Must try harder. Yes, it is a fantastic batting pitch. But the England batting has taken full advantage. Two unsung examples: Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell both batted really well today, with very important contributions to hundred partnerships with the awesome KP. Last 2 England innings (so far): 1,068 for 5 wickets. This is not due to good luck or bad bowling, this is world class.

Richard December 5, 2010 at 5:05 PM

After extensive consultation (and further heavy showers) in Adelaide this evening, the consensus is that England should declare overnight with a lead of 300 and try to bowl Australia out in the remaining time available between thunderstorms. Thanks to the expert panel of Shep, Jon and John for this reasoned assessment, which was only achievable after visiting a statistically significant number of locations in the Rundle Street area of Adelaide tonight.

It's the England batting, captain, but not as we know it

Saturday 4 December 2010

Adelaide Day 2: England 317 for 2, 72 runs ahead

Having attempted to write yesterday's blog after consuming unfeasible quantities of beer with the Barmy Army, I decided to take things much easier today. I reasoned that it would be a big advantage if my eyes could actually focus on the screen while writing.

As forecast, a good good night was certainly had by all who celebrated England's successful first day at PJ O'Briens (including singing along raucously to the Black Eyed Peas track with that particular lyric). Why our group then ended up in a Belgian bar is a mystery which will remain forever unsolved - the last thing we needed at that stage was a strong Trappist beer. I blame Jon Neal (who wouldn't?).

Before moving to Day 2 of the cricket, here's some left-over trivia from Day 1: The crowd of over 38,000 was apparently the highest at a cricket match at the Adelaide Oval since 1950 - at least according to an Australian relative of Andy Pye, a member of my old cricket club in London whom I encountered at a set of traffic lights on the way to the ground. I'm not sure whether this is right, but the ground yesterday was certainly full to bursting. And it was certainly the first time I had ever stood up for the whole day at a cricket match. My colleague Steve, watching the first session on TV back in Germany, emailed me for a description of what I was wearing so that he could look out for me in the crowd. I replied that it was so full I couldn't even spot myself.

The second piece of trivia was that yesterday was officially Australia's worst start to a Test match. Ever. Today's local newspaper headline screamed "14 minutes to Ashes disaster". Funny, it had seemed quicker than that to me but I suppose there was a lot of walking to and from the pavilion to take into account.

And so to Day 2: while Northern Europe continues to freeze and parts of New South Wales and Victoria have been hit by severe floods, it was forecast to be 36 degrees in the shade in Adelaide. I wouldn't know. There was no shade in the Barmy Army section.

Once again the day was England's by a country mile. Despite captain Strauss again unwisely electing to leave a straight ball in the first over, Cook, Trott and Pietersen handed out a batting masterclass to the hapless Aussie attack (of whom the spinner Xavier Doherty would have collected the "most hapless" award). England have now scored over 800 runs in their last two innings for the loss of only three wickets. This surely comes as close to complete and humiliating domination by England's batsmen as there has ever been against top-line Test opponents - let alone away from home against Australia in an Ashes series.

My prediction for tomorrow is that England will bat on for another two sessions to reach 550 and with the Australians physically and mentally drained after two hot days in the field, there will be some Aussie wickets to fall before the close.