Monty And Jimmy And A Forward Defence Of Test Cricket

I gave up on the plan to write a daily Ashes post when I got drunk on Friday night. My friends and I drowned our sorrows and reminisced back to good old times and that halcyon Wednesday when we weren’t quite sure who was winning the First Test.

Since then until about three minutes ago Australia were Ramsay Streets ahead, and the Saturday hangover and some Sunday house removals came as a welcome distraction. But then just after lunch Test cricket became amazing again. And that is why it’s amazing. Because it can be inexorably rubbish for days and then suddenly from nowhere it’s amazing again. Light and shade. Rubbish and amazing.

England should be under no illusion. They have been mainly outgunned in this game and need to improve vastly at Lords. But they should also take heart that if Warne and McGrath were playing on that last day then there probably wouldn’t have been a last day. As we are constantly being reminded: Australia are a good team, not a great one. It’s just that maybe England are a mediocre team, not a good one.

This afternoon also gave another pleasing opportunity to hate Peter Siddle again after the Australian sponsored bat-athon. He really is a Merv Hughes for the 21st century. The facial hair may be more subtle but it’s certainly no less stupid. And he’s good enough to take English wickets, but not good enough to sit back and adopt the “actually, respect due” attitude that you might take for Warne or McGrath. Plus his mouth is an insult to orthodontists everywhere, which isn’t really reason enough to dislike the man but if you can’t take irrational umbrage against at least one Australian then there really isn’t any point in the Ashes at all. He’s probably a lovely fluffy guy off the pitch as most of these scabrous fast bowlers are, although I hear that rumours of Andre Nel’s bonhomie in the clubhouse are greatly exaggerated.

One happy moment from this weekend was that my team won their first game of the season knocking off the 93 runs we needed in just 10.4 overs. Our opener scored 68 not out. He’s Australian by the way.