Shouting from the Hop

That really looked like tears in Andrew Flintoff's eyes, as England crashed to defeat in the second test in Adelaide earlier today.

What looked like as definite draw, became an amazing win for Australia.

Knowing they couldn't lose, they slowly applied pressure to England's batsmen, and one by one they fell, leaving the Aussies 36 overs to get 168 to go two up in the series.

Only first innings hero Paul Collingwood survived any length of time, batting over three hours for his 22 not out.

England battled once they had to bowl again, and took four wickets, but it wasn't enough, as they got caught between stopping the runs, and trying to take wickets. Frankly, the bowling wasn't good enough to do either!

This is a huge blow to England's chances in the series (not that I thought they had any); to go two down after two tests, especially after scoring 551 in the first innings (the highest ever first innings of a match that was declared which has turned out to be a losing total!) is a crushing strike.

Individually, Collingwood, Pietersen, and Hoggard can all say they perfomred magnificently. But the rest were little above average, and why oh why did Monty Panesar not play. At least with him England may have had some last day threat. He is at least as good a fielder as Anderson and at least as good a batter too. Bearing in mind England didn't require all their batsmen first time round, the decision not to play him was without doubt very poor.

So to Perth. Not as fast as it used to be they say, but it will bounce. Panesar must play; Mahmoud must be in with a chance too. Anderson and Harmison need to buck their ideas up if they are to stay in the team.

A 5-0 trouncing is now on the cards - hopefully England can prevent this, but possibly not until they are three down and the Ashes are back down under where they have been for many of recent years.