Shouting from the Hop

A much better day for England, but probably not good enough to save the first test of this Ashes series. When Australia declared at 202-1, after Langer reached his century, England were set over 650 to win the match, with around 170 overs left to bowl. They reached 293-5 at the close.

The plus points from this innings were Paul Collingwood's 96, and Kevin Pieterson's 92 not out. Collingwood was stumped trying to reach his century sadly, and may live to rue his hot-headedness.

Pieterson (above) batted aggressively and had a run in with Shane Warne (who took four of the five wickets to fall), after Warne hurled the ball back toward the stumps and KP swatted it away. There followed one of those wonderful lip-reading moments that we all love, and which the TV has to blur out, as it is so obvious what name KP called Warney! And they are friends apparently!

The final day will be tough on England, and I doubt they can get a draw (or the even more unliklely win) from the last 90 overs due. Warne is getting plenty of turn, but the first hour or so will be the toughest as the new ball is due immediately and I suspect that Ponting will take it straight away. If KP and Jones can survive till lunch, Warne will have plenty around the bat and may be way too much to handle, so it would take a monumental effort from these two to restore English pride.

Personally, I doubt that the game will continue past lunch...but we all live in hope. Maybe, just maybe, the forecast late afternoon rain will come to England's rescue, but I doubt it, as they don't really deserve anything but to go 1-0 down in the series.