We urned it!

I'm mainly writing this post so I could use that lovely pun as a title, but well done to the England Cricket team for taking back the Ashes. We just have to try and go over there and win it some time! As ever there ends my expert cricket analysis.

Bring out the white paint

The inevitable has finally happened. England have lost the Ashes to Australia in a 5-0 whitewash for the first time since the 1920-21 Ashes. After a very poor start in the first two tests by England, there was about a day of hope garnered from some decent performances in the third test, which England then went on to manage to lose. The fourth test we managed to lose by a whole innings! And the fifth test... well what was the point really! Obviously the Australians deserve a lot of praise and respect as they're bloody good at the game. With some of their oldest, and best, players retiring after this tournament they had a bit of a point to prove. Still I'd have hoped we'd have managed at least one draw! I think the enthusiasm about English cricket generated after the 2005 Ashes win has all but ebbed away now. I very much doubt any of our players will be in line for BBC Sports Personality of the year come December.

How'd that happen!

After a really good start to the second Ashes test England somehow conspired to claw a defeat out of the jaws of victory, or at the very least a draw. I'm taking about cricket by the way. We had a great first innings and declared on 551 for 6. Despite our fine batting and the magnificent partnership of Pieterson and Collingwood, we couldn't emulate it with our bowling and fielding - apparently the wicket wasn't great for bowlers. The Aussies managed to get a decent total in their first innings at bat, partly down to a great show by Ricky Ponting after he'd narrowly escaped being caught out by a dropped catch from Ashley Giles. After this England should have still managed to hold out for the draw, but no, we couldn't even do that. We racked up a dismal total in our second innings with our star batsmen failing and Shane Warne back on his top wicket taking form, leaving the Aussies a total of just 168 to win - which they bloody well did! Not good at all. We need to win two and draw one of the three remaining tests to even draw the series and retain the Ashes. Looks like far too big a task.

I don't like cricket...

...I occasionally-kinda-get-interested-in it. My last cricket post was during the last summer's Ashes tour in England. Now we're back down in Oz for this years tour and will hopefully retain that small urn (well in reality it stays in England at the MCC at Lords) after last years winning heroics from Freddie Flintoff and co. The first test started yesterday and the Aussie's went into bat. Unfortunately we were only able to take three wickets, whilst the Aussies got 340 odd runs. Maybe we'll have more luck taking some wickets during todays play. I'm just listening to a bit of the coverage via BBC Radio 5 Live's online broadcast, but will have to go to sleep soon - that's the problem with it being in Australia!

[Update - It seems we didn't do any better in todays play. Australia decalared at 602 for 9, and when we went into bat we lost three wickets for 53! Not very good at all. Hopefully Pietersen can score highly for us tomorrow, but I think we can at best only manage a draw in this test.]

Wicky for Cricky

In a strange turn of events it seems that the Scottish are starting to grow fond of our most English of English sports - cricket. I think the excitment of this years Ashes has meant that Scots who would dare not show support for England under normal circumstances are ready to join the Barmy Army. Although there are still many who would rather see their family slaughtered than so much as think about wearing the three lions. This strange occurance was highlighted in a Sunday Times article this weekend, which probably wasn't reproduced down south so here it is. This Thursday Scotlands cricketers get to show their talents in a one day friendly against the Aussies, which I'm sure wont be a one sided affair.

My only other comment about the cricket at the moment is WWWhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyy! We had the chance to make it 2-1 god damn it! Bloody Ponting, hhrrruuummmpppphhh. Enough expert analysis of the third test. Roll on Trent Bridge.