Shouting from the Hop

England's Ashes dreams seem to have crumbled overnight - chasing over 400 to save the follow-on target, they were all out for a measly 157, with only Ian Bell offering any sort of resistance. Kevin Pieterson was the first to go (left), and skipper Andrew Flintoff fell just three bals later (below) for a duck. Ricky Ponting then surprised the media, but not me, but not enforcing the follow-on, and once again England's wayward attack failed to trouble the Aussie batsmen.They reached 181-1 with the only loss the run out of Matthew Haydn.

The supporters were understandably sour at such a predicament, with one on the radio claiming that after he had saved up for 12 months, the spineless (or is that spinlesss?) team should be ashamed. Well, we've all been there mate. I was at Gatwick the night before flying out to the West Indies when England were reduced to 40-8 by the bowling of Walsh and Ambrose, eventually reaching just 46 all out when needing less than 200 to win. I've flown to Australia when 2-0 down, and three to play, twice! Eventually I switched tactics and went for the second test so all was not lost by the time of my arrival.

As I blogged yesterday, this team is nowhere near good enough in terms of taking on and beating Australia, yet the media have built them up and raised expectations. They will have good days, but more often bad ones. Unless KP, Strauss, Bell, Panesar (please stick him back in Duncan!), Harmy and Freddie all fire together, we are not going to get anything from the series.

When we lost the Lords test, the first of the series last summer, at least we showed we could compete - Ricky Ponting still bears a scar on his face as evidence of that, courtesy of Harmison. Now it's a little more powder puff and very painful for us Brits to take.